Sirian's Map Info Reference

[surt]

That will work OK.

The value you return is added to terrain heights. The intended result is a combination of "tilting" the river to flow in a certain direction while still having its path affected by the local terrain.

No. However, what does exist is that Print commands output to a debug file. I found that to be all I needed in debugging my scripts. If you think map tags for display in-game would help you, though, I don't see why it couldn't be done.


- Sirian

Thank you very much for the answer. The adding of the terrain height explains it, I had assumed it would strictly obey the river altitude function.

I mostly use the print commands and the hap debugger for debugging at the moment, but I have often thought a more visual style might make some things easier. I will have to think about just how much work I'm willing to put in to get it I guess.

Again, thanks for the answers!

 

[hamtastic]

Hi there. This is all very interesting and informative. However, I think I have a question that hasn't been asked yet. If so, sorry about that.

In any case, here's the question: does it make a difference in a worldbuilder save what size the map is labeled as and what the latitudes are set at? I ask because I'm looking at two different world builder saves, one of which says:

BeginMap
grid width=84
grid height=52
top latitude=0
bottom latitude=0
wrap X=0
wrap Y=0
world size=WORLDSIZE_STANDARD
climate=CLIMATE_TEMPERATE
sealevel=SEALEVEL_MEDIUM
num plots written=4368
num signs written=0
EndMap,

while the other says:

BeginMap
grid width=84
grid height=52
top latitude=50
bottom latitude=5
wrap X=0
wrap Y=0
world size=WORLDSIZE_HUGE
climate=CLIMATE_TEMPERATE
sealevel=SEALEVEL_MEDIUM
num plots written=4368
EndMap

So one claims it's huge and the other claims it's standard. Does the game interact differently with these maps based off of this? Also, what is that num signs written = thing, anyway?

 

[surt]

The 'world size' does matter to the game. Have a look at assets\XML\gameinfo\Civ4WorldInfo.xml. Particularly, note settings such as the research pace adjustment. Personally, I think they should have just calculated something relative to the number of workable land and water tiles, but there you have it.

I believe the signs refer to landmarks. Try adding a landmark to your map and I believe you'll see this change (not going to say for sure since I haven't done this in a while).

 

[hamtastic]

Surt, that's great. Thanks for the response. One more question: do you know if the ResearchPercent tag increases research times, or increases the amount of research itself? Thanks!

 

[surt]

Surt, that's great. Thanks for the response. One more question: do you know if the ResearchPercent tag increases research times, or increases the amount of research itself? Thanks!

I believe the result is that the number of beakers required to complete each technology is changed.

 

[earthgate]

I got this great idea for a scenario, which unfortunatly demands a "handmade" map.. Urbanwars I called it
however landscape not being the issue or problem to much length.. I come over some different problems. I wanted to make this scenario futuristic and without workers. how to i disable techs and some units like infantry ?

.. my thought was to replace the infantry with Navy seals and just rename the unit without making a mod just a scenario. how to i proceed to do this ?

I downloaded the civ4 editor in the tools section so I can rename the civs and so..

however I cannot change the leatherheads with a picture is this possible ?

I made this banner for the scenario
​

 

[fbouthil]

Is there any way to have the computer randomly select whether you'll play Continents, Archipelago, Pangaea, etc? Part of the fun of prior Civ games was having no idea what kind of world you'd be in. In Civ 4, it seems you have to pick your general map type off the bat. Yes, you can randomize sea level, climate, etc., but not map type.

I see that the "Custom Game" interface does allow somewhat greater randomizing, but you still have to select a basic map type -- and the number of AI opponents, which again I like to randomize.

Are completely random maps possible?

I know a really easy way to do that.

Simply start a thread on the forums asking for a starting save using a random map setting. People on the forums are very friendly and more than willing to help with this kind of stuff. Someone can easily use some dices to select a type of map at random, generate the starting game and post it. You simply need to specify the conditions you would like them to meet, like difficulty setting, map size, anything but pangeae, any type but low sea level if applicable, make sure the no cheating allowed option is on so you can submit to HoF, etc.

With the activity of this community, I bet you will get an answer within a few days. See, that was not so hard when you use a little imagination!

 

[Conquistador 63]

[1st post]

Might be somewhat unrelated, but is there any info on the map type (or is it a scenario?) named "planet", which is in the same dir of others like Earth and such? Is it the same pattern of "Terra" maps?

p.s.Sorry if it posted elsewhere, but I couldn't find it with the search options.

