View Full Version : [Map Script] Planet Generator
Nercury Aug 05, 2006, 05:01 PM This map generator is capable of producing very unpredictable map shapes, while keeping continent count, separation, size in control and somewhat balanced.
New version 0.68 released!
*Updates:
- continents should no longer break in several parts
- islands!
- custom map size, continent scattering
- works with Warlords, Beyond the Sword
- mac support
Installation: extract archive to:
My Documents -> My Games -> Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -> PublicMaps
or/and
My Documents -> My Games -> Warlords -> PublicMaps
or/and
My Documents -> My Games -> Beyond the Sword -> PublicMaps
Map options:
Map size override
- No override: use standard selection (duel, tiny, huge, etc.)
- Otherwise use specified size up to 256 x 160. All sizes have aspect ratio of 1.6.
Continents
From one huge Pangaea to 18 continents. If continent distribution is set to "Smart Selection" it will make best choice to make those 18 continents fit even into duel map. However, it is not like archipelago, but if you want something close to that, decrease continent separation to 1 square.
Size of every continent depends on how many players will be in it.
Continent separation
How many water tiles should separate continents. 3 is default. Select 4 for late civilization contact.
Continent distribution
New setting. Currently you can:
- force each continent to have at least one square on equator (if thats not possible, maps size is increased to make them fit)
- make continents to be aligned in two or three rows
- make continents to be aligned to center (this is especially cool with 3 - 5 continents)
- use Smart Selection to make algorithm choose predefined way of distribution for selected amount of continents and map size
Continent shape
From "Snaky" which spreads across the map to almost round one.
Continent scattering (new)
Controls continent scattering, and coastal line smoothness.
- solid, no islands around: this is the same as was default behavior before version 0.50, solid continents
- rare small islands: less round edges, more lakes, maybe some island near continent
- common islands: this option ensures evenly distributed islands around every continent.
- many islands: more scattering
- archipelago continents: this is option for fun (or pain) - i suggest disabling one-tile islands before starting :)
Percentage of ocean
- From 30% to 70%.
- Minimize ocean size: algorithm tries to grow continents as long as possible.
If you select very low percentage of ocean, generation time increases dramatically.
Land near pole ice (new)
Before, it was always possible to sail around any continent, because continents could not reach pole ice. Now, this can be changed with this option.
Lonely islands (new)
Controls how many islands are created in empty ocean space. This option is affected by Ocean percentage: the higher it is, the more space for lonely islands.
- Use every empty area in ocean: this option means that algorithm will do it's best to fill empty space with islands.
- One island somewhere: creates one island somewhere, if there is space for it (usually there is, except maybe for duel maps with big islands selected)
- No islands
Lonely island size (new)
Controls size of islands. Size is computed the same way for any map size.
- Small: useful if there is some resource
- Medium: for one grown up city
- Big: varies from 1 to 3 cities
Allow one tile islands (new)
When "No" is chosen, all one-tile islands are removed. Select "Yes" if they do not annoy you
Mountains (peaks)
Controls peak distribution and grouping. Peaks should not block any terrain sections, except maybe for "extreme" setting.
Hills
Same distribution options as for peaks.
Climate variation
Climate variation controls how different climate is near poles from equator.
Humidity
It controls amount of forests, jungles, and flood plains.
Temperature
Equator temperature.
- If you want almost same climate for all map, select such temperature for equator and set climate variation to "soft".
- It is possible to generate very cold map, which would be real challenge to play :). Well, if you want to try that, increase amount of flood plains, that should help :)
Flood plains
Controls amount and distribution of flood plains. Now there is "standard placement" setting, which is meant to make flood plains like in standard generators. There are additional flood plain modes with more of them on snow, desert and tundra, or near oceans.
Examples:
Override map size: 160×100
Climate variation: Soft
Humidity: Normal
Equator temperature: Cool (light jungle, no deserts)
Continents: 9
Continent distribution: Around center
Continent shape: Unpredictable
Continent scattering: 3 - 6 (common islands)
Lonely islands: Use every empty area in ocean
Percentage of ocean: 70%
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8247/civpg9cbc3.jpg
Size: Standard
Climate variation: Soft
Humidity: Normal
Equator temperature: Cool (light jungle, no deserts)
Continents: 7
Continent distribution: Two rows
Continent shape: Unpredictable
Continent scattering: 1 - 3 (rare small islands) (default)
Percentage of ocean: 60%
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7063/civpg7cty1.jpg
Size: Huge
Climate variation: Soft
Humidity: Wet
Equator temperature: Normal
Continent shape: Unpredictable
Continents: 2 continents
Ocean: 70%
Continent islands: 1 - 3 (rare small islands)
Lonely islands: 50% of empty area
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7131/civpg2ckh3.jpg
Known issues:
- If you select random continent amount, that random amount does not change if you regenerate map. Same thing happens for continent separation, climate variation, and temperature. This is called "First Time (FT) Random" in options.
- Generator so far uses standard methods for adding resources and bonuses.
- Generator uses heavy optimizations (heavy for RAM), but generation can still take long for huge maps / many continent maps / low percentage of water maps.
Versions (for both mac and windows):
Latest version: 0.68
Download version 0.68 from file database (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1817)
or
Download attached file:
Nercury Aug 06, 2006, 11:09 AM v. 0.68
- Coordinate system changed to circular for continent growth calculation (faster, not so blocky shapes)
- Continents should no longer break in several big parts (except with "archipelago continents")
- Bug fix: the lonely islands are all devoid of hills or mountains
v. 0.67
- Further improvements for mod map size support: now can understand completely customized sizes
v. 0.66
- Mod map size support
v. 0.65
- Many feature generation tweaks
- More forests or jungle (jungle depends on temperature)
- More flood plains on deserts
- More oases, better oasis placement
- Flood plain "Standard" generation options reduced to one
- Desert maps should be more interesting now
- Forests and jungle can start growing not only near water, but also near peaks which do not have many features around
v. 0.64
- Random float number bug fix
v. 0.63
- Bug fix: generation failure with high continent scattering and distribution around center
v. 0.62
- Resource normalization fix (it was disabled all the time!)
v. 0.61
- 4,5 island option bug fix
v. 0.60
- Continent scattering improved, all options thoroughly tested to produce good-looking maps.
- TileBuilder code improved, to avoid continent jams.
- Generation failure bug fixed. Hopefully, it will no longer stops at start.
- Random (Standard:Rare/Common) flood option fixed.
- New option: Map size. It is now possible to specify custom map size, up to 256×160. Because of this change, following options are modified:
- Continent separation options expanded up to 10 tiles.
- Distance from poles no longer depends on continent separation, and is always constant (3).
- From now on, area for continent separation is excluded from ocean area when calculating ocean percentage. It means that selecting higher continent separation now will produce less land. This helps against continent jams.
- Lonely island selection options improved, now it is possible to specify exact amount of islands (1-5), but they will be placed only if there is enough empty area in ocean.
