Hi Folks

The last days I extended the space-mod "True Space Terrain" with Planets and human spacestations(cities).

I guess, the Terrain looks very pretty by now (see the screenshot below), but there is still much do to, till one can create a real Space Mod (like "Space Empires", which I have in mind)..

So the facts :

This is a completely new Terrain-Set:

Water(coast, sea, ocean, LM_sea) : deep Space
Grassland : Terran Planet
Desert : Desert Planet
Tundra : Ice Planet
Plains : Fruitless Planet
Marsh : Stars
Hill : Moons
Mountain : Moons
Iced Mountain : Moons
Volcano : instable Star
Jungle : Asteroids
Forests/Pines : GasPlanets
LM_grassland : gaia planet
LM_desert : ocean planet
LM_plains : swamp planet
LM_hills : toxic planets


american Cities : human spacestations
asian Cities : organic spacestations

Irrigation : SolarCollectors
Mines : small Outpost (Mining-Platform or so..)

I hope there are some people, who might help me with the other grafics, so that some kind of a "Civ3-Moo-Mod" or similar things could be created ! :)
But for a complete Space Mod one have to recreate amost all Civ3 grafics :eek: .
So there are new Buildings, Resources, Alien-Cities (spacestations), Tech-Images, Streets and Railroads and spaceships! needed.
So my thoughts of that grafics :

1. Buldings : I guess, some StarWars-Buildings are useful
2. Resources :
- Maybe like in Reunion we need special metals for Units and Buildings
- what about "ultra-rich"-Recources, and "Gaia"-planets (found on terran planets) ? (hmm, Moo-Feeling in Civ3 .. :D )
3. Alien-Cities : I like the spacestations, so why not some for other Races ?
4. Tech-Images : so we also need Techs (... and a hole Techtree?)
5. Streets and Railroads : A brown/grey line across the space-map looks stupid. So maybe a little Star-Portal (or Star-Gate) on each Street-Field ?
6. spaceships : I only found starwars units.. :confused:
and there is a subdivision of units :
Systemships (small Fighter, Colo- and Workships, Transporter (to attack planets)) and
Interstellar-ships (big Battleships and small drones)

The cool thing having a separation in Deep Space (water) and System Space(Land) is, that there is a expansion-border
(The first epochs : Interstellar-Ships could only reach near Solar-Systems (because auf coast-moving) , then in the middle-game you discover better drives to reach middle ranged Systems (sea-moving), and first in the end-game you cold reach the hole space (ocean-moving)

so, here at last the zip-package. I hope on your support :thanx:

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1. Planetary Update 14.12.03
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1.a) second Upate-Version

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2. Planetary Update 06.01.04
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3. Planetary Update 11.01.04
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Attention : This update contains some grafics from
Cyborganics (http://www.cyborganics.org)
If you want to use the old (bigger) stars, just rename the marsh1.pcx to marsh.pcx !

Space4.zip (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Space4b.zip)

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4. Planetary Update 20.06.04
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Here is a set of SpaceCities, I have made for the StarTrek Mod
City-styles:

american - federation
asian - klingon
roman - romulan
europe - borg
mideast - a mixture of different cities (organic, cardassian...)

SpaceCities.zip (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/SpaceCities.zip)

here the screenshot (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Civ3_solar-system_us.jpg)

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1. Planetary Update 14.12.03
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Two new Screenshots :

1. The new Landmark-Terrain (3 new Planets and Nebular)

LandMarked Space (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Civ3_solar-system3.jpg)

2. The new Stars and new Alien Cities : (asian : organic, european : ufo-like)

Alien System (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Civ3_solar-system4.jpg)

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2. Planetary Update 06.01.04
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1. The final Terrain

final Terrain (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Civ3_solar-system5.jpg)

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3. Planetary Update 11.01.04
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ok ok, the 2. planetary update wasn't final ;)

more LM Stuff, other stars (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Civ3_solar-system6.jpg)

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4. Planetary Update 20.06.04
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here some City Stuff:

ST Cities (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/Screens/SpaceCities.jpg)

wow.. gj!

Just a thought, take it as it is: Maybe lights on the planet would give the affect of a growing population. A few bright spots for less-populated planets and long chains all over the surface for over-populated planets (ever see the "Earth at Night" picture?). You could put the lights instead or in addition to the space station. I'm not sure it will look right when its put on the planet image, but it might be worth a shot.

A few bright spots for less-populated planets and long chains all over the surface for over-populated planets (ever see the "Earth at Night" picture?). You could put the lights instead or in addition to the space station.

Yes, maybe it looks cool on the fruitless planet (screenshot - venus). I could try it ;)

And I remember :
This Space-Grafics-Set is free to alter, so anyone, who makes a nice change or extension should post it here ;)

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Awesome! Now I really want a Star Trek or MoO MOD ;)

Looks cool!

Beautiful!

Excellent work Vadus! This is really one of the best modding projects I have ever come across! :goodjob: cheers

Great Job! Are you thinking of taking advantage of the landmark graphics to create more terrain?

the landmark- terrain, I never used it before .. : I'm not sure, can I use for example the landmark-grassland for a completely new Terrain-Type by modifying the Civ3 rules ? Because I can set it on the map, but in the rules it is connected to the "normal" Terrain... :confused:

If it's possible, we have the chance to create more planets (swamp-planet, litte gas-planet, gaia-planet and so on ;) )

Dude that Terrain looks kill.:)
Great Job!!!!:goodjob:

Is there a tutorial on the Landmark Terrain? because I am puzzled myself on how to work the modifications.

This is probablly the best Space Graphics Mod there is. Most handle it by having coastlines as edges of planets and have different degrees of depth of space. This one, however, is all quite original and, because of the new Cities mixed in with it, I have to say I like it even more.

There's thread about this around somewhere, anyway the Landmark terrain apparently has seperate graphics file then its non landmark counter part. So you could make more different types of terrain.

Also a suggestion I thought the stars were too small compared to the planets maybe making them bigger will look better

Also a suggestion I thought the stars were too small compared to the planets maybe making them bigger will look better

You're right, but if I made the stars bigger, they wouldn't look like just a light-source in space anymore...


an example (a bigger star would look like) :

http://solarsystem.dlr.de/RPIF/images/sonne.jpg


the star would look more than a "lava-planet", or so :D

but I might find out, what my Draw-Programm says about bigger stars ;)

Fantastic job on the terrain! :goodjob:

Hi all,

This weekend I made the first Update :

Changes :

Marsh : Stars (more, bigger, more beautiful ;) )
Hill : Moons
Mountain : Moons
Iced Mountain : Moons

News :

1. Added Space LandMark Terrain !

LM-Water (coast, sea, ocean) : deep Space
LM-Grassland : Green Planet (gaian like)
LM-Dersert : Swamp-Planet
LM-Plains : Ocean-Planet
LM-Forests : Nebular

Attention: To use the new Landmark Terrain, you have to change the area (in which you want to put the LandMark-Stuff) firstly in LM-Sea ! Otherwise there are mixtures between "normal" and "LandMark" terrain.. I don't know, how to solve this better, but on this way it works ;)

2. New Cities :

- "modern" Human Cities (american)
- "acient" Organic Cities (asian) - looks organic ;)
- "acient and medival" Alien Cities (europe) looks more ufo-like


I posted two more screenshots in the second post of this thread !
Download the update : look to the first post of this tread

second Update Version :

- no green lines with landmark terrain
- changed marsh.pcx (...forgot something :D )

Vadus;

Wow, these are exelent terrains!

