Using tnt.pcx for a variety of Terrain Overlays

NOTICE: I've closed down this development thread and removed all images. Head on over to the Completed Mod thread.

I made a tnt.pcx replacement recently, for the purpose of replacing the bonus grassland tiles. One of the responses really cought my attention:

Pounder said:

if you have your preferences set to do "Show Food and Shields on Map", then the tnt file is used as follows:

first row will show on all regular grassland tiles
second row will show on all bonus grassland tiles
third row will show on all plains tiles
forth row will show on all desert tiles
fifth row will show on all tundra tiles
last row will show on all floodplain tiles

Click to expand...

This meant that folks couldn't have preferences set to do "Show Food and Shields on Map" when using my file, but it also struck me as a real opportunity. A variety of three 'overlay' tiles that would be placed standard terrain tiles would give us a great way to avoid teh repetition problem that keeps raising its head...

Playing with the idea, here's what I've done so far:

first row - Clear
second row - Small Copses of trees from the new forestgrassland
third row - Clear
forth row - Added rock and dunes tiles
fifth row - Added 'mist' or 'storm' - smoky-looking overlay
last row - Clear

Trying to create 2 'overlays' and leave one clear for the default terrain.

One consideration Pounder just discovered is that irigation shows up *under* these tiles. I didn't mind that for what I have here (dunes covering irrigation is fine with me).

Interested in feedback on what's here, and I need some ideas for the remaining tiles. For grassland (and maybe floodplain) I've been thinking about those wildflowers shown in 'California Terrain' for one of the tiles. I have no ideas at all for plains...

first row - Clear
second row - Small Copses of trees from the new forestgrassland
third row - Clear
forth row - Added rock and dunes tiles
fifth row - Added 'mist' or 'storm' - smoky-looking overlay
last row - Clear

Click to expand...

Interesting idea- would love to look at that as it develops

One consideration Pounder just discovered is that irigation shows up *under* these tiles. I didn't mind that for what I have here (dunes covering irrigation is fine with me).

Click to expand...

I found that out recently when I made the variety grassland, I originally tried to use the tnt file, but ended up using the xggc file because the game places the tnt on top of the irrigation.

Spent the night examining the potential of desert terrain using this technique. Thought I'd share the results.

This first screen capture is a desert region with two of the desert terrain tiles modified to give them a surface of scattered rocks (Show Shields is OFF). You can see that we still have the pattern repetition problem.

(continued in next post)

Now I turn "Show Shields" ON in the options. What appears here is the tnt overlay mixing it up with the base rocky terrain.

My initial attempts were limited to working with the tnt file alone, but the results had the same problem of repeated patterns (specifically, NW/SE lines of clear terrain showing off teh tnt overlays and a repetitive set of rocky hills). Mixing the two (terrain & tnt overlay) gave me a MUCH better result.

(Continued in next post)

I'm pretty happy with this rough, rocky desert. But what may be the best part is still coming: thanks to pounder's discovery that irrigation appears under the tnt overlays, these rocky hills and outcroipping aren't going to disappear when we irrigate. The result is what looks like, well, an irrigated desert

Looks promising.

I like this. I would probably do the same for my DL-mod, to simulate LM terrain.

Updated posts #4,#5, and #6 with the latest variant of the graphics. Switched from dark 'bluffs' to something that merges better with the desert terrain, a sandstone-looking graphics.

Edit: I'm interested in hearing any suggestions for overlays that would benefit the appearance of grasslands, plains, and flood plains...

This looks very promising. I need to check up on your progress.

A little resarch on flood plains told me that standard characteristics of flood plains include ox-bow lakes (a lake or pond formed from a disused meander of the river) and marshes. I figured that we already have marshes, no need to duplicate.

The second option though, Ox-bow lakes, struck me as a decent idea. These are something that can't simply be drained - they're going to keep reappearing along the flood plain no matter what workers do; justifies the way they sit over irrigation.

First image is floodplain, followed by floodplain with "Show Shields" turned ON. Irrigated image in next post.

Edit: Typo

The same floodplain after irrigation...

Now that's really starting to look like floodplains.

That is beautiful. Very good indeed. The flood plain looks more floodplainish that the ones in the game.

Updated the desert terrain again. I think I'm satisfied with the current version of the desert terrain.

Here's where I am so far:

Summary of tnt.pcx changes:
first row - grassland tiles - Clear (no obvious beneficial terrain features that should appear above irrigation).
second row - bonus grassland tiles - Small Copses of trees from the new forestgrassland
third row - plains tiles - Individual leafless trees, just to add some variation to an otherwise boring terrain.
forth row - desert tiles - A range of sandstone rock outcroppings. Requires altered versions of XDGC.pcx, XDGP.pcx and xdpc.pcx.
fifth row - tundra tiles - Clear (no obvious beneficial terrain features)
last row - floodplain tiles - Ox-bow lakes

Unless I can come up with features for grassland, plains or tundra, I may call this complete and look to releasing the modpack. You guys think this is ready?

Here's a mixed sample of the tweaks to all the terrain sets:

Irrigated sample:

Drooling already

uhm, if you haven't seen this one already, could you terrain specialists take a short peek at these here, pleeze ? GraphiX Request: LM Terrain