- Default lonely island option changed to 3 islands.
- Default option of removing one-tile islands changed to "yes".
- Humidity options tweaked, now "normal" is a little bit more wet.
- Land near pole ice default value is now "sometimes" (i think that looks better)
- Fixed typo in options
v. 0.53
- Desert tile changing into plains (if jungle nearby) chance reduced from 100% to 60%.
- Rewritten continent scattering algorithm. Changed name from "Continent Islands" to "Continent Scattering", because, well, it's what it does.
- Island separation now is the same as continent separation.
v. 0.51
- Continent islands option fix.
v. 0.50
- New options added: Land near pole ice, Continent islands, Lonely islands, Lonely island size, One tile islands allowed.
v. 0.47
- Smoother transition from jungle to desert/tundra.
v. 0.46
- Both Mac and Windows support in one file. Thanks AlanH for writing code for mac!
v. 0.45
- Oasis.
v. 0.44
- Fixed continent distribution bug for high continent count and huge map.
- Added more ways how continents can be distributed: you can choose old rule with square on equator, two or three rows, circle. Even more, i added option Smart Selection, which will choose the best distribution method for selected continent count and map size.
- Flood plains now have default "Standard" distribution, which makes them appear only on desert, some on tundra and only near fresh water.
- Redefined what "natural" continent means. Now it is much more concentrated landmass with possible peninsulas or inland seas, not snake starting in the middle and ending near poles :)
- New landmass generation templates added - Natural, Crab-like, Smooth sides, old natural renamed to Traveling Natural (because it travels a lot from starting square).
- New "Smart Random for each continent" shape selection which almost ensures that you will have playable and unpredictable maps with different continent and map size selections
- Added a lot of comments to script code
Things to try out:
- New Crab-like continent shape for Pangaea map
v. 0.43
- Tested with Warlords: works
- Emergency fix: Grid size function was rewritten incorrectly, making map height higher than width ;)
v. 0.42
- Last user choices are now remembered
- Tested with Total Realism 2.0, Fall From Heavens 2.014, SevoMod 3.1
- Modified hill intersection function (produces more hills close together)
- Grid size function is now written correctly (compatible with "very huge" map size mode (if there is such in some mod))
v. 0.41
- Some adjustments for humidity
- Fixed some mistakes in options
fenceman Aug 06, 2006, 11:25 AM Nice work! I'm gona try this out
Nercury Aug 06, 2006, 11:38 AM LOL, you probably have downloaded broken version and now are playing in narrow map :D. I should not leave such bugs...
fenceman Aug 06, 2006, 11:43 AM I started one game with it in warlords, looked at the map, then went back and started another one with different settings and got a popup
Fatal Error
Memory Allocation failure - exiting program.
Reason: bad allocation
I'll try downloading the new version
Nercury Aug 06, 2006, 11:49 AM This means that program ran out of memory.
How many continents, what continent separation, and map size was selected?
Edit: yes, that could be because of enormous grid height in bad version...
fenceman Aug 06, 2006, 11:54 AM Civs: 18
Size: Huge
Continent shape: Random for each continent
Climate variation: Normal
Temperature: Normal
Humidity: Normal
Continents: 4
I restarted the game and downloaded the new version, now its working fine
GarretSidzaka Aug 07, 2006, 11:07 PM whoa! this has some truly amazing potential. Im keeping my eye on this one
Lars_Domus Aug 08, 2006, 06:07 PM This is some really promising stuff! I'm not crazy about the way floodplains are generated in all kinds of terrain (but that might just be me using the wrong settings), but I love the unpredictable shape of the continents. Also the climate variation and humidity settings are great ideas. If you make this script a little more customizable, SmartMap will have a worthy competitor on its hands.
:goodjob:
Nercury Aug 09, 2006, 02:41 AM Now i am remaking climate generation, i am going to make forest and jungle amount controlled the same way as flood plains, and will leave humidity control mostly for terrain type.
Jasconius Aug 10, 2006, 08:49 AM I think this script has some good potential as well! There are a couple of things I'd like to suggest to improve it.
First, there needs to be an option where you will only find flood plains on deserts next to rivers, just like in the normal map generators. Any other setting is just ridiculous IMO and it makes it so I can't actually play on these maps yet. Getting squares like plains/hills/flood plains with silver on it next to your starting city is an automatic ticket to win.
Second, although I reallly like the idea of all of the continents having to have a square on the equator, I think it makes the shapes of the continents very extreme in a lot of cases. I think you should expand the zone in which that square has to be, so a continent just has to have a square in the tropics somewhere, guaranteeing that it will at least have a little bit of tropics and definitely some temperate climate somewhere on it.
Keep up the good work!
mcguffin Aug 15, 2006, 04:20 AM Very nice script.
I really love the maps generated. and its really fast, comparing to other script around.
Anyway, are you planning to add some bonus distribution options?
There is a thing i would like to find: the possibility to say if a continent (or little island maybe for later) will not be populated at start.
For example, lets say 9 civ, 4 continents, but spawn only occurs on 3 continents.
sorry for my frenchy english ;)
ollj Dec 01, 2006, 06:25 AM You make circumnavigating the world really a challenge.
taltho Dec 24, 2006, 10:34 AM This is a realy awesome map script, Nercurey.
I tried it out and I realy like it, but I cant seem to have 18 or even 10 continents with a smaller map size.
I was going for a heavy Argapalego type map on the small setting.
this script only alows 2 or 3 continents for a small map. Is this somthing you did on purpose?
I like the way you added flood planes I live in the desert now and we have them here in places due to ground watter saturation. Thanks for this script I'll use it allot.
Nercury Feb 17, 2007, 07:04 PM It's nice to see that this script was usefull for someone :)
Sorry, i have not played civ4 for soo long, so there were no updates and no replies from me... Now i am installing the game again, just to see if my script still works :)
First, there needs to be an option where you will only find flood plains on deserts next to rivers, just like in the standart map generators.
Thats easy to do, i will look into it. I just have to remember what i wrote in that script :D
Second, although I reallly like the idea of all of the continents having to have a square on the equator, I think it makes the shapes of the continents very extreme in a lot of cases.
And the main case is when continent count is big.
I tried it out and I realy like it, but I cant seem to have 18 or even 10 continents with a smaller map size.
I was going for a heavy Argapalego type map on the small setting.
this script only alows 2 or 3 continents for a small map. Is this somthing you did on purpose?
Look at this this way: 18 continents, each has square on equator, continent separation - 3 squares (default), that is 18 * 1 + 18 * 3 = 72 square width. Also, the more continents, the more additional space is added to required map width.
EDIT: heh, i found possible cause of this - i am increasing map size if i find that there are too many continents. Also, map size is increased when:
if ((continentSeparation * 2) + 1) * continentCount > MapWidth:
thats (3 * 2 + 1) * 18 = 126 squares required. Maybe thats too much...
