TerraForm -- a map editor for CIV dos

This thread is about a month old, I'm hoping that I'm not too late to miss out on this...
I've been playing Civilization I forever and I can't believe I never thought to look for a forums until today.

This program sure does look great.
 
Hello

Yes it is a very good programe.

Hello

Isn't it to much? 5 days/ 5 letters. I suggest you 3 days/ 3 letters. No?
OK. It is only a potential thing and nothing else.

See you later.
 
Isn't it to much? 5 days/ 5 letters.

Not my rules, they are the CIVILIZATION Fanatics Center rules.
see Forum Rules
I would suggest that you post your suggestion to the Site Feedback perhaps you could persuade the powers to be to modify the rules more to your liking.
I myself would require substantive posts. The worthiness of each post would be judged by five chosen CIVdos elders in a ceremony preformed before the oracle.
 
Hello

Thank you your advice. It is no very important. It is only a potential thing and nothing else. Maybe you or they deliberate this. I tell you very gladly but i owe a statement that i am not USA people.
I can speak englis a very little bit. Please use the elementary words than write me. Thanks. It is a very good hazard for me that study a few live english. Yes, you have a good think. i have got study a lot yet. Please, forgive me my endlos line of mistakes.

Sincerely, Oav

Hello

Again me. i think the civ 1 is a good game but it isn't too young. civ 1 and this program together result better join game than now. I wait the code....

Faithfuly, Oav
 
Hello

Than you Dack than made this programe. I hope get the code as soon as possible...
We meet again this page in future....

You have got a lot of fortune in the life. Everything who read this sentences.

Good by.
 
i dont know it not give me to send dack mail

Many thanks to Dack for creating this program.

I've been a CIV DOS player since the early '90s, and have a bunch of old saved files, some dating back as far as '98.

Hard to believe I've been playing this thing on-and-off now for 15 years, and it's still my favorite game, LOL. Every once in a while I dust it off, reinstall it, and play a few games.

Back in '03, I looked around this site for some game / map editors, downloaded a half-dozen or so, and couldn't get any of them to work, so I just used a hex editor to hack the save file directly. Never expected anyon would still be developing for this version. Wow!

Finally got tired of dealing with the late-game pollution bug, and wandered back to the board to see if there were any fixes / workarounds. Sadly no, but I did find TerraForm.

What I enjoy most is playing alone on a single large continent until I develop transports, then take over the rest of the world using diplomats. I enjoy the city construction more than the battling.

Looking forward to the end of my 'trial period' so I can request a key and build a map and try it.
 
Question on how TerraForm works...

On another thread, I saw a comment about islands and oceans being numbered 1,2,3, etc. Does the v5.86 version of TerraForm "know" how to correct this as it saves?

What happens if I connect the two largest landmasses (islands 1 and 2), does the resultant landmass become island 1 everywhere, or does each square keep its original designation?

What if I connect #2 and #3 to become bigger than the original #1, what happens?

How do the "continent-wide" WOWs (Hoover, Bach) react to the new landmasses?

What about the oceans? If I "wall off" an area of ocean #1 in order to make an inland sea, does it remain ocean #1 or does it get renumbered during the save?

Thanks!
 
Question on how TerraForm works...
Quotes from jpciv in Green
On another thread, I saw a comment about islands and oceans being numbered 1,2,3, etc. Does the v5.86 version of TerraForm "know" how to correct this as it saves?
Yes

What happens if I connect the two largest landmasses (islands 1 and 2), does the resultant landmass become island 1 everywhere, or does each square keep its original designation? Islands 1 and 2 will become 1

What if I connect #2 and #3 to become bigger than the original #1, what happens?
2 and 3 become 1 and the old 1 assumes it place in the pecking order.

How do the "continent-wide" WOWs (Hoover, Bach) react to the new landmasses?
My understanding of this is that wonders are attached to the land mass of the city they are built in is on. I guess one could take and old game and carve the city with Bach on to a small island and see if the remaining large island goes unhappy.


What about the oceans? If I "wall off" an area of ocean #1 in order to make an inland sea, does it remain ocean #1 or does it get renumbered during the save?
“renumbered during the save”
That sum up what happens to all the above situations except the continent-wide wonders which seems to take care of themselves.

The world is 80 by 50. At save time I start at square 0,0, is it land or sea, check each square of the same type that is attached to it, mark them all as being island or sea with a unique indicator. On to the next square, if it is part of a island or sea that I have identify I skip it. Repeat this until all islands and seas have been identified. Sum up the total squares of each island and sea, sort from largest to smallest. Each square is then numbered as being island or sea 1 through 15. Any islands or seas that rank 16th smallest or less are numbered 15. The Arctic and Antarctic are numbered as part of island 1.

As an aside there is an option in TerraForm “seas all marked as 1”. This allows you to have all the seas marked a sea 1. The advantage of this is that it allows the civilization that are controlled by the program to build ships or seas other then 1. Under normal circumstances the other civilizations cities can only build ships if they border sea 1. The next time you capture a city on an inland sea you will not be offered any sea going units to build.
 
