A new map script (MountainCoast)

[Grey Fox]

I agree, it is annoying having maps in the map script list which aren't maps.

 

[Seven05]

Speaking about the splitting of the map script in two files. I would prefer an all in one version too. It's irritating for people to see OALTerrain listed under map scripts without it being a map script at all. Is there a reason for doing it the way you did it or is it only for clarity reasons?

I had to add a non-mapscript-file to the public maps folder back ago when FlavourMod "1" was up-to-date, but there wasn't another way of doing it at this time. I never really liked it, but I needed the functions in there for many map scripts. But this should be different here I suppose.

You should be able to just put the support file in the Python folder without any problems.

Since there is no ways of telling civ4 which files to ignore for its map scripts list, you should maybe rethink your splitting decision. Just a suggestion.

Actually, there is but it's not really practical. You can set the mods ini file to not allow public maps and put mod-specific scripts in the private maps folder and they will be the only ones to display. I know, not really what you meant but it works.

 

[Jean Elcard]

You should be able to just put the support file in the Python folder without any problems.

I know, and I should probably do this in FlavourMod. This complaint came from a more general community point of view rather than my own.

Actually, there is but it's not really practical. You can set the mods ini file to not allow public maps and put mod-specific scripts in the private maps folder and they will be the only ones to display. I know, not really what you meant but it works.

Nice to know. Always wondered what these private maps folders were for.

 

[lonkero173]

Another good point, I actually never noticed the extra script showing up in the map selection (haven't changed the map script I'm using in quite some time...) and forgot about that behaviour (that was the reason that weird test file some way back had the obfuscated file extension). Now that you mention this I'll have to seriously consider putting them back together.
The main reason for keeping them separate at the moment is just clarity, since its much easier to have the stuff only civ cares about in its own file. Earlier on I had more reasons, but now I know a bit more about python and can work around the issues I had at that stage (this script is most of my experience with python...)

@Seven05
You mean the "Assets/Python" folder?

 

[Seven05]

@Seven05
You mean the "Assets/Python" folder?

Yep, that's the one

 

[Bartholomew]

Am I the only one who thinks there are too many rivers on these maps? Gads, they're everywhere! I don't feel like I noticed this as much a few versions back.

 

[PanzerWolf]

Nice map, must try this! Like the LotR-style of it. But where is Aman?

 

[lonkero173]

I haven't made any changes to the river system in quite a few versions, the underlying logic has been the same since somewhere around 0.9.2 or so. The only thing I've changed is the translation from my own description of rivers (middle of tile) to civs version (between tiles). However, the amount of rivers is affected by the amount of hills on the map. High terrain spawns more river starts (the rivers starting locations are mostly deterministic) The idea is that in mountainous terrain rivers will quickly converge on one another and thus keep the actual amount of rivers about constant, but it doesn't work too well always...
If you want to tweak the amount of rivers in general, see line 149 in OALTerrain.py and reduce the value of "self.RIVER_SEED".

@PanzerWolf
I said its inspired by the "Middle Earth" maps Never seen one of Aman....

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Good to see that all of the major bugs with the early versions of the mapscript got worked out. Great map, definitely one of my favorites .

 

[lonkero173]

About time I say something again:

I've been a bit busy coding other things (currently on a basic python course (boring as hell, took it too late...) as well as a more advanced java course that produces a not entirely inconsiderable amount of work. I also have another personal project I've been working on), and my tolerance for coding is somewhat limited (A couple of hours of fruitless bughunting is extremely frustrating)

I am currently working on the warping version of the map script, and I have finally made considerable progress on the river system that has been holding me back. It is still a bit buggy (doesn't do what I want it to do but still seems to produce decent results), and the transition from my description of rivers to civ's version isn't done yet. Nevertheless some sort of release shall be in order soon enough (maybe even today, depending on how many bugs I manage to produce....)

Also as per popular demand the script is back in one file, I did this some time ago but somehow never managed to release it (and I don't have any copies of it around). The script is now about 2.3 k lines long, so at this rate I'll catch up with "Erebus" soon enough .

However before a release there is one more thing I would like to get some more opinions on: What type of landmasses shall I produce? Small continents tend to be pretty boring (as in simple), a pangea could maintain most of the detail in the original version but even that suffers. Even an oceanless variant would be possible. Does anyone think I should have the size of the map change when producing a warping version?

 

[Jean Elcard]

Also as per popular demand the script is back in one file, I did this some time ago but somehow never managed to release it (and I don't have any copies of it around).

