City Names and Settler Maps

[Arkaeyn]

Rhye got in touch with me tonight - we've got the new Excel files for doing City Names and Settler Map files. He recommends doing them together - find a settlement and add it to both at once.

I've attached both files, as well as the original RFC name map, in the RAR file. The original map in a v5 file is the old 84x84 map - ignore that, and click on the tabs at the bottom with the civ names on them for the RFC maps.

The old thread with City Names maps has more detailed instructions, as well as some partially-completed maps for the old, larger map, which may prove useful:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=334632


If you're planning on doing a civ, pick it and let us know when you start working on it, so we don't have any duplication of effort. If you only get partially done and have to stop for a while, upload what you've got. Some maps, like the Romans and various Greeks, will almost certainly take more than one sitting.

I'm excited about this! This is probably the most important thing to getting the game to playable testing level.

 

[BurnEmDown]

I did a little bit of Israel's name and settler map, tho the rotated map make it look really weird :S

 

[Arkaeyn]

I once saw a fantastic atlas of maps from various non-north/south perspectives. One that really jumped out at me was one of Japan, Korea, and eastern China from just off the east coast of Japan, so that Japan was huge in the foreground. I thought some of them would make great Civilization maps.

I've noticed, sadly, that the Internet can find lots of bunches of things, but it's short on variety of cool maps. At least, in my experience. No "Google Ancient Maps" search.

 

[Arkaeyn]

all right, I'm gonna put in some Roman names.

EDIT: Actually, I think this'll work better if I put mountains in. Should be easier for everyone with that.

 

[Arkaeyn]

There's a new .rar in the top message. It's got the small Israel changes, and mountains added to both templates to help out.

 

[Steb]

Great! I'm going to do Carthage and Phoenicia again... eventually. But I'd like to know how exactly are "Unwanted colonies" (allowed or not) different from "Forbidden"?

 

[Arkaeyn]

That's a question for Rhye, I suppose.

 

[BurnEmDown]

I'm guessing forbidden means the AI will never ever settle that location and unwanted means it's the last place he'll try to settle, but there's still a chance he'll settle there.
BTW Arkaeyn do we need to re-do the warmaps as well? If so then I suggest starting right away.

 

[Arkaeyn]

We'll only need to redo the war maps if we change the map in any significant fashion.

 

[Rhye]

Unwanted comes in two levels: the upper one, above 60, means that though the spot is historically accurate, it's not very good for gameplay, so it's secondary to other better ones. The one blow 60 means that it's more unwanted, and *probably* AI won't settlle there, if there's other room available.
Forbidden means that AI is told to never ever dare to settle there (though sometimes it disobeys, actually...).
When these values are assigned smartly, they can fix a lot of problems (think about how can Portugal and Netherlands survive in RFC...)

No need to rewrite the AIwars maps. But for settlers and city names, it's necessary to have a stable version of the map.

 

[Arkaeyn]

The city and settler maps have been updated with the map changes to Greece and Italy. The new ones are attached to the first message in the thread.

 

[Arkaeyn]

I'd like to move the Roman spawn point a square to the north - anyone know where I can find those coordinates?

 

[Krzowwh]

Here are my attempts at the Hittites and Etruscans. I'm not an expert on it, so take it with a grain of salt, but it's something to go by.

 

[Rhye]

Roman to the north? That will counter compensate the benefit of stretching Italy - bringing it closet to Etruria again

 

[Arkaeyn]

The capitals would be closer, but there'd be relatively more room in either direction. It's more an accuracy thing - when doing the city names, the Romans are now spawning where I have Capua - and I guess they'd initially been spawning where I have Neapolis!

 

[Krzowwh]

I hope is not too forward, but I assumed the Romans would be at 19, 29 and Etruscans at 18, 33. Veia and Roma are only 16 km apart, so they should be at the same plot.

 

[fdgsgds]

Yes, well the Romans actually try to flip the Etruscan capital.

 

[Arkaeyn]

19,29 seems like it should be Neapolis, not Roma. The river could be moved to demonstrate that, I think. I wanted to do Roma at 19,31 under the new map. It's currently 19,30

Flip zones are one of the biggest problems with the scenario at the moment, I think. Any cramped civs in Italy or Greece or Israel/Phoenicia have flip issues. That said, Etruria and Rome have their own problems beyond that.

 

[Krzowwh]

Wait...
Why would Neapolis be on the Roman settler map?
Isn't Pompeii the most closest to Romans in the area?
Else, move Velathri to 17, 33 and adjust the rest.

 

[Arkaeyn]

Neapolis was a major Roman city for centuries, regardless of who founded it.