The Atlas Project

[Junuxx]

Minor fix in the installer: I forgot to update it to install the icon. This would give an error if not fixed manually, I guess. So now the first post has version 0.20b for download

Edit: I noticed a very weird bug. If you start the program, generate a map and then change to another window and come back, the layout will be a bit messed up and it will for some reason show a map with default settings instead of the last map. I have no idea what causes this, will look into it in the weekend.

 

[Gr3yHound]

great work....

but 1 thing...the installed does only work for copying not, creating the shortcut. imo the isntaller is useless and not needed at all. since i don´t use an englisch windows
copy /Y "Atlas Map Generator.lnk" "%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs"
doesn´t create the entry.

suggestions:
hm about the rivers....i think this is pretty difficult to create so i suggest you have a set of river structures you just place as-they-are until you come up with a way to make total randomly rivers.

as suggestion how to realize rivers i also have an idea:
randomize a number between mayb 3 and 10. (size)
create a river field and randomize a number between 1 and 8 (or 1 and 4 if theres no way to create angled rivers) to define in which direction the river wil go. You could say
1 2 3
4 X 5
6 7 8

or

X 1 X
2 X 3
X 4 X

and according to the result add a river field at the randomized direction. From now on only randomize 3 values so the river doesn´t go back and just goes forward, left or right. when you reached the size you have a structrure and you can add the river to a fitting place.

another thing:

for the all the integer numbers it would be great if they would make more sense. for example what does 3 mean or what´s 1 etc. mayb make it a numbers like "200" which would mean the continent consists of 200 tiles landmass or something. Or has a coastline of 200 tiles or something.
also it would rock if it would be possible to have different settings for different continents.

and as last:

then i got an idea how you could define the mass of ressources.
first go with 3 values that mean average ressource rate per 5x5 or 10x10 tiles. I suggest 1 value for luxeries, 1 for normal food bonuses and 1 for strategic ressources.

i hope you can use some of my ideas or i helped in any other way.

 

[Junuxx]

...

Thank you very much, Gr3yHound, for your elaborate comment

You have a very good point about the installer, I should have thought of the fact it will only work for people with an English windows version. I'll see if I can find the right command for creating a shortcut. For now, I will add a warning to the first post. For most people it won't be much of a problem to copy the files manually, anyway.

Rivers are implemented rather strange in Civ 4. A tile is marked as having a river on its eastern or southern border. The random-4 approach is a good idea, I think. But it should also make it possible to have a river split up, and it would be better if it somehow 'searched' the sea like real rivers.

The current method of continent generation does not allow for easy counting of tile size/coastline size. The size integer represents the number of iterations of the 'growing' algorithm from the continent's seed. Maybe I'll replace it with text options like tiny, small , normal, etc. instead.

Different values for luxuries, food and strat resources is a really neat idea. Thanks for that, I like to read constructive comments like this!

 

[Dover]

Hey, one thing I think could help your maps look really real, at least as far as forests are concerned, is to consider continental drift. In other words, the same flora tends to originate from the same place - north america and europe have similar decidous forests because they were originally one continent, for example. So in general, I'd say it's better to opt for a few big forests and jungles rather than the odd tile dotted here and there.

Great work, btw, I can't wait to try it out tomorrow - after some sleep!

 

[tbear2520]

This is really a useful tool. It outlays the land for you. GOOD JOB! If only you could add a another part that could then randomize the layout of the content on the land. It crucial though to keep the two parts seperate, both for simplicity of coding but also to get a greater customization of the maps. (I.E. If you like a land layout you might not like the formations in it. So you could keep the same land masses or islands and further randomize the mountains until it fits your needs.) Do you follow what I'm saying. Don't change anything that you have done. Create a second part that loads the map and can alter the terrain based on like a seed. Like the other civ's seeds use to be on the map generator. The key though is to keep the land. Then you could by therory load Earth and keep the contenants in place yet move deserts, moutains and rivers around. That would be awesome!!!!

Perhaps a Generate Resource button that would keep the land and randomize the land type. I don't know Java but something like if square = Water do nothing, if square = land then for x = i to seed and put a loop to determine land land square type. I might be off here but the point is still the same.

I almost forgot. The maps come out upside down. Flaw or feature?

 

[Flash1]

Can this program just make me a clear 200 x 100?

I realy would like a blank 256 x 128 world builder save map

 

[Junuxx]

Hey tbear2520 and Flash1, thanks, it's great to read more comments.

The seperate generation buttons are a very good idea, I put it in my sketch for the next version's interface. Thanks for mentioning the upside-downness by the way, I had not yet discovered that

Edit: I found out Civ uses a different coordinate system than I do. My (0;0) coordinate is in the upper left, Civ's (0;0) is in the bottom left

I will increase max size to 256x256 (or more maybe) Flash1, that's no problem.

Sketch for the next update attached, what do you think?
I fear the controls will look like a hopeless crowded mess...

<edit: removed sketch, actual new look added a couple of posts down>

 

[tbear2520]

Junuxx , You are doing a really awesome job, Kuddo's to you!!! A couple of things I really like are

1) The new clear terrain button - does this clear terrain but leave the position of the land? AWESOME - YOU ROCK! This will set you apart from all others.

