[Map Script] Continents and Islands

jam3

Chieftain
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
20
Well i was happy with the inclusion of the Big and Small map type but wasnt altogether pleased with the results. Mainly the over abdunance of "small" islands and lack of any wide oceans. I tinkered around a bit with the py file and found that essentially allowing the islands to be turned into coninents produced some very interesting results especially when I increased the water value. Basically I got what I have been looking for for awhile the vanilla map/terrain generator using the fractal generator and giving organic looking continents and islands. You can play around and get pangea type maps but still have an island or a tiny chain floating our in the ocean or an abundance of other organic looking type maps.

I was playing around alot with the settings and decided to just go ahead and add it to the menu options and once I did that I figured I'd post it for the community. This is an enhancement to a default script not an entirely new script like Tectonics.

Please let me know what you think! :goodjob: :cry:

V1.1 08-30-07
Fixed
Call to TerrainGenerator
*was incorrectly called in v1.0, was working fine with default values but desert reduction, plains addition, tundra/ice latitude changes were not working.
Added Menu options
Reduce desert
Add plains
Terrain Clumping
Changed
Names of Islands in the Island Menu to the continent names
*Just felt this was more clear
*Tundra is at .7 Latitude, Ice is at .8, each raised .1 (so they appear closer to the poles than in vanilla)

Use:

Island Size:

You can now select Snaky Continents, Normal Continents, and Massive Continents as your Island Size. This will Radically Change the landmasses produced from the original Big and Small Vanilla Map Script.

Islands Overlay:

Seperate - This tells the generator to place the islands on one half(Hemisphere) of the map and the continents on the other half (Hemisphere), this is a good option if you want better odds at producing multiple "islands" (in this usage a landmass completly surrounded by water regardless of size), it is still possible that the landmasses will join across the center of the map, especially if you choose massive continents, massive islands, low sealeve, add no water.

Mixed-In - This tells the generator to place the islands and continents anywhere on the map and can produce interesting results when they overlap one another.

Add Water

Note: The vanilla script uses two water values the % values are determined from the higher value of 82

Adding Water is a good way to produce more "Island"(see above) type landmasses. It is important to note that this value is directly related to sealevel. So Normal Sealevel add 10% is very close to High Sealevel add 0%. You can generate some interesting 2(it might produce 3 or 4) continent landmasses and still have small/tiny islands floating in the oceans using Massive continents, Massive Islands, Add 15% Water, Island Overlay - Seperate (This is basically a much more organic version of Vanilla Hemispheres).

Reduce Desert

Reduces a percent derived from the default value of 32% (meaning 32% of the land is desert by default), so a 50% reduction makes the value 16%, As stated in the vanilla scripts these are approximations.


Add Plains

Adds a percent derived from the default value of 18% (meaning 18% of the land is plains by default), so a 50% addition makes the value 27%, As stated in the vanilla scripts these are approximations.

Terrain Clumping

Also Called Terrain Homogeny, increasing the clumpiness increses the chance that like terrain will be surrounded by the exact same terrain.


NOTE: These pictures were taken with the original version and do illustrate the landmasses produced but not the terrain features



 

Attachments

  • Continents_and_IslandsV11.zip
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I'm really liking the land shapes this script is producing. Excellent work. :goodjob:

Hopefully you can figure out to to do the less/more desert thing, as there did seem to be quite a bit on some maps. I'd offer help, but generally if something involves modding something other than the XML, I'm :crazyeye:

If you could somehow get it to do 'terrain clumping' like in LandMasses, it would be the perfect map script. But that's just opinion and personal preference.
 
I'm really liking the land shapes this script is producing. Excellent work. :goodjob:

Hopefully you can figure out to to do the less/more desert thing, as there did seem to be quite a bit on some maps. I'd offer help, but generally if something involves modding something other than the XML, I'm :crazyeye:

If you could somehow get it to do 'terrain clumping' like in LandMasses, it would be the perfect map script. But that's just opinion and personal preference.


Thanks!

By Terrain clumping I assume your refering to producing landmasses that are essentially islands (surrounded by water entirely)?

This landmass, terrain generation, feature, and resource generation of this script is 100% the original Big_and_Small script. All I have done is allowed for the ability to increase the islands size to that of

Snaky Continent - Large Island
Normal Continent - Huge Island
Massive Continent - Massive Island

The island size names are just arbitrary names I gave them in the drop down menu.

