Personalized Maps

[Hydromancerx]

That's a cool idea for naming the cities.

 

[Morphem01]

Updated the OP with a new picture. The city in the OP got named after the bay is was settled next to, automatically by the game. Should create more realistic naming patterns.

awesome, clever idea

 

[szemek77]

Updated the OP with a new picture. The city in the OP got named after the bay is was settled next to, automatically by the game. Should create more realistic naming patterns.

Cool idea, indeed. I have only two small doubts:

1. Too many names could make the map less clear/visible/legible (I'm not sure which English word should I use, sorry, I'm sure you would know what I mean). Please consider that picture in the OP doesn't contain ground improvements and units....

2. Still, playing USA I'd prefer to have Washington, New York, Boston etc. instead of Aieoioa, or whatever the name of the bay would be. Unless I don't understand fully your idea.

Don't get me wrong - just expressing thoughts which ARE NOT dismissing whole idea which I find very nice and fresh!

 

[DaFranker]

Is there any way these automated landmark features could be "set" in advance, but named only during gameplay according to which civilization first explored it or is first to gain influence in that tile (i.e. landmarks named by the first civ to have them within their cultural borders)?

To me, this seems like the most straightforward way to deal with the immersion-breaking aspect of having a lake called Sousoushuploosh at the foot of the Kakakamulou mountain a few kilometers out of Berlin. Having the landmarks being named from custom civ-specific tables of landmark names would be ideal, of course, but even having them named from the already-existing city name lists would be, in my opinion, better than having a set, uniform, culture-independent naming scheme for all world landmarks.

Another way to do it would be to have preset arrangements to the landmarks similar to culturally linked starts, or maybe simply generate landmarks by civilization flavor after civ start placement. But then again, from my (very) limited knowledge of python and the game engine, the above option of dynamic naming during gameplay seems like less trouble to implement.

Still, these are just possible paths of further improvement - automatic map personalization and landmark placement is already a large step forward in making each game more unique.

 

[Afforess]

Is there any way these automated landmark features could be "set" in advance, but named only during gameplay according to which civilization first explored it or is first to gain influence in that tile (i.e. landmarks named by the first civ to have them within their cultural borders)?

Wait, so if I understand correctly, when you settle near a bay, and are Germany, the bay might end up being named "Bay of Berlin", or something like that?

Then, as you explore, the country who finds the place first names it, from a preset list of landmark names? That sounds interesting. I bet I could do that.

 

[Arakhor]

Have a long list thought for each civilisation. It's a great idea, but you would want to avoid samey-ness.

 

[DaFranker]

Wait, so if I understand correctly, when you settle near a bay, and are Germany, the bay might end up being named "Bay of Berlin", or something like that?

Then, as you explore, the country who finds the place first names it, from a preset list of landmark names? That sounds interesting. I bet I could do that.

Yes, that's precisely what I meant. Then, for instance, the same city of Berlin expands its influence outwards later on and now a nearby mountain is also within that city's borders, it might get named the Tegeler or the Große or something like that.

Like Arakhor said though, it would require sizable lists of names for each civ, so some research there might be necessary... Then again, they'd only need to be generic place-sounding names. I can think of quite a few for America, Germany and Japan just off the top of my head. If you want my help with that, I'd be happy to build up a few lists.

 

[BlackZiggerat]

Speaking of speacial things associated w the landmarks. These particular bonus' could b the catalyst for the discovery of certain technologies. If a marsh is known for food resource, such as mushrooms, then that could open up the option of a technology involving the mushrooms, as well as a tradeable bonus. Any number of tech-inducing bonus' could b woven into the game in this way. What techs would never have been if we had not discovered iron, or coal, etc. Tech-inducing technologies. Not exactly the same topic of naming sites. But worth bringing into the game non-the-less.
By-the-By... love the naming scheme you're building.

 

[BlackZiggerat]

A thing about the names that should b addressed is potential for forcing a name change. Just as one civ can flip a city, or two civs can tug tiles back and forth, the dominant civ can force renaming, only to have it renamed again by another civ later. This kindof thing happened in history enough. Keeping in mind that cities and urban landmarks were places of note as well.
Do we get to name every tile, or clusters of tiles? The planes of Krishna, the Black foothills... A hamlet to be named, Summitville...

