Hi Ray!
This question is primarily addressed to you as to one of the developers of the TAC mod.
At the moment I use "TAC 2.02b_inoffiziell" as a basis. However, when I use a usual map-scripts from vanilla CivIVCol I see such situation with native civilization distribution. Please, see three images.
- Apaches (instead of South-West USA) appears near Norther Polar Circle:
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6116/apachesnearpolarcircle.jpg
- Tupi (instead Brazil) - on Nord
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2292/tupionnord.jpg
- Tehuelche near Equator instead of Patagonia (South America, South Polar Circle)
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2469/tehuelchenearequator.jpg
etc. I can restart "TAC 2.02b_inoffiziell" mod and the geographical locations of native civilizations will be different, however again WRONG.
What was done by TAC team to fix the real locations of native civilizations and exlude the chaos? Really rather strange to observe practically undressed Apaches or Tupi near ice on Nord or warm dressed Tehuelches between palms.
I suppose this is the first question that should be somehow solved before we start to add any new civilizations.
To prevent such chaotic distribution of native civilizations I see only two ways.
1. To create something similar to
[TAC] Kartenszenarien
This is the ideal solution. No changes in source codes are required. We will take a blank America map and just add all available native civilizations. Here
all native civilization will be located exactly in the correct places.
Something similar was already made in "TAC America v.1.03.ColonizationWBSave" map. However, I found one serious mistake. Tehuelche (or
Patagons) are located on this map on Nord of America (near Northern Polar circle), but must be located on southern part of American continent, near Patagonia (South America, South Polar Circle). Why? Probably, because on the used map Patagonia region is very small, I don't know.
NeverMind published
a set of very detailed blank maps for CivIVColonization , including the excellent America map. I tested this map on "TAC 2.02b_inoffiziell" and found no troubles. Maybe this blank map could be used a basic for such scenario?
I repeat, this is the absolute solution because all resources could be located on blank map in correct places, too. I choosed exactly such variant in my development of "1492: Global Colonization" mod.
2. to introduce two tags
Code:
<iMinLatitude>X</iMinLatitude>
<iMaxLatitude>Y</iMaxLatitude>
in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml. Something similar to iMinLatitude/iMaxLatitude tags in CIV4BonusInfos.xml.
Technically looks that this is rather easy to do. But, maximum that I could reach on this way is a good
zonal distribution of native civilizations. Really each native civilization was located in the narrow region of 10 degree wide (because Y - X = 10). However the distribution of native civilizations along a meridian (from nord to sud) was again CHAOTIC. Moreover, such distribution I could obtain only on the blank map, for instance America from NeverMind collection. The standart mapscrips (A_New_World.py, Caribbean.py) give only usual mixture of native civilizations. My attemps to extend the my program on MapGenerator results in the crash during initialization process. Thus, here I cannot see what I can do more.
Maybe something was already done in next "TAC 2.02c" or "TAC 2.03"? You know TAC mod development much better.