Landmark Terrain modding

[Bane Star]

Ok, as a terrain modder, I have been playing with the terrain to get the extra 'pictures' to really work... But to some avail...

Only the 'additional' terrain (overlays) such as mountains, forests and hills will have a decent set of graphics...

For the Land terrain, Desert, Plains, Grassland and Sea, only 1 part of the four is replaced

(for unknowing people, each land is made up of 4 quarters of terrain, north, south east and west, to allow the blending effect you see....)

So if only 1 of four is changed, then only a small 'part' of the terrain will look different.. for example, I am changing the terrain sets to:
Chapparrel, Savanna, Steppe, Coral Reef, Caverns, Snow Covered Hills and Dark Haunted Forests

The last 3 are easy, but the first 3 can be nothing more than a few iconic additions to the normal terrain, such as Spinifex bushes for Chapparrel(red desert with a dash more water), Savanna has longer grasses, the Steppe is a Cold Snowy Grasslands.. so a dash more whites in the greens, and a dark shadow in the waters for reefs, or maybe I'll go actual corals... unsure on that one yet...

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

For people without Conquests, can you tell us what the Landmark terrain is exactly. Is it like a whole new set of terrains able to be added?

 

[Flamegrape]

Originally posted by Mongoloid Cow
For people without Conquests, can you tell us what the Landmark terrain is exactly. Is it like a whole new set of terrains able to be added?

I wish it was like that but it isn't. If it were, then it would be possible to designate specific spots on the map as places to build cities. It would be a great way to control exactly how many cities can be built. Thus it would solve a big problem for ultra-huge Earth maps.

 

[Ozymandias]

How difficult would it be to simply utilize the "normal" mountains for Mountains and the snow-capped moutains for LM Mountains?? (this would allow a tremendous addition to modding simply by allowing LM Mountains that neither roads nor railroads could be built upon).

Thanks,

Oz

 

[embryodead]

@Ozymandias - how diffucult? -> it takes 30 seconds:
in your mod's Terrain folder:
- copy "Mountains-snow.pcx" file and rename it to "LMMountains.pcx"
- delete original "Mountain-snow.pcx"
- copy "Mountains.pcx" and rename it to "Mountains-snow.pcx"

in fact it seems a very good idea to do this

EDIT: oh well actually instead of making pt. 1 and 2 you can just rename "Mountains-snow.pcx" to "LMMountains.pcx", even less work

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by embryodead
@Ozymandias - how diffucult? -> it takes 30 seconds:
in your mod's Terrain folder:
- copy "Mountains-snow.pcx" file and rename it to "LMMountains.pcx"
- delete original "Mountain-snow.pcx"
- copy "Mountains.pcx" and rename it to "Mountains-snow.pcx"

in fact it seems a very good idea to do this

Thanks!

-Oz

 

[Kal-el]

that is a good idea.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by Bane Star
For the Land terrain, Desert, Plains, Grassland and Sea, only 1 part of the four is replaced

This is a simplification. The problem is that LM_Desert for example is spread amongst three separate tile sets. (LM_Grassland is spread across six.) Any change must be spread amongst all of them and be consistent and seamless with any tile that could connect to a regular desert (in addition to the desert tiles themsleves and the LM_Desert tiles). I've been able to get expanses of a given 'base' landmark (in this case LM_Desert) without the quarter open problem you have described, it's just very tricky to do.

 

[Warmaster]

Do LM terrains even appear on random maps? I cant get them to.

 

[embryodead]

btw warpstorm (or anyone?) do you know how to "access" these landmarks:
- marsh pines (both you and sn00py made graphics for it, so?)
- crossed-out marshes (I suppose not, but why not ask)
- "Pine Landmark Forest" (marked so in LMForest.pcx, again I don't see editor using it)
- Snow-capped volcanos (original file looks unfinished, it seems to be never used)

I know that I can cut'n'paste those somewhere else, but I'm more concerned about the blocks themselves, do they have any use or not?

 

[Redking]

Warpstorm or Bane Star...

Could you please explain what the intended purpose of LM Terrain is?

What do you mean by the LM being spread out across the base terrain? Is the LM literally designated to occur on one of three desert tiles or one of six grassland tiles... as some sort of scattergun (pseudo random) overlay?

Thanks for any further elaboration.

 

[tjedge1]

Steppes? In addition to grassland, plains, tundra and so on? That would be awesome. The new terrains are great in C3C, but I'm still not satisfied. I don't get the LM terain at all. If I am correct, you are saying you can change the LM terrain to look like something alse and rename to a new terrain? I know it can have different stats, but with different graphix and names it could be a new terrain all together! Has anyone done this yet? If so please post a link.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by Warmaster
Do LM terrains even appear on random maps? I cant get them to.

No, they have to be manually placed by a map maker.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by Redking
Warpstorm or Bane Star...

Could you please explain what the intended purpose of LM Terrain is?

What do you mean by the LM being spread out across the base terrain? Is the LM literally designated to occur on one of three desert tiles or one of six grassland tiles... as some sort of scattergun (pseudo random) overlay?