However, since i can choose starting squares as i wish (keeping right separation), i can use some other method for it. Maybe placing them in two rows which are near equator would do...
You make circumnavigating the world really a challenge.
LOL, even "Natural" continent shape in my script is quite drastic compared to standart generators, also i gave smaller chance of "snaky" continent when you choose "random for each continent" shape.
I noticed that "snaky" continent setting is better for smaller maps and "Natural" is better for huge ones. Thats because snaky can become longer when there is more room for it to show all that snakyness.
Algorythm is quite simple: when continent is growing, there are "builder" tiles near continent edges, and new tiles can be added only near them. For "snaky" continent type there are lower maximum of "builder" tiles, therefore less tiles near edges which can generate new tiles.
There are also additional parameters of how many tiles "builder" tile can generate before becoming normal (GrowCount). All new generated tiles become "active" tiles and new "builders" are chosen from them randomly. There is maximum number of "active" tiles too.
So, after my "TileBuilder" class was finished, i just played with those three parameters (builder tiles, active tiles, grow count) alot to find best look/performance combination for different map sizes. For example, when you choose to generate "Natural" continent shapes, actual shape is chosen from two templates randomly, because i could not decide which is better and added them both. Snaky continent type has low active tile count, and one builder tile can add only 2 new tiles (in natural mode - 4), and "snaky thin" - only 1.
I was able to get very veird shapes by choosing interesting numbers of builder tiles or active tiles, but tried to keep only best of them in script. For anyone interested, there is "TileBuilder" class in my script, which can be used to grow any amount of continents starting at any location simultaniuosly.
I just felt like posting that info :)
Nercury Feb 17, 2007, 08:42 PM Very nice script.
I really love the maps generated. and its really fast, comparing to other script around.
Anyway, are you planning to add some bonus distribution options?
There is a thing i would like to find: the possibility to say if a continent (or little island maybe for later) will not be populated at start.
For example, lets say 9 civ, 4 continents, but spawn only occurs on 3 continents.
sorry for my frenchy english ;)
So far spawn is controlled by default code, and changing that requires some research ;). however, what i especially want to change is the way player distribution is handled - especially human player. When continent count is, lets say - 5 and players - 6, human player will always start with AI in the same continent.
Well, the reason why i have not touched it yet - i am not "hardcore" civilization player and i dont want to screw balance because of lack of knowledge about resources and how player start position relates to them. Damn, i haven't even spent enough time to figure out on what tile type flood plains should appear, and instead "invented" something... ;)
Nercury Feb 18, 2007, 08:52 PM New version released - see changelog and first post for details.
New things:
Crab-like continent shape for interesting pangaea maps:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4555/new3huge2ad1.jpghttp://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2735/new3huge5ocean40pt4.jpg
Now you can align continents around center:
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3074/aroundcenter1xh1.jpghttp://img264.imageshack.us/img264/567/aroundcenter2je5.jpg
Improved continent distribution: now it is easy to fit 18 continents to any map :)
Standart map with distribution around center, 40% water, 1 square separation:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/358/arhipelago1ma2.jpg
Small map with Smart distribution, 60% water, 1 square separation
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7593/arhipelago2ru1.jpg
Sine Nomen Aug 04, 2007, 05:04 PM You've done great work with generating continents - varying landmasses that look as if they were formed by millions of years of tectonic shifting. However, the script seems to suffer from the same problem as most in that it generates inconsistent splotches of desert right next to grassland and jungle at the same latitudes. This does not happen in nature, and takes away from an otherwise great script. I would suggest that you at least add the option to have solid Sahara (or at least Kalahari)-like deserts, i.e. not broken up every few tiles by plains and grassland (or even worse, jungle!). Amazon-style jungles would be great as well. Attention to where these are placed on the map would also set the script apart - that is, have deserts fall more on the western side of continents, as in Africa and South America, with jungles in the east. This may be beyond the capacity of map scripting for Civ4, but please give it a shot if you can! It would be wonderful to have a script that can generate something unpredictable but still passably-earthlike in its features. Good work so far
Nercury Aug 05, 2007, 06:12 PM There was great deal of thinking and tweaking when I was making this script, and I also had similar thoughts. However, there are not too many plot tile types for Civ4 and no high terrain detail, only squares. So there is lots of balancing between playable map and realistic map.
Also, questions. Does certain latitude means that there should be jungle in this tile? No. Does certain temperature means that? No. Maybe humidity? Well, its product of all of these factors, and I have spend lots of time trying to make sure that most maps are fun to play. However, if you choose some setting far from one marked "recommended", you may get cool, but not necessarily playable map.
Ok, I will try to remember the way the map is generated, so you would see what settings could produce better maps.
First pass - continent shape generation. Finding best positions to place them, choosing generation algorithms, ensuring ocean percentage, continent separation, stuff like that.
Next, land surface is created for each tile based on Equator Temperature and Climate Variation. Softer Climate variation makes temperature near poles closer to equator. So, after this step, land surface is laid out as: Desert, Plains, Grass, Tundra, Snow. There is no jungle in this step.
Third step - features are added. Features are: Ice, Jungle, Oasis, Flood, Forest. Every feature has different possibilities to appear on different tile types. Possibility is measured by "luck points", features have "luck points" to appear on different tile types, all of that is based on settings. Those "luck points" are taken into account when choosing what particular feature place on certain tile. Lets see jungle as example:
- If plot tile type is desert, +1 point for jungle
- If plot type is grass, and tile temperature > 20, +2 jungle points
- If terrain is not tundra and not snow, then,
-- If tile temperature > 19, +2 jungle points
-- If humidity > 0.8, +2 jungle points
Now every feature has similar list, and they compete against each other for every plot. Winner is chosen randomly, based on their chances. Also, sometimes feature modifies plot type when placed, for example, jungle changes desert plot to plain or grass (again, based on chances).
Also, I have not mentioned, but this step does not generate features for all tiles, only for some of them. So result of this step: some lonely features placed randomly on map.
Finally, making features to spread to tiles nearby, and when they do, they can spread even further. The further away feature travels, the smaller it's chance to travel becomes. Let's see how jungle does that:
- Generally, features are stopped by mountain peaks and ocean.
- +1 "luck point" is added if tile nearby is flat.
- +1 point if tile is plains and it is not on the other side of the river.
- +2 point if tile is grass and it is not on the other side of the river.
Again, jungle competes here against other tile types, usually forest.
From this point, generator switches to default Civ4 generator, which does the rest.
Well, I hope this is enough explanation why I can't simply "fix" it. But if you don't mind peaks, you can increase amount of mountains and see if they do group certain features together more often.
Nercury Aug 05, 2007, 06:37 PM After reading your post again after replying ( :rolleyes: ), i see that my reply does not help much... Of course i can add more chance to spread on lower latitude, but well, at cost of some balance (if two continents start on equator, one goes up and other down, one player ends up with desert, another with jungle). Well, I will see what I can do, haven't played civ for a while.
