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Old 07-01-2005, 16:18   #1
Beam
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Default Using Maptweaker in the mapmaking process

Dr Alimentado gave us an excellent tool for making maps and I strongly recommend using it even if you do not plan to copy sections of the map. Why? The excellent analyzer which gives detailed info about every body of land and water on the map.


127.68*KB

The list of items even continues further to the right. It very well gives a quick and comprehensive overview of tile and resource distribution.

Maptweaker includes quite a number of facilities to modify the map, the copy tool the most important one. It comes with other facilities as well, for example the ability to move the whole map left / right and change the X and Y number of tiles.

It also offers a lot of the standard Civ editor functions. I found however that the Civ editor sometimes is very sensitive and refuses to load a map where tiles were edited in Maptweaker. Fortunately I never ran into a problem with one of the unique features of Maptweaker.

Here are my recommended steps for making a map in conjunction with Maptweaker.
- Generate maps in the editor until you find one that comes close to what you like
- Most of the time you will move starting locations. The editor sometimes has a problem with that, you better remove them all now and add them back in later.
- If you plan to copy parts of the map it is most efficient to fully prepare those parts before copying. It saves a lot of work afterwards.
- Usually it is neccesary the create room in the map for the copied parts. Just put ocean there.
- Save the map and load it into Maptweaker. Use the selection / copy tool to copy parts of the map. It also is the first opportunity to have a look into the analyzer. Save it with a different name.
- Load the map in the editor again. The edges of copied section{s) will look a bit strange.


129.01*KB

- Not really a problem since in most cases those edges need to be modified anyway to fit into the map correctly. In this case it was just a matter of adding required coastal and sea tiles (I hate to see coastal tiles without adjacent sea tiles ).


173.79*KB

- Now the process of modifying / removing / adding tiles, resources and overlays in the non-copied sections can start. Saving the map in the editor and loading into Maptweaker and using the Analyzer a couple of times really helps to see if all modifications result in the required balance. In this process you can also make up your mind about the new starting locations. If you want to avoid the AI settling in the first turn just put a mountain on each new starting location (vulcano's do the job as well but a little .
- Now it is time to insert the new starting locations (usually 8) using the Civ editor. Don't assign them before all 8 are put in. The editor sometimes screws itself if you do. Analyzer can be used to make sure all 8 are in and to do a final check.
- Assign the starting locations to Player1, Player 2 etc. Don't use any of the other options.
- Select custom player data and assign at least Civs to the human players and assign them their diff. level. Make sure the checkbox "Human player" is on for each of those.
- If you want to assign specific AI as well this is the time to do it.
- Most of the time you need to remove SoZ, mod some other rules and add some funnies (like UU units with custom names). This usually is the last step in the editor.
- Game is ready to be loaded. Don't forget to select diff. level before loading the scenario and check victory conditions and SGL just prior to launch.

Happy mapmaking!
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Old 07-01-2005, 16:53   #2
Rik Meleet
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What do all the lines in the first pic indicate ?
I presume Islands, seas and lakes; but then I don't understand the numbers in column "continent".
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Old 07-01-2005, 17:05   #3
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Rik Meleet

What do all the lines in the first pic indicate ?
I presume Islands, seas and lakes; but then I don't understand the numbers in column "continent".
Well, the lines are just strange looking edges, guess it is a graphical glitch.

The numbers in the Continent column are sequence numbers, dunno if these are generated the Civ editor or by Maptweaker. Maybe DrA can tell?
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Old 07-01-2005, 22:49   #4
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You are referring to the 2nd pic; this is the first picture:
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Old 07-01-2005, 22:53   #5
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Pretty easy, lets look at continent 0002:[list][*]186 landtiles[*]1 starting location[*]7 deserts[*]31 plains[*]64 grassland

etc., etc.
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Old 07-01-2005, 22:58   #6
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Each tile in a CIV3 map has an associated continent number - generated by the Civ editor, note that bodies of water also count as continents. The continents are counted from the largest body of water to the smallest, then the largest land body to the smallest - so continent#0 is ususally the ocean.

The analysing tool just takes an array of tiles and sums the many tile attributes against continent nos (it keeps an array of the summed values so it dosent have to recount all the time).

IIRC MapTweaker dosen't modify continent nos when you move tiles about (and probably gives new tiles a continent no of 0 too...) fortunately this is one of the things that Civ3Edit will fix on loading.


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Old 07-01-2005, 22:59   #7
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I have just one question now, as I don't plan to make maps for Civ, since I'd be really shit at it, I guess. If I wanna create a custom map someday (a *real* one, ie. after a world map), will this utility help me in any way ? Maybe to check the balance of terrain after creating the basic landmass... Anything more ?

Thanks a lot, DrA, for this. I know your work helped CDZ being a step better than it would have been otherwise.
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Old 07-01-2005, 23:12   #8
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Well the main functions are the bits that I always wanted in the Civ Editor
So it does copy/paste of a selected area, also you can nudge maps along the x/y axis and add empty space to the edge of a map. Note that you basically need to do this stuff on a bare map - no units/cities/and preferably no start points.
For a world map from scratch I don't see much use from these bits, but if you found a map of europe but wanted to add the ME you could use it to add the space to the europe map and then paint in the new terrain (probably in the Civ Editor)... and stuff like that.
It also has an analyzer tool that essentially provides MapStat like statistics but through the map interface. Useful for balancing, espeically as you can select pretty much any combination of tiles in MapTweaker and then run the analyzer on the selection.

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