As Plotinus told me, this would be a North African sort of bazaar, c. 1000-1500 - think Alexandria, Marrakesh, etc, very exotic! Obviously it would want to cover a whole tile, pretty much, with any odd bits of land poking out looking roughly Plainsish.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this:

Wow, that was quick! Looks good, too. Though I'm imagining something a bit more crowded, if possible, rather like a city graphic, filling the tile - lots of stalls, tents, camel-holders, bars, you name it...

Hmmm...I think in that case I could really help you Plotinus...I thought from your message you wanted a Trade Post, but I suppose a bigger post is in order.... :goodjob:

Heres a new and improved version which I think is closer to what you are lookin for my friend...

Oh yes. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. Go crazy! I want to smell the spices wafting from the stalls and hear the cries of the traders as they barter! Bring us the sights and tastes of Old Morocco; let us be serenaded by honking camels and refreshed by dates from the Saharan oases; let us haggle for oriental silk and wind-dried salt, and hand over rich Malian gold for it! Let this be a tile that cries to the wind: "Human life is lived here - to its very fullest!"

Well, something like that. You can see why I wasn't satisfied with my own efforts. I'm still stuck in the eight-bit era - anything more than 16 colours has me baffled...

Simulposted as I composed my paean to the medieval Maghrib. Yes, that's a bit more like it. Will it be possible to superimpose it onto a Plains background to create a fully functioning, stand-alone tile?

I understand...I started gaming in the 8-bit NES era...in the late 80s, even with all the technological and graphical improvements since then, nothing beats the good ol days...

Look above your last post Plotinus.... ;)

In that case, going wildly off topic, you need to have a look at http://custurd.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/ - sound up!

Simulposted as I composed my paean to the medieval Maghrib. Yes, that's a bit more like it. Will it be possible to superimpose it onto a Plains background to create a fully functioning, stand-alone tile?

Hmmm....it might be too big to fit on a single plains tile...Theres another opition...creating a new terrain type, and a new Terrain building, which can only appear on the new terrain type. It requires more in depth map work, and probably won't work for random maps, however, it would probably be possible to shrink it...and then it would indeed fit on the terrain..but it would still require a new terrain type...I'm not exactly certain it would work completely in the random map without it looking...weird, but it would work very well in a custom map..

Hm - interesting. From my point of view this is solely for a custom map so I'm not worried about random map effects. Presumably when you say a new Terrain building, you're thinking of something that would be in effect a resource, placed on a special terrain type. My forays into the terrain pcxs suggest that this would require doing a lot of messing there if this were to be a flat terrain, as the program constructs these out of lots of bits and pieces to create that smooth flawless look we know so well. Kind of. Either that or I'd have to not use some standard flat terrain elsewhere, which I can't really do. It would be great if I could create a new terrain and set it so it uses the same graphics as, say, Plains, but is distinct (just as different units could be set to use the same graphics) - but I'm sure this is impossible, alas. Terrain is hard-coded. Hence my original plan of simply replacing a fairly basic kind of terrain such as the volcano, which has a single file containing a number of different tiles, but which are complete, discrete tiles without weird edges etc.

From my point of view it's probably simplest just to shrink what we have - or move the buildings closer together - or both - and superimpose it onto a Plains tile. If that looks OK then I can simply replace the Volcano pcx with this, rename accordingly, and viola!

See, the reasoning behind this is that I want only certain units to be able to visit the Trading Post. And to do that it has to be a unique terrain type (accessible to wheeled units only, etc etc) - an overlay of some kind alone won't do. The sneaky methods we have to use to get Civ to work the way we want it... well, until Steph's SSS comes out and all is perfect!

With which I must go as it's gone bed time. I think we're pretty close to the kind of thing I'm envisaging though, so thanks in advance. Much appreciated!

your quite welcome... :goodjob:

Hopefully I can superimpose it though...hmmm..

I have confidence in your ability! Of course, the only important thing is that it be a solid block of colour, if you see what I mean, so you could always give it a "ground" background of your own if that's easier. So long as it looks Plainsish, since that is what the surrounding terrain is likely to be.

It might take a few days...I hope you don't mind, I've got alot on my plot civ-wise at the moment..but rest assured, it will be done..

Of course that's fine. There's no rush.