[Map Script] Planet Generator

New version, 0.47, ready. File should be compatible with mac and windows, also, I tested it with BtS on Windows Vista.

Added oases placement algorithm, it tries to place them in most deserted places, but distributed somewhat evenly.

And of course, I tried to solve jungle/desert issue.

Waiting for feedback, suggestions, etc..!

Hi Nercury

Glad you are still around here.
I absolutely love your script, and i use it each time i play since few month.


anyway, fews things:
There is something i dont like with the iceOnWater tiles: all map get a long straight way of water near both poles, i dont feel that natural. Maybe you could put an option to disabled that water lien or not?

other thing: i really like big pangea style map, but could we expect to get some little island sometimes?

thx again.

There is something i dont like with the iceOnWater tiles: all map get a long straight way of water near both poles, i dont feel that natural. Maybe you could put an option to disabled that water lien or not?

Click to expand...

It is possible to make climate very warm: and that would cause ice near jungle, so I made sure that land does not reach ice. Also, that makes circumnavigating always possible.

i really like big pangea style map, but could we expect to get some little island sometimes?

Click to expand...

Heh, now I hope you have enough options for islands:

Version 0.50 released

Change log:
v. 0.50
- New options added: Land near pole ice, Continent islands, Lonely islands, Lonely island size, One tile islands allowed

Land near pole ice
Before, it was always possible to sail around any continent, because continents could not reach pole ice. Now, this can be changed with this option.

Continent islands
Controls continent scattering, and coastal line smoothness. Setting this to maximum will produce interesting peninsulas and islands around all continents.
- Random coasts option: when this is selected, coast scattering will be chosen randomly.
- Solid continents: will produce no scattering, this was default behavior before version 0.50.
- Very scattered continents: will produce most islands around all of them.

Lonely islands
Controls how many islands are created in empty ocean space. This option is affected by Ocean percentage: the higher it is, the more space for lonely islands.
- Use every empty area in ocean: this option means that algorithm will do it's best to fill empty space with islands.
- One island somewhere: creates one island somewhere, if there is space for it (usually there is, except maybe for duel maps with big islands selected)
- No islands

Lonely island size
Controls size of islands. Size is computed the same way for any map size.
- Small: useful if there is some resource
- Medium: for one grown up city
- Big: varies from 1 to 3 cities

Allow one tile islands
When "No" is chosen, all one-tile islands are removed. Select "Yes" if they do not annoy you

Version highlight:

Size: Huge
Continent islands: Very scattered continents
Lonely islands: Use every empty area in ocean
Lonely island size: Medium
Allow one tile islands: Yes




Size: Huge
Continents: 2 - 13
Continent distribution: Smart selection
Continent shape: Unpredictable
Relative continent size: By player count
Percentage of ocean: 60%
Continent islands: Many islands, many lakes
Lonely islands: 50% of empty area
Lonely island size: Medium
Allow one tile islands: No

Minor bug fixed, version: 0.51

If you don't get enough forests with Normal humidity, increase it to Wet.

Very nice! (and thx for that land near pole thing )

new maps are really interesting.

Just a little feedback: I have sometimes the feeling that "rare coast island" is procuding a lot island.

Also, i'm not sure that lonely island are following the continent separation rules... are they? Because, I like the idea to discover island a little later.

mcguffin said:

Very nice! (and thx for that land near pole thing )

new maps are really interesting.

Just a little feedback: I have sometimes the feeling that "rare coast island" is procuding a lot island.

Also, i'm not sure that lonely island are following the continent separation rules... are they? Because, I like the idea to discover island a little later.

Click to expand...

Rare coast island - not really rare, I'm working on it. Select "Scattered" option to make it rarer crazyeye

Continent separation for islands is 3 tiles... I will make them to use continent separation option in next version

Well, new features usually bring new bugs . Need some time for adjusting to make everything work right.

New version 0.53 released. "Continent Islands" option changed to "Continent scattering", which controls rewritten scattering code. All options are random, in some range. I did my best to make short description what should be expected from each of them. So here it is:

Continent scattering (new)
Controls continent scattering, and coastal line smoothness.
- 1 (solid, no islands around): this is the same as was default behavior before version 0.50, solid continents
- 2 - 3 (rare small islands): less round edges, more lakes, maybe some island near continent
- 2 - 5; 2 - 8; 2 - 12: edge scattering varies - it can be different even for the same continent
- 4 - 6 (common islands): this option ensures evenly distributed islands around every continent; however, continents can break in several parts. To avoid that, select more round continent shape.
- 4 - 10 (many islands): more scattering, continents may often break in two
- 8 - 15 (archipelago continents): this is option for fun (or pain) - i suggest disabling one -tile islands before starting

Complete change log:
v. 0.53
- Desert tile changing into plains (if jungle nearby) chance reduced from 100% to 60%
- Rewritten continent scattering algorithm. Changed name from "Continent Islands" to "Continent Scattering", because, well, it's what it does
- Island separation now is the same as continent separation

Hmm, what I don't like right now, is that "Unpredictable" continent shape does the best job producing most satisfying maps. Can someone give some feedback about continent shapes?

