Randomizer settings

[LPhillips]

Snotling,
I use it as a map balance feature now. For example: I have a city surrounded by ice, with difficult guardians on most spots, but with a simple heavy infantry on one of them. If you don't spawn a yeti and/or something quite powerful for your starting units, you'd be in trouble if I could not use this feature. I have personally found it to be very useful as a feature. There is definitely potential for abuse, but we haven't seen any tendency for the community to behave badly in that regard. It's not going to ruin anything if you fix it. I have had a lot of fun with using it to balance my maps

If you think that it is most important for players to see the strongest unit in the city then I will of course find other ways to balance maps. There is a lot of good to be said for being able to scout cities and predict their production.

[SnotlinG]

I have implemented the change now.
I was thinking it made the most sense in the long run.
Sorry for problems caused on your map LP...

[LPhillips]

No biggie. It's good to have standard features that players can take for granted. The game would be confusing without those fixed points. Thanks for the attention to the problem! I have seen it operate in a negative capacity before.

[hatchfactory]

I liked it as a feature and used it in the "Outlands" map for the kraken island and for the newest version in taking the "mammoth" cities as they remained out of play as taking them was quite costly for a unit with limited use (especially once activated). With the change the mammoths at least will have to be removed from the map. It was used purposefully in "Lonely Isle" and I'm sure it's in several maps by ChickenChaser. I'm playing a game now on Igor's "Battlefield" and I believe he uses it extensively to hide some useful or plunder-worthy production like elementals (which I believe has enhanced gameplay of the map). I still believe the map maker should be able to choose the defender, If there results in imbalance or unfairness in a map (as with any other feature) then maybe said map shouldn't be considered in ladder play.

[LPhillips]

Snotling, Hatchfactory,

I didn't want to come on too strong, as it's not really my call. It remains up to Snotling, and what direction he wants to take the game. But my opinion is close to Hatchfactory's: it was quite a useful feature for the creator to choose the defenders. It was also useful to be able to define which units the "Active" feature would produce, as a city with high-quality units will produce none unless a 1-turn unit is set in the defender slot. There's a good argument to be made for it as a feature. My hope now is that Snotling will find the time to create an intentional feature allowing us to set the defenders.

Also, Snotling, I believe it is possible to set more than one slot as the same production type. This is definitely more of an opportunity for cheese than a feature in any way.

-LP

[SnotlinG]

Ok you have convinced me. I have restored the "bug", so it works as it used to again now.
Until a later version when I can spend some time and make it a bit better with settings in the mapeditor I think this will have to be the best solution for now.
I count on you guys to notify us if someone tries to take advantage of this somehow in a map

LP, Aha, that shouldnt be possible either. Will add it to the neverending todo-list...
LP, Im rejecting your latest submitted map now then due to this reverted fix.

[LPhillips]

Alright, sounds good! I'll try and remember not to base future versions of Crescendo on the 7.0 model. Should be easy with the nifty status notification when loading maps. Being able to see "Submitted/Official/Ladder" et cetera is nice. No need to fix Burning Ice now either, woohoo!

[Chazar]

Well, in that case it would be good if the game could give the player a hint towards a city's production capabilities.

Otherwise, a player is essentially forced to play with the map editor open, which is probably not desired. An alternative is, of course, to play the same map over and over again.

[SnotlinG]

Yes Im thinking to add a hint (same way as clicking on a ruin with a specified undead /reward) to Neutral cities which has specified production capacity...

[SnotlinG]

Gah, I actually added it now to version 0.8 games started from today

You can then if you click on a neutral city see the specified production, or if production is not specified it will tell you poor/normal/good/powerful...