Sanotra's Colonial America [Map]

[Sanotra]

Sanotra's Colonial America, hereafter referred to as Colonial America or Colam or any variation thereof, is a 40 wide by 100 tall tile map which includes the lands focused on by European colonizers. As far as topography and climate are concerned, the map is complete. I have two saves in the world builder. One with natives, the other without. The placement of natives is open for discussion, as this map is made for the player community, and not for my own personal taste.

I would appreciate the support of the TAC and/or R&R modders in teaching me how to do the following.
1. Move European Start Locations.
2. Create a Map Script that randomly places bonuses (tobacco, fish, etc.) and goody huts.
3. Make it to where its a normal scenario that allows you to choose from any of the leaders instead of just the leader you saved the map with in the worldbuilder.

If no one has the time to teach me, I am willing to give someone the map to finish up all these details and make it playable. Here are the screenshots!



Here is a picture of Florida. This is likely the first map you've seen that forces the player to zoom out to see ALL of Florida!

Spoiler :

This is a picture of the landscape surrounding modern day Quebec, Canada. Looks like a good place to establish a colony?

Spoiler :

On the other side of the map, far away from the fur trade, we have the Panama Canal, and the top portion of Columbia. I'm hoping to make vision of the Panama area fulfill TAC's find route to the Pacific event.

Spoiler :

Looking forward to your feedback!

 

[Writing Bull]

Make it to where its a normal scenario that allows you to choose from any of the leaders instead of just the leader you saved the map with in the worldbuilder.

Hi Sanotra,

do you know that it is possible to open the ColonizationWBSave-File by using a text editor? Please open your file and also a TAC map like TAC America v.1.03.ColonizationWBSave and compare them. At the top of the files you will find the lines which specify important conditions.

 

[raystuttgart]

Looks great.

About what to do:

Simply create the map you want with Worldbuilder.

Then you need to edit the WorldbuilderSaves with a text editor.
(The "Head" part.)

Take a close look at the WorldbuilderSaves of TAC and you should understand.
It really is pretty easy once you have understood the mechanisms.

In detail:

1. Here you can reference a description or that the map can only be played with a certain mod.
Also, you specify, which Natives are allowed to be created. (Northern, Central, Southern. New Feature I created for TAC and R&R.)

Spoiler :

Version=11
BeginGame
Description=TXT_KEY_WORLDBUILDER_NORTHWEST_DESC
ModPath=
WBNorthAmericanNative=1
WBCentralAmericanNative=1
WBSouthAmericanNative=0
EndGame

2. Here you specify the Players and Nations.
Set them to NONE, if you want to have them random.
Start Positions will be randomly regenerated, too.

Important:
For TAC you need to specify Player IDs 0 to 31 . (otherwise the game will crash)
For R&R you need to specify Player IDs 0 to 35. (otherwise the game will crash)

Spoiler :

BeginPlayer
Team=0
LeaderType=NONE
CivType=NONE
EndPlayer
...
BeginPlayer
Team=35
LeaderType=NONE
CivType=NONE
EndPlayer

3. If you want to have random resources, set
Randomize Resources=true

Spoiler :

BeginMap
...
Randomize Resources=true
EndMap

Other important notice:

A map created with Religion and Revolution, that uses our new Terrains and Terrain Features, will not work with another mod.

 

[Sanotra]

Thanks for the help guys. I went ahead and tried to open the world builder save in Notepad++, and was successful. I've got a few questions about your help Ray.

1. About the natives. Do I create the towns AND natives, and then control of those soldiers and villages changes hands between random natives upon map start up? Or is it the case that I don't place any villages and native villages randomly generate?

2. About start positions. When you say a start position will be randomly generated does that mean that one game I, as English, spawn 20 tiles from the shore, and another game 3 tiles from the shore? Or do the nations randomly spawn on preplaced start locations? Right now the start locations are too far from the mainland, and too close in some cases, I would like to move them manually on the map, or I can specify coordinates too. And I would not like the English to randomly spawn close to South America, but start close to New England consistently.

I would not type NONE in these values if I am publishing the map for TAC or R&R?

Spoiler :

BeginPlayer
Team=0
LeaderType=NONE
CivType=NONE
EndPlayer

3. Is there a preset amount of resources that will be generated on the map? Or will it take all of the resources that I placed manually, and just reshuffle them randomly on the appropriate tiles? Like right now, there are no resources on the map. If I change to Randomize Resources=true, will new resources appear on my blank map?

