R:I. My personal spin-off

[TheBirdMan]

What a day - shifting wars between the Germans, the Romans and my nation.

1st screenshot #1: The Germans and the Romans made peace - seems like the germans got the city back they just lost. Immidiate after the Romans declared on me - but they didn't do anything except having their small army parked on my PrimeTimber tile.

Screenshot #2: As if they (the Germans and Romans) had made a hidden agreement: The Germans declared on me now and attacked me several places in the north plus an army of theirs came out of the "dark" from northwest going down for Panormos.

Screenshot #3: Now the city, that the Germans got back some turns ago from the Romans showed up to be undefended - obvious the Germans didn't send some fast units to give it protection - so..... I took my skirmisher from #2 - who now had moved down from the position he is shown at while I still had peace and open borders with the Germans - and took that city. This made the German army to stop and change direction. Now the most important for them was to liberate that city. Which I had no objections to - I was not able to defend it anyway. However this maneuver gave me time to bring in reinforcements from my own "mainland" to Panormos (that's actually what is shown on screenshot #3), so that I could make peace with the Romans for a small payment in Gold.

Screenshot #4: Now it's going fast. Suddenly Rome switches sides again. Declares war on the Germans, first captures an "old" German city northwest of Panormos, then the city to the west, which had changed "hands" quite a few times by now.
I manage to beat a smaller German force, so I try to make peace with the Germans, but their demands are completely unreasonable. My best chance now will be to put as much pressure on them as possible - namely by taking one of their old cities, which I know is not very well defended (it's also blocked by my triremes). In the subsequent race with Rome, I (fortunately) came first.

Screenshot #5: Now the Germans are ready to talk to - and I get my peace on good terms. That is the status of yesterday's events.

Spoiler The enemy of your enemy is (possibly) your friend. At least for a while... :

 

[TheBirdMan]

Vadum Francorum - that is (one of the) real names of Frankfurt am Main (in Latin). Just do a little search on Wikipedia.....

When I first saw the name, I thought it was Walter doing some "fun", but it's not. It's part of the extensive work he's done to name cities with more correct names than we've ever seen before.

A job which, by the way, I am incredibly happy about. When city names reflect which country or area we "are" in.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Then they are crazy again those Romans. "The Roman Peace" doesn't tell them much - at least not at this early point in history.

Apart from screenshot #2 clearly shows the intention of the Romans - there is no reason to attach further comments to the following screenshots

Spoiler Roman ego trip :

 

[TheBirdMan]

If I were to write a little about the game itself in its current version, it is remarkable how high activity and how aggressive some of the AIs are - especially when you take into account the large distances I use. I like that.

The AI also doesn't rush head-less into every fight - I really tried to bait them into attacking my "Early Crossbowman". But the Romans would not.

Spoiler Greek Early Crossbowman :

Maybe that's why the war ended the way it did - a cost of only 55 gold and no casualties on either side except from the 2 Roman Legions (Marsians) I used the Early Crossbowman to kill in the desert between Milano and Panormos . It is actually quite "wise" done by an AI.

 

[TheBirdMan]

On "one hand", it's fun to document a game with screenshots and add comments to it.

On the other hand, I think that it's a bit annoying - partly because I often forget to take a relevant screenshot, partly because I think it causes too many interruptions in the game, if I have to do it in a reasonably way (and it has to be so, because otherwise I might as well not do it).

The short of the long story (Danish way of speaking), I will now limit myself by putting up screenshots only of situations that are special in one way or another or relevant to my special setup. And of course add comments to these when I feel I need to.

 

[ArsenyG.]

I really like your posts. Now I'm also playing with the same settings as yours.

 

[Hydrok9]

Hey Birdman, this looks great. Is there any chance of you making it available as a mod-mod or something? I'm a big fan of the changes you made.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Hey Birdman, this looks great. Is there any chance of you making it available as a mod-mod or something? I'm a big fan of the changes you made.

I will not make anything close to an "official" mod-mod. I'm afraid this would "tie me up" since I would have to correct errors and mistakes whenever some were found.

However I'm ready to post hints and work-a-rounds or even upload single files or smaller "set" of files if some are interested in special parts of my spinn-off.


