Hi,

I'm trying to set up a custom scenario where each player starts with a kingdom, then play 3v3.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?TemplateID=152871

I thought I'd done it right: I have 7 slots, one for each kingdom. I want players to be able to choose which slot they want: but the system instead is ignoring the slots and just giving people a free choice of territories, contrary to what the custom scenario builder implies should happen.

So, is it me or is there a bug?

Custom scenarios are primarily designed to be used with automatic distribution. You should change it from manual distribution to automatic (select "automatically distribute territories to players")

|> *I want players to be able to choose which slot they want*

In custom scenarios, the game creator chooses the slot for each player. The only way you'd be able to let them choose is if you arranged it outside of the game (i.e., ask them before creating the game so you know who to assign where.)

Fizzer, in that case the game creator (and, for fairness' sake, I presume he'll tell the other players) knows where everyone is. But, there are 7 starting positions, and not_spartacus says he wants to play 3-vs-3; I think the idea is for players to select slots (much like they normally choose territories) which then get assigned to them by the game engine.

@not_spartacus:
If I understood your idea correctly, it does sound interesting; maybe the best thing to do is to make a [UserVoice suggestion](http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php/Feedback) (don't forget to promote it a bit with this thread ;) ) and hope many people will agree and vote for it!

Thanks for the info: good to know I wasn't doing anything wrong at any rate.

It's a shame that the custom builder isn't as flexible in this regard as the map designer: is there perhaps an argument for allowing members to have that flexibility on maps created by others? Presumably the programming is kind of there already, just in a different context?

I could see an interesting 3v3 tourney coming out of my experimentation, and it's a shame that is isn't possible: there must be a lot of other examples that are only a gnats breath away, but just stalled by this.

cheers

RvW: that's exactly what is was tyring to do, eloquently put

If I calculate correctly there are 840 different start set-ups for a 3v3 with 7 start positions: so a lot of strategic choice from apparently limited flexibility, and definitely good tournament scope: that is something I found quite attractive to try out. Less so if I have to re-enter the whole map from scratch to do it :-)

|> *the game creator (and, for fairness' sake, I presume he'll tell the other players) knows where everyone is.*

All players will know - it'll tell you where everyone starts in the settings panel.

|> *It's a shame that the custom builder isn't as flexible in this regard as the map designer*

Unfortunately even the map designer can't do exactly what you're trying to do. Map designers can make a scenario distribution with your set-up, but scenarios are still determined at the game start time and everyone would still know where everyone is since the scenarios are public.

What you *can* do, however, is this: Define the custom scenario to have only one territory per "kingdom" with the slot assigned, and the rest of the territories as neutral 0s. Then use manual distribution as you were.

Players won't start with the entire kingdom as you wanted, but since they're all neutral 0s they can take them all at the start with little effort. After a turn or two has passed, you can be in the situation you wanted. This allows players to choose their kingdom and it also will keep secret where everyone started.

|>What you can do, however, is this: Define the custom scenario to have only one territory per "kingdom" with the slot assigned, and the rest of the territories as neutral 0s. Then use manual distribution as you were.

Thanks, that might well be a workable workaround...I'll give it a try


|>Unfortunately even the map designer can't do exactly what you're trying to do. Map designers can make a scenario distribution with your set-up, but scenarios are still determined at the game start time and everyone would still know where everyone is since the scenarios are public.

I'm actually not bothered about secrecy. It's perfectly rational that players would know where the other kingdoms in their milieu are-once the game starts (as opposed to the game designer knowing he will be in slot A in advance). So in that regard the map designer would do the job- although having said that I just tried running a 3v3 on the Diplomacy Board, using the 7 player set-up. It put 3 players in Germany on one Territory each, and 3 in Austria ditto! There is definitely something wrong there...that isn't the behaviour most players would expect I think.


Do appreciate you taking the time to discuss and suggest by the way.

this feels like it should be fixed..
It's obvious from fizzer's response that it acts as *currently expected* but intuitively you would expect each group to represent a choice...

IE, if you click a territ in kingdom 1, then that means kingdom 1 is your first choice, if someone else gets it before you, then kingdom 2, etc. and then you would be limited on players based on the number of choices..
this would also require a re-wording of part of the initial phase.. instead of *starting territories* it would be *starting player locations* with a default on 1 *naturally*, instead of 4
Ofc' this could also have additional problems.. perhaps the custom scenario could have implemented an *any* team, when selected, which would resume the gameplay as normal, but with a custom distribution mode, effectively.

this isn't that much of an issue if you communicate the idea with the players beforehand, but would love to see it implemented for the possibility of playing a random teams kingdoms style game.

[USERVOICE LINK](http://warlight.uservoice.com/forums/77051-warlight-features/suggestions/1941129-allow-game-creators-to-define-their-own-distributi)

So, here's the user-voice for this idea.

Essentially, allowing a member game creator set up the areas that the player's can choose from, as assigned by their slots.

Currently, By toggeling wether its auto or manual distribution, the host can either dictate where 100% of the territories go on both teams, or he can limit the selections that everyone can choose from, but slots are meaningless.

This suggestion would essentially allow game creators to create a new distribution method by only allowing players to pick spots in their slots.

Please Vote!