Adjusting Map Size

[jtxhorns]

Does anyone know if this is possible at all on a previously created map? i am looking to make a map about twice the size that it is now while keeping the tiles the same but actually adding new tiles that i can then go in and edit. i have messed with the map in word pad with no luck. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ginger_Ale]

I don't think you can, sorry. At least, I've never read of such a way.

[jtxhorns]

well i figured out how to expand the map but i can only expand the map eastward and northward since plot 0 actually starts all the way south, so the only way to add southward would be to reformat all the plots which would take forever. but at least i did figure out how to expand the map east and north which i think is cool.

[CliftonBazaar]

Do you mind writing here what you did? That way if someone is searching for this information later they could find it here.

[jtxhorns]

Originally Posted by CliftonBazaar

Do you mind writing here what you did? That way if someone is searching for this information later they could find it here.

How to expand the size of the map:

1) Open your map in wordpad, notepad or something like that.
2) Go down to where it has the parameters of the map (i.e. grid width, grid height) an easy way to do this is to hit ctrl F and search for grid. it will take you right to it.
3) Now change these parameters how you want them. So if you want to add West then add the amount of lines that you want to the grid width, if you want to add North then add the amount of lines you want to the grid height. Expanding south and east is a lot harder and requires you to basically reformat all of the tiles so that they are all what they should be.
4) After you set the amount of tiles you want for the height and width of the map you must now count how many extra tiles you have put in and add that number to the line that says num plots written=
5) Now you have to add all the new lines into the map. To add to the width of the map: Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the map and then copy the last line of the map then past it at the end of the map. You now have a new line in your map. (A line being the column and every plot within that particular value for x.)
6) You need to go to every plot of your new line and change the width number of the plot, which is the number by the x. So if your last line has a value of 159 for x then change it to 160 for every plot on your new line. Do this for every new line that you are adding to the width. Make sure that every new line has a value of x that is 1 more then the previous line's value of x. So your new lines' x value would be 160, 161, 162, etc. or whatever it would be for your map.
7) I reccomend changing all of your new plots to grassland or plains so that you can just open up your map in the world builder and see all of your new tiles that you put in as one terrain. Do this by changing where it says TerrainType= to TERRAIN_GRASS. Make sure that the TERRAIN_GRASS is all caps just as shown. Of course if it already has the terrain as grass then you dont need to change the terrain type. You also need to make sure that the PlotType=2. This will give you a flat land to work with. 0=Peak, 1=Hill, 2=Flat, and 3=Coast. Of course you can always change this in the world builder to whatever terrain you want, but its a lot easier to start out with flat grasslands so that you can just change them how you want in the world builder.

To expand the map north you will do something similar but add to the y instead of the x. I have not personaly experimented with expanding north so I assume that you would just apply the same rules that I have stated above except you will be adding North and not West. So just use common sense when it comes to that and I'm sure it will work fine.

[ruff_hi]

This could be fun. You create a small map. Open up the game in WB and save the file. Edit the resulting file and double the width and height. Now you have a map that is 4 times as big with all the old map features in the bottom left. Take the description of those tiles (again, in the map file) and copy it four times. Edit the tile locations so that you have replicated the bottom left section to the top left, top right and bottom right (thinking excel would help here).

You might want to add some more starting players or move the existing ones around.

With the resulting WB file - start a custom game (or scenario - which ever it is) and play your game. Imagine a game like this where the original map was inland sea. You would have 4 little inland seas in the middle of each quadrant.

[jtxhorns]

Originally Posted by ruff_hi

This could be fun. You create a small map. Open up the game in WB and save the file. Edit the resulting file and double the width and height. Now you have a map that is 4 times as big with all the old map features in the bottom left. Take the description of those tiles (again, in the map file) and copy it four times. Edit the tile locations so that you have replicated the bottom left section to the top left, top right and bottom right (thinking excel would help here).

You might want to add some more starting players or move the existing ones around.

With the resulting WB file - start a custom game (or scenario - which ever it is) and play your game. Imagine a game like this where the original map was inland sea. You would have 4 little inland seas in the middle of each quadrant.

Yes i am going through the painstaking task of adding more plots. in all i will add 103 to the width which gives it more than 6000 more plots for my map. And yes i forgot to mention that u have to load your map up in a custom scenario which is a lot easier if it is a WB map. u can access your wb map by going to your civ4 saves folder either in vanilla or bts or whatever the map would be in, right click on your map and choose to open it with another program, such as wordpad or excel.