How to set starting location, human players

[Capt_Blondbeard]

Not sure if this is possible, but is there a function that dictates how close or far human player are from each other when starting a new game? I would like to have human players "more or less" next to each other. The only thing I have seen that relates to starting distance so far is a "minimum distance" in XML. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Baldyr]

Practically anything is possible. I would think that the map scripts (which seem all to be written in Python) are supplying the game with staring locations. So it would be possible to edit any map script and add these parameters, but doing it of course requires some practical programming experience.

Ever thought of picking up the Python language, by any chance?

 

[Capt_Blondbeard]

actually I have done a little with python, mostly just variations of existing bit and pieces. But I need a starting point. There is a cultural starting location python script, that set the South American cultures near jungles, northern European cultures near tundra, etc. But I don't see any way to modify it to set players near other players...

 

[Baldyr]

The map script is a program and it only has the features that the author of the programmer included. You probably need to add your own function(s) to it.

Looking at the Python Application Programming Interface I realize that there is a CyMap.updateMinOriginalStartDist() method. Also, there are CyArea.getNumStartingPlots(), CyPlayer.findStartingPlot(), CyPlayer.getStartingPlot(), CyPlayer.setStartingPlot(), CyPlayer.startingPlotRange(), CyPlot.setStartingPlot(), and probably others.

These are some of the tools you have to work with, deciding where the starting plots should appear. But you also need to be able to write the logic (Python) that calculates the distances and determines what plots should be used. This is a programming job, so you need to both be able to read the map script and add to it. (Copy-paste is not programming!)