Random Map

Random Map is a game feature, that allows the computer to generate a map based on the given settings.

How Random Maps are formed

• There are several rules that Random Maps always follow, these include:

Towns

• All player owned towns always spawn on their native terrain. The only exception is Necropolis (occasionally starts underground on Subterranean if the map is 2 layers) and Dungeon (occasionally starts on dirt).
• The players starting towns start with a tavern, a village hall, the level 1 dwelling, sometimes the level 2 dwelling and almost always a Fort. Players can occasionally spawn with two towns each, but most commonly one town. Neutral towns start with the same as the player towns, but with no tavern and usually no Fort.

Heroes

• The players' starting heroes will usually start at level 1, but sometimes on higher levels. Creating a random map before selecting the players' starting heroes will result in some heroes being unavailable as starting heroes because they will be placed in the prisons scattered across the Adventure Map.

Adventure Map

• All Random Maps are filled with resources, mines and almost everything that can be found in the adventure map category. The only excptions are Border Guards, Border gates, Quest Guards and Keymaster's Tents, which never appears.
• Spell Scrolls are very common and will spawn both with and without guards. The guarded spell scrolls will contain level 2-5 spells, while those that are not guarded contains level 1 spells. The level 2-5 spell scrolls are often poorly guarded even when the monster strength is set to "strong" (an Implosion scroll can spawn with as few guardians as 24 serpent flies)
• The Map will often contain prisons, where heroes with 0, 5000, 10000, 15000 or 20000 experience are located.
• Guarded Pandora's Boxes frequently spawn across the map containing:
  • 5.000, 10.000, 15.000 or 20.000 Experience or gold (the box has 40% chance to give experience and 20% chance to give gold)
  • All Spells of either a certain level, or belonging to a certain school (the box has 20% chance to give spells).
  • A number of creatures, ranging from 110 (level 1) to 1 (level 10 such as Azure Dragons) (the box has 20% chance to give creatures).
    • The rewards are proportional to the strength of its guardians (the stronger guardians, the greater reward).
• Seers' Huts spawn with no guardians, searching for a random artifact located somewhere the map. In return for the artifact they look for, they give rewards from the same reward pool as the Pandora's Boxes (with the exception of spells, which they don't give at all). Seers' huts will give the same % chance for all three kinds of rewards (33.333...% each)
  • Unlike the Pandora's Boxes', the Seers' Huts' rewards are not proportional to the artifact they look for (it is for example possible that they give 3 Archangels for a Centaur's Axe, but merely 30 Harpy Hags for the Mystic Orb of Mana).
• There are roads on all Random Maps, connecting most portals and all towns.

Customizing Random Maps

Before creating a Random Map, the player can specify how it will look.

Size

• The player may choose between Small (36x36), Medium (72x72), Large (108x108) and Extra Large (144x144) map size.

Levels

• The player may choose between one or two levels on the map. The underground layer will never contain water, only Subterranean and occasionally Lava (if an Inferno town is located there, as they will spawn on lava terrain). The overworld can contain anything except Subterranean terrain.

Human/Computer Players

• The player may choose how many human players can be avalible on the map. Up to eight players may be in the game (humans and computers included).

Computer Players

• The player may choose the amount of computer players that is on the map. These players can only be played by the computer AI.

Human/Computer Teams

• Between 1 and 8 human or computer teams can be choosen by the player.

Monster Strength

• The player may choose the neutral monsters to be weak, medium or strong. Choosing weak will cause most mines, dwellings and artifacts to have no guardians, while choosing strong will cause all mines (except sawmills and ore mines), all artifacts (except Spell Scrolls) and all primary skill increasing structures (like Army Camps) to be guarded.

Water content

• The player may choose between no water at all, some water, or islands. Choosing islands will cause the majority (75%) of the map to be covered with water, leaving each player with an own island. All islands will have a Shipyard and very commonly portals connecting the islands to each other.

Bugs

• The Random Map will sometimes spawn without water even though "no water" was not selected.
• Sometimes a player will spawn completley surronded by obstacles, making it impossible to reach him/her unless fly or Angel Wings is avalible.
• Resources, artifacts and Pandora's Boxes will sometimes spawn with insufficient obstacles around them, making it possible to take them without defeating their guardians. This can easily be game-ending if, for example, a player manages to find a Pandora's Box containing 20,000 gold.
• Valuable resouces, mines or Pandora's Boxes will sometimes spawn with no guards at all.