You must have been working on these at about the same time as me, My own space mod is back at the drawing board at the moment, but I intend to carry on with it as soon as I get a bit more time.

I am currious, Are the planet graphics resources, or modified CSO.pcx ?


I've been thinking about how to handle such a project, and am still researching, so I'd be interested in any problems and soulutions you come across during your development.

Hi Smoking mirror

the planets are all modified CSO.pcx files, so that for example regular grassland is a terran planet now ;)

I choosed that way, because so I have much free resources (still all) for other cool things like "native Civ's" on Planets (hmm, Moo :D ), or special Recources ( Reunion :cool: ).

That means for the Gameplay: There is still Water (deep space) and land (planets, moon, asteroids, nebulars). To make it easier for the AI it is necessary to have "land-bridges" between the planets and moos
(the AI has problems with single Landfields ..)
And this also means, that there will be System-Ships (Land-Units) and Interstellar-Ships (Sea-Units), but I guess this will be quite cool for a Mod ;)

Problems : Oh yeah, many ! :o
There are problems with LandMark-Terrain. You have to use(put) it carefully to have no incorrect transitions to other connected terrain-tiles

Then you have to be carefull, with which terrain you are planning to use terrain-upgrades and city-places. For example, you have a Planet based on the grassland-forest-grafics. When you are building a City on that Planet, the forest is gone, and the city stands on grassland (another Planet ;) ) . Thats the reason, why I had to change march-terrain with hill/mountain - terrain (moons with stars)
Other example : You want to put mines on your planet based on forest-terrain. I don't know, if you can change the Rules to do so, otherwise I have to change another two terrain-types :(

Your'e also working on a Space-Terrain-Mod ? I'm anxious to have a look on your terrain :)

Those new stars are fantastic! :worship:

I renamed all the improvments and wonders, renamed a couple of the modern planes to be units in the game too. Unfortunatly, I can't edit pcx's so I can only do .bix editing. Here's the zip, please tell me where I could find a good zipping program if this one does not work. It includes a rough (very rough) model of our solar system and a fictional one of alpha centari.

Sounds cool :cool: , but I'll be not online for the next weeks from today(X-Mas Holidays :) ) , so I can't try your bix :( ...

btw : not C3C ??

I used PtW instead of C3C because I don't have C3C, yet ;). Just so there's no mistake, the bix (in game, that is) probably won't work at all. I renamed all the Sciences and Improvements but I didn't change the wonder splashes' names or graphics themselves. I would need someone else to do that, I can't edit pcx's. Am I repeating myself, :)? Thanks for replying.

BTW: this is how I did mine (unit wise), Coast Units=Orbital Ships, Sea Units=Interplanetary Ships, Ocean Units=Interstellar Ships, Air Units=Hyperspace (or whatever you want to call it) Ships. This way, when you get to near the end of the game, you discover science advances leading to Teleportation Centers (airports) and the units are able to cover such large distances instantaneously since they now can create worm holes/black holes/bends in space-time. If anyone has any suggestions on changing or improving my ideas, I'm all ears.

Originally posted by A Viking Yeti
BTW: this is how I did mine (unit wise), Coast Units=Orbital Ships, Sea Units=Interplanetary Ships, Ocean Units=Interstellar Ships, Air Units=Hyperspace (or whatever you want to call it) Ships. This way, when you get to near the end of the game, you discover science advances leading to Teleportation Centers (airports) and the units are able to cover such large distances instantaneously since they now can create worm holes/black holes/bends in space-time. If anyone has any suggestions on changing or improving my ideas, I'm all ears.

I think this all sounds very logical. I like it. I would love to see someone get a mod complete using this stuff. If a basic mod could be completed, that could then be used as a base for other Sci-fi scenarios using alterations for things like Star Trek, B5, or even Battlestar Galactica, or Star Wars.

Yuurei.


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Did I mention that this space terrain looks fantastic ;)

:thumbsup:

The graphics do look great, but I have a couple questions. What about orbits, gravitational attraction, black holes, etc... I think if we did make a space mod, it would have to be very unrealistic to represent a planet with a single tile. Oh well, it'll still be fun to play :D. Maybe, to add some realism, we should make the barbarian camp a black hole, and have the low level barbs be comets/asteroids and the advanced barbs be radiation/particle bursts or something. Then the asteroids/comets would be stylized after the cruise missle, so as not to directly fight with units on the planet; and radiation/particle bursts would be the same except with invisable checked. You could make the barb levels of activity be intersellar activity or something. Just a thought.

Fantastic terrain MOD...

Now all we need are the Unit Cretor wiz guys to make a legion of civ-flavour space ships...

I wonder if you could make the space ship units in 2D like the MOO 1&2 series... If you can do that I may try to start making some ships untill the real pros have time to whip up some standard 3D ones...

Hey Vadus, do you think you can remove the black "aura" (don't know how to call it, see screenshot) around stars? It's annoying to keep a distance of one tile between star and planets...

forgot the screenshot:

Hi

The second Update is out! ;)


- nicer AsteriodsFields
- Update on Terran (american) and organic (asian) Cities
- "Coast"-Space has a bigger Stardense to differ from "Sea"-Space
- "Ocean"-Space has a lower Stardense to differ from "Sea"- and "Coast" Space

with this, the terrain is done except the bonus-grassland. Next changes will be on resources, cities, ground-modifications ...

Has anyone a good idea how the bonus terran-planet could look like ?

Get the newest version in the end of the first post !

@ Kenta'arka :

It is possible, but than we have the old, tiny stars. To make them bigger means to let them lap over the next tiles..

That was done in the first update, and now there is only one tiny star left.
Look into the marsh.pcx . The second star is a one-tiled star. You could change the pcx, if you can, to use that star in special cases..

I don't mean the star itself, the new ones are much better. Just there is a black "aura" around them, and that black stuff make planets look bad if they are in a tile next to the star.

Oh, btw: Why is there a blue bubble above terran planets sometimes? (see my screenshot few posts above)

yes, the black aura is necessary because it is a bit brighter than the space-black color. So there is a runny transition from the bright starlight to the dark space. Otherwise you have a conspicuous border between the starlight and the deep space, that doesen't look fine..

The one solution I see is to take the one tiled star...