And, by the way, I think that sometimes the most "unrealistic" creatures and places already exist in real world, but we are just used to them :)
Nercury Aug 06, 2007, 10:46 PM New version, 0.47, ready. File should be compatible with mac and windows, also, I tested it with BtS on Windows Vista.
Added oases placement algorithm, it tries to place them in most deserted places, but distributed somewhat evenly.
And of course, I tried to solve jungle/desert issue.
Waiting for feedback, suggestions, etc..! :)
mcguffin Aug 07, 2007, 04:39 PM Hi Nercury
Glad you are still around here.
I absolutely love your script, and i use it each time i play since few month.
anyway, fews things:
There is something i dont like with the iceOnWater tiles: all map get a long straight way of water near both poles, i dont feel that natural. Maybe you could put an option to disabled that water lien or not?
other thing: i really like big pangea style map, but could we expect to get some little island sometimes?
thx again.
Nercury Aug 08, 2007, 03:18 PM There is something i dont like with the iceOnWater tiles: all map get a long straight way of water near both poles, i dont feel that natural. Maybe you could put an option to disabled that water lien or not?
It is possible to make climate very warm: and that would cause ice near jungle, so I made sure that land does not reach ice. Also, that makes circumnavigating always possible.
i really like big pangea style map, but could we expect to get some little island sometimes?
Heh, now I hope you have enough options for islands:
Version 0.50 released :)
Change log:
v. 0.50
- New options added: Land near pole ice, Continent islands, Lonely islands, Lonely island size, One tile islands allowed
Land near pole ice
Before, it was always possible to sail around any continent, because continents could not reach pole ice. Now, this can be changed with this option.
Continent islands
Controls continent scattering, and coastal line smoothness. Setting this to maximum will produce interesting peninsulas and islands around all continents.
- Random coasts option: when this is selected, coast scattering will be chosen randomly.
- Solid continents: will produce no scattering, this was default behavior before version 0.50.
- Very scattered continents: will produce most islands around all of them.
Lonely islands
Controls how many islands are created in empty ocean space. This option is affected by Ocean percentage: the higher it is, the more space for lonely islands.
- Use every empty area in ocean: this option means that algorithm will do it's best to fill empty space with islands.
- One island somewhere: creates one island somewhere, if there is space for it (usually there is, except maybe for duel maps with big islands selected)
- No islands
Lonely island size
Controls size of islands. Size is computed the same way for any map size.
- Small: useful if there is some resource
- Medium: for one grown up city
- Big: varies from 1 to 3 cities
Allow one tile islands
When "No" is chosen, all one-tile islands are removed. Select "Yes" if they do not annoy you
Version highlight:
Size: Huge
Continent islands: Very scattered continents
Lonely islands: Use every empty area in ocean
Lonely island size: Medium
Allow one tile islands: Yes
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/6844/civplanetgeneratorexampun1.jpg
Size: Huge
Continents: 2 - 13
Continent distribution: Smart selection
Continent shape: Unpredictable
Relative continent size: By player count
Percentage of ocean: 60%
Continent islands: Many islands, many lakes
Lonely islands: 50% of empty area
Lonely island size: Medium
Allow one tile islands: No
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/794/civplanetgeneratorexampvd0.jpg
Nercury Aug 08, 2007, 03:46 PM Minor bug fixed, version: 0.51
If you don't get enough forests with Normal humidity, increase it to Wet.
mcguffin Aug 09, 2007, 07:17 AM Very nice! (and thx for that land near pole thing :) )
new maps are really interesting.
Just a little feedback: I have sometimes the feeling that "rare coast island" is procuding a lot island.
Also, i'm not sure that lonely island are following the continent separation rules... are they? Because, I like the idea to discover island a little later.
Nercury Aug 09, 2007, 07:32 AM Very nice! (and thx for that land near pole thing :) )
new maps are really interesting.
Just a little feedback: I have sometimes the feeling that "rare coast island" is procuding a lot island.
Also, i'm not sure that lonely island are following the continent separation rules... are they? Because, I like the idea to discover island a little later.
Rare coast island - not really rare, I'm working on it. Select "Scattered" option to make it rarer (:crazyeye:)
Continent separation for islands is 3 tiles... I will make them to use continent separation option in next version
Well, new features usually bring new bugs :). Need some time for adjusting to make everything work right.
Nercury Aug 09, 2007, 10:14 AM New version 0.53 released. "Continent Islands" option changed to "Continent scattering", which controls rewritten scattering code. All options are random, in some range. I did my best to make short description what should be expected from each of them. So here it is:
Continent scattering (new)
Controls continent scattering, and coastal line smoothness.
- 1 (solid, no islands around): this is the same as was default behavior before version 0.50, solid continents
- 2 - 3 (rare small islands): less round edges, more lakes, maybe some island near continent
- 2 - 5; 2 - 8; 2 - 12: edge scattering varies - it can be different even for the same continent
- 4 - 6 (common islands): this option ensures evenly distributed islands around every continent; however, continents can break in several parts. To avoid that, select more round continent shape.
- 4 - 10 (many islands): more scattering, continents may often break in two
- 8 - 15 (archipelago continents): this is option for fun (or pain) - i suggest disabling one -tile islands before starting :)
Complete change log:
v. 0.53
- Desert tile changing into plains (if jungle nearby) chance reduced from 100% to 60%
- Rewritten continent scattering algorithm. Changed name from "Continent Islands" to "Continent Scattering", because, well, it's what it does
- Island separation now is the same as continent separation
Hmm, what I don't like right now, is that "Unpredictable" continent shape does the best job producing most satisfying maps. Can someone give some feedback about continent shapes?
LordGek Aug 09, 2007, 03:30 PM Little typo under Flood Plain Options:
"Standart" -> "Standard"
Nercury Aug 09, 2007, 03:46 PM Little typo under Flood Plain Options:
"Standart" -> "Standard"
Thanks, it will be fixed in next version
Nercury Aug 10, 2007, 08:29 PM New version again, the biggest new thing is possibility to select custom map size. It needed some other subsequent changes, and lots of tweaking, and I am still not sure that maps scale up well. It often seems that with very huge map sizes generation becomes more snaky, and not as good as for huge maps. Well, I could not do many tests, because they take long :)
I leave attached previous versions in case this one has problems.
v. 0.60
- Continent scattering improved, all options thoroughly tested to produce good-looking maps.
- TileBuilder code improved, to avoid continent jams.
- Generation failure bug fixed. Hopefully, it will no longer stops at start.
- Random (Standard:Rare/Common) flood option fixed.
- New option: Map size. It is now possible to specify custom map size, up to 256×160. Because of this change, following options are modified:
- Continent separation options expanded up to 10 tiles.
- Distance from poles no longer depends on continent separation, and is always constant (3).
