TerraForm -- a map editor for CIV dos

Dack You can sail right across these land bridges.[/QUOTE said:
I quite like this um 'feature'. Its great for making canals. (Think Suez, Panama) so you can cross both by land and sea. (And if you use a river square at the junction it looks more believable to the person who plays your map).
 
Andy6474b said:
I quite like this um 'feature'. Its great for making canals. (Think Suez, Panama) so you can cross both by land and sea. (And if you use a river square at the junction it looks more believable to the person who plays your map).
I too like, and was used to, the "land bridges". It's also present in Civ2, which I had played a lot of. I played Civ3 briefly, and I currently play more Civ4 now, and in both cases ships no longer could cross the "land bridges," and I was disappointed about this.


BP
 
Not trying to nag or anything, but does anyone know what's up with Dack? I think I requested an updated key for V2 a week ago or so, and I haven't seen him active on the forums since. Perhaps, he's having a busy time?

I gotta say I'm really sold on this new TerraForm 2. Just wanna be able to save too... that's all.

Btw, Dack, in what language did you program TerraForm? Would there be any way to have a look at the source code?

Thanks,

~ Kris
 
krille said:
Not trying to nag or anything, but does anyone know what's up with Dack? I think I requested an updated key for V2 a week ago or so, and I haven't seen him active on the forums still. Perhaps, he's having a busy time?

I checked my inbox. I don't have any indication that you sent me a request. Send me one and I’ll get it out to you. If anyone thinks that they are ever overlooked send a follow up request. I don’t think I’ve ever missed anyone but who knows.

 
Dack said:
I checked my inbox. I don't have any indication that you sent me a request. Send me one and I’ll get it out to you. If anyone thinks that they are ever overlooked send a follow up request. I don’t think I’ve ever missed anyone but who knows.

Wow! Thanks for the very quick response Dack!

Oh, an error in sending the e-mail would explain it. I can't really check what went wrong though, as I used the CivFanatics e-mailing function. Anyway, I'll send you another right away, eagerly awaiting a key!

Another question: As I (just like last time) have two computers running (that I regularly play Civ1 DOS on) and one of them I reformat very often. Is it possible to use one key for multiple installs? Or do I still have to request a new key for every install and computer, just like with v1?

Thanks!

~ Kris

Edit: Oh, I have another question as well. Is it data structurally possible to modify the coordinates of the "bonus" squares? Or is it a fixed algorithm (which I would find rather odd, seeing the vast irregularities in their placement).

And, sorry for bringing it up twice, but I still wonder about the language and possibility to have a look at the source code?
 
krille said:
Is it data structurally possible to modify the coordinates of the "bonus" squares?

Do you mean the minor tribe's village (i.e. The Huts)? If so I assume that it is similar the special resource squares, a formula. I haven’t done enough research to know what triggers it.
 
Dack said:
Do you mean the minor tribe's village (i.e. The Huts)? If so I assume that it is similar the special resource squares, a formula. I haven’t done enough research to know what triggers it.
Actually I meant the special resource squares, sorry. :blush:

But the tribal huts would be pimpy too! :king:

~ Kris
 
Thanks, I got the e-mail. There's a new version, everybody!

Even though I haven't found any problems with the previous version.

I created some small islands, all of which were inhabited by AI civs except for 1 island. Later in the game, some civs have colonised the new island, contrary to maps on earlier versions.

I don't know if this is too much to ask, Dack, but is there a non-MSI installer for this version? Thanks
 
A few new items for TerraForm:
1) Shorelines – If you like the previous boxy look there is a Square shoreline option.
2) City size is displayed on the city square on the big map
3) Special Resources can now be move but only within the parameters of the game. There are 16 possible patterns, they are now user selectable.

 
Wow. You have finally cracked the special resources bit
 
Minor Tribes or as commonly known Huts. 1 of 2


I went looking for huts the other day. Set up a world with few rivals, and set the End of Turn option. Saved the map & sve file then stepped into a hut, saved the new map & sve files. Then off to the laboratory to compare the before and after snap shots of the event. In the deepest corners of my mind I knew that there is no easy bit that indicated the location of the huts. From the study of the special resources I suspected that the location of the huts is controlled by some formula. Given that the huts are removed from the map after one enters them I assumed that some indicator had to be present.