Thanks a lot and as you are probably more familiar with civ4's river system than me I have a question for you: Given I know a certain plot and I know it's adjacent to one or more rivers. Is there a way to find out at which side which of the rivers is flowing and even more important in which direction? I was abit scared of all this after taking a look at the c++ code for rivers. Thanks for any help.

However before a release there is one more thing I would like to get some more opinions on: What type of landmasses shall I produce? Small continents tend to be pretty boring (as in simple), a pangea could maintain most of the detail in the original version but even that suffers. Even an oceanless variant would be possible.

Personally I like pangaeas and continents with a few smaller continents and islands scattered around. Having to go everywhere by ship is just annoying.

Does anyone think I should have the size of the map change when producing a warping version?

Nope, big enough already. You'll run into MAFs if you increase it much more.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

re: landmasses. I prefer to have a few (2 or 3) large continents separated by ocean, and some smaller islands close to the big continents, separated only by coast ( so you can reach those smaller islands via early boats) . perfectworld is a nice example.

 

[lonkero173]

Ahh, rivers....
In case you havent found this one allready:
http://civilization4.net/files/modding/PythonAPI/

I think these ones will do the job:

1. CardinalDirectionType getRiverNSDirection()
2. CardinalDirectionType getRiverWEDirection()

(
-1 = NO_CARDINALDIRECTION
0 = CARDINALDIRECTION_NORTH
1 = CARDINALDIRECTION_EAST
2 = CARDINALDIRECTION_SOUTH
3 = CARDINALDIRECTION_WEST
4 = NUM_CARDINALDIRECTION_TYPES
(these are defined somewhere in the python headers)

also:
BOOL isNOfRiver()
(probably also isWOfRiver())


Those are member functions of the CyPlot, I don't know about specifics but I assume you can figure out exactly what they do fast enough. Personally I have never had a need to find out anything other than whether a river is present at all (flood plains), and there are only 2 functions for setting them that I know of.

And btw I'm not too surprised that the river code is scary, its painfull enough to deal with something that uses a different coordinate system from the rest of the map even in simple cases....youve seen all the river bugs I've had....

Edit: Gekko managed to post while I was typing this

Sounds like I'll add a drop down menu to select the number of continents. I'll keep small islands popping up the usual way. And I probably wont get guaranteed coastal areas to connect them. Getting anything guaranteed in a more less random map is pretty painful, especially if you want them to appear somewhat natural (a straight line of coast in the middle of an ocean is not a problem, but that looks bloody ridiculous)

 

[Jean Elcard]

Ahh, rivers....
In case you havent found this one already:
http://civilization4.net/files/modding/PythonAPI/

Thanks, I know about the this site. Couldn't work without it, even though it's not containing all available functions.

Personally I have never had a need to find out anything other than whether a river is present at all (flood plains), and there are only 2 functions for setting them that I know of.

The same is true for me. Never had to use anything else than isRiver or isRiverSide in the past. I think I won't get around looking at the code more closely and running some tests to find out, what the functions you've mentioned above are doing exactly. The big goal is to find all plots around the estuary mouth of a river (higher chance for marsh) and only those. I'm pretty close to that goal, but there are some small bugs I can't get around with my current level of knowledge. Any way, thanks for your help.

 

[lonkero173]

My script does something similar, but I never bothered to get that deeply into the subject. I just multiply the moisture level by the number of adjacent water tiles (riverside included) when considering a tile for marsh placement. Also IRC I do this on the "script" side of things, so rivers are considered to be in the middle of plots. Works well enough for river mouths, and occasionally adds some marsh in a wet river bend etc...

 

[lonkero173]

Fresh version is up, works but balance is probably still way off and continents arent too pretty, will work on it more soon enough...

Getting decent continents turned out to be much harder than anticipated, thus the little delay. The script wasn't made with continents in mind so I'm pretty much just trying to bludgeon it to shape, with varying results.
Also continents have a bad tendency to grow together.

 

[arcticnightwolf]

amazing mapscript ... I like it very much

 

[lonkero173]

Once again, I got frustrated by a couple of things about my script, and thus updated it a bit.

The new version is mostly a balance fix, with less plains and less hills on those plains. Hills in general are more plentiful but less clustered together. The amount of grassland has increased somewhat.

 

[UNIT 666]

A non-weird Erebus! Just what I've wished for...

Now, I only have one question: does this mapscript work with Fall Further or Fall Further Plus? (Sorry if this has been asked - and answered - before!)

 

[Valkrionn]

It does indeed... One of my favorites. This, and ErebusContinent.