Map making questions

[Yoda Power]

Hi there.

I have some totally noob questions regarding map making.

1) Are there any tools that let me convert images to maps?

2) How do I edit and save maps so that they can be played?

3) How do I set the number of civs and starting locations on a map?

4) How does the river placement tool in World Builder work?

Thanks!

 

[ThorHammerz]

1) You're going to have to be a little more specific than that - do you mean convert directly into a civ-playable map? Probably not. Converting an image into grids/raster? yes.

2) do you mean world-builder custom scenarios?

4) River placement tool is just click on a tile, then click on an adjacent tile to form a river from tile A to tile B.

 

[Yoda Power]

1) Yeah I just want a grid or coastlines or whatever. Then I can fill in all the terrain features.

2) Yes, I'd like to be able to select civilizations and such.

4) I guess so. It's just that when I've tried it in WB I've had a hard time getting the rivers where I wanted them. I thought that maybe there was a guide to getting them right.

Thanks for answering!

 

[ThorHammerz]

1) You can use GIS (Geographic information systems) software, such as ArcGIS (... that is, if you can gain access to them through school or work or whatever... otherwise it's like $20,000 per license .... no, I'm not joking about the price) to convert a jpeg/image > raster > reclassify to only have land/water (for simplicity) > use python to extract the raster as a Numpy array, draw the map based on the array, and then assign whatever custom terrain/feature/bonus types that you want.

Edit: Actually, you can probably extract the array directly from the image (never tried it though, I work mainly with Rasters/shapefiles) using python.


That's the gist of it at least, actual implementation (particularly the python part) is a little more complex due to the ton of other variables involved. If you are unfamiliar with the process, you should take a peek into the map scripts that comes with the game (i.e. Big and Small, fractal, w/e) to get an idea of how the classes and set up and processed.

2) &3) Wouldn't it be nice if WB had StarCraft (even StarCraft 1's) editor's preset scripting modules & functionality?

if you are unfamiliar, you should look into the existing custom mods & scenarios for 3) to get an idea as to how they are set up, and emulate that process in your own product.

4) For setting rivers in WB, I just find it takes a LOT of practice not to screw up in getting diagonal rivers to bend in the right directions and to end up on the coast the way you want them to. Quick tip: when you want to change the direction the river is going without messing up when doing a really small bendy/curvy pattern, click on some random far-away tile to "reset" the A->B relationship between your existing selected tile.

 

[God-Emperor]

1) There is a utility for making a map from a .bmp image file over in the Utilities sub-forum (here is the thread, it was easy to find as it is one of the 3 sticky threads). One pixel in the image = 1 plot on the map. The type of plot and terrain and probably some other stuff is controlled by the color of the pixel. It uses multiple BMP files, something like one for terrain type, one for a height map to get plot type, one for bonuses, one for features, or something like that - rivers are in there somewhere, as are improvements.

2) Use the Save button inside worldbuilder and you get a file ending in .CivBeyondSwordWBSave which is exactly the same thing as a scenario file. You load it via the play scenario menu item.

3) Worldbuilder.

 

[Leoreth]

1) I found the tools around here unsatisfactory, especially if you're trying to convert from an actual map that isn't just green/blue. But it's not too hard to do it by hand: use an image manipulation tool and crop the map to the dimensions you want to have ingame. Most of these tools support overlaying a grid over your image - set it to whatever number of tiles you want your maps to have. Start with an all water map and trace along the coastlines while filling every tile that corresponds to a grid square with mostly land. That usually leads to decent results, depending on the resolution of the map you might only have to make minor adjustments to make geographical oddities like narrow peninsulas or bays look good.

4) Just remember that the river will always show up on the same edges of a tile you click on (I think it is south and east). You always have to click at least two tiles to make it work (the game needs to figure out flow direction), just delete the second one by right-clicking if you don't need it.

 

[Yoda Power]

So I tried using the BMP to WBS twice and failed. In anger I stopped trying. But this afternoon I got it to work. So I did a small handdrawn map of Egypt. But I have two questions:

1: Why doesn't Ivory show up?
2: How do I decide what kind of forest I want to place?

I attached the map and bmp images.

Edit: Solved the ivory issue - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4449959&postcount=121

 

[Yoda Power]

Ok, so I finally made a world map. How do I set it up so all civs appear (that is more than 18 civs)?

 

[God-Emperor]

Ok, so I finally made a world map. How do I set it up so all civs appear (that is more than 18 civs)?

You use a mod that allows more than 18 civs.

 

[Yoda Power]

Are there any that does just that?

 

[God-Emperor]

Are there any that does just that?

Yes.

Here is one that lets you use 50 civs, but it also adds 16 more civs (with leaders, and also UUs and UBs for them I assume) and modified versions of random maps to allow them to have more civs so it isn't really just allowing more civs.

I know there are others. I seem to recall a 35 civ mod that did nothing other than bump up the limit. But that 50 civ mod is the first one I saw. If using that, you can just throw out the extra civs if you don't want them (you should just be able to grab the DLL from the mod and put it into your own mod, ignoring everything else it comes with).

 

[Yoda Power]

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to set starting locations for civilizations on a map, but still be able to choose different leaders?

 

[isenchine]

I sorta answered that question recently here.

You can set starting locations directly in the plot.

When you say different leaders, however, you might mean different civilizations. Because my answer in that thread was that you probably can't have random leaders for fixed civilizations. But these starting locations can be used by random civilizations or by civilizations that you chose in the custom scenario screen.

I'm not totally sure of this as I've never felt the need to use this. It will request a bit of experimentation on your side (and yes we are interested in your findings!)

 

[Fullerene]

Well, it's possible to create map script that reads the map data from scenario file, so that it always creates the same map and lets player to pick leaders and civilizations in the preset locations. See this link http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=315047.

 

[isenchine]

Thanks, Fullerene, I was not aware of this modcomp. I'll certainly give it a try in the near future.

 

[Yoda Power]

Thank you for the answers! ��