Steph's next great project announcement

[kryszcztov]

Originally posted by Steph
It's not snow mountain, but high mountain. Snow mountains are found in Tundra. High mountains will also exist for Desert, plain and Tundra.
Yes, that means 12 different kind of relief (hill, mountains, high mountains, for Desert, Plain, Grassland & Tundra). And with pine forest and forest version for most, and jungle for Grassland, I have a total of 80 different kind of relief. If you consider that each of them exist in 8 version (depending if they are adjacent to another relief or not), it means 640 different relief tiles.

Mmmh, that's a bit too much, don't you think ? Could be a micromanaging nightmare... Also, high mountains could be understood as mountains, say, 3,000 meters above the sea level. AFAIK, such mountains are almost always covered with snow and ice (eternal snow). And if you think it is related to the "climate background", just think of the Kilimandjaro, above 5,000 meters high and close to the equator. Could be a good idea to think a bit more about all your terrain set, just to ensure it is accurate and playable. But you got nice ideas anyway, I just wanted to add comments so as it becomes even better.

 

[Steph]

I don't think it will give more micromanagement, just more variety to the eyes in the map.
Having desert hill and tundra hill will just give a few more option, but the game play will not be drastically changed just for that.

Even when using the editor, you just select climate - relief - vegetation and then clic.

High moutains should indeed have external ice. I simply wanted to stress that there were other snow mountains in tundra.

 

[Warlord 101]

You may ask. It is not a mod. It is a future completly new game.

Sorry. Still, I love this game!
Anyway, will there be a version that comes with a World Map or a specific part of the world (ie Japan, Europe, North America, etc) ?

 

[Steph]

It is really too early to tell, but it will at least include a complete map editor

 

[Yoda Power]

Originally posted by Steph
It is really too early to tell, but it will at least include a complete map editor

I would be happy to make a world map for your mod, when you have the editor ready

 

[Steph]

4 screenshots to show the world with the different climate. As you can see, it's quite ugly, as the colors do not match correctly, and for plains and desert they are to bright and lack contrasts.
Tundra is aso not white enough in my opinion.

So HELP!

I need someone who is good at terrain graphics to go through all my graphics file, harmonize them palette wise, and tidy the graphics.

I can also accept quite different graphics / set of graphics such as what Womok did, but I need them to be consistent with each other for all the climates, relief and vegetation combinations.

 

[Steph]

Plain

 

[Steph]

Grassland

 

[Steph]

Tundra

 

[Incubus0223]

Yo steph i just love whats happened.......whats it been like a lil bit close to a month and already you have such an incredible amount established love the idea of using 3 factors in a terrain part....and you know i could maybe help....but i can't guarentee....also once you release this map editor and the game......i'm sure some1 on the forums like snoopy will get bored one day and fix up the graphics.......so for now they look just fine to me even in low res graphics.......so well keep up the good work

 

[Steph]

I've reworked the editor a bit.

Now, you have a map editor toolbox. There you select your brush, and then click on the map.
Before, the brush included background , relief and vegetation.
Now, it changes only one thing : so if you can just put desert, grassland, etc where you want, then change some parts to hill, or add forest, but without changing everything.
The first icone in the row is to "clear" : no relief, no vegetation...

I find this method easier to use.

I have also made some performance test. Unitl now, I had a 20x20 map, with a 800x600 view.
Now the view is 1024x768.

About the map, I'm sorry, but the editor starts to slow down with bigger map. Changing a tile takes almost 1 second with a 1000x1000 map. However, it's still OK with a 500x500 map.
I'll try to improve the speed, this part is really not optimized.

 

[aaminion00]

really nice. You have a plan on what you're going to try and get done next (after you finish with the terrain)?

 

[Steph]

I'm not finished with the terrain editor. I need to add rivers, road, irrigation, fog of war, polar ice cap, and also to add the X wrapping.

But before, I'll do the minimap / global view this evening or tomorrow morning.

I also want to try to integrate in the editor the possibility to change the pictures with the tile set on the fly : it will make testing the graphics easier, and it may also be fun for a player to just change the tile set during game.

Then I will let it cool, and start working on the second big graphics issue : the units.
I'll probably do a good nice unit editor.

My goal is to be able to move units in the strategic map, and to have them fight battles in the tactical maps.
Units shall be placed with the editor : no cities / building yet.

Just warfare : I want to finish the graphic engine, including units animation.

 

[thestonesfan]

Steph - I can try working on the terrain graphics. I agree that they need work. I've never messed with terrain before, so I can't make any promises and it will probably take me a while.

My plan is to just work with the base Civ3 tiles to get the best consistency.

A quick list of what's needed, as far as I know -

High Mountains
Hills and Mountains for desert, plains, grassland, and tundra
A new type of river
Tundra forests

 

[Steph]

Originally posted by thestonesfan
A quick list of what's needed, as far as I know -

High Mountains
Hills and Mountains for desert, plains, grassland, and tundra
A new type of river
Tundra forests

Stuff that is needed :
- High mountains for desert, plain, grassland and tundra
- Hills for desert, plain, grassland and tundra (they already exist for Grassland)
- Moutains for desert, plains, tundra (and grassland).

Hills should come with variation : no vegetation, forest, pine forest, jungle. For Tundra, jungle are no mandatory , and no need of vegetation for desert.

For the mountains, they should also come in forested or jungled (does this word exists?) version.


For the new type or river, I'd like them to be much larger (twice the existing one should be OK).

Now, stuff that are not really needed but would be nice :
- Whiter tundra
- More difference between grassland and desert.
- Marsh and swamp (similar to grasslands).
- Some wooden wall, ston walls, barbed wires with mirador, using the same pattern as rivers. So you can try to actually build the Great Wall

 

[aaminion00]

I can help you a bit with "civilopedia" entries if you ever need them. Suggestions too.

I think that after you finish the terrain you should post the "unit lines" you plan to have on this thread". I'm sure most of the unit-makers here would love to donate their units to you too.

But of course it's all about the terrain. It really looks great, even if it's just the fisrt version. I like the mountains most of all, very nice.

As for including a unit editor with the game...

P.S. The walls are a great idea. You considered land mines as well?

 

[Steph]

Originally posted by aaminion00
I think that after you finish the terrain you should post the "unit lines" you plan to have on this thread". I'm sure most of the unit-makers here would love to donate their units to you too.

To start with, I will probably use the same unit line as what I have in my mod.
But it will be easier to add a new unit, as it will require only a storyboard and the included editor. Distributing unit will also be easier, as the editor will create unit description file, including their stats.

Originally posted by aaminion00

But of course it's all about the terrain. It really looks great, even if it's just the fisrt version. I like the mountains most of all, very nice.

Then thanks Womok and Snoopy. I didn't make the graphics, I'm simply using them.

Originally posted by aaminion00

As for including a unit editor with the game...

As a modder myself, I have a lot of ideas about a real editor, not the simple 'thing" called Civ3ExEdit...

Originally posted by aaminion00

P.S. The walls are a great idea. You considered land mines as well?

The idea is more abstract : "fortified broder". So for modern times, land mines will be abstracted in the defense factor. And for graphics, I think barbed wire fences and mirador will show better than mines.

 

[LBPB]

Steph, could you think about including a function like "bmp to bic" in your Terrain Editor. It will boost up the making of real world maps.

 

[Steph]

LBPB, it is not scheduled. However, there could be a bic to SSS. Then, if the author of the bmp to bic want's to give me his code, I can introduce it.

 

[Steph]

Here is a screenshot featuring the global view.