[TERRAIN] Mars Terrain

[Balthasar]

I've had this on the shelf for a long time. The idea of making a Martian Terrain came after the collapse of the Lost Worlds Project, and fell into the category of trying to rescue the mod in parts: we had a Mars destination and lots of cool Barsoom units made for it, so I decided to try to import them onto a stand-alone map. Well, first that meant making a map of Mars, then figuring out where water would have been if Mars had oceans. The Barsoom Mod is still a work-in-progress (some of you saw previews of it in the now-defunct Workshop I had at Storm over Civ), but these biqs and terrain were the result of those first efforts.


There are two biqs in the rar file, each a different map of Mars, using the same terrain files: "Mars", which is the map of Mars as it is, i.e., dry, and "Mars Wet", which is a map of mars with oceans and lakes. Neither map has trees, jungles, or marshes on it, but those pcx files are included so you can add them in the editor, if you'd like. Both maps include a 9x9 tile Mt. Olympus Volcano (seen in the banner and in a screenshot below), which is my pride and joy. It's assembled from the Volcanos file, so if you want to use this terrain with a different map, you'll want to switch the 'Volcanos' and 'Volcanos unreformed' pcx files, both found in the terrain folder.

Also: I made 'cracked earth' rivers so that dry mars could have irrigation.

I have to thank Rick FGS for his water and desert terrains, both of which I recolored for this map, and a particular thank-you goes to Ares de Borg, who found the perfect texture for the Martian 'grassland' for me one day a few years ago to kick this off. Pounder's extremely useful Canyon floodplains are also used on these maps.

Known issues: there's a mismatch in the oceans that I spotted as I was uploading this (of course) - I'll fix and update that as soon as possible. I'll post the fixed file here.


So, the download is HERE. enjoy.

4/13/14 Update: Updated craters, mtn forests, Mtns, Volcanos, and water files. See post #18 for more info.

4/19/15 Update: Tundra irrigation fix, alternative roads. See post #25 for more.

 

[Balthasar]

So now: some screenshots!


My gorgeous Mt. Olympus, from a distance -


And at normal zoom -


This is the Mars Wet terrain with trees, jungle, and marshes added:



This is the whole Dry Mars map:


And this is the Wet Mars map:

 

[Civinator]

Wow, that is one of the most exotic terrains ever done for Civ 3 - and the Mt. Olympus: Outstanding!

 

[Ozymandias]

Wow, that is one of the most exotic terrains ever done for Civ 3 - and the Mt. Olympus: Outstanding!

I can only enthusiastically concur! - And now must restrain myself (with already limited time) from working on too many Civ projects at once ...

-z

 

[Gojira54]

Balthasar, your work is always unique and breathtaking!

 

[Wolfshade]

Great work - as always, Balthasar, sir!

 

[numbersix]

thats a launching pad for civ: solar system. haha or you are a few decades early!

 

[Blue Monkey]

The whole thing is up to your usual standards of awesomeness.

The Barsoom Mod is still a work-in-progress

Neither map has trees, jungles, or marshes on it,

These are the flora featured in the third image?

Both maps include a 9x9 tile Mt. Olympus Volcano (seen in the banner and in a screenshot below), which is my pride and joy. It's assembled from the Volcanos file

Wonder how it looks during an eruption? Did you experiment with a version with snow on the upper slopes? Imagine that would be tricky to do on a multi-tile feature.

Also: I made 'cracked earth' rivers so that dry mars could have irrigation.

Are those the feature surrounding the hills/mountains in the first image?

 

[nick0515]

You are the master, Balthasar! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Samez]

Love the map!
Sadly there is a massive lack of future city graphics
Does someone know if the cities graphics of SMAC are also still out there?

 

[Balthasar]

The whole thing is up to your usual standards of awesomeness.

Thank you Blue. And thanks to everyone who's posted similar comments.

[A]re the flora featured in the third image? Are those the [Cracked earth rivers] surrounding the hills/mountains in the first image?

Yes and yes.

Wonder how it looks during an eruption? Did you experiment with a version with snow on the upper slopes? Imagine that would be tricky to do on a multi-tile feature.

Yup, it is. But, lucky for you, I had already started working on another version of the 'Mons Olympus' with snow on it, and your question inspired me to finish it (true story: discovered last night that Vuldacon was also simultaneously and separately working on a project inspired by a random Blue Monkey comment. Go figure.).

Here's a screenshot:

And here's a copy of that file, if you want it: View attachment Volcanos.pcx

Re: eruption: yeah, looks a little weird. I think of it as steam vents.

 

[Balthasar]

Oops. double post..

But I can take this opportunity to answer Samez:

Love the map!
Sadly there is a massive lack of future city graphics
Does someone know if the cities graphics of SMAC are also still out there?

Yes! A long time ago I posted a file to the database called Alpha Centauri terrain & cities & stuff which is just a bunch of SMAC files I found online one day. Look there.

Let's see: Here are some Cities I made for an early version of the Lost Worlds Mod -

View attachment rROMAN.pcx SMAC graphics-based city

View attachment ROMANWALL.PCX Uses SMAC force fields

View attachment rAMER.PCX Sim City 2000 'Moonbase' graphics

View attachment rMIDEAST.PCX Holes-R-Us. Matches mars terrain.

 

[Samez]

Thanks! Exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Blue Monkey]

And there is also our dormant but not dead project to make some Barsoomian cities.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Great stuff, buddy!

 

[Vuldacon]

Extraordinary Terrain for the Civ Game and Well Done work Balthasar

 

[wuhjah]

The cracked "earth" is very well done. Mt. Olympus is wonderful. And, I really like the grassland coasts.

Another great terrain set to add to the collection.

 

[Balthasar]

UPDATE: Always something to fix. Today, I fixed the craters, Mountain forests, Mountains, Volcanos, and water files. Just small changes. The main download has already been updated. If you have already uploaded the terrain, you can get all of the changes in this file: View attachment Mars Terrain Update 1.rar


I also made some rougher hills for those of you who prefer a wilder looking landscape. Here's that file: View attachment xhills.pcx

And here's a screenshot comparing the rougher hills (on the right) to the originals:


Enjoy.

 

[ronning]

Awesome.

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

please use a fragmented outcrop for the mountains, anyting else seems ok