Blacksmith Features
April 11, 2002 by Thunder

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Nomad_Unknown

By Daddy Duck

Our weekly Blacksmith feature focuses on a random map script this timearound, instead of a campaign or mod. I tackled a heap of scenarios over theweek, but it was this random map I have been playing on lately that ended upeating up most of my time. It is the result of a combined effort betweenEnsemble Studios, and Daddy Duck. If you’re a NOmad fan, you may have alreadygiven this one a look, but here’s a revisit.

Nomad_Unknown.rms — As many NOmad hungry players have done, includingmyself, Daddy Duck has transformed a known random map script into one thatsupports NOmad. The ES@Unknown random map script generates truly randommaps. You can end up with islands or arabia and everything in between, whichis why posting a mapshot image of the terrain generated isn’t terribly helpful.The Nomad_Unknown random map script has no starting town centers, no wolves,no scouts, and of course your starting villagers are scattered about the map,making it a veritable NOmad playground.

True to its Unknown origins, this map gives you the opportunity to playNOmad on a very wide variety of maps. Long time players will surely appreciatethe new arenas to test their skills in, but as with the original Unknown mapfrom ES, you may run into a bug or two. A particular bug that bites onoccasion, with a few NOmad style random maps, is trapped villagers. Thisdoesn’t pop up too often, but given the unknown nature of this particularmap, it has to be expected once in awhile.

Without a doubt, Nomad_Unknown is a nice change from the monotony of theregular Nomad map, but given the extreme random nature of the maps, youprobably won’t be finding it featured in too many competitive games. Iactually posted a review of the map, giving it a 3.7 out of the usual five.The overall score was dropped by the whole “Visual Appeal” category, whichyou can basically ignore since visually, the maps are different everysingle game and there’s no real way of knowing what you’ll end upwith. …I have a knack for getting trapped villagers on random mapscripts… ; )