Again thanks for all the help! I can't wait to publish the finished product and here your feedback on its playability!

 

[Sanotra]

By the way. I already have begun work on a 60 tall by 90 wide Caribbean map. I am wondering if a future project of a size around 150x150 is too large? Any ideas on making it easy to go to Europe without having to sail all the way across the map to do so.. such as in instances where the player wants to play inside of the Gulf of Mexico? Right now, if I wanted to settle Mexico I have to sail around Florida on all maps that I know of, in order to go to Europe. If I wanted to settle Mexico in a 150x150 game or larger, this task of sailing around Florida to go to Europe would be very demanding on a players time, and thus make Mexico and/or areas such as the Hudson Bay impractical areas to ever raise a colony. Anyone have an easy fix for this, or any good ideas?

 

[orlanth]

Wow nice job with the map Sanotra! It looks really great.

I don't know the answers to your other questions, but I would think that new Bonuses (resources) will be generated according to the regular parameters in bonusinfos xml (http://modiki.civfanatics.com/index.php/Civ4BonusInfos ).

 

[Sanotra]

Thanks for the positive feedback orlanth I hope you give it a test drive and enjoy playing it when it gets published. Thanks for the other info as well. I'm doing my best to interpret the text.

 

[raystuttgart]

Do I create the towns AND natives, and then control of those soldiers and villages changes hands between random natives upon map start up?

You don't need to.
If you have random players, they will be regenerated randomly anyways.

2. About start positions. When you say a start position will be randomly generated does that mean that one game I, as English, spawn 20 tiles from the shore, and another game 3 tiles from the shore?

It will choose positions on Sail to Europe Plots that are close to the shore as Start Positions.

Or do the nations randomly spawn on preplaced start locations ?

It will calculate new Start Positions.

Right now the start locations are too far from the mainland, and too close in some cases, I would like to move them manually on the map, or I can specify coordinates too.

Simply set or remove Sail to Europe Plots.

And I would not like the English to randomly spawn close to South America, but start close to New England consistently.

Not possible.
Either you have fixed or random start positions.

I would not type NONE in these values if I am publishing the map for TAC or R&R?

For TAC you need to have a list of 32 entries (0 to 31).
If you want to have them random, put NONE in all of them.

Is there a preset amount of resources that will be generated on the map?

No, this is balanced in Civ4BonusInfos.xml.
You don't need to place any.

Again thanks for all the help! I can't wait to publish the finished product and here your feedback on its playability!

Simply take a look at the maps of TAC and do your map accordingly.

 

[Sanotra]

I basically copied what I saw from the TAC maps to mine, and was satisfied by the result. I now know how to do a few important things. There are some problems that still arise. I'll list them, and maybe I can figure it out on my own by trial and error before you respond, but please respond anyway.

1. TAC wbsaves are very simple compared to mine when I first opened it. And that is because having everything set as random doesn't require much clarification in the text. However TAC South America has South American Natives=1 and North=0 Central=0. Even though SA=1, everytime I play Tac SA there are 3 native americans. And they are always the same 3, Cumbhabe, Nunkui, and Orkeke. So my question would be, how is it that SAnatives=1 and yet three are on the map, and always in the same three areas (There may be 4, I haven't played in a while)? And how is it that it is always the same civs? I searched the text, and I don't see anything that would force the game to load these civs and areas. Please help!

2. I think I may figure this out by trial and error but... I want each nation to spawn at a specific plot every time, yet remain where you can pick between leaders. For example, I want the English to spawn near New England consistently, yet I want the freedom to choose between George and Adams.

3. This is a minor detail (hopefully), but in the World Builder, Tac's Europe plots are red, and in my Worldbuilder they're the standard yellowish gold color. Does this mean that TAC is using a special type of go to Europe plot?

 

[raystuttgart]

text. However TAC South America has South American Natives=1 and North=0 Central=0.

This means:
South American Natives allowed
North American Natives not allowed
Central American Natives not allowed

The MapGeneration (in DLL) which choose Nations accordingly.

This is a new feature I created for TAC and R&R.
(By reusing some code from Dale I must admit. )

2. I think I may figure this out by trial and error but... I want each nation to spawn at a specific plot every time, yet remain where you can pick between leaders. For example, I want the English to spawn near New England consistently, yet I want the freedom to choose between George and Adams.

Not possible.

