[ModComp] Home Cities on Map - playable beta

[koma13]

Home Cities on Map Beta 002b - A modcomp for Mare Nostrum

After releasing two tech demos I further improved the concept of placing home cities on map and reached a state, where you can risk a game.

Concept:

I made a special version of the inland sea map script with similar climate like the mediterranean sea. After map generation each king player get a city on map. Your starting location is changed to that city. If you want to access Europe screen you have to travel back to your king's city. I adjusted the AI and interface to make full use of that new concept.

Install:

- make a clean install of MareNostrum BETA 0.03
- unrar HomeCitiesOnMap_002b.rar and copy content to your fresh installed Mare Nostrum Beta

Update!

New version - Major changes:

- compatible with Mare Nostrum Beta 003

- added Africa screen. It can be accessed on the Inland Sea map script by sailing down the big river in the south east area. Right now you can only buy and sell goods there but I will improve that in future releases.

- fixed revolution, REF will be spawned at home city

- improved home city initialization process

For a more detailed list of changes look inside spoiler.

Spoiler :

002 Changelog:

- fixed a bug preventing player of purchasing units in Europe

- gave the king the ability to move his units inside home city radius

- gave king player and home city some goodies at game start (population, money, some units & buildings)

- increased size of Europe travel zone to home city radius

- Colonist players can't steal plots from home cities anymore

- fixed Revolution

- REF spawned at home city

- added Africa Screen

- can't send non cargo land units to Europe screen no more

- improved starting location process

- made sure there is a minimum distance between home cities

- fixed some issues in Europe screen

- added AOD2 Cheat menu

- rename inland sea map script to 'Inland_Sea_HCOM.py'

EDIT:

There were some issues with Europe screen and units on dock and I fixed them (HomeCitiesOnMap_002b.rar).

 

[Dale]

How stable is it, how clear are your code changes, does the King now operate like a normal colonizer or do they still accumulate units in the REF queue, and is there any bugs?

 

[koma13]

How stable is it

Well, as stable as Mare Nostrum.

how clear are your code changes,

I marked all changes with 'MareNostrum' (EDIT: except CvEuropeScreen.py, Inland sea.py (too many changes) and CIV4EuropeInfo.xml (travel time to 1)). C++ Syntax is still a pain. I should read a tutorial.

does the King now operate like a normal colonizer

No, right now he can't move. I set CvUnit::canMove to false for all king players. In next version I will try to remove that limit after revolution started. Diplomacy with foreign king players still isn't possible.

is there any bugs?

Read the issues. And you can send land units to Europe screen, looks a little strange right now and doesn't make much sense.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Wouldn't it make more sense just to use the mapscript that has the Mediterranean feature in-place? I forget the name of it, but I know it's there...

 

[koma13]

Wouldn't it make more sense just to use the mapscript that has the Mediterranean feature in-place?

Of course it would make more sense. I didn't know there is an existing one...

 

[Dale]

You mean the BtS inland sea script?

 

[Flintlock1415]

Wow, great job!
I'll have to use this once my Wild West mod gets going.

 

[koma13]

You mean the BtS inland sea script?

They updated it for BTS? I used the normal one from Civ4.

Wow, great job!
I'll have to use this once my Wild West mod gets going.

Thx. Shouldn't be that hard to adopt for another mod. The only Mare Nostrum related change is the placement of the king cities (done with python).

 

[Flintlock1415]

Nice. Maybe I need to learn how to make map scripts. I know a bit of Python, so how difficult is it?

 

[koma13]

Maybe I need to learn how to make map scripts. I know a bit of Python, so how difficult is it?

It depends... Creating a script from scratch isn't easy (imho). But adjust an existing one should'nt be that hard. The trick is to find a script that already nearly does what you want. Then you just have to overload the plot and terrain functions and adopt them to your needs. I didn't touch the height map, it's based on fractals.

EDIT: Ther is a 'great plains' script included in Civ4.

 

[Flintlock1415]

I was thinking just that, that I could modify the great plains script, just add rivers for navigating, change the ocean to the West coast, and make the Rockies. I think the Vanilla one goes from the Appalachians up to the Rockies, so I could almost flip the map & make a few minor changes.

What are the differences between Vanilla Civ terrain, feature, and bonus definitions? ie are they easy to pick out and change? (I've obviously never opened up a map script before. )

 

[koma13]

What are the differences between Vanilla Civ terrain, feature, and bonus definitions? ie are they easy to pick out and change? (I've obviously never opened up a map script before. )

For terrain setting (desert, plains, grass, tundra...) watch out for a method called generateTerrainAtPlot. They check eaches plot latitude and height (determined by a height map created before) and depending on that values they set the terrain.
It's easy to identify, they call the terrain by name (eg self.terrainDesert).
For Features (forest) check out addFeaturesAtPlot. Works same as terrain. Bonus placement is done outside of map script, after generation.

 

[koma13]

I noticed a little bug in my modcomp preventing player from buying new ships in Europe screen (so much for testing. ). I attached that fix to the first post.

 

[koma13]

'Home cities on map' update in first post.

 

[Chimera]

Any chance this works for beta 0.04 as well, and if not, is there a plan to update this?

 

[koma13]

Any chance this works for beta 0.04 as well, and if not, is there a plan to update this?

Don't waste too much time with current version of home cities on map, I discovered some annoying bugs. Right now I'm working on caravan access for Europe screen. If that is working I will make an update.

 

[Chimera]

Sounds good. I really like the concept and it makes more sense to me for the time period.

 

[henryMCVII]

I love the feature, how you can send your ships around. IMHO a must add to AoDII.

 

[koma13]

Thank you.
I made some progress with caravans. AI is using them now for trading with home cities.

Next I added an oasis bonus (giving +2 food) to make the southern area/desert a little more habitable. I'd like to add flood plains too, but I don't know how to convert the nif from civ4 to c4c, maybe someone can help...?

 

[Kailric]

Does anyone have a copy of the Mare Nostrum 003 I could use for testing this? I am attempting to help add this to the Wild West mod and could use a working version?