Here's the non-version history contents of the readme since it may be helpful.
ReadMeSmartMap.txt
ReadMe file describing how to use SmartMap, and its various features.
Sections:
1) How to use
2) Options
3) Thanks
4) Version History
1) How to use
Extract the SmartMap.py to your CivIv install directory's PublicMaps
folder. Start the game, and select Single Player followed by Custom Game.
On the option titled 'Map:' select SmartMap as the map. Set other options
to your liking (I suggest trying all the defaults first!), and Launch!
A common error is to extract to civdir\PublicMaps\SmartMap\SmartMap.py. You
want to just have civdir\PublicMaps\SmartMap.py
Be patient. This script is slower than many of the default scripts. A large
map takes about 30 seconds to generate on my 1.8ghz pentium-M laptop. Huge
takes close to a minute. Pangea is the slowest to generate, picking fair
start locations takes a lot longer.
2) Options
Options are the point of SmartMap. There are a bunch of them. I will
describe how to use each of them in turn to get just the map you are
looking for.
Map: SmartMap, otherwise you're not using SmartMap!
Size: Duel, Tiny, Small, Standard, Large, Huge. SmartMap will use this
setting to determine the overall area of the map, unless you choose to override
the width and height manually, as explained later. SmartMap picks a random
width and height that produce the required area, so not all maps will be the
same shape (if you want to force a specific shape, use the overrides
described later).
Climate: Temperate, Tropical, Arid, Rocky, Cold. These mean approximately
what they do in the normal map scripts. Tropical has less desert and jungle than
you would get in the normal generator. If you feel like you get too much tundra
and snow in temperate, try tropical. Arid produces a lot of desert. Rocky means
an extra boost to hills and mountains. Cold means more snow and tundra.
Sealevel: low, medium, high. This option is used by SmartMap in a unique way.
Since SmartMap offers a direct ocean control, sealevel is used to control inter
continental strategy. In particular:
Low = all land on the map MIGHT be reachable by galley
Medium = it is very unlikely you will be able to reach another continent by galley,
but contact between civs on different continents may happen early due to
influence borders touching (it is only possible to reach another continent
occasionally by galley due to a bug in civiv that will rarely allow a galley
to enter an ocean tile).
High = guaranteed that you cannot reach another continent by galley, and civ contact
between different continents will not happen until two near as possible cities
both reach level 3 culture, or caravel (almost always caravel happens first).
This option is not guaranteed to be enforced if you select a non-default land style, as
explained later.
Era / Speed: These options are not affect by and do not affect SmartMap
Continents: Controls the number of continents generated by the script. Each option is fairly
self explanatory. On low sea level, continents are permitted to merge, so you may receive less
than the expected number of continents. You may also receive less than the expected number if
the script cannot find enough room (as might happen if you select duel size with 36 continents).
You may receive more than the expected number if you select a non-default land style, as explained
later.
Ocean: determines the percentage of ocean to be used on the map. Note that selecting low ocean
levels may result in a map with significantly more useful land area than is typically expected for
a given size of map, and may cause a gameplay imbalance.
Hills: allows you to specify what percentage of the land area should be coverd in hills.
Peaks: allows you to specify what percentage of the land area should be coverd in peaks.
Wrap: allows you to specify whether the map wraps around the border in x and/or y. X wrapping is
the standard circumnavigatable globe you probably expect, but the other options may provide for
an entertainingly different gameplay experience.
Terrain: selects a terrain generator. The terrain generator decides if a given land or hill plot is
a desert, plains, grass, tundra, or snow. The oasis and great plains generators are taken from those
scripts, while standard is just what you normally get on default scripts. SmartMap is a custom terrain
generator that knows how to generate terrain for all kinds of map setups. I recommend SmartMap.
Forest/Jungle: allows you to specify if you'd like more or less than the standard amount of forest and
jungle. Note that this option only affects the results of the SmartMap feature generator.
Features: selects a feature generator. Features are things like oasis, flood plains, forest, and jungle.
They go on top of the base terrain to enhance it in some way. Again, the oasis and great plains options
are just what you'd expect from those scripts. Note that you do NOT have to match terrain and feature
generators. Oasis terrain with Great Plains features works just fine, as do all other combinations.
The default SmartMap feature generator generates a few combinations that do not occur in the standard
scripts, in particular things like floodplains on grass are possible, and oasis will occassionally be seen
on tundra. These are things that happen on earth, and so are 'realistic' but some may find undesireable
because they aren't normal in the sense of the default scripts. If you are one of these people, there is
the SmartMap Strict option, which to the best of my knowledge will not generate any combinations not found
in the default scripts. I recommend either SmartMap or SmartMap strict.
Bonuses: selects how bonuses are placed. You can choose from the standard placement or SmartMap placement.
SmartMap attempts to be fairer about how resources are placed strategically. I recommend SmartMap. This
option also controls the placement of goody huts. SmartMap goody huts aren't much different from standard.
Start Placement: selects how player start positions are determined. The SmartMap option attempts to do a
fairer job of placing players based on an analysis of the positions of strategic resources, and is also
more likely to place your initial settler on a tile with one tile of ocean access so that your capital can
build ocean buildings.
Override width/height options: these options allow you to force SmartMap to generate a specific size of map
to your liking. This can allow you to generate absolutely huge maps beyond the size that your computer
memory can hold, so be careful with this. The sizes are multiplied by 4 in each direction to determine
the final number of plots, so a 64x32 map is really 256 tiles wide and 128 tiles tall. A SmartMap 'huge'
map is 16,000 tiles total area, so the 64x32 map described = 256x128 tiles = 32,768 tiles would be more
than twice the size of SmartMap's huge, which is in turn nearly twice as big as a default map's huge. Note
that this allows you to play a very big map on duel, which would be a wierd experience, as many of the pacing
elements of the game assume that you only have a certain amount of landmass to work with.
Land Style: this option controls a couple of special features that are more dangerous to use than the others,
and so are reserved for last. First, you can control how round your continents will turn out. Rounder
continents have a tendency to be more fair, so very round is the default. As you transition to somewhat or
least round, you will get odder continent shapes which various people have requested, or find to be
'more realistic'. Independently, you may also choose a level of fragments. Fragments are little pieces
of land added randomly to the map which will appear as archipelagos or odd continent outgrowths, or tiny
islands. You can get all sorts of interesting growth patterns with these. However, since they may be
placed anywhere, they may violate the sea level guarantees of separation. They may completely join
continents, or make them reachable by galley. Nevertheless, some people wanted this as another way to
have more varied or realistic maps. The default for this option is very round, no fragments, which provides
the most guarantees of fair gameplay, particularly for multiplayer games. For single player games, you
may have fun seeing what interesting other types of maps you can get with this option.
3) Thanks
I'd like to thank the following people for their contributions:
Sirian : for answering a number of questions about how map scripts work
A Silly Goose @ CivFanatics : for early feedback
lordroy @ CivFanatics : for lots of feedback and screenshots
Victorvanwavere : suggestion to have a forest/jungle setting & what became land style
Randle @ CivFanatics : report of getting capital on wrap border
Silver14 @ Apolyton : report of too many very tall maps when x-wrapping and other early feedback
alms66 @ Apolyton : also suggested the forest/jungle setting, and other early feedback
Commander Bello @ Apolyton : manual width/height override and other feedback
skodkim @ Apolyton : assorted feedback
battists @ Apolyton : idea for this readme!