3. This is a minor detail (hopefully), but in the World Builder, Tac's Europe plots are red, and in my Worldbuilder they're the standard yellowish gold color. Does this mean that TAC is using a special type of go to Europe plot?

No.
They just created them when playing another player than you before openin WordBuilder.
(PlayerColor. )

 

[Sanotra]

So I control very little of which natives spawn and where? If I set NA=1 and CA=1 and SA=0, will the total amount of natives be reduced, or is there a fixed amount and the old SA slots will be filled with NA or CA tribes? Did you code it where more NA natives will appear than CA if I do NA=2 and CA=1? I'm guessing not. It would be cool to have that though, considering the map is 2/3rds NA and only 1/3rds CA. I wish I could reduce the power of some of the tribes in certain regions. Gosh, this world builder is so limited!! Argh!!

But you made new code for the World Builder... is it possible to add the above features to World Builder by adding new code?

 

[raystuttgart]

So I control very little of which natives spawn and where ?

Yes.

If I set NA=1 and CA=1 and SA=0, will the total amount of natives be reduced, or is there a fixed amount and the old SA slots will be filled with NA or CA tribes?

Which Nation is NA, CA or SA is controlled in the XML of the Civs.
The amount of Natives is controlled in the XML of the MapSizes.

The feature will not reduce the amount of Natives.
If there are not enough Natives of the available selection, the rest will be filled up with non fitting.

Gosh, this world builder is so limited!! Argh!!

I think it works good enough ...

But you made new code for the World Builder... is it possible to add the above features to World Builder by adding new code?

I did not create code for the World Builder.
I created code for the Map Generation.

These are totally different things.

My list of todos is so long, that I am absolutely not interested in coding anything for Worldbuilder, sorry.
(I am also not intereted for coding anything else considering Map Generation.)

 

[Sanotra]

It has been released in the download section here. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Sanotra]

In TAC, I discovered the Pacific by the Panama Canal, but the event did not give me credit.

 

[Isabelxxx]

I just downloaded your map and started changing some things for DoaNE (playing with some tweaks in latitude for ex). I will let you know my experiences.

Thanks.

EDIT: It seems to be compatible with DoaNE too as it is, but some adjustments can be done to use some specific features of the mod.

 

[Sanotra]

Right on, let me know how it goes.

 

[Isabelxxx]

2 smalls comments before further testing tomorrow:

This is the save with natives already placed, don't you?
About the placement, in my opinion there is too much empty space from the cost of North America to the West. Your third screen had many more native settlements I think.
While some empty space could be left I would add more native cities there so the player will not automatically go there and start creating new colonies without messing with the natives like it will happen in other places of the map.


Do you plan to add goody huts? I know you want to place them randomly, but that requires new code in the DLL so the map would be fully dependent of that mod. Also I'm not sure that can be done for saves in a easy way, because of that we have map scripts... for now Worldbuilder save--> fixed goody huts.

 

[Isabelxxx]

Also, what will happen with all that empty ocean space?

I know what you tried to do there but have you considered that pirate units (it seems most mods have these type of units included) could enter in "Sail to Europe Plots" and therefore being in unused plots for trade units?

For ex. in DoaNE pirate units can enter into those plots to attack our merchantman, but having those additional plots could lead to some "lost" pirate units there.

How to avoid that? It's crazy but don't laugh...



In game you should not see that trick since our units will not pass the 2nd or 3rd plot.

There are other ways to do this but that would make the map dependent to a mod (like creating a new impassable ocean terrain).

 

[Sanotra]

There are no goody huts? I'll have to fix that. I don't understand your concern about the empty ocean space. I am not sure why there are not too many natives. Every time you load the game it is different. The amount of natives seem to change.

 

[Writing Bull]

It has been released in the download section here. Let me know what you guys think!

A pretty map. Thank you, Sanotra.

I have three questions or suggestions:

• At the Eastern Coast of North America there are no hills or peaks. It will be very difficult to produce tools oder weapons there. That's geographically authentic, but a problem for the balancing.
• You have no pacific plots. It won't be possible to finish the pacific quest of TAC. Perhaps you could create some pacific plots and change the one-tile-area of Panama so that it will be possible to build a settlement there (at the moment there are only peaks).
• The distances between the Europe plots and the coast are erratic. Sometimes it will be possible for ships to go to Europe directly, sometimes it is not possible. This is a problem for the balancing.