Adventures In Random Space

Had a thought of combining sepamu92's "Different Space Terrain" with NavyDawg's "Space Opera Mod" to produce a playable random map version.

Obviously this entails some changes since sepamu92's terrain was not designed for random generation and NavyDawg's mod is basically sea = space.

The basic idea is to simplify most of the terrain and utilise resources for the graphical flavour.

Here are the modifications so far:

* Grass/plains/hills/mountains are graphically similar looking "Stellar Space" but each is designated as supporting different Star Types (resource).
*Forest/jungle are asteroid fields.
*Marsh is nebulae.
*Volcanos are pulsars.
*Coast/Sea/Ocean are Deep Space/Intergalactic Space and Void Space respectively.

*Resource graphics for Navy Dawg's "Ecos" are now Stars (of different colours).

*Defensive land, foot units become immobile defensive units e.g. Guards.
*Offensive land, foot units become cruise missiles e.g. Marines.
*Ships that were sea units before, now become mobile, offensive land units with cruise missile carrying capacity.
*Star fighters and Star bombers remain as air units.
*Sea units are now of two basic types: Freighters (transports) and Battle Carriers (naval power with carrier capabilities).

Here is an image of a randomly generated map:

oh no its Solaris ,we are screwed, it will torture us

Nice made , i like a lot Space Sci-Fi stuff
Are you planning to release something ?

Yes if everything works out as I hope I will release it. It's still very much an experiment at this stage though.

Decided to differentiate jungle from forest

-Captain Smirnoff from the Starship Enterprise, KingArthur has shown us another galaxy ,we must visit it

-Or, Darth Smirnoff , Master , our Ships have found another Galaxy to conquer

Very Beautiful KingArthur

thanks smirnoff. I'm currently trying to differentiate the "land" space from the "water" space. I think they are too difficult to discern right now and leads to a lot of occasions during gameplay where I am trying to move a land unit on to a sea tile just because I haven't spotted the difference.

Here's a pic to demonstrate - as you can see it goes from dark to light (land being the darkest and ocean being the lightest). I'm thinking a completely different colour for "water" might be better something like dark blue but will that ruin the space look???

You could try brighter / larger stars. Nebulous streamers in very subtle shades could also give clues. Probably a combination.

Things like the Hubble photos have such enhanced contrast & saturation that they're not the best guide. Even so a glance at the very edges of the nebulae in these photos may be suggestive. 1 2 3 4 5

The Coast is hard to notice tho, but as for Sea ,its still visible somehow and for Ocean i can see it very well, maybe you can put something there to notice the difference between Sea and Coast

And what Blue Monkey posted the pics ,its a good idea perhaps it can help us to notice the difference between Sea and Coast at least

The original idea was to designate sea and ocean as "The Void" and coast as "The Fringe" in order to explain why "normal" (land unit) space craft can't enter those tiles and why "special" ships are required. I guess I could just find a different name (Starburst region?) if I populate it with larger stars - nice idea Blue.
I will also try reversing the shading order - make coast the lightest and ocean the darkest.
Thanks guys!

Wouldn't have to be all big stars or in every tile. A few here and there should be suggestive enough. Glad to be of help.

To His Royal Highness KingArthur
Your Majesty, Your efforts towards randomizing the map for The Space Opera Mod are most certainly welcome on my part. I tried something similar with ,now seems, long forgotten Star Wars Mod for Civ 3, and, being as inept as I am with maps and modding in general, I failed utterly.
But what about your much anticipated "Lost Worlds"? What with all The Units, The Technologies and that absolutely stunning and quite promising Map? Expect me on that thread's pages as well, "demanding" some answers.

I'm monitoring this thread. Looks interesting so far, and I'm a big fan of ND's mod.
If you need any help with graphics I'll be happy to make stuff for this mod

was thinking something like this but not to this extent ; best wishes as well .

KingArthur... Here are some examples to show some possibilities for some Space Terrain.
Both Density and Color could be used to differentiate the types.
These examples are fairly intense color but are simply to provide ideas.

Thanks and very nice examples Vuldacon but beyond my abilities to realise.

I just can't seem to work with some of the terrain graphics files where land meets coast. I'm basically using resource graphics to get the visual results I want. But working under constraints can sometimes lead one down interesting and creative paths.

KingArthur... You can use the same terrain and simply colorize it to to show differently for other terrain. For Example, This could be simply using what you have for Coast and using color for the Stars as Sea and Ocean. In this way, you would not have to worry about the Tiles Blending as they could basically have the same Background colors. The Stars and Colors for them could show the difference.

You know what, that is an excellent idea! And one that even I should be able to pull off. I will try it out tonight. Many thanks...

@guygodbois, elerd, r16: thanks for the interest and offer of help. When/ if I figure out any specifics I will give you a shout.

Coast seems to be the trickiest for everyone. If there are still things to sort out after applying Vuldacon's solution post some screenshots.