The blue bubble is the actual bonus grassland symbol. It's from the parent space-terrain, which I took. Because of that i asked for good ideas to replace the actual bonus grasland resource. (which only appears on terrain planets)
Maybe a gaian planet or a native civilisation ? ...

Hi.

Nice active forum going on here, nice!

I would like to share something...

http://www.cyborganics.org/components/images/samples/tradership.gif

http://www.cyborganics.org/components/images/samples/spacesamples.html

^ A sample of some art I quickly created last night.

The big image is a screen capture from civxedit, with a mod I started into very recently. I am using a single tundre/plain/grass/desert tile schema for 'significant' planets (big ones) by using coastal transition tiles to full effect and a growing library of smaller planets (as resources) for added value on important interstellar realestate. The stars and blackholes are (of all things) ... pollution tiles!

(The stars are really just cosmetic, it's the resource tiles that define the real gameplay in my design.)

I have astroids and other interstellar terrain all planned out too as well as a variety of independant tech trees, civilizations and units. The idea I had was to focus the gameplay on significant features in the gamespace, design a dependancy on rare and volitile artifacts for more advanced city projects and a bunch of other crazy unorthodox civdom that I wont bore you with right now. It's Probably too ambitious I'm sure anyway.

I may still do some more work on the art and mod but I thought I would offer the artwork for folks to use in thier mods now. (Just in case I never get done what I started.) From what I've read this thread is the closest to what I was scheming up.


Vadus, feel free to salvage what you can from the art in the above link... just be sure to give credit by mentioning my website in the readme if you do, please and thanks. If you need higher color quality images, let me know and I will get the files online.

If you have any requests for planet styles or something, feel free to ask - I can punch this stuff out really fast. (~15 minutes a planet)


I can also do up ships and such quickly but the flic conversions are a real time killer but I got it working now, yay.

Wow ! great Cyborganics ! :eek:

Could you post your Terrain-Files, so that I could test it ? I also thought of diffenrent sizes of Planets by changing the coast-line, but I guessed it would be to much work , so that I only use one tiled planet sizes. It would make things easier when I saw the technique of creating multiple tiled planets, which have still a circle form..

If you have some good Ideas in resources, let me know. I think a "Native Civ" Resource like in Moo is cool, and different mineral or gas occurence

The ship is also great! :goodjob: ... And you have already a flc-file from that ? Fantastic :) Maybe you should post it in the Units-Forum. With space-ships you will not only help me, but 2 or 3 other Space-Mods, which are running currently.

And many Thanks for your help !!! ;)

You're searching for other Space-Mods in progress? Here :

Smoking Mirrors Space Armada (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73867)
Daftpanzers SpaceWars Mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51084)
Glorefinders StarTrek Mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71732)

My "Space Empires" is, you see, still in the TerrainMod-phase

yay, a Ferengi ship :)
If you already got the flc done for that, it would be very useful for the Star Trek MOD...

I'm so deeply into fantasy stuff right now that I haven't time to think of sci-fi recently, but development looks better and better! Cyborganics planets and ship previews look awesome! I also like those gameplay ideas.

One idea that came into my mind are nebulas on larger scale using non-overlay tileset (sea should work, otherwise some LM terrain) - I'm thinking of nebulas that link just as normal terrain does forming larger coulds (that's much more work though). These could be mined for hydrogen (gas miners).

Thanks.

Here's some of the pcx art, it's ~750kb ...

http://www.cyborganics.org/components/images/samples/spaceciv.zip

NOTE: use single plains, tundra, grass and desert for major planets. Single pollution for small stars, square (2 by 2) pollution for big reds and a 3 by 3 "X" (or "+") formation for a blackhole image and "T" intersections will produce empty space. I am going to provide resource images and info later to help give some of those cellestial objects 'meaning' later. So, you have to be mindful when placing down 'terrain' in Civ3QEdit.

The smaller planets are resources, only twelve at the moment.

BTW, you can add more resources by making the pcx longer. Check out my resource pcx in the zip to see what I mean, I don't know what the limit might be. So the universe has a lot of potential with that in mind. Unless there is something I don't know that is going to cause a melt down... probably the case.


I was thinking I might use LM plains as a land buffer on the island 'planets' for the benefit of the AI. I hope the logic they plugged into C3C is robust enough to handle what I'm going to throw at it. It would have been nice to be able to lay down 'hot spots' in the editor that tell the AI 'this is good' or bad...

Maybe the Victory towers can help do that? If I can use them to help the AI settle on key areas (like major planets) then I'm all giggles.


I'll post up the spacetrader ship and others when I get the animations done right and working in-game.

Bah, damn multiple-double-single-many clicks...


(Later)


Uh, yeah don't bother much with that art package folks... except for eye candy purposes. I need to finese something so that it will work with the AI's colonizing preferences, so it's back to re-working the layout on the CSO files.

:P

bummer.

@ embryodead :
I'm thinking of nebulas that link just as normal terrain does forming larger coulds (that's much more work though).

hmm, it would be nice to have LM Sea as galactic Nebular, but LM Sea is already needed to place the LM-Planets (because, to have the right transitions they need to be embedded into LM Sea)

Maybe it is possible to create a completly new Terrain based on LM Ocean ? ...

@cyborganics

Single pollution for small stars, square (2 by 2) pollution for big reds and a 3 by 3 "X" (or "+") formation for a blackhole image
... that implies for the gameplay no pollution creation

The smaller planets are resources, only twelve at the moment.

ahh, thats the dodge ! ;)
I also thought of resource-planets in the beginning of creating the space-terrain, but abolished that idea, because so I can't place any resources (like several mineral types) on the planets. On the other hand I would have had almost unlimited different planet-types, but I decided to use Land-Terrain as planets to have many possibilities on resources.
What I had in mind as I saw your screenshot was the abilitiy to create big and one tiled planets with Land-Terrain.
My imagination :
a one tiled planed consist of 4 pieces (4 angles, left, right, up, down) as it is realized in my Space Terrain
but I ask myself if it is also possible to create a big circle planet with Land-terrain (as you did) and combine this with one tiled Land Terrain Planets ?
I will test your terrain in some hours. It would be quite cool if that idea work, but I guess then it's no longer possible to place a planet right next to another... :rolleyes:

I was thinking I might use LM plains as a land buffer on the island 'planets' for the benefit of the AI.
you mean Land-Brigdes ? I did that with Asteroid-Fields

Maybe the Victory towers can help do that? If I can use them to help the AI settle on key areas (like major planets) then I'm all giggles.
I don't know, is a Victory Flag not tied to a city ? I hope to make only planets settleable the AI will work with that...

What I am just sitting down to work on right now is a scheme where the major planets are made of four terrain tiles, it seems to work well as the AI likes it and will settle a city on it. It also allows some play for partially conquring a major planet as the planets are now even bigger, still round but still prevent landlocked civs (bad for a space game I would think).

something like this...

http://www.cyborganics.org/components/images/samples/newplanet.jpg

Me personally, I wanted the major planets to be as big as possible... without being square landish abhorations.

