4-2-2022, 2:11 AM (local time)
Anonymous added a suggestion to your Warzone mod ideas sheet!

Here are some more interesting ideas:

One-way connections (for map makers, mainly)
...

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Never thought about this idea, so thanks to anonymous for suggesting this!

The concept in theory is simple. Some connections are one-way only, attacking / transferring the other way is not possible. In practice, this concept gets a lot more difficult.

First off, we are not able to remove connection arrows that will pop up when clicking a territory with the spyglass.
second, we need some kind of system to initiate these connections.

Although the first problem cannot be solved yet, a system can be created quite easily using a mod. I did some brainstorming and I'm now confident enough to announce this mod.

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The system:

This is a bit technical but I'll try to make this easy to understand xD
Mods are able to get map details like which territories exist, what their coordinates are (x and y) and what the name of the territory is. This last feature is what the mod uses to know which connections are one-way and in which direction this is.

The mods looks at every territory name, in search for the following syntax: [#] (# represents a number)
When 2 territories connected to one another both have the syntax in their name, the mod knows there might be a one-way connection between them. It then looks what the number values actually are. To simplify this, imagine the following territories (all are connected to eachother):

• 'A [4]'
  
• 'B [2]'
  
• 'C [3]'
  
• 'D [4]'
  
• 'E'
  

The 'rules' of the one-way connections are:

• When 2 connected territories both have the syntax in their name and the numeric values in the syntax are not equal to eachother, than there is a one-way connection
  
• In a one-way connection, only the territory with the higher numeric value can attack / transfer armies to the territory with the lower numeric value. The other way is not possible
  
• When 2 connected territories both have the syntax in their name but the numeric values are the same, than there is not a one-way connection
  
• If a territory does not have the syntax all their connections are normal connections
  

This means the following for the territories A, B, C, D and E:

• A [4] ---> B [2]
  
• A [4] ---> C [3]
  
• A [4] <--> D [4]
  
• A [4] <--> E
  
• B [2] <--- C [3]
  
• B [2] <--- D [4]
  
• B [2] <--> E
  
• C [3] <--- D [4]
  
• C [3] <--> E
  
• D [4] <--> E
  

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Examples

Imagine you have a local map with castles. When adding '[1]' to every territory name in the castle and '[0]' to every territory name directly adjacent to the castle, except for the gate (do not add syntax, otherwise you won't be able to get in the castle at all), you have created a siege scenario! Territories directly adjacent to the castle can't attack territories in the castle except for the gate territory, but territories in the castle can attack these adjacent territories. This means that castles are difficult to capture because the castle owner has an advantage

You can create a map with heigth levels. Players that have the high ground have an advantage because they can attack those territories lower but not the other way around.

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Notes

• The core of the mod is finished, but not tested. I know this is going to work but I need a map to test this on so please message me when you have a map that uses the syntax for one-way connections so I can improve it and make it a public mod
  
• The one-way connections will not be visible, except for the fact the name of the territory has a number assigned to it. I suggest to have a unspoken rule to have this number first and than the rest of the territory name (ex: '[3] Mount Everest Top')
  
• One thing that will be added to the mod is a alert system to let every player know there are one-way connections. This is not the case yet
  
• Map makers themself are responsible for creating maps that, in combination with this mod, don't have territories where you can get stuck (territories where you can only attack from and where you cannot get attacked or territories where you can only get attacked from and cannot attack)
  
• Whenever this mod is not included to the game, all the connections are normal connections
  

The hype is real. However, should do some changes:
1) Is it possible to take an existing map, "easily" rename territories and publish it as a new map? If not, either make it possible or allow to do that via the mod.
2) Make a check whether you can get from every territory to every territory and pop an error message where is the problem if so. Mods with potential softlock aren't very good.
3) Add an indication of where 1-way connections are. Perhaps change the colour of the arrow while inspecting?
4) you will never do
a->b
b->c
c->a

Edited 2/6/2022 14:02:07

1) Is it possible to take an existing map, "easily" rename territories and publish it as a new map?

Yes it is. The only thing the mod relies on is the territory names so you can change them if you want your map to have one-way connections. I just don't have a good map myself to do this so I'm relying on you guys xD

2) Make a check whether you can get from every territory to every territory and pop an error message where is the problem if so.

Yes, that is something I want to add. In fact, I might know already how to.

3) Add an indication of where 1-way connections are.

We cannot change anything on the map except for armies, special units, structures and the owner of a territory. I don't want to add structures or special units to these territories because the mod will get complicated quickly and you likely won't be able to use it with other mods that add structures or special units. But with 2) I'll already tackle this problem

For the last point I don't really understand what you mean
A [4] --> B [2] One-way connection, A can attack / transfer to B, but not the other way around
B [2] <-- C [3] One-way connection, C can attack / transfer to B, but not the other way around
C [3] <-- A [4] One-way connection, A can attack / transfer to C, but not the other way around

I would be interested in retrofitting a couple of my old maps to fit this mod, since it’s been something many people have asked for over the years. However, I would only do this if I didn’t have to rename any territories to include that extra number, and if the connection arrow didn’t appear for false connections.

well, since both problems cannot be avoided / solved i suggest you don't do it xD.
but now that you know this exists you can take this in consideration for your maps in the future

2) give the problem to knyte, he loves graph theory.
3) Well this sucks. I guess add a fort-like structure to every territory from which a 1-way connection leads for better indication?
4) Not your example. That is a new example. You can never make 1-way connection x->y y->z z->x with your approach.

Edited 2/6/2022 18:31:56

1. Renaming territories might be possible to do automatically, Beren and guezt from the mapmaking discord have been working on some python scripts that automatically set most of the things you would need to do in WZ based on the SVG. Adopting that to include some numbers might help.

3. Adding structures would quickly become to much if you have a lot of 1 ways.

However, combining the above, I think it would be better if someone just made a very basic 50 terr map from scratch. That would provide better results than adopting current maps.

3) Adding structure would not tell players where exactly are the 1-ways, it would just warn them where to look for them.

I'm going to build a mod menu where you can push a button to review your attacks / transfers. if there is a order that will get skipped because the order is the wrong way around I'll alert the player. telling him exactly which order he has to alter / remove

players can use this option all the time, so best to review your orders from time to time to avoid frustration :)

It won't help with defending against a territory which can't attack you.

and about 4, that was intentionally. you can say like the value 0 is different (only attack transfer to the highest connected number) but this can lead to confusion + it requires me to do extra work xD

about defending against a territory you can't attack, that's up to the game creator to simply this. there are a lot of mods out there that can help

imagine the bubblewrap map but the connections randomly change every turn :0