[Civ2] Better Terrain Graphics for MGE (from Eivind's Colonialism scenario)

[Blake00]

Hey guys,

Does anyone know/remember what terrain pack was used for Eivind’s Colonialism Age of Discovery scenario? Or did he do all that himself?

http://sleague.civfanatics.com/index.php?title=Colonialism_-_The_Age_of_Discovery

I've read his readme file and it lists credits for pretty much everything except terrain lol!




I ask as it makes a great terrain pack (with some modifications) for regular vanilla Civ2 games too as it's so full of life and colour. However if Eivind simply took it from some popular terrain pack that everyone was using back in the day then I'd love to know where it is and who made it so I can properly credit them in my video series.

 

[Blake00]

From recent discussions elsewhere it sounds like Eivind mixed and matched terrain from multiple different talented authors such as Exile, Favoured Flight and Fairline to build his terrain set for Colonialism. If you see your work in there please let me know and I’ll add your name to the credits!

These were the changes I made in the above screenshots:

• Brought back in default vanilla Civ2 special resource icons and replaced everything other than Eivind's wheat.
• Replicated Eivind's mountain gold special resource over to iron slot and coloured reddish.
• Brought back in default vanilla Railroads.
• Brought across skinny cream coloured roads from John Ellis’s Hellas.

Just made these changes too:

• Replaced mountain special resource icons with ones from Jesus Balsinde's Alba De America.
• Merged John Ellis’s light skinny roads with vanilla roads to ensure they still have the darker bits (otherwise roads disappear in desert tiles). Recoloured darker bits to better match terrain set.
• Switched the very dark grey forest base out for dark green version of Eivind's grassland.
• Lightened the black bits in the jungle to better match terrain set.

Think I'm almost happy with it now... so will probably release soon as a 'Better Terrain Graphics for MGE' mod in case others wanna use it too.

 

[Volsang]

It looks absolutely awesome.

 

[PerfectWay]

@Blake00, your mod looks great, did you think to share it? It would be really cool to be able to play with this mod Thank you.

 

[Blake00]

Ah yes.. this one lol.. I'm taking so darn long with my super mod projects that a bunch of these unreleased 'mini-projects' are stuck waiting too. I tell ya what.. since I've had interest here & elsewhere, plus I've already released a lot of my other mini projects (by demand and so they don't get stuck behind the big ones), I'll go and do a early test release of this one ASAP too.

Looking at my files I've made a couple more changes since my last post...

1. I've replaced the mountain special resource icons (Gold & Iron) again this time using bigger nicer ones from Jakob Kemi’s Civ2 Government Patch mod.
2. I've also experimented with using a more traditional dark blue ocean from Morten Blaabjerg's Hammer of the North Scenario (that still uses the same lovely golden shorelines), however I can't make up my mind on which I prefer now as I do still like the old lighter one. What do you guys think? Maybe I'll just include both in the mod release.

Old:



New:

 

[PerfectWay]

Great news! I will be very happy to see this mod
1. The new mountain resources definitely look better.
2. The blue ocean looked fresh and different compared to the vanilla version. But still the lakes and bays with it look like rivers, it seems to me Maybe I'm a conservative, but I'm leaning towards the new blue ocean.
Hope the feedback is helpful

 

[Blake00]

Okay here it is! An early test release is attached to this post in a 7zip file. I'll do a bigger more formal release later so for now install instructions, credits & more info are all in the included readme pdf file.

Final points:

• In the end I decided to keep the lighter blue as being so different to the water blues we normally see it is indeed eye catching, but I've included the darker blue in a alternative file people can use too.
• I've also added in my darker GUI from my old unreleased Test of Time graphics for MGE mod as I find the darker GUI helps bring out the colours even more (much like it does in ToT).
• Below are some more screenshots using the darker GUI as well as 'slim GUI' view mode from FoxAhead's excellent Civ2UIA Patch tool to show off even more of the world.
• If anyone is looking for a really different & bigger vanilla Civ2 experience I recommend pairing up this mod with Denis Kozhin's Super Earth Map, as just look in the pictures below how massive north America is compared to the regular earth map, and the new colourful terrain makes you really feel like you're heading out into this huge wilderness.

Updated screenshots showing water variants:




24/07/2023 Replaced download at 4 hits. Updated with better documentation.

 

[PerfectWay]

@Blake00, I tested today, looks great. Thanks a lot!