Civ5 Anticipation. Mapmaking.

[fdgsgds]

Your maps look really nice

Do you do art in Civ? If you were really good, you could change or add tile art to make the maps even more realistic!

 

[Niptium]

Thanks ! But no I don't make art

 

[Ramesses]

This is a first attempt at hexing Niptium's map. It's very small, and not very detailed, but I blame the editor for that.

This map shows the terrain types, no features like forests or mountains.

Green = Grassland
Red = Plains
Yellow = Desert
Cyan = Tundra/Snow
Blue = Ocean/Coast

 

[Niptium]

This is a first attempt at hexing Niptium's map. It's very small, and not very detailed, but I blame the editor for that.

This map shows the terrain types, no features like forests or mountains.

Green = Grassland
Red = Plains
Yellow = Desert
Cyan = Tundra/Snow
Blue = Ocean/Coast

Great work ! I did try that hex emulator but found it to be way too little. If you take Civ IV's Terra map (104X64), this size is only third of it. I should send you the map I gave you with a 104X64 square grid layered on top of it to have a somewhat good idea of the product... I'll do so in the next few days.

 

[Niptium]

The maps will have to be updated since I didn't know at the time that mountaines were impassable...

 

[V. Soma]

civ5 huge map will be 120x84 tiles

 

[Junuxx]

Nice maps Niptium.

I intend to update my map generator for Civ 5, with a heap of new functions, including an automated picture-to-map conversion.

 

[SalmonSoil]

civ5 huge map will be 120x84 tiles

But doesn't a hex map have 3 different variables to scale concerning map size? How is this number worked out?

 

[Junuxx]

No, many people have this intuition, but from a topology point of view, hex maps can be considered to be identical to square tile maps, except that every second column (or row, either one) is shifted half a tile vertically (breaking the connections on one of the diagionals).

Example:

  __    __
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
    \__/

3x3 map.

 

[City Builder]

I'm hoping that Civ V comes with a full blown map editor (or whatever the term in Civ might be for that), which will allow me to paint the surface of the map with it's own brushes, objects, huts etc.

In many games that I've played that have a map editor I get far more enjoyment out of creating my own maps, regardless if I release the map to the public or keep it for myself.

I don't know how it worked in Civ IV, I suppose I should look into it one day in case Civ V has made it to where I require some kind of expensive software like 3DSMax

Edit: Heh, go figure, I just downloaded a pdf guide to maps in Civ IV and tried it out. Seems very simple, but hoping that they've improved performance in World Builder as while I can play almost any modern day really demanding game, even all maxed out, the world builder toolbox is a slug on my computer when trying to use any of the 'brushes' to paint terrain, so sure hope they've managed to improve performance a lot in Civ V world builder.

 

[12agnar0k]

Why are people asking for it to be sent to them, just add this guy on Steam Friends (so you can play a game with him on his map ), he can upload it on the mod hub (it should be for maps / scenarios / mods, all user created content), and then you can download it from there.

 

[warpstorm]

No, many people have this intuition, but from a topology point of view, hex maps can be considered to be identical to square tile maps, except that every second column (or row, either one) is shifted half a tile vertically (breaking the connections on one of the diagionals).

Example:

  __    __
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
 /  \__/  \
 \__/  \__/
    \__/

3x3 map.

You have the grain wrong. The grain in Civ5 hexes is East-West not North-South, but the basic principal still applies.

 

[Junuxx]

@warpstorm: yeah, I noticed that after I finished the sketch but as you said, it's still the same idea

 

[City Builder]

Why are people asking for it to be sent to them, just add this guy on Steam Friends (so you can play a game with him on his map ), he can upload it on the mod hub (it should be for maps / scenarios / mods, all user created content), and then you can download it from there.

Because they're used to the old way?

I am SO looking forward to the mod hub, is that what it's really called?

 

[The_J]

I'm hoping that Civ V comes with a full blown map editor (or whatever the term in Civ might be for that), which will allow me to paint the surface of the map with it's own brushes, objects, huts etc.

It will .
Search for the last gamestop preview, there you can see a screenshot of it .

 

[Seven05]

@ size of maps, I know there were map scripts writen for civ iv you could download, and they were able to make much larger maps then what came stock in vanilla. Also I think Soren(was it he who wrote the maps?) said you could make them as large as you wanted, but it depended on what your pc could handle. I don't know how to do any of that stuff however , and couldn't help you out there. Just thought I'd let you know.

In Civ 4 you defined the map sizes for each map script, or you used the defaults that were defined in the xml files. Both were pretty easy to alter as desired as long as you remembered that in Civ 4 the grid sizes were 1/4th the number of tiles.

I have no idea what Civ 5 will do regarding the 'grid size' but I suspect custom world sizes will be very simple.

For those of you that like to use external editors (e.g. MS Paint) you can even get fancy and write up your map script in LUA to read the terrain from an image file. Since you can apply filters similar to image editors you can take an input of virtually any size and read it in, resize as needed and work with that to start. So if you like doing the drawn maps and come up with a nice way to convert your drawing into a map with hills, rivers etc it would be quite possible to create the one script and then release 'source' images for different maps. Of course images are big files compared to what the map scripts will be but it may be a fun way of doing things. Well, this is assuming they (Firaxis) didn't rip out big chunks of LUA and break it on us.

 

[Niptium]

What I really want to know is does this world builder allow you to plop down starting locations or even let that to be randomized everytime you chose that map?

In Civ 4's world builder you had to plop down the first settlers and warriors of each civs at the start unlike which meant you always knew which civ would start where. In Civ2 you could actually could leave the starting locations up to the game which meant it left open for you to chose how many civ and which civ you wanted in the game in the menu and it would then randomly place those civs. It made building maps a lot funnier because the number of civs, the identity of your neighbours and their starting locations where never the same...

I really missed that in Civ4.

I just want to paint the map and the rest to be radomly decided by the game each time I play my map.

 

[Horserush]

Wow these look great, I'm thinking that's close to what the earth will look like in a few million years

 

[Horserush]

What I really want to know is does this world builder allow you to plop down starting locations or even let that to be randomized everytime you chose that map?

In Civ 4's world builder you had to plop down the first settlers and warriors of each civs at the start unlike which meant you always knew which civ would start where. In Civ2 you could actually could leave the starting locations up to the game which meant it left open for you to chose how many civ and which civ you wanted in the game in the menu and it would then randomly place those civs. It made building maps a lot funnier because the number of civs, the identity of your neighbours and their starting locations where never the same...

I really missed that in Civ4.

I just want to paint the map and the rest to be radomly decided by the game each time I play my map.

I believe this is possible with civ 5's worldbuilder. For instance there is an earth map and it was mentioned by 2kGreg that you could go in and set starting locations for every civ and then load that specific map, otherwise starting locations will be random.

 

[Niptium]

Wow these look great, I'm thinking that's close to what the earth will look like in a few million years

Thanks. When I'll have the maps done, (probably day 1) I will upload them on Steam and indicate the coordinates on here so you guys can download it.

I believe this is possible with civ 5's worldbuilder. For instance there is an earth map and it was mentioned by 2kGreg that you could go in and set starting locations for every civ and then load that specific map, otherwise starting locations will be random.

Thank you for the infos. Very useful.

Someone said that there was a screenshot of the worldbuilder on Gamestop... I went on the site and it was a shopping site...