Oh I see what you mean, like the SCs aren't neighbours for the purposes of movement, only for the purposes of home supply centres?

So you want to simulate 1897?

@Graeme, yes.
@gopher, no, because then you have certain initial SCs, and you get to, mostly, choose which home SCs you go for. I just want it all assigned for you, totally randomly. You could get Edi, Norway, and Sweden, or Tunis, Naples, Greece. Stuff like that.

Sounds cool, not quite sure how it would pan out though...

Gamewise or programwise? I mean, so long as you could have it run a random number generator you could have a computer pick out the territories. Give each territory a number, pick a random one for each player, then find its neighbors' numbers, pick one, then find those two territories' neighbors' numbers, pick one, and make sure you get possible countries for each player (since it's possible someone would get Munich and everyone else would get every nearby SC). Otherwise, start over. I just don't know whether the program can handle that. Gamewise, I think it'd be fun. I mean, you might start in a crap position, but that's no worse than being Austria; you'd have to rely on Diplomacy and others' willingness not to kill you.

@stukus, how is that different from a computer simulation of the opening years of 1897?

@gopher, very little, except that different territorial combinations are possible. If you did a computer simulation of the first few years of 1897, you'd probably have some powers much more powerful than others, though. Also, you'd probably end up with countries at least vaguely similar. Either way, you need a computer to do it out, and since most Dip programs are still crappy, why not just do it in a more equal, more random way? But 1897 starts with certain SCs; there needs to be a Turkish, a Russian, &c. This would be entirely random and every power would have the same on-paper strength. It's not like a computer simulation of 1897 exists anyway; you'd need something new no matter which way you did it.

I guess it's the difference between Fischer Random Chess and just mixing up your pieces behind the pawn line however you want. I want to maintain certain rules while still allowing for as much freedom as playably possible.

Should be easy to implement.
But I have not much time at the moment. Maybe someone other might give it a try (or I do once I have more time)...

Hm, time to flatter Tadar...

So anyone with the time and ability interested? I'll do out the neighbor lists and starting units per territory and all that.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjSwu-fzdNSKdE90Y0xzNG9YTUF1QWFNNGRQTlBOZWc&hl=en_US

I have too much time... I used the units from Crowded, but I was wondering whether anyone notices errors? Neighbors are SCs that are two moves away, by land, sea, or combination, without passing through another SC.

Also, there'd have to be a check that disqualified any countries without a coast, so that Vienna-Budapest-Warsaw comes up as invalid, or it'd have to be build anywhere. Build anywhere might be better to start with.