Better Desert, Floodplain and Bonus Grassland through the use of tnt.pcx

Midnight Piper

The Final Tyrant
Joined
Jun 23, 2004
Messages
224
Location
Down the road, near the end of time
This is a Mod for Sn00pys Terrain. It creates better floodplains and rocky desert, as well as a bonus grassland and some minor adjustment to plains. This mod should be used with the Alternate Marsh, FloodPlain and Rivers/Delta for Sn00pys Terrain for best color matching.

Premise: tnt.pcx is a file that is supposed to be used for the 'Show Food and Shields' Options in your game options. It contains a variety of three 'overlay' tiles that are placed over standard terrain tiles - the purpose is to show you at a glanc exactly how much food & shields that terrain is worth. I've always played with the option turned off. This mod completely replaces the contents of that file.

What It Does: tnt.pcx gives us three 'overlay' tiles that drop in over each base terrain type. This means that features on the base terrain that would normally result in obvious 'blockiness' and repetition can be given three 'variations' - identical tiles next to each other can be made to look different. Caution is necessary in working with the tnt.pcx file - anything it drops onto the map will sit *over* player irrigation, so features should include only those things that will persist or limit worker activity.

Summary of the changes I've made to tnt.pcx:

first row - grassland tiles - Clear (no obvious beneficial terrain features)
second row - bonus grassland tiles - Small Copses of trees from the new forestgrassland - makes the transition from forest to grassland gentler, less abrupt. When irrigated or mined (with the 'community' mines anyway), they take on the look of orchards or town greenery.
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 that provide a base rocky pattern and rocker coastline.
fifth row - tundra tiles - A range of landform variation and rocky debris, primarily mixed reds & browns. Requires altered versions of XTGC.pcx.(added with version 1.1)
last row - floodplain tiles - Ox-bow lakes (a lake or pond formed from a disused meander of the river)

Reminder: When using this mod, you must play with the game option "Show food and shields" ON.

EDIT Aug 31, 2004: Updated with version 1.1 - the desert terrain has been detailed a little, removing some black speckling. Added my Tundra (with snoopy's fjord's) and included a new tundra overlay. Previews in posts #2,#3, #4, and #15 updated.

EDIT Sep 9, 2004: Updated with version 1.2 - modified the tundra overlay for a 'greener' look, sample in post #25.

File: MPs tnt Pack v1.2

This first sample shows the Nile River floodplain and the nearby desert from Rhye's 180x180 Worldmap with this mod installed and active:
 

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This second example is a good cross-section of desert, plains and flood-plains:
 

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And finally a look at the bonus grassland:
 

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@Midnight Piper
I love what you've done with the tnt file, but I ran into a minor problem and was hoping you could help me figure it out. When I click the checkmark for the 'Show Food and Shields' option, the LM terrain displays with a diamond instead of the actual terrain. Any idea how to fix this?
 
Sweet. Thanks Winter.
 
Glad you folks like this. Looks like I might still need to clean up some of the darker outlines in the desert terrain; they seem to come out as black specks... other than that problem, I'm pretty happy with what we have here. Still wondering if there aren't terrain features that would benefit tundra or grassland, or a better feature for plains.
 
Midnight Piper said:
Glad you folks like this. Looks like I might still need to clean up some of the darker outlines in the desert terrain; they seem to come out as black specks... other than that problem, I'm pretty happy with what we have here. Still wondering if there aren't terrain features that would benefit tundra or grassland, or a better feature for plains.
You could mix Tundra with some Taiga perma-frost soil- btw. most people would depict Tundra as a snowy terrain (fair enough since civ3 doesn't offer season changes). In reality though the actual colour of would be a light brownish tone (Tundra) with green-redish grass bushels (as the tundra is basicaly the artic steppe. Taiga bares a baish-brown soil.
 
W.i.n.t.e.r said:
You could mix Tundra with some Taiga perma-frost soil- btw. most people would depict Tundra as a snowy terrain (fair enough since civ3 doesn't offer season changes). In reality though the actual colour of would be a light brownish tone (Tundra) with green-redish grass bushels (as the tundra is basicaly the artic steppe. Taiga bares a baish-brown soil.

Piper,

Have you got the extra's from PTW, the winter terrain folder has snow covered hills (xhills.pcx). Maybe they could be used to add some changes in elevation. They look like they may even be close to the colours you used.

They also have others including frozen rivers, too bad you can't mix rivers (or can you :nya: , maniacal laugh.)
 
:eek: Ever been really surprised when someone points out something obvious, something you had been missing, right there in front of you?

We might get some terrain features for tundra after all...
 
With the exception of the houses I REALLY like this. You have taken tnt to whole new level - much better than my little improvement... Keep up the good work.

I had done some minor terrain improvements a LONG time ago, and up until the past month never felt compelled to change them. You and a couple of other people here have finally forced me to replace my own improvements with yours.
 
Hehe, no worries then, the houses are part of my terrainbuildings set, not the tnt overlays set :)
 
:bounce: Much as I did just a minute ago with Pounder's reefs I must now threaten you to either make a version for Rhye's terrain, or else I will bounce up and down asking repetedly within my own home where you will not have to listen to it. :bounce:
 
Okay, updated to version 1.1.

@Stonebear: I might consider that, if Rhye doesn't beat me to it. I understand he's already adapting the tundra for use in his terrain set. For the time-being my attention is going to be filled with mountain terrain...
 
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