Ray's assorted collection of small improvements [IMPLEMENTED]

First experiments with "Ice Lakes".
(The other one on the left is the normal Lake.)

 

Large Rivers land terrain borders were looking a bit too much like "sand coast" to me, so I changed it to look more like "mud".
And the water itself was looking too similar to "Shallow Coast". So I changed it as well for better differentiation.

Original graphics:



New graphics:
(To better see how it looks both with Grasland and with Plains. - Also in comparison to Lake.)

 

Ok, now that I had already changed "Permafrost" (see here), I realized that I also did not like "Tunrda" anymore.
Similar to Permafrost it was just looking too boring ...

Now I think that is different.

Old Version:



New Version

 

Well ok, while I am on it, I also felt that "Desert" looked a bit too much like "Sahara Desert" and not like typical "Desert in e.g. Central America".
It was simply "too white" and not "rough" enough. As I said this is what "sand desert" in e.g. Africa would look like, but not really "dried soil plate desert" in the Americas.

Thus I used "stronger" Terrain Details and changed the colour slightly.
Well I know a lot of this is probalby "personal taste" and also a bit about tiny details, but details like this create immersion.

Old Version:



New Version:

 

Tundra became much of winter tundra.
Old version were more about "in middle ground" which was capable to represent the less frozen periods when there are some flora and mosquitoes there.

Was ever considered to include seasons (like in marathon speed) and add different graphics based on that?

 

That is true, most likely I did not notice that much because in "my private WTP modmod" (current prototype), there is also "Taiga".
(I am only mergig / showing stuff that I feel is ready considering quality.)

 

Any answer of myself to that question would basically start a "feature concept discussion" of its own, so please create a new thread.

 

I also improved buttons of "Weltands" and "Marsh" a bit.
(They were not really immersive / atmospheric enough for me.)

 

Massive Worldbuilder Buttons Overhaul !

Did you also always hate these ugly, boring and unimmersive Buttons in WB?
Now they are all gone and replaced by much better looking and more immersive ones.

Also the order of Buttons of Terrains was not logically structured by "Climates".
So when creating Maps in Worlbuilder the ones you need for specific climates and lattitutdes should be closer together.





Some examples:

 

I know that mountains and hills were not in that list before, but would it not make sense to add their description to base terrain, too? Or are mountains and hills "terrain features" and should be in that list?

 

Mountain peaks and hills are plottypes and as such exist outside of terrain and features. For that reason there can be peaks and hills on (in theory) any terrain. A plot can only have one feature and one terrain yet you can find hills with forests and it lists a terrain type too.

I suppose we could add hills and peaks to the terrain page in Colopedia, but since they aren't terrains, it requires some coding. I'm not certain it's worth the time though as it will likely require a not insignificant amount of programming time to get properly working. Also the code to handle it won't be clean.

 

In another thread I had realized that the feature "Entertainment" was not nicely visualized and also not balanceable in XML.
That is changed now (the core logic was unchanged).

------------

XML balancing attribute for Tavern Buildings:
iEntertainmentGoldModifier

------------

In Colopedia an in Mouse Over in City it is explained like this:

iEntertainmentGoldModifier: 100 -----> Feature Entertainment in City is unlocked !


iEntertainmentGoldModifier: 150


iEntertainmentGoldModifier: 200


iEntertainmentGoldModifier: 250

 

The description of the tavern building states that they sell alcohol, yet the lefthand short description that they earn gold from culture.

Do the tavernbuildings sell booze? (Rum, Wine, Beer) Does the tavern need spirits to sell to earn gold?

Or are the sales of spirits dependent on the market buildings?

 

That is just flavour text.
The important part for the tavern is the "Entertainmen" (Culture to Gold conversion).

No, they do not.
(Again, that is just flavour text.)

Those are sold like all other Yields on Domestic Market by the "Market Buildings".
(It is simply the easiest and most performant way to implement it.)

Yes, exactly.

----

Summary:

• Market Buildings --> Sell Goods to colonists (Feature: Domestic Market)
  
• Tavern Buildings --> Turn Culture into Gold (Feature: Entertainment)

----

Performant, simple and clean.
Exactly the way I designed it.

 

Hi guys,

I have taken a few minutes to improve Pedia for Terrains a bit.
(Especially all the ugly negative numbers used for internal Hill balancing were filtered out.)

See here, it now nicely displays.

• Flatland Yields
• Hill Yields
• Peak Yields
• Water Yields

Flataland Yields:


Hill Yields:


Peak Yields:


Water Yields:

 

While you're at it, how about improving the readability of this pedia screen? It'd be really help if you didn't have to scroll at all.

Seeing all information at first glance would definitely be an improvement!

 

Agreed, there is still lots of potential to improve these Pedia Screens.
Once I find some more time and motivation I may try to improve Pedia Screens further.

However this could also be done by one of our new modders wanting to becomme programmers.
Stuff like that is a nice beginners task to learn Python.

 

I think the mud should be less yellow and less saturated. Currently, It looks a bit like what my cat deposited when it had a bad belly.

Also the taiga to tundra looks pretty good

Grasslands also look a bit over-saturated at the moment.

Just my personal opinion.

 

This is how Grassland currently looks like after my Terrain Graphics Overhaul was completed.
(It took me a while to make them "perfect" but now I am pretty happy with it.)

 

It looks fairly natural. I like it. It blends really nice with the trees.

It looks like it has been toned down since post #22, 23 and 26 (although it is hard to tell with the more strategic view). Personally, It is still a bit saturated for my taste, but if that is the look you want then no complaints here