- From now on, area for continent separation is excluded from ocean area when calculating ocean percentage. It means that selecting higher continent separation will now produce less land. This helps against continent jams.
- Lonely island selection options improved, now it is possible to specify exact amount of islands (1-5), but they will be placed only if there is enough empty area in ocean.
- Default lonely island option changed to 3 islands.
- Default option of removing one-tile islands changed to "yes".
- Humidity options tweaked, now "normal" is a little bit more wet.
- Land near pole ice default value is now "sometimes" (i think that looks better)
- Fixed typo in options
edit: v. 0.61 - minor bug
mcguffin Aug 12, 2007, 05:37 AM Your last commit is working really well.
I took the time to generate some maps with differents parameters, and maps are very nice, somewhat balanced (at least for solo games), and fun to play (really fun).
anyway, i think the new "landmass" shape (prolly the old "natural" one) is producing far more round continent than before, but maybe its a matter of luck.
Thx for that script!
Nercury Aug 12, 2007, 06:17 AM Thanks, nice to hear that :)
As for "landmass", that could happen because of the changes in my generator. I made each continent to refresh it's position several times in generation, to avoid drifting only to one side somewhere and running out of place. And I have not tested it with "natural" (or "landmass" now), but I think "Drifting landmass" may be similar to how it worked before.
Nercury Aug 13, 2007, 10:25 AM v. 0.62
- Resource normalization fix (it was disabled all the time!)
v. 0.63
- Bug fix: generation failure with high continent scattering and distribution around center
Sine Nomen Aug 13, 2007, 06:32 PM It's working great, but is it possible to add scaled resource placement? Food bonuses in particular seem to be somewhat scarce, at least for my preferences
Sine Nomen Aug 13, 2007, 09:50 PM Actually, to be more specific, the problem seems to be the land outside of the general starting area, which usually has abundant resources. In every map I've played, civs start off in good locations only to have the surrounding land nearly devoid of food.
Hehehe Aug 13, 2007, 11:59 PM This map script looks great! I don't want to sound like noob, but I'm having problems installing it. I unpacked it, placed it into civdirectory>beyond the sword>public maps, and yes it shows up in the custom game screen. However I don't the options to choose stuff (continents, islands ect). When I try to play the map, all I get is big grassland area with few rivers and resources . No forests except in capital cities fat crosses.
I downloaded 0.63 version of this map. I'm playing BtS, but I tested it in vanilla civ too. Perhaps someone could give me some instructions how to install the map?
Edit: I tested another custom map script, same thing happened. I installed these wrong I suppose. How did you make them work?
Nercury Aug 14, 2007, 04:44 AM Edit: I tested another custom map script, same thing happened. I installed these wrong I suppose. How did you make them work?
Hmm, I need to track down this problem, because I have no idea what causes it.
Can you help? If you do, open My Documents -> MyGames -> Beyond the Sword -> CivilizationIV.ini and set these values (make backup of CivilizationIV.ini before this, so you can restore it easily):
FullScreen = ask
HidePythonExceptions = 0
ShowPythonDebugMsgs = 1
And then start BtS. When it asks if FullScreen, select No. As soon as game loads, you should get error message which should show what is wrong with map script. Print screen and attach it here :)
Nercury Aug 14, 2007, 04:47 AM Actually, to be more specific, the problem seems to be the land outside of the general starting area, which usually has abundant resources. In every map I've played, civs start off in good locations only to have the surrounding land nearly devoid of food.
I am working on it :)
Hehehe Aug 14, 2007, 05:23 AM I mean I downloaded another custom map script (earth 2) and the same thing happened, so it's not your map causing this. My guess is that I have installed these maps wrong (I unpacked them into civdirectory>BtS>public maps). If I installed them right, my game is propably bugged and I'll have to reinstall it. But I'll try that anyway.
Nercury Aug 14, 2007, 05:38 AM You should copy map scripts to My Documents -> MyGames -> Beyond the Sword or/and Sid Meier's Civilization 4 or/and Warlords -> PublicMaps
EDIT: added better installation instructions in first post.
Problem when you can't see buttons at all usually happens when Civ can't compile python script at all. There may be several reasons: syntax errors - unlikely, because it works for me, and library errors - maybe python does not work the same way in your machine, for example, it can't find some library which I included or some expected function does not exist.
Hehehe Aug 14, 2007, 05:47 AM Well I tried the debug mode, and got some error. I googled the error and found out that it renaming the script causes this (so I had indeed installed them wrong...) I unpacked it and installed again and now its working, thanks for the help!
This map script is great! I'll propably test it a few more times (see what kind of maps it creates with differend settings) and then start a game
Nercury Aug 14, 2007, 06:02 AM Ok, nice to hear that it works ;)
Incoming: fair resource generation, which should get placement information from XML files (and should be compatible with many mods). Well, it is harder than I thought :)
Nercury Aug 14, 2007, 04:55 PM Small update, i noticed that random actions in several places were incorrectly implemented. This could often cause continents to "like" the bottom of map. Hopefully this solves it.
Also, new option - resources, is intended to have only one choice, because others are unfinished and therefore commented.
v. 0.64
- Random float number bug fix
weregamer Aug 14, 2007, 07:50 PM This looks pretty cool. I tried it once, but even with flood plains set to "normal" I was getting them on plains tiles, and rarely on deserts.
Some suggestions to think about:
* A setting which puts flood plains on all desert river tiles, but not anywhere else. I often go into the world builder and fix the floodplains to make this true on any game I play anyway.
* If it's not already in there as the default (my experiment ended when I ran into so many plains flood plains but I notice some of your screenshot maps seem to be a little less icy), an option to reduce the number of near-useless tiles in the polar regions. The game insists on trying to start players on the tundra, and that makes for either a weakened opponent or a too-hard game. Personally I would consider getting rid of land ice tiles completely just fine, but just reducing the proportions of both tundra and ice substantially would be nice.
* I don't mind having the land go near the edges of the map, and a few sea ice tiles for flavor, but I'd like to be able to guarantee that northern and southern passages are possible; this makes trying for circumnavigation much less of a gamble and more of a concerted effort. (Although the BtS clarification that it's your maps, not an actual circumnavigation, that matter makes this less of a problem.)
Both of these latter two are also part of making the cylindrical map make sense as an approximation of a sphere. The core approximation in a cylindrical map is that you presume that the north and south edges are where the world becomes impassible, and conveniently that this happens at a low enough latitude that you can ignore the lack of modeling how much shorter a parallel is at high latitudes than low ones. Having your glacier-covered area extend at all into the playable cylinder, or your tundra extend much into it, gives up both playable terrain and the quality of the approximation.
Nercury Aug 17, 2007, 12:26 PM This looks pretty cool. I tried it once, but even with flood plains set to "normal" I was getting them on plains tiles, and rarely on deserts.
