A collection of things that would help random map scripters, if some development time could be devoted to them.
Implement the remaining UP features
Specifically the consts required for effect_amount, guard_state and assign_to. There might understandably be concerns that this could be used to produce unfair/cheat maps; however, there are also many enjoyable UP 1.5 maps made with these capabilities. These maps could be directly ported, if the relevant consts are implemented.
Additionally, UP team size detection, player count detection and other lobby detection like for king of the hill would be very useful as well. Player counts and some of the lobby settings were added December patch - team sizes are still missing
Fix direct_placement and grouped_by_team in the scenario editor
Currently generating a map that uses either of these will not work properly in the scenario editor. Additionally, they will break ALL future map generations in the scenario editor. Can only be fixed by either restarting the game, or by leaving the scenario editor and launching a map in single player that uses random_placement.
Use teams in the scenario editor
A nice to have would be if the game used the teams set up in diplomacy to generate maps where teams affect map generation (for example team islands). Currently, such maps generate as if it were a FFA.
Detect player count in Scenario editor
Currently, the scenario editor doesn’t scale properly by player count, always acting as if there were 8 players.
Allow Custom MapIcons (for map selection in the lobby)
Currently these are hardcoded and require modding two shared json files, so it’s not feasible to distribute mapicons with your map. Allowing custom icons (preferably in png format, not dds) would be neat and could help players identify custom maps more easily.
Separate circle_radius and border_fuzziness
The new circle_radius is awesome; however, its variation is controlled by border_fuzziness. Unlike what the official documentation suggests, border_fuzziness retains its ability to affect borders. Unfortunately, the two things border_fuzziness controls work in opposing directions, high values make lands respect borders, but increase circle_radius variation, low values reduce circle_radius variation, but make the land increasingly ignore borders. A better solution would be a new attribute to control circle radius variation, or a second value, ie. circle_radius 40 2 [radius] [variation]
Re-implement Full Map Screenshots (originally crtl+F12)
Broken by the HD Edition and removed to never return again. Full map screenshots were a great way for map makers and scenario designers to showcase their content, and look much nicer than screenshotting the minimap. Yes, this would require some work to accommodate the new ways in which graphics and terrains are rendered, but it would be nice to have this feature return to the AoE2.
Crash related to top_border and bottom_border when used for player lands
A bug that has always existed. Might be possible to fix, if someone looked into it.
Described here: http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=28,42496,0,365
Add an avoid_cliff_zone
We have an avoid_forest_zone. Being able to avoid cliffs would further help prevent trapped resources.
Allow adjacent team members to share walls
In the UP/HD, if team members were close enough that their walls would intersect, they would instead share a wall. In DE they intersect and block team members from accessing each other. Especially important for grouped_by_team
Allow starting Town Centers on all terrains
Currently you cannot place them on restricted terrains. This might break some maps such as El Dorado (town center on shallows). Also, I believe this is the reason why you can no longer place a TC on forest (as some forest nothing maps will do).
Fix other terrain restrictions as well
In DE, boars, elephants and rhinos can be placed on beach and ice terrains, which they can’t in the original game. In most cases it’s not a game-braking issue, but it does have a noticeable effect on some maps.
Detect new lobby settings –ADDED IN DEC 2019 PATCH!
Want to adjust your map so that it doesn’t generate resources if the lobby option “infinite resources” is chosen? That doesn’t work, because there is no INFINITE_RESOURCES that you could check for. If we would detect new lobby settings, and existing ones that cannot currently be detected, that would be great.
create_connect_to_nonplayer_land is broken
create_connect_to_nonplayer_land blocks all future connection generations. Additionally it blocks all team connection generation (except those involving player 1), when used after create_connect_teams_lands
Until this is fixed, do not use create_connect_to_nonplayer_land unless you are using it alone.
Allow base_elevation for water-based lands
In DE (and also in HD) beach terrains, ice, shallow, and water terrains can’t have base_elevation applied.
Possibly allows AI players to capture gaia units
UP allows this, while other game versions do not.
Allow scenario editor trees to spawn random rotations
Currently in DE, there are objects such as the scenario editor trees, which have been given rotated sprites. However, random map scripts will always spawn the first rotation.
Raise the 99 create_something restriction
It’s always been the case that you could only have 99 create_ commands in a section before it crashes or gets messed up. DE would be a good opportunity to raise this cap.
I’ll add anything else that is suggested.
