Starting locations for a new game?

[MapGuy]

I’m setting up a new map, and I want to prepare starting locations for the factions. Whenever I’ve played SMAC, the system starts me at one of about a dozen locations on the official map. It’s never the same place two times in a row, but over time they repeat.

I want to set things up in a similar way, where players will end up at one of several prepared locations. Each starting location will have it's own benefits and drawbacks, to keep things balanced but also creating new challenges on replay. Is there a way to do this? I know I can assign a specific faction to a specific location, but that’s not what I’m after. I'm hoping for "choose one of these" rather than "faction X starts here."

I have a feeling this should be very straightforward, but the map/scenario editor is, well, we all know what it’s like. If this is covered in another forum or document somewhere, please point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance,


MapGuy

[gwillybj]

Yes, that can work; mostly in theory, but some in practice. You'd need to make the landing spots that much better than the rest of the map in order to be chosen by the landing calculator. I would think some would be used while other factions land in unprepared locations. The random factor in the formula causes this.