Map programs

[Caradoc]

I've been using a variety of map programs -- the defaults, the 'ffh' versions of smartmap, and the 'sto' maps -- and find they are populated quite differently. For instance the 'sto' maps start with Barbarian cities, while others don't. And Hill Giants only seem to appear on 'sto' maps. However, I prefer the land masses created by smartmap. I'd like to take a shot at customizing this, but I don't know where it happens. Is it part of the map program, an initialization step in the main program, or something governed in an XML file?

I notice the wolves-everywhere problem has been fixed and the giant Unicorns have been removed in the latest patch. So it would appear that at least part of the placement of animals is happening outside the map program. And then the 'options' mod also tinkers with animals and barbarians.

So where should I start?

 

[BlazeRedSXT]

Well, you are working with a lot of variables here Charles. For basic map-script modding, you might want to take a look at the Tutorial section of these forums, see whats there, or see if there are some pointers from map makers in the Map Scripts section.

Second, you are dealing with some mods, and mod-mods, that does change things. I know that some map-scripts have specific designs based on specific mods, and utilize special tags to id or use certain things in the script, Like Unicorns have only, afaik, made an appearance in my mod, and the issue with them appearing was in the tag in CIV4Units.xml, bAnimal... when the map script says place x number of animals, it checks for units that have the bAnimal tag set to 1 and places those units randomly.. or with specific rules for certain animals(like FfH specific scripts set HILL_GIANTS to be set down in DESERT tiles).

I started to ramble a bit there, I would recommend checking for tutorials on more specifics, or perhaps check for Wikis on it.

Good Luck, we are all looking for the next great map script!

Cheers!

 

[Caradoc]

Thanks again! I've read through a couple of map scripts and think I see what's going on. The tutorials were (rightly) mostly concerned with creating land masses, but there were some useful clues there.

What I plan to do is tweak smartmap a bit to get what I think would be a better distribution of animals -- for example more individual Wolves and less Wolf packs. I would also like to add some variant species -- for example Bears (which would all build the same Bear Cage, preserving the functionality of the Grand Menagerie).

I've worked with Resources before, but that was all in XML. So I figure Animals is a next step. If it turns out to be any good, I'll post it as a modmodmod. Since I've been playing Blaze most of the time, if that's OK, I'll use that as my base.