I've found out why all my games seem to start with the chickenwire map. The game setup engine defaults to a 3 connector map most of the time if you don't specify the connectivity you want in the universe. This is my only 3 connector map.
Here is what the moderator told me
>>It picks a map based on the connectivity. The server will vary outside the 3, 4 range if no one tweaks anything, but it will pick the center more often than not. The rule is (like any of these parameters): it will pick 0 most of the time, -1 or 1 some of the time, and -2 or 2 very occasionally. Thus, if the players don't tweak any parameters, they get a normal map most of the time, and an extreme map occasionally.
First, it picks a random map connectivity for the game, based on the "Connections" game property ("Absurdly Low" through "Absurdly High"). The distribution is this:
Connections_loaded = {
-5: (2.00, 2.10),
-4: (2.25, 2.40),
-3: (2.40, 2.55),
-2: (2.55, 2.70),
-1: (2.70, 3.00),
0 : (3.00, 4.00),
1 : (4.00, 4.50),
2 : (4.50, 5.00),
3 : (5.00, 5.50),
4 : (5.50, 6.00),
5 : (6.00, 7.00),
}
Where "absurdly low" means 2.00 .. 2.10, and so on.
Once it has picked a connectivity, it looks for a map to satisfy that. Maybe all of your maps that are not chickenwire have some different level of connectivity that is less likely to come up?
David<<
So - I've got a new game listed brussels9h which can't have a chickenwire map - please sign up. And take this info into account when you create a game and want a varied (or extreme as David calls my maps) mapping experience. And by the way - my chickenwire map may only have 3 connections per world but it's the toughest map to figure out due to it's repeating pattern of crossed connections. Some of the 4-6 connector maps have an easier repeating pattern.
Somnos