As for pollution no longer being a gameplay factor, with what I had been working on previously, true. Pollution was something that I figured out of the design given that cities exist on islands of one terrain with no adjuctant tiles to pollute (water) but with the mandatory four terrain tile I need to make the AI happy - pollution is now back in play.

So I need to rethink the stars now, I had an idea on how to use the mountains and hills for that... blah blah blah.


Oh and sorry Vadus, I hope I didn't hijack your thread too much.

Well, I like the Idea of bigger planets :) So then it will be possible to create more than one city on it, more resources on one planet and so on ...

As I said, in some hours I'll try to combine big Land Terrain Planets with one tiled Land planets.

Idea for Stars : Marshes are good. If you take hills or Mountains (like me in my first SpaceMod Version) you give a TerrainType away, which doesn't change, if you build a city on it. So hills and Mountains are good candidates for Moons or Planets, and Marshes, which change to grassland by building a city on them, are good for stars (because, I guess, a City on a Star is most unrealistic)

Oh and sorry Vadus, I hope I didn't hijack your thread too much.
Of course not! You give important informations to develop my SpaceTerrain. I have to thank you for that ;)

@Vadus
Firaxis does strange things sometimes, they added LM Sea, but there's no LM Ocean or Coast. There is LM Forest but no LM Jungle and so on :(

yes, because of that I hope to add new terrain-types using the still unused LM files ..

I'm realizing an interesting way to make many many many variations of a planet without needing extra terrain beyond the meager plains/grass/desert/tundra limits. Since the scheme I'm working on is going to use a quad based planet terrain tile (thanks to the AI) I can use the middle terrain 'filler' for smaller planets that can also support mixed terrain types and still be round!

Does this make any sense?

Probably not, I think I just started talking in tongues.

But just think... hundreds of unique looking planets (no silly resources needed either) AND I can use the LM terrain for the really big planets still! Mountains / forest / marsh can also be used for further customizing the planets to reflect thier unique bio diversity (more as icons though, like 'airports' or 'barracks').

I'm going to be so busy with lots of new planet art soon I think.


=D

I'm realizing an interesting way to make many many many variations of a planet without needing extra terrain beyond the meager plains/grass/desert/tundra limits. Since the scheme I'm working on is going to use a quad based planet terrain tile (thanks to the AI) I can use the middle terrain 'filler' for smaller planets that can also support mixed terrain types and still be round!
Does this make any sense?
Probably not, I think I just started talking in tongues.

So for example there is a terran planet with a desert-tile in the middle. Because of the transitions from desert to terran that might be look quite cool. But then there will be never the chance to place to planets side by side, because then they would "grow" together ;)

Mountains / forest / marsh can also be used for further customizing the planets to reflect thier unique bio diversity (more as icons though, like 'airports' or 'barracks').
Sure, but think of other space objects. There are still Asteroids, Nebulars and such stuff...

An pollution Idea : Trash-Fields in Space (though Space is Water and pollution is only seen on Land it could look on one tiled objects like that a Planet is surrounded with a Ring of SpaceTrash?

Hm, vadus asked for posting it here. So I do. Here is a small preview of three other city-styles. Hope this is okay. :scan:

Wow ! Great Arne ! :goodjob:
I have to do another CityUpdate :)

Finally I have some time to make some Civ Stuff, but I can't load your Terrain-zip File , Cyborganics ! :(
Could you check the Link to your terrain ?

Nice work Arne :) Unfortunately none of them look like Borg :(

Whoops, fixed.


Try now.

I made civilopedia icons for the planet types, Stars, Asteriods and Nebula. I made them for the Star Trek Mod, but would work without Star trek backgroud too ;)

Download (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/terrainicons.zip)

Prewiev:

Instable Star/Terran Planet/Desert Planet/Gas Giant/Nebula

Ah yes, thats quite cool, thanks :)

I'm still thinking how to create one-tiled and more-tiled plantes in one terrain-type.
The problem is, that a one tiled planet has it's own angles (top, left, right, bottom). The bow of the planet in the top-angle must be suitable to the bows in the left and right angles to result a circle form.

But a four (or more) tiled planet has other bows, and also they have to be suitable to another. The problem is, that a four tiled planet could use a top angle from a one-tiled planet. The bows in the angles aren't suitable to another :(

you see here :

@Kenta'arka
Hey Vadus, do you think you can remove the black "aura" (don't know how to call it, see screenshot) around stars? It's annoying to keep a distance of one tile between star and planets...



well, I tried to make a nice star, which has no black aura. If you need I could make a palette (red, blue, white, orange..) of that (especially for the StarTrek Mod)
Or maybe the stars from cyborganics ?

Hi

here the next planetary update ! ;)

- LMMountains : a Lava planet and a cold rocky Planet
- LMHills : two toxic planets
- LMGrassland : nicer Gaia Planet
- Bonus Grassland : greener terran Planet (former gaia)

- Now you have the chance to choose, whether the stars are big and have a "black aura" lapping the next tiles of the star or really one tiled stars, which are from cyboranics terrain.
Just look to for file marsh.pcx or marsh1.pcx and rename the file you want to play with to "marsh.pcx"

you can download the newest version from the first post of this thread.

:worship: Space Terrain God :worship:

...just ;) the new planets are bigger than the old...the gaia is even bigger than a gas giant... :crazyeye:

Oh, and tnx for the new stars, really beautiful, and look perfect with your terrain :goodjob:

Hmm, one suggestion:
Remove Moons as terrain, maybe make 2 new planet types, and moons as recources (maybe different? 1 moon, 2 moons, 3 moons?), I guess that would look much better, as the moons would be in the same tile like the planet and really orbiting it.

the new planets are bigger than the old...the gaia is even bigger than a gas giant...

well ... yes ! :D

here a comparison :

big planets (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/bigplanets.jpg)

but this only concerns the gaia , lava and cold-rocky planets. The gaia planet is the best planet in space, so it's not a problem to make it bigger to the other planets

the lava and cold-rocky one ... hmm, I guess you're right...

so, for anyone who want's that two planets a bit smaller, download the attachment

Hmm, one suggestion:
Remove Moons as terrain, maybe make 2 new planet types, and moons as recources (maybe different? 1 moon, 2 moons, 3 moons?), I guess that would look much better, as the moons would be in the same tile like the planet and really orbiting it.
nono, I love moons in space-games. Almost all strategy space-games haven't moons and I always miss them while playing such a game. (I have to think on StarWars6. The most important Empire-Base Endor is a moon ;) )
The other point : if a planet has a moon-resource, it can't have a special mineral anymore or a native civ...

Originally posted by Vadus


The other point : if a planet has a moon-resource, it can't have a special mineral anymore or a native civ...

Good point...

