Civ4MC (updated to v0.4) - A cool new mapscript and balance tool!

[GermanJoey]

Hey guys, I'm very excited to unveil a tool I've been working on for a couple months now called "Civ4 Map Cad", or Civ4MC for short. It's a tool to help create, edit, and balance maps, and can be used either standalone and/or with any existing mapscript and/or the Worldbuilder. Brick and I used a prototype version to make the PB27 map (and I've been updating it a lot since then), and it was really helpful for trading ideas back and forth and trying out big changes, especially as we got feedback from the lurkers.

You can download it here: http://github.com/germanjoey/civ4-mapcad

The first tutorial will help you install; you can get it up and running in less than a minute!

Some cool features:

• Layer-based (think Photoshop layers) help you design and manipulate a map in more easily-digestible bits and pieces.
  
• Commands for cutting, chopping, flipping, rotating, slicing, and dicing a map - anything you could do to an apple with a knife, you can now do to a Civ4 map!
  
• Combine commands into scripts to make big, complex changes to maps - and then reverse them later if you change your mind.
  
• Built-in documentation! Get an immediate description for any command.
  
• A series of six illustrated, in-depth tutorials, starting at the very basics and going all the way to rolling and balancing a map.
  
• Got an idea for a random landmass-generation algorithm that you'd like to try out, but don't want all the other hassle that comes with making a mapscript? There's some powerful grid/matrix manipulation and visualization tools that could help you out.
  
• Want a map based on some kind of ascii art? With this tool, its easy to make your dream map of a bikini babe with the head of Adolf Hitler come true.
  
• A very powerful and detailed balance reporter. The tool simulates mini AIs playing each start over and over and over again, constrained as if to an always-peace game, to see what land they settle and how often, and then analyzes how many tiles/foods/luxuries/etc each player gets on average. Example: http://media.rhizzone.net/civ4mc/t6_fixed_v2.html
  

Even if you think the map editing tools are weird and don't trust my balancer any more than a sack of salt, Civ4MC still has a few nice features that even the more conservative-minded mapmaker may appreciate:

• Handy HTML view of your map! Mouse-hovering on each tile reports coordinates/resources/player info, making it very easy to collaborate with others and get lurker feedback from people browsing the forums at work! Example: http://media.rhizzone.net/civ4mc/t2.html
  
• Hate continuously reloading a map over and over agian to grab a starting screenshot of each player's start? Not a problem anymore! The tool can easily generate a starting sim savefile for each player of their immediate 5x5 BFC area! Save them time AND get them to work for you and take their own damn screenshot for their threads!
  
• The tool can automatically fix weird map mistakes - improper ocean/coast, oasis/floodplains where they're not supposed to be, backwards/clashing rivers, random parts of the map being revealed, and missing/extra starting techs.
  
• Mod support! Currently supported are base BTS and RtR, and you can easily switch between them. FFH2-specific support possible if there's interest.
  

Anyways, give it a try!

[Krill]

PB29 is going to be played on a map of dickbutt isn't it.

Good job, i ll be downloading it later...

[SevenSpirits]

That looks really cool! I will have to check it out.

[El Grillo]

Very cool, thanks for taking the time to work on this.

[Krill]

Question from someone that has never used commandline interfaces nor knows what an md file is.

What program or programs should I use to view the tutorial files other than notepad++ or and internet browser?

[Ichabod]

Hey Joey, why can't I choose to make a cylindrical map with this tool?

And I hope there's a "count the number of neighbours tool too"!

[sesh]

Question from someone that has never used commandline interfaces nor knows what an md file is.

What program or programs should I use to view the tutorial files other than notepad++ or and internet browser?

Markdown's syntax is designed to look like the way people write fancy txt files - anything that uses fixed-width fonts (like notepad++) is fine. Realistically you can just look at it on github, which will render it into html and inline the linked images: https://github.com/germanjoey/civ4-mapca...torial1.md

[Krill]

Thanks. it was the images I was mainly interested in.

[GermanJoey]

Hey Joey, why can't I choose to make a cylindrical map with this tool?

And I hope there's a "count the number of neighbours tool too"!

You can (use the set_wrap command), its just that Toroidal is on by default

And yes, there's definitely a "count number of neighbors" section in the balance reporter! You can see an example here, in the text area below the map: http://media.rhizzone.net/civ4mc/t6_fixed_v2.html

[GermanJoey]

Question from someone that has never used commandline interfaces nor knows what an md file is.

What program or programs should I use to view the tutorial files other than notepad++ or and internet browser?

Markdown's syntax is designed to look like the way people write fancy txt files - anything that uses fixed-width fonts (like notepad++) is fine. Realistically you can just look at it on github, which will render it into html and inline the linked images: https://github.com/germanjoey/civ4-mapca...torial1.md

Yeah, definitely read the tutorials on github, there's lots of images! Especially in tutorials 3 and 4....