I did expect to find something in the map file that would indicated where hut had been, but I found nothing. I found only the movement of the settler that had moved into the hut.

So I did a file compare of the two sve files, nothing much, again the movement of the settler. There must be something. Then I noticed a strange thing one of the visibility bits had changed. So a closer look. What! The Barbarians were given visibility rights to the square that had had the hut. Reproducing the event a few times, it seemed to confirm that when a hut square in entered the barbarians’ visibility bit for that square is set. Strange as there are so many unused bits in the map files data fields. So much for how the huts are removed from the map, but where did they come from.

So I thought maybe some portion of the variable that I call the “TerrainMasterWord” effected the initial location of the huts. So I manipulated the same section that controls where the special resources squares are. Some luck, I was able to generate new patterns for the huts.

Unfortunately the formula escapes me. I used the brute force method not as elegant as a formula but functionality is always better than nothing. At first glance there seems to be 16 different patterns controlled by the TerrainMasterWord.

Well as I went merrily on my way, oblivious to the fact that there are 32 not 16 patterns, programming away. The first test before I was going to release the program and of course it didn’t work.

Now I have four patterns of the 32 left to go before I'm finished. I am confident that the formula is similar to the special resources formula.

In TerraForm the huts will be displayed with either one with a yellow or gray roof. The yellow roof indicates that the hut is active and visible on the map. Also note the no huts are ever visible in CIV on water, but TerraForm shows where they would be if the square were not an ocean square. The gray roof indicates huts that have been entered.

In Special Resources & Huts mode you are give three options:
Show Active – only yellow on land are shown
Show All – all locations where a hut would be if the square was land are shown.
None- just that.

The options and check box for huts are saved between TerraForm sessions.




No update for huts just yet
 
Thanks, Dack, for continuing to develop TerraForm.

I've finally got a chance to use it a bit, and I have some comments (using 2.0.53):

1) When I work with the terrain under "Terrain Modification", the white outlining square in the little map that indicates the viewing area disappears. I have to constantly click on the little map for the square to appear again.

2) Speaking of the little map, I believe you've mentioned somewhere that the white outlining square is one off where it should be with respect to the window. I've also found that when adding terrain, the terrain squares on the little map appear off. Plus, when removing terrain (changing to ocean), the little map doesn't update. In either case, I've had to toggle on and off the make little map dark setting to refresh the little map.

3) When adding a unit, if I click a square, the menu appears, and then I realize that I picked the wrong square, I can't cancel. I would think that clicking "Done/Exit" would do it, but I get an error box saying that I must select a UNIT. I can't get out of the menu until I create a unit. It would be nice to have a cancel button to get out of the menu without any changes.

4) When I click on "File" on the menu bar, there is a box around "File" that gets "impressed", for a lack of a better word. When I then drag my mouse to the right through the other choices ("Action", "Options", "About"), I find a blank spot to the right of "About" that is also impressed, and it shouldn't be, I'm guessing. It's easier if you look at the attached screenshot (no comments on the map that's shown, please -- it's a test map for this editor ;)).

That's all I have for now. I'll post here if I find anything else. Thanks again for a great program!


BP
 

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Quotes from blaisepascal in Green

1)… the white outlining square in the little map that indicates the viewing area disappears…
This was an oversight it should be fixed in the next release.

2) Speaking of the little map
Thanks for bring this to my attention. I’ve known that there was some problem with the little map (see Issues, Bugs, Anomalies ). I thought that it was some sort of logic problem, but looking at it now It seems to be some sort of resolution problem (one pixel is getting put where it doesn’t belong).

3) When adding a unit…"Done/Exit" …It would be nice to have a cancel button
I have not been happy with the Unit Edit function from the start. I programmed myself in a corner. I’ll revisit that sometime soon and try to get something that has a more logical intuitive flow to it.