Tnx for resizing the new planets, but I still think the gaia should be the same size too. Just because it looks weird if all planets got the same size, except for one

hmm.. you're right. It looks a bit strange now as you see ...

resizement tomorrow ;)

ok, a new package with resized planets is available on the first post of this thread ;)

I will be not online for the next months so this is for that long time the actual version of Space Empires.

A little bequeathment as my last action : A galaxy map 250 x 250. ;)
But there is only one example StarSystem (I guess such a StarSystem might be a good Start-Location). The other ones must still be created on the "coast-islands".

Here is a screenshot (http://people.freenet.de/civ3scens/map.jpg) from this map.

I used this galaxy (http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/images/galaxy.gif) as a template.

So good by until spring
Vadus

Very nice.

Great work with everything!

Is anyone using this to make a MOO mod? (Master of Orion) The latest version stunk, but the story wasn't bad and a civ format would be much more entertaining.

I hope... A Civ3 version of MOO woud be really cool.

I love the terrain! You should add a black hole!

I can't get it to work :(

Normally I can get a terrain style to work, but this time I can't. Can somebody give me a totorial on how to make this thing work?

This could be used for some mod if you allow!!!Very nice indeed!!

wow.... im shocked....... Its awsome! I will pledge to learn to make units just so I can make space units for this terrain

(hold me to it and I get staby)

Also would you mind if I used this to make a Warhammer 40k mod? If you say yes your my hero:cool:

Sweeeeeet Graphics How da 'ell r u soo good at dem.

Also would you mind if I used this to make a Warhammer 40k mod? If you say yes your my hero


huh, a bit late, but better than never :D

so, yes .. :D
And I'm the one, who has to be thankfull, that this graphic mod is in use by everyone who likes it ;)

Can I use this for a mod I am making if I give you credit?

of course ! I made this terrain for people creating space mods ;)

Tis is a bit confusing, but I might give it a try, since it is a so good piece of work!!! ;)

whats confusing about that ?? :confused:

I might like to mod this terrain at some point, possibly to use in a mod, possibly just for personal use and/or release on the forums, if you don't mind.

do it, if you want. I'd like to see, what you will change ;)

Hi all,

I made a new update. Now there are StarTrek SpaceStations as Cities available.
You can download them from the first post.

Vadus, you have done a remarkable job. The terrain looks great.

How do I make it work? I keep getting the regular terrain instead of the space terrain even though I opened up to the scenario folder and told it find that folder with all the space terrain, it refuses to work. Somebody give me a totorial on how to spicifically use this terrain.

Well, you have to create a Scenario called 'Space' (like the Scen-Folder containing the Space Empires Files).
You save the Scenario, restart the Editor, and you should see the SpaceTerrain.
So far ...

Ok, Im probably going to retry later. Thanks for replying :) . However I tried to do that earlier, but I called it Space Terrain instead of Space. I did what I normally do to use alternative terrains.

This looks great. I had been putting some thought lately into the rules and mechanics of a space-based game myself - trying to reconcile MoO and AC to some extent.

I wonder if you've given any thought to planets that took up 4 squares? I have myself but found the graphics impossible to work out.

Actually, I have put a lot of thought into that lately, and I think that I have a working solution. Obviously, random map generation wouldn't work for it. But basically, the traditional four-square planet would consist of 1-3 different terrain types from the desert, grass, plain, and tundra types (noting that tundra only works with itself or grass). That gives us 161 (I think) different possible planets, not including river, forest, jungle, and marsh effects, and landmark adds even more.

Using a shadow effect for the north pole and just barely peeking the south pole past the center of the transition tile graphic, we can then use hills and mountains for rocky and gas planets, respectively. Thus, we could have a 1-, two 2-, and a 4-square for each type. And with forest and jungle (assuming I can force the map to use them) there ends up being 12 different rocky planets and 16 gas planets, again ignoring landmark terrain. Use volcanoes for suns, and you get either 4 or 8 different suns (do volcanoes have a snowy equivalent?), plus you can animate the occasional solar flare.

I would use a large moon for bonus grassland, and potentially use tnt for small moons or other flavor effects. Rivers would add clouds to indicate presence of significant water; maybe floodplains for large bodies of water. For the other planets, maybe use mtnRivers to add an icy moon (Europa-type) to the orbit. You might even be able to use a single hill to represent a particularly large moon for a normal planet in place of normal terrain.

I'm still figuring out the implementation of the forest, jungle, and marsh overlays. The curvature is what makes it so difficult. Maybe rocky space debris around the planet? A nebula of gas for the marsh? Or should it be iconic, more like a resource? It's the major problem I havent figured out.

I have the basic concept, but due to my father passing away this spring and taking my professional exams at the end of the month, I haven't yet started creating any terrain models. I hope to have a sample of what I'm talking about early next year. Someone posted a screen shot of what I was talking about way upthread (in fact, what started my contemplation), though I think it is larger than what I was planning for the major planets (about the right size for the four-square rocky and gas planets, though).

<edit>
Looks like the screenshot is gone now. Though reading back through, I may have some use for the marsh such as a small but highly radioactive sun. Could give me quite a few different looks, especially if I also use jungle the same way. And then volcanoes could be used for something else if need be, like a dangerous asteroid belt. Hmmm.... I like using forest as rocky debris field orbiting the planet (won't work for a desert planet, but hey, it's not perfect.

By the way, the diameter of my major planets will be somewhat larger than the larger axis of a tile diamond, depending on how much shadow I use. The darkened crescent will be at the top to give an illusion of looking down like the rest of civ does, rather than an ecliptic view like most space pictures. This is to maximize the size of the planets while still allowing for small rocky and gas planets.

Thanks Vadus for creating this thread. I will link to it when I start my own thread. After all, it's because of you that I even started to think about it.

Interesting modpack

Still won't work. Also, I can't have my map have the same name as the folder, my computer won't let me. How can I get this to work? I tried everything. Everybody else can do it, but I can't. Whats the secret to it?

You could have planets be a thing like the mountain or forest or hill or jungle or marsh--you know an object that goes over the regular grassland terrain, in those separate files in Art/Terrain. It could be really big and exceed the boundaries of the square. Then you could have terrain in the other squares. For example, you could have each mountain be one of these huge 9 tile objects (3 squares by 3 squares), except round,and put one on the map in the center of where you want a planet to be, then put whatever other terrain you like around it in the surrounding squares. Or maybe if that didn't work you could do it with a terrain building, like a fortress.

@Morfos : thats really strange. Do you have another terrain-sets to check if this is a general problem ?

