Communitas map script

[MortalD]

If vram is a problem for any of you as it is - ow w8, was - for me then try this :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=504495

Work wonders.

Just a side, but in that case sensible input here - or so I believe :]

 

[shaken]

I say pointless, because as far as I can tell, only me and @Qwynn had an "issue" with it.

Hey now, I had an issue with it too! Man it is tough to get any recognition around here amongst these "regulars".

In any case, we have the line of the script to change if we want less atolls, so I'm happy with that.

 

[ExpiredReign]

@knight03

Sorry, you must have been trampled in the rush.

Now I'm about to have a minor rant so look away now if you are squeamish.

Spoiler :

As it is now Atolls are spawning all over the globe.

Putting this aside for the time being, and making the assumption that most of these atolls are in fact isles, lets focus on the benefits.

Looking at 1 map and following the coastline I have the following types of terrain/features:

Terrain/Feature Output Tech required + extra step for output

Coast 1
Coast/Fish 2 [Sailing] + Work Boat
Coast/Pearls 1 + 1 [Sailing] + Work Boat

Plains 1 + 1
Plains/Wheat 2 + 1 [Agriculture] + Worker improvement

Hills 2
Hills/Sheep 1 + 2 [Animal Husbandry] + Worker improvement
+ on all Hills 1 [Mining] + Worker improvement

Jungle 2
Jungle/Bananas 3 [Calendar] + Worker improvement

Grassland 2
Grassland/Cattle 2 + 1 [Animal Husbandry] + Worker improvement
Grassland/Forest 1 + 1
Grassland/Forest/Deer 2 + 1 [Trapping] + Worker improvement
+ on all Forests 1 [Constuction] + Worker improvement

Tundra 1
Tundra/Stone 1 + 1 [Masonry] + Worker improvement

Add to that 'Luxury Resources' may also appear on tiles next to coast and you can then have 1 extra.

Now I haven't listed all the tiles generated on this one map but hopefully it provides enough background for my argument.

Atolls give 2 + 1 straight away.
No need to research anything to unlock an improvement and no need to send a worker/work boat to improve it.
Clearly then that makes them more valuable then any other combination of terrain/feature/resource.

So if we want to provide a site with better tiles there are 2 ways to do it during the map generation process.

First method is as is done in this script, add atolls.
Second method, change that tile from a coast to a land tile with any of the available terrain/feature combos.

Because basically all that is happening now is the number of water/landmass tiles is changing.

In the actual generation of the map if a tile is currently a coast tile the tile next to it can either be:
Ocean = 1
Coast = 1
or any other land tile similar or compatible to surrounding land.

Making it Coast and then giving it an Atoll is just a convoluted way of making it more like a land tile.
Except it has the downfalls of being a water tile.

Maps currently have 1 tile 'peninsulas', or 'bumps' along the coast and it doesn't look odd.
That extra 1 tile gives benefits to any city near it and fits in perfectly with the overall feel.
Taking that 1 tile away, making it coast, and then placing an atoll to provide some value is an odd solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.
How far do we go? Down the track do we start saying tiles 'next to' atolls should have some extra benefit in the same way tiles next to freshwater sources do?

 

[stackpointer]

Okay, so I extracted the atoll graphics from their dds files: http://imgur.com/a/U1bkm

I could only find six dds files:

• fx_atoll_1_base.dds
• fx_atoll_2_base.dds
• fx_atoll_3_base.dds
• fx_atoll_4_base.dds
• fx_atoll_5_base.dds
• sv_atoll.dds

They would probably be pretty simple to edit since they are a simple 2d image and I could try my hand at it but what would you like it to look like?

 

[Anastase Alex]

I personally find that, while this map is amazing as a concept and execution, spending even more time fine-tuning it is contrary to the design objectives stated for CEP. I understand the will to balance said terrain vs another terrain, make X terrain as viable as another etc etc, but I would also love the leaders and policies to be viable, and then perhaps see if atolls should be better than jungle.

But since I am only a consumer in this mod, I have to note that I am grateful for the work done already.

