Public mod for testing a variety of new random map features - including some which easily have the potential to be included in future Voobly Balance Patches for Age of Mythology if liked by the community.

The code of the framework used for the maps can also be found on [You must login to view link].

Contents:

• Merge mode: Share the control of a single civ with other players!
• Improved observer commands: Get more details about player resources and techs.
• New Maps for testing: [You must login to view link] and [You must login to view link] (contained in the Random set), [You must login to view link] (contained in the Random X set).
• Maps: All maps in the Random and Random X sets support merge and observer mode. Furthermore, the maps in Random X are mirrored.
• Updated versions and reworks of all maps of the current Voobly Balance Patch and more new maps are scheduled for February 2021.

If you missed the initial announcement stream:
Twitch VOD with Hagrit's observer POV
BoIt's POV (Game 1)
BoIt's POV (Game 2)

What is merge mode?
Merge mode allows two or more players to control a single civilizations independently! For instance, you can play a 1v1 with 4 players with both civilizations being controlled by 2 players.

What about the new observer commands?
Until now, the observer features on Voobly were very minimalistic when compared to EE. With the new additions, you can get live updates about resources, technologies and more.

Observer Mode

Changelog for the Observer Mode compared to Voobly Balance Patch 4.0:

• Added command !lra to toggle constant resource updates of all players on/off; specific players can be added/removed via !lr1, !lr2, etc. Clears chat while active.
• Added command !lta to toggle constant tech updates (with %) of all players on/off; specific players can be added/removed via !lt1, !lt2, etc. Clears chat while active.
• Integrated and adjusted commands to toggle map visibility via !m and to display resources of all players via !r (previously: !a). Credits to Fophuxake.
• Players starting to tech the next age now shows a notification to observers.
• !t now shows the percentage and icons of the techs currently being researched.
• !i now also shows the number of villagers, caravans and fishing ships of a player (not used in !a for space reasons) as well as the techs currently being researched by the player.
• !h can be used to get a list of all available commands (as they have become numerous).
• !x can be used to clear all active toggles and the chat.
• Players are now ordered according to starting position (counter-clockwise) within their team instead of player number in the initial matchup message and commands that show stats for more than one player.
• Regular observers using game languages other than English are now properly detected.
• Improved performance in later stages of the game (credits to Loggy, although this should not have been an issue in previous versions anyway).
• Simplified process to allow all maps to support observer mode with additional observers. The last team will observe the game if more than 2 teams present to create recorded games that are not corrupted as they would be when using 2+ regular observers. Note that only the maps in the "Random" and "Random X" sets currently support additional observers, the rest will follow in February 2021.

Known issues:

• Names that include one or more " will break the trigger script (and thus also the observer functions). There is no way around this unless I omit player names from the observer messages (which I won't).
• Naturally, additional observers (team 3) will get defeated once a team has won. Don't play ranked games with additional observers or they will lose points...

Setup: Setup for using additional observers remains the same: If you want the last team to observe the game, make sure that the team number of said team appears after the playing teams in the lobby.

Merge Mode

Merge Mode Setup:
I'm trying to be very descriptive so the instruction below looks far more complex than the whole process actually is. Due to this mode relying on exploiting the limitations of the engine when it comes to save/restoring game, the merge procedure consists of the following steps:

1. Players that want to share a civilization need to have the same name (this is not case-sensitive). This can easily be changed after launching a lobby when starting the game and entering LAN.
2. When using observers, be aware that regular observers will corrupt the recorded game. If you want a valid recorded game, use additional observers as described above.
3. Select either the Random or Random X (mirrored) map set or a map from those sets. Other maps may not be supporting this mode.
4. Launch the game as usual.
5. If you set up the names correctly, the game will AUTOMATICALLY pause after ~0.5 seconds. A message will encourage you to save and restore the game and you should do exactly that.
6. Restore the game. Make sure people still have the same names and green up. Once the countdown starts, DON'T CANCEL or you may end up in single player (for whatever reason).
7. Once inside, the game should be paused. When ready, you can unpause the game (sometimes only a specific player can do so).
8. After another 0.5 seconds, a message will display that the merge was successful and you will experience a short lag spike of ~2 seconds while the recorded game is triggered. Due to recording via trigger, the created recorded game will be called "Default.rcx" (may differ in languages other than English).

Things to keep in mind for Merge Mode:

• Regular observers will break the recorded game. Use additional observers if you want a valid recorded game (seems to work consistently, still subject to testing).
• The recording of the game is triggered manually. The file "Default.rcx" containing the recorded merge game will be overwritten every time - make sure you save it (located in Documents/My Games/AoM/savegame) if you want to keep it!
• The game may not be unpausable after restoring (this happened only once, early in testing, and has not been reproducable so far).
• Once merged, you won't be able to save the game due to multiple players playing as the same player, leaving their counterparts with the same name empty.
• Due encompassing multiple players, a merged player resigns if either of its players resigns or drops.
• The usually grayed-out sides of rectangular maps (e.g., Mirage, Valley of Kings, ...) are bugged after restoring. However, the playable minimap displays correctly!

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where can I download the mod?
  At the top of this page (you will require a Voobly account).
  
• Which maps support these features?
  Every map in the RM X Public mod which is either in the "Random" or the "Random X" (mirrored) set supports both the new observer commands as well as additional observers (team 3) and merge mode.
  
• Can I play merge mode for other modes than 1v1?
  Merge mode should work for any setup of players; for instance, you can merge a 3v1 into a 1v1 as long as all the players from the first team share the same name.
  
• Do the names require to match exactly for merge mode?
  The matching is not case-sensitive, but other than that they have to match.
  
• Is this mod also available for Vanilla?
  The framework was designed in a way that changing a single line of code is enough to make the mod vanilla-compatible. The new observer commands won't work for vanilla as you cannot clear the chat (this is required for the commands not to trigger infinitely) or send chat to a single player. However, I would like to wait a bit until I make a vanilla version so that I don't have to update both mods in the (likely) case of errors...
  
• Is the mod also available for EE?
  Similar to the above answer, only a single line of code has to be changed to make the mod compatible with EE. However, due to map scripts being transferrable on EE without relying on a mod, I won't publish an EE version yet, but it will happen once I have more time again (if you want a more detailed answer PM/DM me on Discord, Voobly or RTSS).
  
• Can I also play DM on this mod?
  Yes. Merge mode and observer commands work regardless of the game mode; note however that the maps in the Random set in RM X Public are basically the ones from VBP 4.0, i.e., supremacy maps.

If you get an error about non-matching map files upon joining the game, make sure you delete all of the following files from Documents/My Games/AoM/RM2:

• secluded [You must login to view link]
• secluded expanse.xml
• [You must login to view link]
• mirage.xml