To multi-tiled planets :
Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=46763&stc=1) are my thoughts of such a feature, but there will be the problem, that there could be only one type of sized planets. So if there are 4 tiled planets, you couldn't have 1 or 9 tiled ones, because there are "corners" used by one 4 and 9 tiled land areas. For Civ-terrain this doesn't madder, but if you think of good looking round planets, the corner looks only good with one planet size ...
You could only have one-tiled planets in a multi-tiled system with overlay-graphics, like forests or marsh.
So, to make 4 or 9 tiled planets means to create a complete new Space Terrain, and it would be cool, if someone could made this, but I have to say, I'm too lazy and waiting for Civ4, which will make real StarGames possible by changing most of the InGame rules (you know, in Civ4 you will be able to change almost everything, because the GameRules will be "outsourced" to python classes ;) )

Vadus is correct. Assuming you create space terrain graphics, you are restricted to either 1-tile or 4-tile planets for planets using the basic terrain types (grass, desert, tundra, and plain) - although I don't think it is possible to create 9-tile planets that still look like spheres. The reason as stated above is that the tiles in the graphics files (let's call them sub-tiles for clarity) will require four sub-tiles with 60 and 120 degree arcs for the 1-tile planet graphic (N,S,E,W) and nine sub-tiles of varying degrees <plus the center sub-tile> for the 4-tile planet (N,S,E,W,NE,NW,SE,SW,center). Try to use the (N,S,E,W) sub-tiles in the 4-tile set to create a 1-tile planet, and the resulting graphic looks like a TiE fighter on its side.

Pros and cons for the two systems:

1-tile: simple to create, few restrictions on placement, but less variety in graphics and the AI doesn't like using single tile islands, so planets or other stellar objects such as asteroids must be placed contiguous to each other.

4-tile: greater variety of graphics and planet types, larger planets, but much more complicated in scope and has many restrictions on placement of tiles; AI plays nicely with this set-up.

Note that proper use of the overlays can provide additional variety and violate the basic 1vs4 rule of the system being used. Mountains and hills can be used to make 1, 2, or 4 tile planets under either system for example. Another consideration is that tundra only works with itself or grass, so one might decide to make tundra a 1-tile ice planet in the otherwise 4-tile planet system.

I'm planning on making a 4-tile system next year - my wife will hopefully be going to Canada for nine months to do her doctoral research. Vadus, I noticed that some of your graphics could be edited to add some variety while not changing the overall "look and feel" of your 1-tile system (for example, every sun looks identical, but some subtle red/blue-shifting and detailing could add variety to the board). Is it all right if I practice my graphics skills on your space set? You of course would get full credit.

Here's a quick and crude terrain mod showing a nine tile planet. Carelessly cut and pasted it in about ten minutes with Gimp. Marsh, Jungle, Forest, and Pine Forest are used for the four corners. Note, this gives the appearance of a 9 tile planet by using 4 oversized squares, and that it must be created by hand, not randomly generated. The other 5 tiles can be filled in to be whatever you like. I think the light blue stuff is because I used the Forest sheet from original Civ3, not Conquests. Anyway, its just a demonstration, not a playable mod. In fact, only look at it in the editor.

Ah, I see. Clever.

I would have a lot of reservations about that particular system. Then again, I have reservations about the other systems. The 9-tile system really only adds one more tile to the planet when it comes to variety, since the 4 corners would always be the same (check that, forest can overlay multiple terrain types, so there could be some variety in that corner), and impossible to settle, to boot (because the vegetation overlay would disappear). It also makes the planets larger - thus reducing the numer of star systems that can be used (which is also a factor with the 4-tile system). Finally, it means that the overlays can't be used for anything else. But, it still is a viable system, and I hadn't thought of using the vegetation to block out the bows of the planet (though you might have to make the planet a bit smaller in the final product so that it isn't clipped). BTW, this post is critique, not a criticism.

Well, overlays work, as we see. But then it's also possible with underlay-terrain.
@Dangerboy
I'm planning on making a 4-tile system next year - my wife will hopefully be going to Canada for nine months to do her doctoral research. Vadus, I noticed that some of your graphics could be edited to add some variety while not changing the overall "look and feel" of your 1-tile system (for example, every sun looks identical, but some subtle red/blue-shifting and detailing could add variety to the board). Is it all right if I practice my graphics skills on your space set? You of course would get full credit.
I hope, your're not in the 7th year of your marriage :D
But your suggestion is great, and as I wrote in the first post, this mod/graphic-set is free to alter. While playing with the one-tiled system, I always missed a better AI behavior, and this could be possible with multi-tiled systems. :)
Also a mixture of one and multi-tiled systems (e.g. big planets, with one-tiles moons) would look great !

Nope, 3 days from our 2.5 year anniversary ;) It's not as bad as it may sound; she'll only be about a three hour drive (plus the time spent crossing the border), since I live near Detroit.

I've already figured out how to do big planets with moons. Have a four tile planet of whatever terrain, then directly to the E or W use a single tile rocky planet (which uses the hill graphics file) - you could also go N or S or keep a tile of separation, but it won't work if placed on the diagonals. Also, resources can be used for smaller moons (ones not large enough to sustain a large population) either on 'coastal' or terrestrial terrain.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of using tundra for single tile ice moons - it would allow the use of the hillsforest and mountainsforest terrain files for greater variety on the rocky and gas planets (since forest -asteroid fields- can be placed on tundra) without screwing up the base terrain under the planets. Plus it would make it graohically feasible to allow bases in asteroid fields - it makes sense for asteroids to be terraformed into a small icy ball capable of supporting small mining operations.

Vadus,

Just tried that Star Trek mod, and it uses these graphics. I've got to say that the planets are really pretty, and I'm impressed with all the star types. I have no idea how you did that. Every time I click I get a different star or planet, even though I'm placing the same kind of tile. I think it has something to do with the border interaction, but I can't figure it out. Care to enlighten me? I'd really like to be able to predict what kind of planet/star I'll get so I have more control over the map.

Two more things.
1) Someone in the Star Trek thread mentioned that the space tile looks exactly the same as the fog of war so it's hard to see where you've explored and where you haven't. My suggestion would be to change the space/deep space tiles to have little pinpoints of light in them like faraway stars. That way, explored squares will have dimmed lights (stars) and some small fuzzy lighted shapes (distant galaxies), and the unexplored regions would be just black. I think this would also add to the realism. In the infinity of space, chances are any line of sight will eventually intersect with a radiating body.

2) The second issue also has to do with the colour black. The "solar system" tile looks exactly the same as a space tile (solid black). I understand this is a transition zone for the land to sea, but it is annoying when I can't tell if my ships can move into a square or not. If my suggestion above was implemented, that would take away the confusion, but it would look weird for deep space to be filled with distant stars while the are around systems was just pitch black. I think the current graphic for "asteroid" could replace the current "solar system". This could represent the debris, dust, and gases that are present in higher concentrations in solar systems. Then a new graphic could be made for the current "asteroid" tile, perhaps one with larger particles of matter. Alternatively, you could keep the current "asteroid", and change the "solar system" to something else (maybe a haze of coloured gas or something), just so we can see that "ships can't go here".

That's all I have to say. Sorry if I was a little long-winded or if that came out sounding too critical. Rest assured that I really appreciate all the hard work that went into this. I know I could never do anything like it. :goodjob:

Take a close look in the graphics files, they should help you figure out what you'll get. Some things are random chance, just like you never know if the single tile grass island is going to be big or small, or what forest tile will be chosen.