 

[rschrumpf]

Hi,

I've played 3 games of Civ 4; but on my 4th game I chose the Great Plains map and standard size world.

I was surprised to see the world with edges that could not be traveled on. These were to the West and the South. Like Edge-of-the-World edges; not Ice at the poles. And it was to the West as well as to the South.

I stopped playing that world before I searched the North and East.

Is this normal?

I started a 2nd game with the same settings and found an edge to the West on this 2nd game also.

Thanks,

rschrumpf

 

[pholkhero]

yes..some maps do not have a wrap-around axis...most are east-to-west, the way you normally think of it...tilted wraps N-to-S...great plains, inland sea, and a couple other don't

 

[surt]

Hi,

I've played 3 games of Civ 4; but on my 4th game I chose the Great Plains map and standard size world.

I was surprised to see the world with edges that could not be traveled on. These were to the West and the South. Like Edge-of-the-World edges; not Ice at the poles. And it was to the West as well as to the South.

I stopped playing that world before I searched the North and East.

Is this normal?

I started a 2nd game with the same settings and found an edge to the West on this 2nd game also.

Thanks,

rschrumpf

Yes, maps and map scripts are allowed to determine for themselves whether to wrap around on x coordinates, y coordinates, both coordinates, or neither, to provide the maximum flexibility to gameplay.

My smartmap script offers this choice explicitly.

 

[LDiCesare]

Does anyone know if it's possible to change the default map climate options inside a .py file? I suppose you can do it in the xml, but that'd change them for all the map scripts. I'd like to have in my map script a climate option and would like to use the default option (isClimateMap to return true) rather than create another as an additional option. But then I'd have to remove the 'rocky' and 'cold' climates since I really only provide wet/normal/arid.
Can this be done, and how? It's not such a big issue but I don't like having a climate option panel when there's already an unused one before.

 

[surt]

Does anyone know if it's possible to change the default map climate options inside a .py file? I suppose you can do it in the xml, but that'd change them for all the map scripts. I'd like to have in my map script a climate option and would like to use the default option (isClimateMap to return true) rather than create another as an additional option. But then I'd have to remove the 'rocky' and 'cold' climates since I really only provide wet/normal/arid.
Can this be done, and how? It's not such a big issue but I don't like having a climate option panel when there's already an unused one before.

I would love to know if there's a way around this too. However, a workaround if you want less options is available: just remap rocky and cold to be the same as normal, and document this for the user. On my map script I'd like to be able to offer more/different options, and I haven't discovered any way to make that happen.

 

[Borisio]

@ Sirian:

Are you going to be updating your excellent Map Scripts Guide to include the 3 maps added in the v1.61 patch (Fantasy_Realm, Fractal, and Shuffle, I think)?

Thanks

 

[badgerpendous]

I suppose this is sort of a bump...

Yes, I'm interested in the "Fractal" map too. Anyone know its story?

Thanks!

a.badger

 

[crunch]

Fantasy_Realm map script gives me black terrain. No other map types do that ever since the 1.09 patch was released. Anyone who understands the map scripts... is there something that makes fantasy_realm different from other map types?

 

[dsr]

Bump on request to add new v1.61 maps to the Map Scripts Guide article.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Indeed, I'd be particularly interested in the mechanics behind how a Fractual map is generated, although I can guess fairly well just by endlessly generating maps and comparing them. Would be good to have the detailed explaination though.

By the way, I reckon there's a bug with the Toroidal map option... it seems to allow civs to start anywhere along the "latitude" of the map (if you can call it that)... so you can get some horrible results like this...

 

[MooManof_]

Having just read through this thread from the beginning, I haven't been able to find a tutorial on exactly how to go about writing a map script.

For example, what exactly is the difference between FractalWorld and HintedWorld, and am I right in assuming MultiLayeredFractal basically applies FractalWorld seperately for each continent, before positioning them with another pass?

Also:

def isClimateMap():
	"""
	Uses the Climate options
	"""
	return 0
	
def isSeaLevelMap():
	"""
	Uses the Sea Level options
	"""
	return 0

Whilst I know what those do (greying out certain options in the advanced form), how are the options defined? And how can they be removed completely (instead of being greyed out)?

 

[The Meal]

I, too, would be interested in the updates to this based on the new 1.61/Warlords inclusions.

Thanks,
~The Meal