Awesome. Soon as I get my reg code I'll try out a few different scenarios, then post up a new GOTM based on one of them.

Thanks!

Just sent the "Request For Registration Key" email, looking forward to building / saving a scenario, then posting up a new GOTM.

Quotes from jpciv in Green
How do the "continent-wide" WOWs (Hoover, Bach) react to the new landmasses?
My understanding of this is that wonders are attached to the land mass of the city they are built in is on. I guess one could take and old game and carve the city with Bach on to a small island and see if the remaining large island goes unhappy.




I can confirm that both Bach and Hoover work as expected, they only apply to the (new) landmass they are connected to, and any links to the old landmass are broken. Great job, Dack!

I can also confirm that when you set up a 1-wide diagonal isthmus between two landmasses, that TerraForm properly converts it to one landmass for Bach and Hoover (even though it warns you about illegal landmass, it works), and that naval units can cross in one diagonal while land units can cross in the 180* opposite diagonal. What a cool way to set up a huge landmass that still has canals for ships to get around


Dack why you make so hard to get the code

there is reason it is so secert

why not give it free without code????????

why it is do hard

Proof positive that the AI Civs will cross an isthmus!

Spoiler :

While play-testing a new scenario, I swapped places with each of the AI civs to see what they were up to, and whether they were becoming worthy opponents or not.

Lo and behold, here is proof that the AI civs will sail right on past the isthmus. The AI sailed (trireme'd? paddled?) north and then west, as shown by the red arrows. Cool Beans!
 

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Proof positive that the AI Civs will cross an isthmus!
In TerraForm using the Visibility function (click Action, click Visibility) ,early in the game you should be able to see the path they took to get there. I was wondering if the other civilizations would cross that boundary. TerraForm treats the two seas as separate if there is no conventional link between them. This land form (the one that allows the crossing by sea going vessels) does not occur in maps produced by CIV (The normal world map is not produced by the game). It would be interesting to integrate a map with that pattern as the WORLD map to see how the game would treat the two seas.
 
In TerraForm using the Visibility function (click Action, click Visibility) ,early in the game you should be able to see the path they took to get there. I was wondering if the other civilizations would cross that boundary. TerraForm treats the two seas as separate if there is no conventional link between them. This land form (the one that allows the crossing by sea going vessels) does not occur in maps produced by CIV (The normal world map is not produced by the game). It would be interesting to integrate a map with that pattern as the WORLD map to see how the game would treat the two seas.

Because of the way I set up the scenario, the AI civs are on the smaller ocean, so I used the TerraForm command to set all seas to 1 so they could use naval units. Not sure if this had an effect or not, but I checked again later, and 5 of the 6 civs had built ships and crossed one or more isthmus.
 
I sometimes feel that you should fusion Terraform and Civ$ into 1 program.But maybe that's just too much work.
 
... fusion Terraform and Civ$ into 1 program...

In my opinion seldom in a running game does one need to resort to TerraForm. The one thing it does have is the ability to fix that bug where a city is yours but you have no control unless you enter it again. I have been known to link island together or four coal hills for single city.
Ah but CIV$ always a work in progress. I like its dos compactness I always start civ/dos thru CIV$ and when I exit CIV drop right back into CIV$. An endless loop. You can use CIV$ without revealing the whole game. It checks for errors in the unit lists, and for obsolete items being built by cities.
Version 0.73 of DOSbox gave a whole new life to Visual Basic for dos with more support for EMS and XMS. At this moment I’m working on some upgrades. I like programming in dos. TerraForm is such a behemoth. Just the thought of writing a interface in dos for the map rules out it ever being rewritten for DOS. CIV$ is just so much fun in DOS, rewriting the code for windows isn’t something I want to do. Frankly I don’t have the time.

The chance of the two ever being combined is very near zero. For me TerraForm removes all the mystery of where the opponents are. The exploration and expansion at the beginning of the game would become moot.

But thanks for using both
 
Dack I tried to email you in order to ask for a new key, but the forum won't allow me to do so since the new rule change.

Thanks.
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Request For Registration Key 86

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Don't know if you've ever run across this before, but I hit on it by accident and thought I'd share it...

I convinced a wandering enemy militia unit to desert, and then (f)ortified it in a one-wide isthmus. The only way for the enemy to get through and attack me would be through that deserter.

While playing around with TerraForm, I accidentally converted that militia into a bomber, and when I restarted the game, I had a fortified bomber in that space.

Since they don't have fighters (yet), they can't attack it, and for whatever reason (maybe because it was still fortified?) it never ran out of fuel.

Voila! The perfectly invincible one-way gate! At least until they develop fighters...
 
I´m working my way up to get the Terraform reg key. In the mean time I was fiddling with the program and I´ve got a question: ¿How can you change a terrain square into an oasis? Or into plains with horses. There seems to be just desert and plains
 
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