I plan on addressing the too-black space tiles early next year, maybe even the week before Christmas (wife going to Florida with her family). I'm inclined towards the haze method for solar syatem. Vadus's first asteroids were larger, but just didn't look right. They are perfect as they are now, and a solar system would look more hazy than deep space. Greying the black somewhat along with specks of subtle hues.

Fantastic!! :goodjob:

@LeeT911

Yes, the "fog of war" isn't very conspicuous, and I didn't change it's graphic. So there is only the grey-overlay upon the Space. So, maybe the "fog of war" shouldn't be to transparent.
And I don't know, if there is a cool way to have a better difference between SolarSystem and DeepSpace. A hazy SolarSystem-tile would look strange, I think, and an 'astorided' SolarSystem would be much realistic... Only a higher stardensity for SolarSysem-tiles could be possible...
But, I hope you will not resent, that I don't want to change the current Version until DangerBoy succeeds a better planet-system. Maybe the space could get a different look with bigger planets, or some other unexpected things will appear..
But for a fast solution for you I have an old asteroid terrain, wich can be used for SolarSystem ;)
just rename the added file to wCSO.pcx and copy it into your SpaceScenario - Terrain folder
(maybe you want to save your current wCSO.pcx by renaming it )

The problem, that you have a random placement of planets is strange. Maybe it's a mixture of normal und landmark-terrain ? (wich could be appear, if the "ground" (the space around the stars) is mixed with landmarked space

@Dangerboy : I'm very anxious to see your first multi-tiled planet :)

@Corey : thanks ! :D

Vadus, would you like me to whip up a "proof of concept"? Basically, it wouldn't have any detail, just simple colors, but would show the sizes and how the major parts fit together. I could post it sometime midmonth December (too much holiday stuff to do before then).

jeah, this would be cool. A nice christmas present :D

Interesting development, Vadus. The laptop battery decided to become dead weight on Thursday. Makes for a great terminal, but not so good for when the wife goes out to do her research (btw, they are actively reviewing her grant proposal right now <crossing fingers>), so we got a new laptop for her. So in the short term, I will be setting up the new computer and won't get to the proof of concept until next week. In the long term, she uses the new laptop as her primary computer - which means after two years, I finally get primary use of the main computer! Which means I am much more likely to be able to work on a certain graphics project in the upcoming months... :beer:

This looks like a very innovative new Civ style, what are the road gonna look like?

I was thinking of using space freighters or small space stations. It's something on the "worry about it after the base terrain is done" list. For irigation, do you use solar panels or habitats? What about mining? Maybe a small mining ship or the like. One of those things to ponder while cut-n-pasting, eh?

Mining and Irrigation is already done with mining-stations and hydrophonic-farm-panels ;)
But roads might be difficult (so, it's not changed jet, only green colored old-style roads).
I thought of little jumpgates, which would be aligned by the road-direction. Railroads could be bigger jumpgates. This concept would be (theoretical) similar to Master of Orion 2 ( JumpGates and StarGates ).

EDIT : Well, this works with the current one-tiled system, so there are interplanetarial roads. On multi-tiled planets, (rail)roads could be a thin infrastructure network on the planets surface. (maybe with some light, like the night half of our earth viewed from space)

I missed the mining stations, though I do have the panels you created. Of course, one could assume that energy is the equivalent of trade (like in SMAC) and use the panels for road, maybe add small stations for railroad. Another possibility is to have speckles of light in additon to the space structures so that it looks like the planetary population is growing (and where the graphic is over "coastal" area, which is unavoidable with a 4-tile planetary system, it just looks like extra stars or objects in orbit).

I may end up just offering several solutions so the user can pick and choose what fits them best.

Friggin' main computer isn't allowing other computers to access its files. May be looking at an OS reinstall this week (WinXP Pro) :cry: But I should still get the "proof" out before Christmas.

I'm looking forward ;)

Ach Du bist das... :crazyeye:

ja, das ist ja auch einfach :spear:

I came back to working on some mods with this terrain lately, and have discovered a weird problem. Basically, the terrain that a city sits on can only grow enough food for one citizen. Maybe this isn't a huge problem, but I was hoping to create some diversity between planets, with various food/shiled/trade ratings. Unfortunately, this only allows for one population on a single-tile planet.

Granted, you could allow for resources in space around it, but I had hoped to limit that ("coast" tiles produce nothing, though there are some bonus resources that stand in as asteroid fields) - production would be based on using the planet's resources and its population which you could turn into tax collectors, scientists, engineers, etc.

I find the mechanics of a 2x2 tile planet work perfectly (right now I just have all 4 tiles identical) and even allow you some new options where you can adjust production with your workers. One cool thing is the ability to make, for example, a tundra planet produce no food, but a small quanitity if it is farmed.

In the example, the volcanoe is a star, the LM Mountain a moon (settleable, but really just useful if there are resources there, or you want a remote ship yard for repairing ships). The grassland is worth 6/2/4 (food/shields/trade) and 10 food with irrigation, 4 shields with mines, and 6 with a road.

I guess all I need is help with a working 2x2 planet graphic ;)

Here it is, an absolutely hideous attempt at illustrating my idea:

(I'll have to go hunting around for the corresponding pieces in Civ3 itself).

Another post I'm afraid . . .

I've been back to looking at this terrain set, and have been wondering about perhaps putting "cities" on the stars. They won't represent an actual settlement, but instead ownership of a particular star-system. I've thought of this because of the oddity in the Civ3 engine where terrain under a city does not produce the proper quantity of food - it seems weird that the best place for a city is a rocky moon or asteroid belt because they produce less food. With a "city" on the star in a system, one could make use of all of the planets in the system.

All that is required for this is to change what the stars are - right now they're marsh which will dissappear when you settle it - turning into an earth-like planet. I'm working on switching the graphics for "mountains" and "marsh" around so that the terrain stays the same, however, I'd be interested to know what you think Vadus.

I'm also going to change the city graphics to somekind of symbol. Probably different sizes the represent "growth".

Hi Andrew,

first of all, many thanks for developing the space terrain :)

Also I had the idea to use multi-tiled planets while creating this mod, because, as you, I found out the one-tiled problems. But testing a bit with multi-tiled planets I got problems with the "edges" of the planets. I postet a picture here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1504120&postcount=53 ) , showing that same planet-sizes could have different appearances, and I wasn't successfull to create a multi-tiled planet (e.g. 4-tiled).
Maybe you will have more luck, I'm looking forward to see a multi-tiled planet ;)
But pay attention, that you could always use one amount of tiles for all space-objects. (because the coastline (the bow) of one tile appears in every multi-tiled object.)
So creating a 4 tiled systems means, that also stars have to be 4-tiled. But you could use a trick to have smaller objects like moons (one-tiled) by overlaying the one ground-tile with another graphic (wood, jungle, marsh etc ..) . But than, there is still the problem, that you can't settle on it without dissapearing overlay :sad:

There was a reason, why I used marsh instead of mountains for the stars, but I can't remember why. I guess, it was, because if you settle on marsh, the ground turns into a earth-like planet, as you wrote. In on of the first versions, moons where marsh and mountains stars. But you can't settle on moons because of that, and so I changed marsh and mountains, and disabled the settle-ability on marsh ;)

I've managed to figure out some tricks with the terrain and have put together a little scenario with my one-city per system idea (i.e. "settling" the star). I'll have it up soon.

