Matrix Games Forums

First off, I'd like to say that I love this game. Version 1.4 had a vastly improved AI that was quite a challenge for my small team. However, in v1.4 you could not use your custom maps. So I've regressed to v1.3.
Unfortunately, when I try to alter the info in the binit.dat file to create a randomly generated map --example:
river 0
forest 0
hill 0
enemy 200

the randomly generated map doesn't reflect the values. Has anyone been able to use the binit.dat file to fight a team of twice the tonnage of your own? I'd appreciate any suggestions....

Lord Steel

However, in v1.4 you could not use your custom maps. So I've regressed to v1.3.

Do you really mean designed maps, which were created by using an editor? Or are you speaking of customized settings for river/forest/hill percentages? AFAIK, designed maps could be used in neither version.

river 0
forest 0
hill 0

I'd think with this restrictions the resulting map would be just ...plain ... rather empty ... and probably boring to play on.

Has anyone been able to use the binit.dat file to fight a team of twice the tonnage of your own?

That's no problem, but changing the setting in 'binit.dat' is only one condition to be met. If you read the appropriate comment in that file ("Strength of random teams1 and team3 compared to player team2 in percentage"), you might get a clue.
Ok, I won't leave you with a puzzle: Your team has to be team 2, and the combined tonnage of the AI teams 1 and 3 will be set accordingly. If you're not at the upper tonnage limit, you will notice that the combined tonnage of your enemies might even exceed the percentage setting by a small margin.

OTOH, if you think it should be possible to fight only against one team of that amount of tonnage, I doubt it'll work.

Thanks to Bernd for a quick reply to my posting.

I have used custom made maps with version 1.3 (example: a long, narrow valley with a river running down the middle of it). I have no experience with AFAIK--what is it? And do you mean that AFAIK designed maps could be used in either or neither version?

Do you really mean designed maps, which were created by using an editor? Or are you speaking of customized settings for river/forest/hill percentages? AFAIK, designed maps could be used in neither version.
I'd think with this restrictions the resulting map would be just ...plain ... rather empty ... and probably boring to play on.

I was just using 0's for everything as an example. A cool random map might be one with 50% water hexes and 50% hill hexes.

All that aside, the information Bernd supplied was what I was looking for. My team was team 1, so any changes I made to the enemy line of the binit.dat file wasn't having any affect. I will move my jocks to team 2 and fight against teams 1 and 3. Thanks a ton, Bernd! (no pun intended)

P.S. I've attach a pic of a simple map I fought in a long time ago. --Just in case there were any doubts if custom maps could be used...

I have no experience with AFAIK--what is it?

That's one more of those common abbreviations, meaning "As Far As I Know".

There was once a release of the Map Editor (v2.7), but I think it doesn't work with the latest v1.4 release. I'll check.

I'm very sure that there is no map editor for v1.4.