 

[BlackZiggerat]

There is also often resistance to renaming a cultural landmark. A penalty could emerge for renaming a landmark, to culture output, or trade output... And a landmark could revert back to a previous name perhaps, if held too much meaning. Not unlike daily civil rebellions.

 

[Grathocke]

I think this is a great idea, no matter what the naming convention ends up being. Is there any progress towards implementation?

 

[Retrospect]

This is an outstanding idea. That was the only feature of Civ Rev that I liked the look of (didn't inspire me to play it however)

Already have a plan for that. If a forest or jungle gets removed (for any reason), all players who have seen the tile will be alerted that "X was destroyed", and the sign will disappear.

Perhaps a relations bonus with all the civs who are aware of the landmark and a penalty for when you destroy it, combined with a happiness penalty from your civ?

 

[os79]

Perhaps a relations bonus with all the civs who are aware of the landmark and a penalty for when you destroy it, combined with a happiness penalty from your civ?

That may be a bit too much because this is not really that attached to the culture's spreading. It is more of a programming. I don't want to complicate things further when I need hammers for the game just because it historically offensive .

 

[xcrissxcrossx]

You could also incorporate these landmarks with economic civics, like extra happiness per landmark with green, or extra trade with free market,.

 

[Talin2009]

Battlefields of epic scale battles could also become such points of interest, giving additional culture and commerce (after certain amount of turns, when dust settles down and war is over). Maybe even give additional +xp or unique promotion to units build in nearby city.

i mean really big battles which happen 2-3 times in game, where hundreds of units die. And depending on outcome of battle (attacker or defender wins and keeps territory) the naming could represent winner civilization. If fight happen in a city (one of 2 sides are stationed in a city) it could be named like "Memorial of Berlin Heroic Defence" (if defender wins) for example and if attacker wins it could be named with something regarding to Liberation or Conquest and Glory.

Of course, there shouldn't be multiple such points near single city, i think maximum of two.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

@Afforess, this is a good example of what is called scope creep in the IT industry. Someone comes up with a great idea and then everyone else wants things added to it. I think the same sort of thing happens in politics also.

 

[xcrissxcrossx]

My ideas are certainly not necessary to add. This mod is gold either way.

 

[Afforess]

@Afforess, this is a good example of what is called scope creep in the IT industry. Someone comes up with a great idea and then everyone else wants things added to it. I think the same sort of thing happens in politics also.

False assumption.

While I am interested in ideas and feedback at this phase, the final decisions are my own.

 

[Retrospect]

False assumption.

While I am interested in ideas and feedback at this phase, the final decisions are my own.

Thats what I like about you Afforess

 

[Afforess]

In my free time yesterday, I made a lot of revisions to Personalized maps. The names are random, and generated by a much better Random Name Generator, which will reject names with too many consonants or vowels in them, and the prefix/suffixes are all done via some XML, so players can add new ones without any SDK changes. It also allows for translations.

Also, landmark signs are now in each player's own color instead of that nasty black. Hovering over the tile also lists the name of the landmark. I've added a few civic effects to the OP, which are all already coded and in my latest Alpha builds. One change is that building improvements on, or cutting down landmarks will remove the landmark and/or cause anger temporarily in nearby cities. (To clarify, only Jungle and Forest landmarks can ever be removed. If you just build an improvement over a landmark, it doesn't remove it, it just ticks people off).

I still have a little ways to go though. I want to add a button to the main interface that will toggle the landmark signs on/off, and not all geological features are marked as landmarks yet. Currently the list of working landmarks are: Forests, Jungles, bays, Mountains, lone peaks, and Deserts. I plan on adding: Plains, Glaciers, Islands and possibly rivers.

Keep in mind that the goal of this mod is mostly aesthetic, I'm not trying to make a huge game changer here. I just got sick of naming places myself, and wanted to make the game name things for me.