The "islands seperate or mixed in" basically determines if the spawn points for the continents or islands (which again you can turn into continents through this script) will be in the east or west hemisphere, respectively, or across the entire map for mixed-in. So if your looking for more "island" type landmasses and less connections choose seperate which gives you much better chances of producing seperation especially around the middle area of the map. And the way the vanilla script works this isnt guranteed as you can see from the examples above, the randomness of this script is really pretty awesome.

I also added the ability to change the water value. This is mainly to give you a better chance at producing more "island" types of land masses (again as you can see in the above pictures).

The default in the script was 74 and 82 (theres a weird reason you have to look in the script to see why there are two water values and this also adds to the more random type of landmasses and island chains you'll see). All I am telling you that for is that Normal sealevel and add 10% water is essentially the same as High Sealevel add no water, you can derive the other equalities from that point, Normal + 15% = High + 5%, etc.

I am looking into how to add the ability to reduce desert from a menu option, but also remember less desert = less flood plains.

This script is primarily for those people who want organic landmasses with the possibility of some islands floating but still want the vanilla terrain/terrain feature/resource generator routines.

Another good name for the script would have simply been Big_and_Small_Enhanced :)
 
Jam3:
DevilRat:
If you could somehow get it to do 'terrain clumping' like in LandMasses, it would be the perfect map script. But that's just opinion and personal preference.
By Terrain clumping I assume your refering to producing landmasses that are essentially islands (surrounded by water entirely)?

I don't believe so. Terrain clumping, under the option name 'Terrain Homogeneity' in LandMasses allows a level of control over how likely it is that one type of terrain borders terrain of a similar type - how likely it is that a grassland tile borders another grassland tile instead of tundra, plains, or desert. Highly clumped terrain would mean that all desert tiles would be amassed into a handful of very large desert regions.

The code that governs this is only a slight variation on the standard terrain generator. Instead of just calling the terrain generator, you call it and assign certain specific values to variables governing such elements of terrain as the proportion of land tiles that are plains, the latitude at which tundra and ice appear, and how varied or clumped the terrain is.
 
BTS, not sure if it works with others if Big_and_Small works with the other versions it should work fine.
 
I will test for other versions including mods but my experience has been that all mapscripts work with all versions and mods.

I would love to see a version on this type of map script which includes a "new world" option for starting locations. Take the map you showed on the second row, second column. Imagine if all the players started on the eastern landmass, leaving the western side empty. It would make a fun land grab during the age of discovery!
 
The reduction in desert and raising of the tundra and ice latitudes wasnt working correctly in v1.0. This is working perfectly now.

Think I got most of what you guys asked for in v1.1. I'll look at adding the new world start positions later but this could get pretty messy cause i have seen massive, massive, overlay - seperate, add 15% water produce 3-4 islands/continents.
 
Great job on v1.1. I'm really glad to see terrain clumping added in. I hate the jumbled terrain the default map scripts tend to produce.

The 'New World/Old Word' thing could be an interesting addition. Though personally, I'm not a fan of the concept, so if it is added, hopefully it will have the option to switch it on/off.

But either way, I'm really liking this script so far. Thanks for the hard work on it. :king:
 
Great job on v1.1. I'm really glad to see terrain clumping added in. I hate the jumbled terrain the default map scripts tend to produce.

The 'New World/Old Word' thing could be an interesting addition. Though personally, I'm not a fan of the concept, so if it is added, hopefully it will have the option to switch it on/off.

But either way, I'm really liking this script so far. Thanks for the hard work on it. :king:

Thanks again! And if I did add it it would definetly be optional.
 
I wanted to reply here that indeed the script is working just as intended with Total Realism 2.2 for Warlords, vanilla warlords, FFH .23, and BTS.
 
Great map script. It's my favourite one!
 
:old:
Could some one possibly give me a code (or method of creating a code) for making a map that is simply ONE island?
:confused:

For those who help: could they possibly set up the code or give me the method of doing so myself for Civ IV Vanilla?

Thanks.
:thumbsup:
 
Tried it. "Island" forms too close to the north or south poles. I am trying to find something that is centered on the map. Even more so, a wrapping on both, the X and Y sides of the map.
 
:old:
Could some one possibly give me a code (or method of creating a code) for making a map that is simply ONE island?
:confused:

For those who help: could they possibly set up the code or give me the method of doing so myself for Civ IV Vanilla?

Thanks.
:thumbsup:
Tectonics with the Pangaea option is made so there is a single landmass.
 
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