What I did was remove the worker job from the marsh/star terrain, so now it remains when you build a city over it. also, the cities that Vadus has made go great with it, as they are little orbiting space-stations hanging over the star.

Here's my scenario.

I haven't done a whole lot, it simply uses the graphics that came in Vadus' mod and nothing else so for the time being you'll have to deal with sailing galleons and cruisers through space :lol:

I've changed a lot of the buildings though, lots of new names and new functions
* Garrison is both a "barracks" and a "wall"
* Space Yards give you extra production and produce veteran air and sea units [your navy, as it were]
* Space Port is necessary for trade through space, and also a prerequisite for many other buildings.

As for units:
* Guerilla is your basic defensive units, upgrading to Marines and then TOW Infantry (I choose them solely based on their looks).
* Paratroopers and Modern Paratroopers are your offensive units, and they have amphibious attacks.

I've had some trouble getting the AI to settle more systems, so your palace produces settlers for free. Perhaps with larger (more attractive) star systems or some other fix this won't be necessary.

That's about all I have to say, there's not a whole lot to it so it shouldn't take much figuring out. Just stick it in a directory with Vadus' "Space" folder and you'll have the graphics. I hope people enjoy it and make some changes and suggestions of their own.

Thanks.

The space stations are reminiscent of the Anime series' Mobile Suit: Gundam or perhaps Gundam Wing.

BTW, Vadus, I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I've had a rash of family emergencies, including the death of my grandmother, which added to the ongoing crap with my father's estate has meant no playtime for DB. Plus we have a houseguest in the same room as the main computer, so no graphics work. Andrew_Jay's March 15 post is essentially what I was planning on offering as a proof of concept - of course the final product would be more detailed.

Unfortunately, I doubt I could get it done before CivIV came out. My wife still hasn't won any grant money for her research, and I am hoping to move really soon.

Oh, I'm sorry ..

so than, let's wait till Civ4 , and make a better Space Mod ;)

Some of my Desert planets have yellow lines going left and right... not where a river is (I think) just deserts... and it appears to happen at random. Any help?

maybe you have a mixture of LM and no-LM Terrain around the desert-planet-tile. I guess the LM - desert planet is the swamp planet which is green ..
Do you have a screenshot ?

Yes I do. Here's one of me in the Editor, using the terrain and settings to make a random map, because I can't use the default map since it's so small, as far as usable terrain goes. The map is really cool, though.

oh, yeah. There is an error in the xdpc.pcx file..

here is the corrected one :

MUCH better! Thanx! :D

Well, im interested in your mod. Looks great! I think i know the problems this one may have and the hard it has to be...

I will give you some ideas which may help (or may not). If they are good, keep them in mind; if not, simply ignore:

- About the maps, i think they only could be used if it has been made without random map generator.

- The planets could have a "X" form (1;3;1), allowing only to build the city (colony) in the central sqare (forbidden to build cities everywhere except 1 terrain type), and may contain up to 4 resources and 1 luxury (luxury res under cities are added to your lux list)

- Each irrigation would give a +great food bonus, depending on the terrain type, and each civilian consumes 1 instead of 2 foods. The same with mining, +great bonus. So, in a gaia planet with city, with 1 irrigation and 3 mining you will find more than 12 civilians and lot of production, with 4 irrigations, more than 40 civilians but low shield production (high science or money). BUT irrigation and mining should need a LONG time to be built.

- If planets had this form, ships may go out in 4 (+) directions, Culture may be used as "influence" areas (similar to GalCiv), and the AI wont pass through if you havent the pass pact or a war with them.

- It would be needed to bombard a planet square before unloading troops to attack it with up to you have "anphibous" units(sorry for these expresions, but i have the Spanish version and i dont know the words used in english)

- My terraforming idea is that the initial terrain for poor planets may be swamps or jungles. When you make the 1st upgrade, you learn how to remove them (easy to set in the editor), the 2nd upgrade may be the irrigation (these two may be inverted), and the 3rd upgrade may be the "plant forest" action, being the forest base able to be irrigated, mined... and the "Gaia" terrain.

- Have you seen Master of Orion II? A similar Starsystem mode would be great: 1 star has up to 5 planets. around this star and planets all the "water" may be coast, and you colonize with "colony bases"; between grouped stars may be sea (for example, galaxy arms), (after researching a low level tech you only are safe in coast. Then you colonize with "colony ships"), and between galaxy arms, ocean (with the risk of losing your ships on it) (when you research "deep space navigation")

- If you want spaceships units, im making Starcraft units, and there are 17 possible flying units... 5 Terran (human) ships (wraith, dropship, science nav, Battlecruiser and Valkyrie), 6 Protoss (elder civ) ships(scout, carrier, arbiter, corsair, shuttle and probe), and 6 Zerg (aliens) flyers (they really arent ships)(overlord, queen, mutalisk, guardian, devourer and a kamikaze). I mght extract them, but it will take a long time, and i dont know yet how to create units.


Well, i think i dont forget anything... What do you think? :lol:

Wow, i read now my post and it is hard to read! :lol:
The idea of Starlanes, i see it too hard (roads in the sea?), but Jump Holes may be the airports (are they called garrisons? or these are the ports?): Base relocation or transfer unit. sea ships may have set the "transfer unit" trigger and Air ships simply relocate...

If you need any help, i'm ready to draw/compile/search/edit. Simply tell me.

Hi,
I don't want to work on this graphic mod, but I will try to create a new Space Terrain for Civ4 during the next winter ;)

But you are free to expand "Space Empires" with multi-tile planets. You might ask Flamand (Creator of the StarTrek Mod ). I guess, he already did some 4-tiled planets.

Starcraft Units : cool !! :thumbsup:

if you can make starcraft units, is it possible to extract units from warcraft?...

I heard something about their copyright, but i will take them from 3Dstudio. I saw somewhere, a group is making a WarcraftIII2Starcraft. I may use these "no copyrighted" units to make the animations. If you are lucky and find any similar, use them!

If you want to use w2 units for your own use, you can extract them first with mpqview (you need the Warcraft2.dat list) and then decompile the GRP files with GRPconverter (i know i have both programs but not thee w2.dat)
Good luck!


About the space empires, i think it is too hard to make on this Civ. Better to wait 14 days until the civ4 appears and take the ideas for them. I may help you in civ4, coz i will have it! :D