 

[Ahriman]

They would probably be pretty simple to edit since they are a simple 2d image and I could try my hand at it but what would you like it to look like?

All of the existing graphics are modeled to be atolls, with a circular ring and a central lagoon. I'd like to see graphics with much more variety of island shapes, and in particular which used the central space more.

You could have one that was basically a small central circular volcanic island. You could have one with a large ovalish island slightly off center and another smaller one off to the side. You could have some small archipelagoes going NE/SW or vice versa.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Spoiler :

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...f4UeS1OdjF4AOHuoHYAQ&ved=0CDwQ9QEwBA&dur=1292

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...vf4UeS1OdjF4AOHuoHYAQ&ved=0CD8Q9QEwBQ&dur=483

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...&tbnh=186&tbnw=124&start=0&ndsp=9&tx=26&ty=66

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...&tbnh=181&tbnw=166&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=89&ty=76

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...bnh=183&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=10&tx=99&ty=129

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...tbnh=186&tbnw=248&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=151&ty=97

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...tbnh=175&tbnw=234&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=100&ty=55

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...tbnh=178&tbnw=238&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=119&ty=58

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...&tbnh=194&tbnw=214&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=74&ty=53

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...&tbnh=176&tbnw=215&start=0&ndsp=8&tx=76&ty=81

But the most important thing is to get away from the circular shape.
Some could be 2-3 modest sized islands, some could be larger numbers of small islands in some kind of archipelago.

 

[Thalassicus]

@Anastase Alex
I agree with you and plan to move on to other things soon. I'm just about done here. The discussion we're having at the moment is really about Cep, not the map, since only a full mod can change the name or appearance of isles/atolls.

@ExpiredReign
Isles mainly appear in archipelagos. We want the look of island chains. If we changed the isles to land, it wouldn't be an archipelago anymore.

@stackpointer
Wow that's simpler than I thought it would be! I assumed they were actual 3d terrain objects (like hills or mountains) not just textures. I never looked closely. It should be easy to clone parts of the image to change it. Hmm...

 

[Thalassicus]

This is so easy! This one took just 5 minutes. I cut out the main islands of image #2 stackpointer posted, rearranged the pieces, and used brushes to blend the ocean colors. Rearranging parts of the original art will help us match the artistic style of the game. If you're interested in doing more of these stackpointer, the photos ahriman and albie_123 posted are good examples of possible island formations. Just use your imagination.

It would really speed things along if you can figure out how to add them back into the game.

 

[stackpointer]

Ah, I just re-read ExpiredReign's earlier post and noticed some more information I overlooked:

So a question arises. If in the future a new graphic is found to differentiate these small islands from the original atolls. How extensive a rewrite of the code is it to place everything properly.
Can the changes now be implemented to have the tooltips show "Islets" instead of "Atolls". Because having coral atolls all throughout the world is just a bit of a distraction.
I can see the reasoning behind making some coast provide a different set of yields, and I quite like the idea. However the half-measure fix is a bit jarring.

I had a look at what is involved with the atoll graphic. Some DDS files and GR2 file along with some data entries. The DDS I can understand, and at a pinch could probably put together a new graphic but I'm out of depth with the GR2 stuff.

I'm 95% sure that the GR2 (mesh) file is completely flat and if it's not then it should be flat enough that just modifying the DDS (texture) file should not cause the atolls/isles to look weird.

If you're interested in doing more of these stackpointer, the photos ahriman and albie_123 posted are good examples of possible island formations. Just use your imagination.

It would really speed things along if you can figure out how to add them back into the game.

I'll try to figure out a way to add them back into the game since that's within my capabilities. But if anybody else is willing to create some atoll replacement graphics then feel free to do so. However, keep in mind that we can't control the rotation of the image when it is added into the game.

 

[Ahriman]

This is so easy! This one took just 5 minutes. I cut out the main islands of image #2 stackpointer posted, rearranged the pieces, and used brushes to blend the ocean colors

Fantastic. That one looks great. Can the individual pieces be resized too? There are quite a variety of island shapes in the original graphics, so we could get a lot of variety by reorienting and resizing the various pieces.

