Civ centers and initial units are created for unassigned player slots

[Dmitry]

Player slots that are set to Unassigned in the Match Setup screen still get civ centers and initial units placed for them at game startup on their respective spots on the map. Since there is no AI player to control them, they just stand there doing nothing.

[vts]

I think what this ticket is trying to say is that maybe we should show a minimap with each player's position on it in the match setup screen. Is that right?

If so, then yes, I would agree, although I'd also be interested in perhaps seeing if we can do it slightly differently and/or more interestingly than every other game out there.

[Dmitry]

oh no. Before we start game have a map settings window there we have a Player Placement Combobox. if we choose in there "Unsigned". When game is started we can see on the map initial structure of the opponents. I believe that in state of the combobox "Unassigned", we should not put the primary structure of the enemies on the map for this slots.

[vts]

Ah, indeed. To restate more clearly: the problem is that when player slots are set to Unassigned in the Match Setup screen, there are still civ centers and initial units placed on those players' spots on the map. Since there is no AI player to control them, they just stand there doing nothing.

I've taken the liberty of editing your original ticket description to make the problem more clear to the team (we've had trouble understanding what you meant).

[michael]

I believe this ticket would solve this issue:

​http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1198

Essentially, we create a type of custom map, created in Atlas, where the players can choose their civs and starting resources, etc. like in a random map, but the map itself is a hand-crafted scenario, just like Starcraft or Warcraft or Battle for Middle Earth II. Unassigned slots on these maps would not place any starting buildings or units for those slots. We'll call these kinds of maps Skirmish maps.

A standard Scenario then would not have the option of unassigning slots, since these players are essential to the scenario the designer has created.

So, then, there would be 3 types of maps to play:

Scenarios: Where everything is set and locked by the designer. Like scenarios work now, with the unassigning taken out.

Skirmishes: Where the map is hand-designed in Atlas, but the players/host can unassign slots, choose their own civs, starting resources, etc. This is like a random map, but with the benefit of a hand-crafted map. The designer just places a generic "start point" object on the map where he wants the players to start.

Random Maps: Essentially the same as they are now.

​http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1198

[zoot]

Closing as duplicate of #1198.

[fcxSanya]

Unassigned slot-related changes from Michael's comment (comment:5):

Unassigned slots on [Skirmish] maps would not place any starting buildings or units for those slots

A standard Scenario then would not have the option of unassigning slots, since these players are essential to the scenario the designer has created.

weren't included into #1198 (which supposed to cover them according to the same comment (which is why this one was closed as a duplicate)), so I'm reopening this ticket. See also discussion on the forum: ​https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20479-deleting-unnecessary-bots-on-large-maps

[fcxSanya]

A bit of basic research from ​https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22871-skirmish-allowing-playing-with-fewer-than-listed-player-numbers :

Player assignments are managed in gui scripts (in ​gamesetup.js in particular), while entities initialization is performed in ​MapReader.cpp (see ​CXMLReader::ReadEntities). Map loading is obviously happening after the gamesetup, but I'm not sure whether the MapReader has access to the player assignments (it has some LoadPlayerSettings which goes into simulation2, which may or may not have the relevant data).

[leper]

Assuming that this ticket only cares about skirmish maps (as random maps are meant to be played with exactly that number of players; not that that was any different for skirmish maps when they were added), this should be doable by just not adding a new entity for any of the skirmish entities placed on the map if no player is assigned to a specific slot (or player).

So this should be mostly doable by a few component edits (and maybe one to helpers/Player.js).

[Freagarach]

Pushing back.