DOT-mapping is amazing

[Pantastic]

I had always heard of people talking about dot-mapping, and thought it was cumbersome and a waste of time. I mean, I can just look at the map and see where I want a city, why bother with paint? But in a recent game I decided to do one to ask for city placement help, and it was amazing.

When I considered placing a far out city to sieze land, I didn't have to kind of guess where I wanted the in-between one and find out later I wasted a resource. When my settlers came out, I knew exactly which spots to send them to, there wasn't and dithering over whether to put the city here or one space west. When I spotted an enemy settler party, I knew how much to worry about them based on whether they were near 'my' spots.

For anyone who's not dot-mapping, give it a try - I found it makes colonization and deciding what to keep and raze in a war much easier, way more than I would have expected.

 

[Kelvenor]

How do you DOT map?

 

[martin026]

How do you DOT map?

Do you mean how to actually dot map, or conceptually dot map. If you mean how to actually do it, take a screen shot (probably with grid lines and resource indicators on). I think you hit print screen and it will save it to your screen shots directory in your CIV folder. Then open it in a program like paint and have at it. I may have left some steps out, but it is pretty easy and a quick forum search should give you the step by step in more detail, that is how i learned.

 

[futurehermit]

You can do it in game too. If you have a scroll wheel mouse just scroll out and your options in the bottom right hand corner of the screen will change. One of them lets you draw on screen. Very helpful for dotmapping and other things like planning out invasions, etc.

Also, alt-s lets you put in map-markers. Very handy for little reminder notes to yourself, especially if you are playing out the game in multiple sittings.

 

[Nickzilla]

I do think that dot mapping seems like a bit of a waste of time on the difficulties I play, but if I can do it all in game, then I may give it a go.

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

I love dot-mapping, especially when I'm playing one of those builder games and I just want to settle cities and not have a challenge. I do it in-game though, which is a little cumbersome because it's hard to see the terrain properly from satellite view.

 

[Polycrates]

If you hit alt-s in-game, you can place a marker on any tile (without the whole zooming out thing), which is great for mapping out future cities as well as marking a specialisation for existing cities.

 

[Nickzilla]

I just tried dot mapping in game, and it's pretty much impossible unless I'm doing something wrong. To be able to draw on the map, you have to zoom too far out to be able to draw along the tiles accurately.

 

[Harbourboy]

Put it this way: I have never ever dot-mapped. I also have a dismal 10% win record in GOTM. A possible conclusion you might draw from this is that a lack of dotmapping may be contributing factor to my lack of success. So it's certainly worth a try (although I'm still too lazy to do it).

 

[Levgre]

I just tried dot mapping in game, and it's pretty much impossible unless I'm doing something wrong. To be able to draw on the map, you have to zoom too far out to be able to draw along the tiles accurately.

did you put on the tile grid?

 

[Pantastic]

I don't try to do it in-game, I don't think the tools for it are very good. I just take a screenshot, then open it in paint and start marking it up. Usually I save one or two in-progess shots since paint doesn't have a good way to take back markings. Once I'm done I save it an leave it open so I can refer back to it as I found/take cities, especially if I'm focusing on a war and don't want to stop my fighting to figure out if this is one to keep or ditch.

 

[Nickzilla]

did you put on the tile grid?

Yeah, I always have it on.

It seems as though the distinctions between the tiles just vanishes when you zoom out to the point where you can draw on the map.

Maybe it's because I have my graphics turned right down...

 

[cripp7]

they should have that option built-in. while in worldview, like where you can draw the lines, have a dot-map button. So you don't have to draw a line by line

 

[Eunomiac]

I just tried dot mapping in game, and it's pretty much impossible unless I'm doing something wrong. To be able to draw on the map, you have to zoom too far out to be able to draw along the tiles accurately.

I'm not one to complain in the abstract, but honestly, this has to be one of the most frustrating oversights in Civ IV design. Every time I try to dotmap in the Strategy Layer, it blows my mind that the very moment you're able to access the "Strategy" Layer, all the important tactical information vanishes from the map!

It's like military officers planning an invasion, and throwing a tablecloth over the map before they start plotting troop movements. Huh-wha..?!

 

[Kelvenor]

Yeah i use to dot map in game...never did the screen shot trick... thanks for the info

 

[jray]

Yeah, I always have it on.

It seems as though the distinctions between the tiles just vanishes when you zoom out to the point where you can draw on the map.

Maybe it's because I have my graphics turned right down...

Just use Alt-S and make signs instead of messing around with the strategy layer. It's a little less convenient in BTS since they changed it so that you exit sign-mode after each sign you make, but it's still pretty easy once you get the rhythm. As soon as I reveal all the resources (except for later ones like Coal/Uranium/Aluminum), I fill up my entire continent with C#, c, f, m, wi, wa, ws, r, and so on, to indicate where I'd like cities, cottages, farms, mines, windmills, watermills, workshops, and roads (with # to rank desirability of all the city locations). That helps me decide where to settle first and when to raze conquered cities. It also makes worker control easy since I just look for the nearest handy sign, and then delete the sign as soon as I start on the improvement. I'm winning on Emperor now, so it must be working .

You can extend this strategy even further to map out optimal checkerboard chopping patterns. Since forests don't spread diagonally, it's best to chop in a checkerboard and avoid putting roads on the tiles you'll be chopping (to double the chances of forest spreading there). It's great---nowadays I'm getting new forests popping up all the time throughout my empire.

I'm so silly about this that I get absoutely giddy when I get Iron Working. "Oh boy, it's food-counting and sign-making time!!"

 

[Leventis]

Yeah, I always have it on.

It seems as though the distinctions between the tiles just vanishes when you zoom out to the point where you can draw on the map.

Maybe it's because I have my graphics turned right down...

You need to enable Camera Flying mode to see the grid more clearly. To do this, go into your civ .ini file and change the 0 to a 1 on the line where it says Camera Flying mode = 0 or something (if I have this wrong you can check other threads). Then in game, press Ctrl+Alt+F and zoom out however you like.

It also helps if you use Ctrl+B to get rid of the fog so you can see things more clearly.

 

[StuntedAzrael]

It would be great mod if someone could make a city dot-mapper in civ4.

I imagine, it would be a keyboard shortcut. Click it and click somewhere on a map to place it. It would appear on a map at any zoom level covering all tiles in BFC. Ofc, it would have to be very transparent to make it usable or some button on top of the minimap to turn it on/off.

Anyone?