 

[Thalassicus]

Yes, all that's easy with photoshop. I'm good at image editing... not so good at creating completely new art, hence my interest in re-using existing art.

I can do the artwork if you're willing to find how to add these images to the game stackpointer. That new png I posted above could be a test image you can use. You're probably aware the project's on github to build and test stuff.

 

[stackpointer]

The following sql will delete the old atoll images, but I can't seem to get them to add it in correctly:

DELETE FROM ArtDefine_Landmarks WHERE (ResourceType = 'ART_DEF_FEATURE_ATOLL');

Still a work in progress. Found a tutorial, should be easy from here.

Yes, all that's easy with photoshop. I'm good at image editing... not so good at creating completely new art, hence my interest in re-using existing art.

Don't forget to make the png's background transparent.

 

[Gothic_Empire]

New art assets. Holy crap. The map project just flexed at me. o_o

 

[Gothic_Empire]

I personally find that, while this map is amazing as a concept and execution, spending even more time fine-tuning it is contrary to the design objectives stated for CEP. I understand the will to balance said terrain vs another terrain, make X terrain as viable as another etc etc, but I would also love the leaders and policies to be viable, and then perhaps see if atolls should be better than jungle.

But since I am only a consumer in this mod, I have to note that I am grateful for the work done already.

Very, very few people try to make maps for Civ V. My attempts failed pretty hard. In a game like this, map scripts go a very very long way to improving replayability.

 

[Thalassicus]

@stackpointer
What if we include the art with the same *.dds filenames, and set include in vfs = true? That might override the old art... in case we can't add new art. I don't know if that will work with images. I've only done it for lua files.

Don't forget to make the png's background transparent.

Darn, I must have forgotten to checkmark something with this one. Blargh! Well, at least it's easy to fix. I should have saved the photoshop file. I thought to myself, naww, I won't need the psd.

 

[Gothic_Empire]

@stackpointer
What if we include the art with the same *.dds filenames, and set include in vfs = true? That might override the old art... in case we can't add new art. I don't know if that will work with images. I've only done it for lua files.


Darn, I must have forgotten to checkmark something with this one. Blargh! Well, at least it's easy to fix. I should have saved the photoshop file. I thought to myself, naww, I won't need the psd.

I make a webcomic--sometimes it's even about Civ!--and I've learned to *always* save the psd file.

Always.

 

[stackpointer]

Double post.

 

[stackpointer]

Okay finished. Using this helpful tutorial I was able to import Thal's atoll into the game. Please ignore the white lines and white shading as I must have missed some of the white background when exporting the file to DDS.

Using this sql to delete the five original atoll art assets:

DELETE FROM ArtDefine_Landmarks WHERE (ResourceType = 'ART_DEF_FEATURE_ATOLL');

Then using this sql to add in Thal's test graphic:

INSERT INTO ArtDefine_Landmarks (Era, State, Scale, ImprovementType, ResourceType, LayoutHandler, Model, TerrainContour)
VALUES ('Any', 'Any', 2.4, 'ART_DEF_IMPROVEMENT_NONE', 'ART_DEF_FEATURE_ATOLL', 'RANDOM', 'Atoll_Test.fxsxml', 'True');

Using this code we can add as many atoll graphics as we want and are not limited to just five.

The art assets which all need VFS = true:

• fx_background.dds (shared texture file between atolls)
• fx_atoll_test.dds (actual atoll texture file)
• atoll_test.fxsxml (special xml for graphics, unique per atoll type)
• atoll_test.gr2 (mesh file, unique per atoll type)

Also need to activate ReloadLandmarkSystem which causes the farm crash bug. So this might be getting into the more trouble than its worth category though a fix for it is rumored to be in the fall patch (even if its been around for years). Whoward has a work around though the farm replacement looks drastically different.

Thal, did you eventually want me to submit this through github? I guess I should finally learn how to install and use a VCS on windows...

 

[albie_123]

Is that weird looking ring around the islands also due to transparency issues?

 

[stackpointer]

Is that weird looking ring around the islands also due to transparency issues?

Yup, I did a rush job in removing the white background since I was mostly worried about the code to get the art imported in the first place.