Just remember that the first 2-3 months in the new year, I'll be "busy" with the new release that usually comes out at Xmas. I'm so sure it will include much new stuff, that I have to try/learn from - among other things the AIs improved use of artillery - a thing I have written about for nearly 2½ year before it was taken up as a "serious" issue.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Added Okt 22, 2024 (3 "after terrain and bonus changes" screenshots added.
Added Okt 20, 2024 (3 "before terrain and bonus changes" screenshots added.
Added April 09, 2025: Link to download the mapscriptools (SmartMap_mst.py included) from Terkhen: https://bitbucket.org/Terkhen/mapscripttools-for-civilization-iv/downloads/

Time for a new map.

Here is how I (most often) do it:

I prefer to make giant maps - 15,000-16,000 tiles, but very often they are between 22,000 to 28,000 tiles. Of these, roughly between 7,500 and 11,000 tiles will be landtiles. This depends on how many and how big areas I find "fits" the map I want to create, where a city cannot be settled (at least, that is my intention with those wastelands, but sometimes I find, that I have made a little "error", that the AI was able to find). Anyway - I always fix errors on my mastermap for the next playround - if I remember it that is.

And now to the practical side of the work:

I have tried quite a few different map generators over the years. The 2 I prefer are RI_Planet_Generator.py and SmartMap_mst.py. The latter is probably the one I use the most - but it is not included in a standard RI installation as it is not "approved" for RI. RI contains features that are not included in all the "options" you have in SmartMap. However, this can be overcome relatively easily by choosing "Standard" in most cases.

Below some screenshots from the setup for my new map:

Spoiler Setup for a new map with SmartMap_mst.py :

I "delete" all nations except the first. Difficulty is set to "Noble" since that is the default for any AIs. When the setup is made and the first version of the map is made, the map is saved from WorldBuilder as a *.CivBeyondSwordWBSave file. From then I'll always load the file as a scenario - even when I only have 1 nation while I'm making the map.

As you can see, I choose the Wrap setting to be wrap both, This is because I do not want those Ice-borders 'round the map. I have never played any game with the Y-axis active (connect North and South) and I seldom have the X-axis active either. I often choose the lowest level of Sea and the lowest level of Coast Separation. This is because it - in my eyes - is easier and faster to remove landtiles than it is to add them later.

Spoiler How the play-map is created :

Lot of land - lot of bonus tiles. This looks like a good start. So I save the game - in this case as "D 1Civ Venice 18000tiles.CivBeyondSwordWBSave". The "D" is my abbreviation for "Development", the "18000tiles" is because the map holds a little more than 18000 landtiles. Right now you can move the cursor 'round the map towards the "edges" and you will see, that the map will "follow" you.

Spoiler Screenshots from the upper-left corner while crossing the edges. :

Next step is to "flat the map". Open the WB save, find the place just after all the player-data, see below:

Spoiler Where to change the X and Y values :

BeginPlayer
Team=77
LeaderType=LEADER_BARBARIAN
LeaderName=TXT_KEY_LEADER_BARBARIAN
CivDesc=TXT_KEY_CIV_BARBARIAN_DESC
CivShortDesc=TXT_KEY_CIV_BARBARIAN_SHORT_DESC
CivAdjective=TXT_KEY_CIV_BARBARIAN_ADJECTIVE
FlagDecal=Art/Interface/TeamColor/FlagDECAL_Skull.dds
WhiteFlag=0
CivType=CIVILIZATION_BARBARIAN
Color=PLAYERCOLOR_BLACK
ArtStyle=ARTSTYLE_BARBARIAN
PlayableCiv=0
MinorNationStatus=0
StartingGold=0
StartingEra=ERA_ANCIENT
RandomStartLocation=false
CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_GOVERNMENT, Civic=CIVIC_DESPOTISM
CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LEGAL, Civic=CIVIC_RULEOFFEAR
CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LABOR, Civic=CIVIC_SLAVERY
CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_ECONOMY, Civic=CIVIC_DECENTRALIZATION
CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_RELIGION, Civic=CIVIC_PAGANISM
Handicap=HANDICAP_NOBLE
StateReligionBuilding=5
HandicapScoreModifier=0
EndPlayer
BeginMap
grid width=176
grid height=160
top latitude=90
bottom latitude=-90
wrap X=1
wrap Y=1
world size=WORLDSIZE_GIANT
climate=CLIMATE_ARID
sealevel=SEALEVEL_MEDIUM
num plots written=28160
num signs written=0
Randomize Resources=false
EndMap

### Plot Info ###
BeginPlot
x=0,y=0
TerrainType=TERRAIN_COAST
PlotType=3
EndPlot
BeginPlot
x=0,y=1
TerrainType=TERRAIN_COAST
PlotType=3
EndPlot

Change the wrap X=1 to wrap X=0 and the wrap Y=1 to wrap Y=0. Save the file and reload the scenario. Now you are ready for the most time-consuming part of the work when you want to create a new map from scratch.