Check out the new version in next post, i have made some changes in feature generation (still lots of things to tweak though)
* A setting which puts flood plains on all desert river tiles, but not anywhere else. I often go into the world builder and fix the floodplains to make this true on any game I play anyway.
New version should solve this, just use "standard flood placement".
* If it's not already in there as the default (my experiment ended when I ran into so many plains flood plains but I notice some of your screenshot maps seem to be a little less icy), an option to reduce the number of near-useless tiles in the polar regions. The game insists on trying to start players on the tundra, and that makes for either a weakened opponent or a too-hard game. Personally I would consider getting rid of land ice tiles completely just fine, but just reducing the proportions of both tundra and ice substantially would be nice.
There are several options to address that. First of all, you can set climate variation to Soft or Very Soft - that will reduce difference between equator and polar regions. Then, you can further adjust overall climate by changing Equator temperature.
* I don't mind having the land go near the edges of the map, and a few sea ice tiles for flavor, but I'd like to be able to guarantee that northern and southern passages are possible; this makes trying for circumnavigation much less of a gamble and more of a concerted effort.
Set "Land near pole ice" to "Never"
Both of these latter two are also part of making the cylindrical map make sense as an approximation of a sphere. The core approximation in a cylindrical map is that you presume that the north and south edges are where the world becomes impassible, and conveniently that this happens at a low enough latitude that you can ignore the lack of modeling how much shorter a parallel is at high latitudes than low ones. Having your glacier-covered area extend at all into the playable cylinder, or your tundra extend much into it, gives up both playable terrain and the quality of the approximation.
If I understand you correctly, you don't like idea about glacier area meeting tundra area. Neither do I, because with my generator you can make completely tropical planet, yet you will see glacier if you zoom out to globe view anyway - it is built in. That's why glacier area in my map is very minimal, and there is option to make land never touch it.
Nercury Aug 17, 2007, 12:32 PM v. 0.65
- Many feature generation tweaks
- More forests or jungle (jungle depends on temperature)
- More flood plains on deserts
- More oases, better oasis placement
- Flood plain "Standard" generation options reduced to one
- Desert maps should be more interesting now
- Forests and jungle can start growing not only near water, but also near peaks which do not have many features around
Fair resource generator progress: ~ 15% done
Nercury Aug 17, 2007, 04:11 PM If you load mod which have different world sizes than standard (i.e Rise of Mankind), they work now.
v. 0.66
- Mod map size support
v. 0.67
- Further improvements for mod map size support: now can understand completely customized sizes
ERLoft Aug 17, 2007, 05:43 PM I like the look of the continents your scripts are generating and especially the lonely island bit - I'm wondering if it's okay with you to try to merge your algorithms with the extra controls found in Sto's Full of Resources scripts? I like to play big maps with lots of civs and raging barbarians and find that if I don't give everyone quite a few extra units at the start, half the civs get eaten by the barbs!
Nercury Aug 17, 2007, 07:32 PM I like the look of the continents your scripts are generating and especially the lonely island bit - I'm wondering if it's okay with you to try to merge your algorithms with the extra controls found in Sto's Full of Resources scripts? I like to play big maps with lots of civs and raging barbarians and find that if I don't give everyone quite a few extra units at the start, half the civs get eaten by the barbs!
I never looked into it, certainly, it could be possible, but fair resources have higher priority now ;)
ERLoft Aug 18, 2007, 10:57 PM I've been generating a few maps and the last couple I've noticed that the lonely islands are all devoid of hills or mountains. Intentional or something to look at?
Nercury Aug 19, 2007, 07:52 AM Ah, thats bug. I think it worked in latest "stable" release.
Nercury Aug 19, 2007, 09:54 AM Bug fixed, but I don't dare to call this version "stable", because of new code, which should prevent continents breaking in several parts with higher scattering. Also, higher scattering means bigger islands around continents, but now there is the limit how big islands can be (6 tiles for "rare islands" and 24 tiles for "coast varies a lot"). For lonely islands (they are like small continents), smaller islands around them can be up to 3 tiles.
Example, even with high scattering, path between continent parts is ensured (this is 3-continent map)
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3105/civ4screendoesnotbreakll5.jpg
v. 0.68
- Coordinate system changed to circular for continent growth calculation (faster, not so blocky shapes)
- Continents should no longer break in several big parts (except with "archipelago continents")
- Bug fix: the lonely islands are all devoid of hills or mountains
Sine Nomen Aug 19, 2007, 09:32 PM I never looked into it, certainly, it could be possible, but fair resources have higher priority now ;)
Glad to hear this, because as well done as the script is in general, the scarcity of food resources makes it difficult to play with
Saltiana Sep 11, 2007, 02:58 PM Just to say that this map script is really good (my favorite), keep up the good work :)
Nercury Sep 13, 2007, 05:58 AM Thanks!
Some rare bug found in latest version. It happens very rarely. It may take some time to catch it (also I don't have much free time now). Until then, this bug can halt continent or island generation at the very end (so generated map may lack islands or connected continent parts may not be ensured, or one tile islands may not be removed). If this is too much, use earlier version (0.64).
BlackRoija Dec 24, 2007, 02:52 AM Just downloaded the newest version, and I must say this is a great script. Two things though.
-In the maps I've been creating, nearly every tile is covered by forest, even when humidity is on 'very small'...Is this intended, or could it be some of the other settings.
-Also, any chance of being able to control the general amount and length of rivers?
Rag55 Dec 29, 2007, 04:31 AM I was wondering as well about the forests. They are massively covering a huge percentage of land.
Nice script though, thx :)
MisterBenn Dec 31, 2007, 04:01 AM I really like the map script too, although I agree with the comments about the amount of forest.
I mainly play Fall From Heaven which is slower to allow wood chopping than regular civ, and the AI players don't cope so well with it either. I also tried options to reduce the forest without much luck - if this area could be tweaked it would be really appreciated!
BothofUs Jan 07, 2008, 08:29 AM Just downloaded the map and I love it. Can't tell whether or not I care about all the forests, but it is definately noticable. I've also noticed a small amount of of tundra and ice near the poles.
Zibi1981 Feb 25, 2008, 04:20 AM I decided to read this whole thread because I love to play on maps generated by this script, but two things won't let me sleep calmly ;)
1. The amount of forests generated by Planet Generator, as mentioned above, and
2. In most cases when I start near ocean, I have two or three clam resources. Moreover clams are often all over the map, whereas crabs are very rare.
Will those issues be fixed?
wig Apr 21, 2008, 08:21 AM I'm another FFH2 player who loves the map, but also struggles with the excessive amount of forest. Even set at the lowest vegetation setting, the high forest concentration is an issue (it basically forces you down the wood-chopping research path, which is tied to the Melee combat unit path). Being able to further reduce the amount of forest would be great.
Nercury Apr 21, 2008, 08:23 AM I hear you.
cephalo Apr 21, 2008, 03:32 PM Hi Nercury,
Did you hear that the downloads database was hacked? I think you need to re-upload your entry in there. We all had to re-upload all our files about a month ago.