Thanks for any further elaboration.

LM terrain is for a map maker to make a specialized subset of a normal terrain type (you can get more daring, but I'll leave that for now).

A good example is the Cedars of Lebanon in the Mesopotamia Conquest. The Phoeniceans start near a special forest named the Cedars of Lebanon that gives an extra shield and an extra commerce when roaded over a normal forest.

I was just using the desert and grassland as examples, most terrain types have a Landmark variant.

Landmark Terrain is alway expliciltly placed by a map maker. It is never randomly placed.

 

[Bane Star]

Originally posted by warpstorm


This is a simplification. The problem is that LM_Desert for example is spread amongst three separate tile sets. (LM_Grassland is spread across six.) Any change must be spread amongst all of them and be consistent and seamless with any tile that could connect to a regular desert (in addition to the desert tiles themsleves and the LM_Desert tiles). I've been able to get expanses of a given 'base' landmark (in this case LM_Desert) without the quarter open problem you have described, it's just very tricky to do.

well everytime I place a LM terrain in my Hand Drawn Mod, It only uses 1/4th of the sq. only when I place more than 1 sq of LMterrain does it possibly make up more... Moreso, the LM terrain sometimes 'bleeds' over into other adjacent sq, This is not true for Mountains, Hills and forests though....



Now.. For getting more, um daring, as Warpstorm points out...

Impassible Mountains vs Passable Mountains...

I have made Most if not ALL of my units (except mr road builder) Wheeled, as a result, Roads become more important for troops, and movement... but heres an added advantage, I mae the LM mountains, Non-roadable, e.g. I set the commerce bonus on LM mountains to 0, which means they cannot get roads, which means that No units (except little mr Road builder) can Cross the LM mountains, Effectvely making them Impassable except for those few units that are Non Wheeled, Exploreres, Adventurerers and of course little mr Road builder

Also, Dark Forests (non Roads) and Steam Pits (replaced LMDeserts, but still testing this one)

 

[tjedge1]

Originally posted by Bane Star
Now.. For getting more, um daring, as Warpstorm points out...

Impassible Mountains vs Passable Mountains...

I have made Most if not ALL of my units (except mr road builder) Wheeled, as a result, Roads become more important for troops, and movement... but heres an added advantage, I mae the LM mountains, Non-roadable, e.g. I set the commerce bonus on LM mountains to 0, which means they cannot get roads, which means that No units (except little mr Road builder) can Cross the LM mountains, Effectvely making them Impassable except for those few units that are Non Wheeled, Exploreres, Adventurerers and of course little mr Road builder

Also, Dark Forests (non Roads) and Steam Pits (replaced LMDeserts, but still testing this one)

That is an awesome idea!

Now I know how to make the terrains in my mod act the way I want them too! Your a genius!

I have been trying to figure out how to get certain LM terrains impassible, but have the regular terrain passible eventually. This can work, and I will do this with my mod. [dance]

EDIT: This thanks is for OZ as well.

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by embryodead
@Ozymandias - how diffucult? -> it takes 30 seconds:
in your mod's Terrain folder:
- copy "Mountains-snow.pcx" file and rename it to "LMMountains.pcx"
- delete original "Mountain-snow.pcx"
- copy "Mountains.pcx" and rename it to "Mountains-snow.pcx"

in fact it seems a very good idea to do this

EDIT: oh well actually instead of making pt. 1 and 2 you can just rename "Mountains-snow.pcx" to "LMMountains.pcx", even less work

Silly question I trust -- is the same true for pine and regular forests?

Thanks,

Oz

 

[embryodead]

Originally posted by ozymandias
Silly question I trust -- is the same true for pine and regular forests?

Not sure what you are referring to? You can't change any rules for pine forests, they are not landmarks, but you can copy'n'paste the tiles, so that the normal forests can have roads, and pines become LM forests with no roads (I use this in my mod, though not with pines but with sn00py "new" forest; it resembles "ancient" forest that has 1 more food but no roads).

@tjedge1
Thank Oz too. I don't want to sound silly, but he posted that idea somewhere up there, though I guess less noticeably

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by embryodead


Not sure what you are referring to? You can't change any rules for pine forests, they are not landmarks, but you can copy'n'paste the tiles, so that the normal forests can have roads, and pines become LM forests with no roads (I use this in my mod, though not with pines but with sn00py "new" forest; it resembles "ancient" forest that has 1 more food but no roads).

@tjedge1
Thank Oz too. I don't want to sound silly, but he posted that idea somewhere up there, though I guess less noticeably

@embryodead -- Thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping for

@tjedge1 -- let's leave out the middleman -- You're welcome!

Back to @embryodead -- You, Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

Best To All,

Oz

 

[tjedge1]

I thank you to OZ then. I will give credit where credit is due. I meant to thank you with that post earlier, but I geuss I was too excited and forgot to mention your name in there. Consider that thanks as meant for you as well.