The Landmarks are a great feature, this is why:

You can only use them for scenario's, but they are great because if you want to have actual graphics for the Grand Canyon, or Mount Everest and K2, you can do this, you can even change its attributes; So you can make Mount Everest and K2 harder to cross over than other mountains.


Here is how to do it:

First of all, the terrains you can use are: Desert, Plains, Grassland, Hills, Mountains, Forest and Sea.

If for example, you want to have a Grand Canyon in your American game.

I could use any one of the above terrains to make the graphics. I'm going to use the mountains in this example. You will have to know how mountains connect to each other. So, I want the Grand Canyon to be 3 tiles long, I would first need to find out which mountains go straight over 3 tiles, without repeating itself.
(I can work this out by making a 3 tile straight line of mountains in the editor).





Once found, open the LMMountains.pcx file and change those 3 mountains to a Grand Canyon graphic, accordingly.



Now go back into your scenario in the editor, and place the new mountains where you want the grand canyon, it will most likely require a few tries before you repeat the same combination of mountains. Helpful hint: the co-ordinates of the map can help you know which mountains and links will go where.

In the Rules in the editor, you go to Terrains, then go to Mountains. On the right are all your Landmark options. Change the name at the top to Grand Canyon, and make the movement cost really high.

Now your scenario has the grand canyon graphic in it.


*Note: I just realised that you can't place mountains on desert like that, so mountains wouldn't work for this example, but you could easily use the LM desert terrain to achieve the goal.

Sorry about the poor tutorial, I am really hungry and want to go!

[Apologies for possibly stupid questions; I haven't got C3C yet.]

So theres an LM file for each of Desert, Plains, Grassland, Hills, Mountains, Forest and Sea?

And these are basically duplicates of the standard terrain files for each?

So if we added the Grand Canyon as above (using Desert instead as noted), would the GC graphics appear on any other occurences of the same terrain tiles, or does the game only use LM files for terrain marked as a Landmark in the editor.

And if the above is correct, are you going to make some LM files of generic landmarks to suit your Terrain?

I agree: This IS a great feature! Actually I haven't tested it, but it looks realy very good so far in editor.

Originally posted by Tacit_Exit
And these are basically duplicates of the standard terrain files for each?

So if we added the Grand Canyon as above (using Desert instead as noted), would the GC graphics appear on any other occurences of the same terrain tiles, or does the game only use LM files for terrain marked as a Landmark in the editor.

Click to expand...

Yes, they are (by default) exact duplicates of the standard tiles.

It will only put them in the exact tiles you place them in. LM tiles are not used during random generation at all, they are for the mapmaker to use.

In my mod, I slightly changed the look of the LM_Forest as it is the most popular one used in the Conquests and I don't like playing with food/shields on, but like to see them at a glance.

Cheers Warp.

One more question; can these landmarked tiles be given properties like impassable/allow colonies etc. independant of the base terrain (eg: could a Grand Canyon based on Desert be made impassable while Desert properties remain standard)?

No, most of the flags piggyback off of the base terrain. Here's a screenie of the editor page.

Slightly off-topic, but:

@ warpstorm: I installed your C3C graphics and in the editor the LM tiles show up with little diamonds on them and lines. What is that, and why?

This sounds cool though, looks like the next round of World Maps will be even more realisitic. Oh, and now I finally know what those LM tiles do.

Darn!

Oh well, at least theres still a few extra benefits to using this method instead of the old 'resource as landmark' method.

So are you taking requests for generic landmarks for the Watercolour Terrain Warp?

I installed your C3C graphics and in the editor the LM tiles show up with little diamonds on them and lines. What is that, and why?

Click to expand...

In the editor they always appear on LM tiles. In game they appear if you have "Show food and shields on the map". This is what puts the diamonds (and little green lines that shouldn't be there) that you are seeing.

I have a fix for the problem with the green lines. This is a fix for all terrain mods (or even those players who use standard graphics), not just mine.

Warpstorm, if you are taking requests, what about a canal LM.
Err, actually I had in mind we could use it to cross for both naval and land units but I realized I was wrong while typing, no terrain has the "amphibious" ability... which is too bad.

I've thought of doing the Great Wall of China, I think the max tiles it can spread would be either 4 or 5 tiles long.

There's actually a lot of things you can do with this feature once you put your mind to it, you could in theory create a few entirely new terrain sets.

Oh here's what you could do Tacit:

Make LM Plains Desert

Make Desert Impassable
Then LMDesert will be Impassable to, so you could make the Grand Canyon Impassable that way.

See, if you just apply a few tricks, you should be able to reach what you want to achieve.

That works, but I was kinda hoping this would be a way to add impassable terrain to a standard rules scenario without having to make major adjustments to lux/strategic distribution on existing terrains. C'est la vie !

You could use the LMSea to create a Great Barrier Reef and give it a really high move cost.

Originally posted by Snoopy
Oh here's what you could do Tacit:

Make LM Plains Desert

Make Desert Impassable
Then LMDesert will be Impassable to, so you could make the Grand Canyon Impassable that way.

See, if you just apply a few tricks, you should be able to reach what you want to achieve.

Click to expand...

Snoopy as one of your sets are you willing to edit the landmark plains to make them into desert sands, thereby making the deserts look alike but one impassable. Probably you already know the problem is that the interlocking of tiles makes it hard, and it would be nice if LandMark Plains (renamed Desert) looks like desert instead of plains.

did this request make sense?