Opferlamm Apr 26, 2008, 01:25 PM not done by me but Dr. Bakterius (link to german forum) (http://www.civforum.de/showpost.php?p=1945970&postcount=32)
camarilla Jun 30, 2008, 02:55 AM Nercury,
Your map generator script is really very creative and practical. But, I have a few suggestions for you. I hope you will take into consideration. Because, I use your script as much frequently as standarty scripts like big&small, medium&small, terra etc. So I would like your script be even better more than most civ fans. Below, there are many suggestions, I can't know which ones you will agree with or which ones are easy for you to complement.
1) Lonely Islands as Part and Extension of Continents:
You have a very good continent customization.
Continents
From one huge Pangaea to 18 continents. If continent distribution is set to "Smart Selection" it will make best choice to make those 18 continents fit even into duel map. However, it is not like archipelago, but if you want something close to that, decrease continent separation to 1 square.
Size of every continent depends on how many players will be in it.
Continent separation
How many water tiles should separate continents. 3 is default. Select 4 for late civilization contact.
If you add a feature for lonely islands similar to the above selections of continents, it will be better.
Lonely islands (new)
Controls how many islands are created in empty ocean space. This option is affected by Ocean percentage: the higher it is, the more space for lonely islands.
- Use every empty area in ocean: this option means that algorithm will do it's best to fill empty space with islands.
- One island somewhere: creates one island somewhere, if there is space for it (usually there is, except maybe for duel maps with big islands selected)
- No islands
Lonely island size (new)
Controls size of islands. Size is computed the same way for any map size.
- Small: useful if there is some resource
- Medium: for one grown up city
- Big: varies from 1 to 3 cities
I believe lonely islands are very important in Civ4. Especially about resources, colonization. strategic base.
You could improve your continent scattering&island setting like following, by combining continent scattering setting with lonely island setting. As if each continent have a parameterizable number of lonely island.
Including:
* How many lonely islands per continent
* What will be the minimum distance between continents & their lonely islands
* Lonely islands might have different resources than the main continent it is near to. Selection:
1) same type of resources (DEFAULT),
2) having different resources that the continent doesn't have but very less in number, 1different type at most)
* If continent seperation is 5, than 2 continents should not be attached together with a lonely island between. Lonely island of one continent should be 5 away than lonely island of another continent or 5 away than another continent. So lonely islands being a part and an extension of the main continent.
2) Continents (Or called generally landmasses in Civ4) & Subcontinents:
You can seperate selection of number of landmasses than number of continents. For example; In the world, there are 6-7 continents but 2 landmasses.
Eurasia and Africa are continents. They have a narrow connection, they are in the same landmass.
Australia is also another continent totally as a large island in the same landmass. But it may be easier to generate similar continents with "lonely island feature" which I described above. You just select seperation between lonely island and landmass as minimum.
America's is a land mass but it has 2 continents North & South, narrow connection.
This is very practical for placement of civs. You can place civs to different continents in the same landmass.
This also helps players to focus on border cities more. Narrow borders are more strategic.
They can also found forts or cities to move their sea units to the opposite side of the continent without turning around. I don't find neither massive continents nor snaky continents much realistic. 2 massive continents connected with a narrow land is ideal in my view. It is also similar to the real world like Asia/Africa and North&South America examples.
If you ask, in practical what is the difference for 2 civs being in different landmasses or being in same landmass, different continent is that, they will have similar resources or not. Civ4 generally isolates resources in standart generator which you are also using. Different landmasses should have different resources, but islands/continents in the same landmass generally have the same type of resources. This is a very important key in Civ4. You have to trade new resources or settle on other landmasses in the later eras when your city populations get higher than 20-25s.
- Generator so far uses standard methods for adding resources and bonuses.
3) Resources: I don't know why but although you say you are using the standart generator, your maps generally create less amount of resources than standart map scripts.
You could also add a selection for standart/balanced distribution of resources.
4) Forests: Although I select normal humidity, nearly 80-85% of tiles in many continents have forests or jungles. I think it is much.
5) Rivers: You could add settings for rivers.
Iceciro Jul 05, 2008, 12:19 PM Nerc,
It's me, the guy who had the problems with the map and MP. I've been without internet access for a while, but I'm back now and I'll try to get ahold of that information you wanted.
As a matter of fact, after a search of my whole drive, planet_generator_0_60.cfg is not anywhere on my computer.
The settings are also not saved from game to game - I have to reset them every time.
Nercury Jul 10, 2008, 01:16 AM Nercury,
Your map generator script is really very creative and practical. But, I have a few suggestions for you. I hope you will take into consideration. Because, I use your script as much frequently as standarty scripts like big&small, medium&small, terra etc. So I would like your script be even better more than most civ fans. Below, there are many suggestions, I can't know which ones you will agree with or which ones are easy for you to complement.
1) Lonely Islands as Part and Extension of Continents:
You have a very good continent customization.
If you add a feature for lonely islands similar to the above selections of continents, it will be better.
I believe lonely islands are very important in Civ4. Especially about resources, colonization. strategic base.
You could improve your continent scattering&island setting like following, by combining continent scattering setting with lonely island setting. As if each continent have a parameterizable number of lonely island.
Including:
* How many lonely islands per continent
* What will be the minimum distance between continents & their lonely islands
* Lonely islands might have different resources than the main continent it is near to. Selection:
1) same type of resources (DEFAULT),
2) having different resources that the continent doesn't have but very less in number, 1different type at most)
* If continent seperation is 5, than 2 continents should not be attached together with a lonely island between. Lonely island of one continent should be 5 away than lonely island of another continent or 5 away than another continent. So lonely islands being a part and an extension of the main continent.
2) Continents (Or called generally landmasses in Civ4) & Subcontinents:
You can seperate selection of number of landmasses than number of continents. For example; In the world, there are 6-7 continents but 2 landmasses.
Eurasia and Africa are continents. They have a narrow connection, they are in the same landmass.
Australia is also another continent totally as a large island in the same landmass. But it may be easier to generate similar continents with "lonely island feature" which I described above. You just select seperation between lonely island and landmass as minimum.
America's is a land mass but it has 2 continents North & South, narrow connection.
This is very practical for placement of civs. You can place civs to different continents in the same landmass.
This also helps players to focus on border cities more. Narrow borders are more strategic.
They can also found forts or cities to move their sea units to the opposite side of the continent without turning around. I don't find neither massive continents nor snaky continents much realistic. 2 massive continents connected with a narrow land is ideal in my view. It is also similar to the real world like Asia/Africa and North&South America examples.
If you ask, in practical what is the difference for 2 civs being in different landmasses or being in same landmass, different continent is that, they will have similar resources or not. Civ4 generally isolates resources in standart generator which you are also using. Different landmasses should have different resources, but islands/continents in the same landmass generally have the same type of resources. This is a very important key in Civ4. You have to trade new resources or settle on other landmasses in the later eras when your city populations get higher than 20-25s.