Spoiler Changes over time as landtiles are reduces from 18.100 to a little below 11.000. :

All those strangelooking water-tiles will normalize first time the map is reloaded.

More screenshots to be added in next post

Spoiler Screenshots added Okt 20, 2024 and Okt 22, 2024 :

First 3 screenshots as (nearly) created by the map-engine. The first slight minor changes have been made.

Followed with 3 screenshots from (nearly) same areas after changing the map to an arctic area

 

[TheBirdMan]

Changes to the basic made today. See page 1.

 

[Hydrok9]

I will not make anything close to an "official" mod-mod. I'm afraid this would "tie me up" since I would have to correct errors and mistakes whenever some were found.

However I'm ready to post hints and work-a-rounds or even upload single files or smaller "set" of files if some are interested in special parts of my spinn-off.


Just remember that the first 2-3 months in the new year, I'll be "busy" with the new release that usually comes out at Xmas. I'm so sure it will include much new stuff, that I have to try/learn from - among other things the AIs improved use of artillery - a thing I have written about for nearly 2½ year before it was taken up as a "serious" issue.

If there was a way I could just download the single files with your modifications that would be great.
Otherwise just go through the thread and add all the changes manually?

 

[Hydrok9]

I am now getting the dreaded Black Tile bug in all the water spaces when I boot up RI
I have an NVIDIA card, I hope I dont have to swap it out just to play.

 

[TheBirdMan]

I am now getting the dreaded Black Tile bug in all the water spaces when I boot up RI
I have an NVIDIA card, I hope I dont have to swap it out just to play.

Version 3.57 was really bad - I think I remember ver. 3.6 still had "some of it" from time to time. But the newest version 3.61 works fine. Go to the official thread and find the download link for the full version on Walters first post on page 1.

 

[Hydrok9]

Version 3.57 was really bad - I think I remember ver. 3.6 still had "some of it" from time to time. But the newest version 3.61 works fine. Go to the official thread and find the download link for the full version on Walters first post on page 1.

Im sure I did that twice now, but ill try again thanks.

 

[Hydrok9]

Yeah, I'm getting the black tile bug with the latest version of RI

 

[TheBirdMan]

Yeah, I'm getting the black tile bug with the latest version of RI

In that case you should post here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/on-the-black-terrain-issue.675607/

As you can see, it was a known issue some time ago. Can't say how you woke this black monster.

 

[Hydrok9]

someone resolved it by replacing their Nvidia card. I foolishly bought a Wal-Mart gaming laptop with one inside, I knew something like this would happen!

 

[TheBirdMan]

someone resolved it by replacing their Nvidia card. I foolishly bought a Wal-Mart gaming laptop with one inside, I knew something like this would happen!

I made a similar "mistake" 6 years ago. Bought a Lenovo from a large Danish supermarket. It only worked a few months more than the 2 year warranty it was shipped with..... Besides it had no CD-drive, so I had to buy an external one - of course that's my own fault since I didn't check for that - but still.

When it gave up the "spirit" I got a little mad - I felt it was a bit too much money to waste on a PC that only worked until the warranty expired. But fortunately I was then able to move my HD, graphics card (NVIDIA) and memory modules to another used one (of a somewhat larger type with enough space). This is the one I use now - and it's the one that I want to upgrade later this year. With a newer motherboard and stronger power supply and then an SSD HD as the primary one. Maybe also a better graphics card. And maybe some more - depends on the costs. Such a type of a half home-made PC, which I myself and a couple of colleagues bought in loose parts, put together and configured for use in a company I worked for approx. 25-30 years ago.

 

[TheBirdMan]

News and updates on page 1 - Changes (and wishes).

 

[ArsenyG.]

Hello, how soon will you upload more screenshots of your wonderful playthrough?