Terraforming/Canal building possibility?

[AncientOne]

Has anyone tried to make base terrain for forest or marsh/jungle to be coast, so that when you use cut forest or clear wetlands work order, outcome to be coast. I haven't yet tried it... thought that maybe someone has tried and perhaps failed in it. But in theory, it would be really great possibility for terraforming and canal building in scenarios (I think premade map would be best because otherwise on random map outcomes would be rather weird)

 

[Wolfshade]

Well, it'll be funny! You land worker cuts down the jungle and go to the water... Fatal exception, blahblahblah.

I don't think editor will allow it, but it's worth to try it, good idea.

 

[smirnoff]

Well, it'll be funny! You land worker cuts down the jungle and go to the water... Fatal exception, blahblahblah.

unless its a some kind of Water civilization lol

but yes worth to give a try

 

[Don Pepito]

Maybe it's possible to create a land terrain pcx looking like water but without being "real water". You can't navigate on it but, on the other hand, you don't drown either...

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

I doubt the AI would use it properly... waterworld ahead.

 

[Pounder]

I had a mod I did that would automatically make canals and breakwaters.

There are 5 files that had to be modded and I identified the 4 tiles per file that had to be modded.

The problem I ran into that I didn't feel like spending the time on was that the five files all had different palettes and when there was a longer canal that linked canal pieces from different files, it was hard to get the colours to be the same so that the end of a tile wouldn't be noticable.

I think it was doable, just never spent the time.

This wasn't building canals during the game, it was canals and breakwaters being generated on random maps or they could be preplaced in scenarios.

I had concrete canals with cranes and fences.

Edit: And these were navigable by naval units.

 

[AncientOne]

@Pounder - yeah, well that's not exactly what I thought of

@Wolfshade - Maybe, yet as I understand, it has been tested that for example, if worker is able to move on water and can build roads there, then human player can make water tiles movable by land units... therefore, it shouldn't crash the game when land unit gets somehow to water tiles... maybe you just have to dispand your worker that's stuck on water... or load it to transport. Anyway, it seems no-one has really tried it... so I guess it's testing time.

EDIT: Sorry for all the fuzz... For some reason I remembered that base terrain for forests and wetlands is easily changable, but of course it wasn't. You are right Pounder... only way to do it, would be editing terrain files, and even if it works somehow, I doubt it would work as I intended.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I had a mod I did that would automatically make canals and breakwaters.

There are 5 files that had to be modded and I identified the 4 tiles per file that had to be modded.
... And these were navigable by naval units.

Which files and terrain types.

... For some reason I remembered that base terrain for forests and wetlands is easily changable, but of course it wasn't. You are right Pounder... only way to do it, would be editing terrain files, and even if it works somehow, I doubt it would work as I intended.

LM Forest gets placed on LM Plains & LM Grass. So one could have different graphics. The limitation is that the wheeled/impassable flags are shared between the lm & standard terrain.

What about reversing it? Make the canal graphic what appears when a forest is planted. Should be able to restrict movement to certain units that way.

 

[Pounder]

Which files and terrain types.

Coastal files: xdgc, xtgc, xpgc, xggc and xdpc

 

[Blue Monkey]

Not the LMs?

 

[Pounder]

Not the LMs?

I only use random maps, so I had it working on the regular terrain files.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Momemtary memory lapse. You had mentioned that. I got busy thinking about wanting regular coasts as well & forgot. What I was thinking would only work on premade maps.

Anyone who has done terrain work can appreciate why you set the project aside. OTOH I can see how it could be very useful for something like a random map version of a Mars/Barsoom scenario where there wouldn't be any large bodies of water involved. Maybe just useful enough to add to our to-do list.

 

[Pounder]

Here is the preview I posted a few years ago, I actually made better ones with cranes and fences.



And here is the llink to that thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=120985

You can see the colour mismatch if you look closely, I think it could be fixed now that I have more experience with palettes. It is sort of a moot point as I can't locate the files, they may have been missed as I upgraded computers.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Quite a while back someone (Vuldacon iirc) suggested to me making a supergraphic combining all the relevant terrains to create a palette then importing it to the individual pcx. That would solve the color mismatch. There's still the pain of checking every single combination of adjoining tiles for alignment errors. Just part of the sweat equity of creation, I guess.

Those canal banks are outstanding. If you have any files at all, even partial ones used for cut and paste I'd like to see them posted. Previews without the grid overlay could even be used as a starting point. They'd work really well for Mars terrain. I don't think I could do anything as nicely detailed, but incorporating them would be useful.