3) Resources: I don't know why but although you say you are using the standart generator, your maps generally create less amount of resources than standart map scripts.
You could also add a selection for standart/balanced distribution of resources.
4) Forests: Although I select normal humidity, nearly 80-85% of tiles in many continents have forests or jungles. I think it is much.
5) Rivers: You could add settings for rivers.
Uh, thanks. I will try to respond to your post the best way I can.
1. Choices for lonely islands. Choices. Basically I believe that less is more, and I am not going to add new choices to generator, unless I remove some existing ones. Good things to remove are Peak and Hill settings, humidity, one-tile islands (always remove). So it may happen ;)
Continents ant lonely islands near them - possible. Requires some changes though, and may look quite repetitive when generated.
Resources, again, are not generated by me. Actually, my own resource generation halted Planet Generator improvements, because it is hard. I mean, I want it to work with any version of civilization, including mods.
I am still working on resource generation though.
2. Subcontinents and connections between them. That probably is not going to happen with this generator.
Player placement is one other thing that is not done by me. However, if you choose 3 players and 2 continents, and continent size "by player", continent size will be distributed among them, so you will get one continent 2 times bigger than other. This scales up randomly to any number of players and continents.
3. There was a bug in older versions of this generator where i forgot to enable standard normalization of resources. Now it should be there.
As I said, I am working on resource generation, have some good progress - can collect tiles near players and sort them by probability of players exploring them, for any continent shape and any position of players. If one player is between other two, I can see that he will get blocked, and i can count additional land other players will have so I can place some desert/water/peaks there to normalize things.
4. Yeah. damn forests.
5. Heh, another thing not done by me ;)
Nercury Jul 10, 2008, 01:21 AM Nerc,
It's me, the guy who had the problems with the map and MP. I've been without internet access for a while, but I'm back now and I'll try to get ahold of that information you wanted.
As a matter of fact, after a search of my whole drive, planet_generator_0_60.cfg is not anywhere on my computer.
The settings are also not saved from game to game - I have to reset them every time.
Ok then, which version of civilization are you using? And OSX or Windows? (I can't find your old post)
camarilla Jul 10, 2008, 02:08 AM Resources, again, are not generated by me. Actually, my own resource generation halted Planet Generator improvements, because it is hard. I mean, I want it to work with any version of civilization, including mods.
I am still working on resource generation though.
3. There was a bug in older versions of this generator where i forgot to enable standard normalization of resources. Now it should be there.
As I said, I am working on resource generation, have some good progress - can collect tiles near players and sort them by probability of players exploring them, for any continent shape and any position of players. If one player is between other two, I can see that he will get blocked, and i can count additional land other players will have so I can place some desert/water/peaks there to normalize things.
4. Yeah. damn forests.
I see. You may ot agree with adding new choices. They were only ideas. But the more important part is really about resource generator. I'm glad that I heard you are working on it.
Last time I used your script, there were 3 seperate large landmasses. Mine was a landmass in size of 70-100 cities. I had more than 50 cities on it. There were very few food resource types. OK, that may be normal. Maybe more types are generated in the other 2 landmasses, unluckily. But what was strange is that, the number for each type of food is also very very less.
In the landmass the following food types were present with numbers:
1) crab (only 1)
2) sheep (only 1)
3)fish
4)clam
5)type x
6)type y
I don't remember type x and y, they were sth like corn and rice let's say. There were only 1 crab and 1 sheep and the other 4 types were not many either.
I was playing in an overriden huge map (nearly 150*100) and mine was the largest of 3 landmasses. I think the total number of resources in that world would be nearly equal to total number of resources on a standart sized continents map.
Iceciro Jul 10, 2008, 10:40 PM Windows XP, Beyond the Sword.
purplerat Jul 11, 2008, 02:05 PM I love this script and all the options but resources are somewhat of a problem for me. I play on oversized maps and like camarilla said they can be very scarce. I see that you are using the standard resource generator so does this mean that the resources are not scaling with map size (beyond huge) or is it an issue with any map size?
camarilla Jul 14, 2008, 04:53 AM I love this script and all the options but resources are somewhat of a problem for me. I play on oversized maps and like camarilla said they can be very scarce. I see that you are using the standard resource generator so does this mean that the resources are not scaling with map size (beyond huge) or is it an issue with any map size?
exactly!
i don't know how it is but i assume the number of resources is sth like following. the numbers are imganinary but i guess you will udnerstand what i meant
std map 1000 tiles: 100 resources
large map 1500 tiles: 133 resources
huge map 2000 tiles: 160 resources
here i mean that the total number of resources should increase with the map size but maybe not as much as the ratio of increasing size multiplication ratio.
let's say there is such a relation between map size & number of resources, still oversized maps should follow similarly.
std map 1000 tiles: 100 resources
large map 1500 tiles: 133 resources
huge map 2000 tiles: 160 resources
oversized huge1 2500 tiles: 182 resources
oversized huge2 3000 tiles: 200 resources
cephalo Jul 14, 2008, 06:34 AM I've studied the default resource placement extensively, so maybe I can help shed some light. Some resources are placed depending on the number of players in the game, and some are placed depending on how many tiles present that will accept that resource. For example, wheat I think requires 16 unforested tiles of plains to generate one resource. Crabs and Clams require 32 tiles of coast that are above or below a certain lattitude. Strategic resources like Iron and Oil are placed depending on the number of players.
camarilla Jul 14, 2008, 07:10 AM I've studied the default resource placement extensively, so maybe I can help shed some light. Some resources are placed depending on the number of players in the game, and some are placed depending on how many tiles present that will accept that resource. For example, wheat I think requires 16 unforested tiles of plains to generate one resource. Crabs and Clams require 32 tiles of coast that are above or below a certain lattitude. Strategic resources like Iron and Oil are placed depending on the number of players.
hmm. if it is coded like that in xml, that makes sense.
the forests are generated very very much in number even in normal humidity, nerc also commented as "yes, damned forests" about this case :)
then i will start another game ASAP with lower humidity and i will make continent scattering as "coast varies much" . maybe that increases the resources you mean
but what i wonder is that, does humidity effect rivers as well?
decreasing river ratio would be bad. both about commerce and irrigation
cephalo Jul 14, 2008, 07:47 AM but what i wonder is that, does humidity effect rivers as well?
decreasing river ratio would be bad. both about commerce and irrigation
If rivers are generated the default way, than it shouldn't change.
camarilla Jul 14, 2008, 08:14 AM If rivers are generated the default way, than it shouldn't change.
yes but about rivers nothing is defined. no selection is there. besides if you see the psot 1 of this thread, it is written like the following
Humidity
It controls amount of forests, jungles, and flood plains.
cephalo Jul 14, 2008, 08:24 AM I would guess then that the amount of rivers would be uneffected by humidity.
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