4) When I click on "File" … that gets "impressed", for a lack of a better word. When I then drag my mouse to the right through the other choices ("Action", "Options", "About"), I find a blank spot to the right of "About" that is also impressed, and it shouldn't be, I'm guessing. …

That is a placeholder so that the path and name of the current map file would be displayed in the middle.

Thanks for taking the time to point out these errors. I want to encourage all of you to post any anomalies you find.
 
Minor Tribes or as commonly known Huts. 2 of 2



The continuing saga of Minor Tribes or Huts; I needed a way to verify that the huts are being displayed in the correct position in TerraForm. I hadn’t used Civmap21 in a while. It can sometimes be a hassle to get the civ.exe patch correct. Remembering Sixty Three (“looks like a photoshop fake.”) , I knew that I had the patch file all setup. Found the patch and setup a boot to run Civmap21 (it only runs in real DOS as it uses a TSR).

Booting up CIV in dos what a joy, the pure speed. Anyway I produced a map that was covered with plains and rows of trees marking latitude and longitude so I would not get lost. For each of what I think are the 32 possible combination of hut patterns I used Civmap21 to mark to location of each hut with a mountain. Tedious to say the least, ten minutes or so for each map, do the math 10X32= 320 minutes. Then wrote a program to produce a table for each of the combinations so that TerraForm could load the appropriate one for any given pattern. Don’t know if any of the huts are missing. Anyone up to checking 32 map files to see if any are missing? Or for that matter if anyone likes puzzles they might deduce the formula from the different patterns. Hopefully this is the last bit of madness, I don’t think there are any other map feature that TerraForm is not displaying.

Oh! City walls.



No update for huts just yet
 
5) Units created in Terraform don't seem to show up in the Military Status screen (F2). This is what I did: I started a new game, on Earth, 7 civs, selecting the Romans. I got 2 settlers in 4000bc. I founded Rome with one settler and disbanded the other, and I saved in 3980bc. Then, using Terraform, I created two new settlers in Rome (see the attached CIVIL0.ZIP).

I ran civ again, but I don't see the 2 settlers on the Military Status screen, just a militia unit in production (which is what Rome is indeed working on). I quit, hex edited the file to give me 30000 gold, ran civ again, bought the militia unit, and saved in 3960bc (CIVIL1.ZIP). The Military Status screen shows the 1 militia unit, but still nothing about the 2 settlers.

When I was a hard core civ fan in the mid 90's, I remember using a save file editor (cived15), which can still be found here. Apparently, in addition to the places in the save file for each unit, there is a table somewhere that lists the number of each kind of unit, for each civ, and it looks like that this table is not being updated in Terraform. I'm assuming that this table is what is being used for the Military Status screen.

Run the cived15 editor and, after selecting a file to edit, look at "Unit Statistics and Assignments" and "Number of Units in Civilization". Using the CIVIL0.* files, it shows that I (the Romans) have -1 settlers. Using the CIVIL1.* files, it shows that I have -1 settlers and 1 militia. Please take a look at the attached save files and the cived15 editor to see if you're seeing what I'm seeing.

You're certainly dedicated, Dack, to your editor, and I'm sure that we all here appreciate it.


BP
 

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Quotes from blaisepascal in Green

5) Units created in Terraform don't seem to show up in the Military Status screen (F2)…
There is an area in the sve file that seems to have a value with the total number for each type of unit by active country. I assume that there is also a table of units lost in combat. I have been aware of this discrepancy in the adding units with my own sve file editor (CIV$). I have not pursued the layout of this area of the sve file.

…it looks like that this table is not being updated in Terraform. …
This is correct TerraForm only updates the unit table in the sve file and corresponding data fields in the map file. I assume that you are asking for this to go on the to do list.

...I'm sure that we all here appreciate it.
Thanks for your words of encouragement.
 
Thanks to Dack for the reg key. I experience some problems with Terraform which I will discuss when I got some more time to spend on the tool.
 
An update: 2.0.54
There is a bug in earlier versions altering terrain in longitude 0 (y axes) and doing a save will get you a subscript out of range error. Fixed in this version.
Huts are now displayed.
A small change to the add unit command.
Reading literature I found the property that will make an unused tab invisible. Don’t know how I missed it.
 
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