Editing the starting situation?

[killerkebab]

I've noticed in some mods, such as Nerfcothon's WASP (I might have spelled that wrong, if so I am sorry ) that the starting map is slightly altered - forests replace some jungles, moved resources, etc. How does one go about changing it?

I've tried opening the scenario in worldbuilder but that doesn't really work, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it wrong or if I'm lacking some tools.

 

[dragodon64]

Open the starting map (or the map from any other stage) and make whatever changes you want with WB (including cities, resources, terrain, etc) delete all the starting units (those civs will spawn with double units if you don't), then save it with some easy to remember name (ex: 3000BC Altered). Then, when you load it up (making a shortcut for that save may be a good idea) it should be the map you created.

 

[Ready_set_go]

That's how I would do it, then save it as a seperate scenario. There are some things that are in the python, like the Resources. You would have to mix it in, and do things like that.

 

[Cethegus]

You can also edit the maps with a notepad program but that's a bit harder for a newcomer.

 

[killerkebab]

I understand the resources.py file and how it works, I was just looking to change some cities in the 600AD/3000BC starts to see how gameplay would be affected. Mainly stuff like Edinburgh instead of Inverness and other such changes.

 

[Ready_set_go]

Is Edinburgh landlocked?

 

[killerkebab]

No. From looking at a map of Scotland I'd say Edinburgh should be 1 tile South of Inverness - however the city name map refers to this spot as Dundee. My quick fix was to settle an independent city there (on the cow, though you can move that resource if you want, I'm not sure what it changes to have the resource on the same tile as the city) and call it Dùn Èideann, which will rename correctly once it flips to Britain. The "real" Edinburgh spot according to RFC is on the iron. In my opinion both tiles should refer to Edinburgh and Dundee shouldn't get its own spot

Another thing I wanted to do is ease the large empire penalties (though that requires *.dll recompiling, I think) and change the settler maps (more *.dll modifying) to make the European colonial empires bigger - try and force the AI to be more proactive when it comes to colonies. Is there an easier way to do that?

 

[JimW]

Has anyone had any luck by playing the Vikings and settling in the Grassland/river tile S of Inverness. I tried but the AI won't let me take control of the Brits. I also tried playing the Romans and razing Inverness and settling there...AI would not let me take over the Brits.

Of course (I'm a newb Civ4er), I now realize how lucrative Manchester/Newcastle is as a city between London and Inverness, so maybe moving Inverness off the Fur spot and encroaching down there is a bad idea... (?)

 

[killerkebab]

I can't get the modifications to work. So far I've:
- Started a game as China
- Gone into WB
- Made all the changes I wanted to make
- Deleted all the starting units for China, Arabia, Vikings, Japan
- Clicked "Save" in the top right corner
- Exit to main menu
- Start new game
- Custom scenario
- Load the scenario I saved

Suddenly all the civilization names are "x peoples" (i.e: Briton Peoples, American Peoples), and when I pick a civ (for instance, Britain) and load the game it immediately tells me I've lost in 600AD with a score of 0. Any ideas?

 

[JujuLautre]

Try this method

 

[killerkebab]

Try this method

Sorry I am a bit dense, but I am not sure what you mean. I get the part where I open the map with WB and add an Egyptian lion to every tile where I make changes (like cities, etc - right?), and then I open the map and temporary file in what? Notepad?

On a side note, I managed to get my edited scenario to work in the end, all it required was for me to restart the game and load the edited game. Everything works fine so far.

 

[JujuLautre]

In notepad or any other text editor, sorry if it was not clear; glad yo hear you got your stuff working