Little typo under Flood Plain Options:

"Standart" -> "Standard"

LordGek said:

Little typo under Flood Plain Options:

"Standart" -> "Standard"

Click to expand...

Thanks, it will be fixed in next version

New version again, the biggest new thing is possibility to select custom map size. It needed some other subsequent changes, and lots of tweaking, and I am still not sure that maps scale up well. It often seems that with very huge map sizes generation becomes more snaky, and not as good as for huge maps. Well, I could not do many tests, because they take long

I leave attached previous versions in case this one has problems.

v. 0.60
- Continent scattering improved, all options thoroughly tested to produce good-looking maps.
- TileBuilder code improved, to avoid continent jams.
- Generation failure bug fixed. Hopefully, it will no longer stops at start.
- Random (Standard:Rare/Common) flood option fixed.
- New option: Map size. It is now possible to specify custom map size, up to 256×160. Because of this change, following options are modified:
- Continent separation options expanded up to 10 tiles.
- Distance from poles no longer depends on continent separation, and is always constant (3).
- From now on, area for continent separation is excluded from ocean area when calculating ocean percentage. It means that selecting higher continent separation will now produce less land. This helps against continent jams.
- Lonely island selection options improved, now it is possible to specify exact amount of islands (1-5), but they will be placed only if there is enough empty area in ocean.
- Default lonely island option changed to 3 islands.
- Default option of removing one-tile islands changed to "yes".
- Humidity options tweaked, now "normal" is a little bit more wet.
- Land near pole ice default value is now "sometimes" (i think that looks better)
- Fixed typo in options

edit: v. 0.61 - minor bug

Your last commit is working really well.

I took the time to generate some maps with differents parameters, and maps are very nice, somewhat balanced (at least for solo games), and fun to play (really fun).

anyway, i think the new "landmass" shape (prolly the old "natural" one) is producing far more round continent than before, but maybe its a matter of luck.

Thx for that script!

Thanks, nice to hear that

As for "landmass", that could happen because of the changes in my generator. I made each continent to refresh it's position several times in generation, to avoid drifting only to one side somewhere and running out of place. And I have not tested it with "natural" (or "landmass" now), but I think "Drifting landmass" may be similar to how it worked before.

v. 0.62
- Resource normalization fix (it was disabled all the time!)

v. 0.63
- Bug fix: generation failure with high continent scattering and distribution around center

It's working great, but is it possible to add scaled resource placement? Food bonuses in particular seem to be somewhat scarce, at least for my preferences

Actually, to be more specific, the problem seems to be the land outside of the general starting area, which usually has abundant resources. In every map I've played, civs start off in good locations only to have the surrounding land nearly devoid of food.

This map script looks great! I don't want to sound like noob, but I'm having problems installing it. I unpacked it, placed it into civdirectory>beyond the sword>public maps, and yes it shows up in the custom game screen. However I don't the options to choose stuff (continents, islands ect). When I try to play the map, all I get is big grassland area with few rivers and resources . No forests except in capital cities fat crosses.

I downloaded 0.63 version of this map. I'm playing BtS, but I tested it in vanilla civ too. Perhaps someone could give me some instructions how to install the map?

Edit: I tested another custom map script, same thing happened. I installed these wrong I suppose. How did you make them work?

Hehehe said:

Edit: I tested another custom map script, same thing happened. I installed these wrong I suppose. How did you make them work?

Click to expand...

Hmm, I need to track down this problem, because I have no idea what causes it.
Can you help? If you do, open My Documents -> MyGames -> Beyond the Sword -> CivilizationIV.ini and set these values (make backup of CivilizationIV.ini before this, so you can restore it easily):

FullScreen = ask
HidePythonExceptions = 0
ShowPythonDebugMsgs = 1

And then start BtS. When it asks if FullScreen, select No. As soon as game loads, you should get error message which should show what is wrong with map script. Print screen and attach it here

Sine Nomen said:

Actually, to be more specific, the problem seems to be the land outside of the general starting area, which usually has abundant resources. In every map I've played, civs start off in good locations only to have the surrounding land nearly devoid of food.

Click to expand...

I am working on it

I mean I downloaded another custom map script (earth 2) and the same thing happened, so it's not your map causing this. My guess is that I have installed these maps wrong (I unpacked them into civdirectory>BtS>public maps). If I installed them right, my game is propably bugged and I'll have to reinstall it. But I'll try that anyway.

You should copy map scripts to My Documents -> MyGames -> Beyond the Sword or/and Sid Meier's Civilization 4 or/and Warlords -> PublicMaps

EDIT: added better installation instructions in first post.

Problem when you can't see buttons at all usually happens when Civ can't compile python script at all. There may be several reasons: syntax errors - unlikely, because it works for me, and library errors - maybe python does not work the same way in your machine, for example, it can't find some library which I included or some expected function does not exist.