2) The quick preview is way cool. No other one map generator I've seen has this. Again Kuddo's to you

I don't know the new feel but I really liked the ability to specify the number of continents and size. This feature allowed a lot of small continents which produced a more real like feel. Say a 150x150 with 25 continents of size 4, made some really cool maps. Where both land and sea would play a vital role during game plan.

Junuxx for King

Several things to note,

1) Can the save button be made to auto number additional saves?

2) What about plotting start locations with a white dot? It wouldn't have to specify which Civ but only a dot. And I would leave this as optional. With a Clear Start Locations and Generate Start Locations. You could then tell if smaller islands would be populated. This would also need a number of players feature.

Not to sure about the 2) thing to note above, but worth thinking about

I can't wait to see it

 

[Junuxx]

Well, the clear terrain was your idea, so thanks to you

Something like this has been done for Civ 2 btw, but I don't know by whom, and I don't have the program anymore.

I want the save button to give the usual save dialog where you can name the file yourself, but I don't have any idea yet of how to do that.

Next version will be up later tonight ..

 

[Visceral Monkey]

After lurking for, ohh, years, this thread has made me finally sign up.

I love your map gen program, it's awesome to see you doing this. One thing I'd like to see, is the ability, say a check box, to "hide the map". I know it sounds weird, but after having it build a few worlds back to back and settleing on the settings I like, I want the ability to generate a map using those settings without seeing it so it will be a surprise. Maybe a setting so that it can save it to your scenario folder or something..

Also, you might want to include a version that allows you how many "worlds" you want to create and then creates say 1-5 of them side by side so you get a better idea what the "average" world will look like with those settings.

All in all, excellent work!

More than anything, I'm excited by the idea that I'll be able to generate custom worlds with whatever ratio of terrain I want. For instance, the ability to make a large world, with medium oceans and mountain chains on the land, with a large majority of land covered by forests. This kind of micro tweakability would be great..

 

[Flash1]

As you have probably seen in my map thread, I'm making a very large but accurate as possible earth map. Until the memory issues have been addressed, what is the biggest map you think is playable? I guess I need to increase my virtual memory, luckily I have a huge Hard Drive.

 

[tbear2520]

Hey guys, lets put some stars by this thread, cast your vote. Personally I rated it a 5.

 

[Junuxx]

Welcome Visceral Monkey, congrats on signing up

I agree that a "Hide Map" checkbox would be useful. Had thought of it, it's on the to do list (which is rather long ). Not sure what you mean by your next comment, you'd like to see the preview screen to show, say, 4 maps generated with the same settings simultaneously? Why not generate 4 sequentially then?

I'm really glad you like it. I'm having a great time myself programming it, playing around with the settings and having this great feedback from the community

@Flash:
I've been asking around on the forums what was the largest map people had actually played on, but I got little or not so useful answers. I *estimate* that for a map with big oceans 150x100 is okay for people with good pcs now. But I expect that performance of the game will increase with patches from Firaxis, and of course in a year or so, much better PC's will be available. So who knows, 400x400 might or might not be possible eventually. But just to give people the chance to play on a crazy world like 300x30, I raised the maximum x and y size to 400

@tbear2520:
thanx man!

And finally, a screenshot. This is what the interface looks like now, although much of the controls you see don't actually 'do' anything yet :crazyeyes:

 

[Flash1]

All looks good. I will try it. This looks like a very good program. I can't get the BMPtoWBS converter to even run propery.

Thank you for creating a great looking program. I think I'll start with a 160 x 80.

 

[Flash1]

Oh, What kind of file does this program create?
And one a map is created can anyone play it without changing files?

 

[Junuxx]

Oh, What kind of file does this program create?
And one a map is created can anyone play it without changing files?

See the first post
The output file is called Atlas.Civ4WorldBuilderSave . You can rename it if you like, and to play you simply copy it to C:\My Documents\My Games\Civ IV\Saves\WorldBuilder , start the game and choose the scenario.

(edit : Alternatively, you can also double-click the Atlas.Civ4WorldBuilderSave file)

 

[Flash1]

Thank you very much.

 

[tbear2520]

I got the BMPtoWBS thing to run but thats only good if you want to generate a map from a bmp. Oh and it takes a lot of work to modify large maps to take advantage of the features and bonuses and stuff.

Junuxx, I must say I really like the interface you have on this. The tab feature was a good call.

I know your doing a lot of work, so here's an idea for like version 2.

A load map feature would be nice. Say you make one, play it and wanted to shuffle the terrian types a bit but wanted to keep the land mass in order. If you have closed the program then you would have to generate new land.

Whatcha think?

Tbear2520

Don't worry to much about the loading of a map, the other features well make up for it. You can always just make another map.

 

[Visceral Monkey]

Not sure what you mean by your next comment, you'd like to see the preview screen to show, say, 4 maps generated with the same settings simultaneously? Why not generate 4 sequentially then?

Just a time saving usabilty feature, something to consider down the line. In other words, you can easily just generate 4 maps or so and note how they turn out, or you could have it generate 4 maps all at once and display them side by side for comparison. Like I said, a minor thing and nothing I'd waste time on until much later maybe.

 

[Flash1]

Okay, How does this project sound?
What if X = 10 plots per 20 degrees longitute.
What if y = 10 plots per 10 degrees latitude.
that would make a lot of cropping for sections but each area would be represented.
map would be something like 180 x 150