Strat Map Enhancement

[dvk901]

Having discovered how to convert the display of a 'wonder' to a resource, I have a few ideas about strat map enhancement that I'll run by you guys.

One of my pet peeves about the overall look of the strat map in general is the 'emptiness' of most regions..especially apparent on the larger scale maps. I like what EB did in placing little farms and things in various places, but alas, we don't have the resources to come up with such things...yet....and this kind of thing looks very cluttered on small scale maps.

However, though I failed in an attempt to add 'resources' before, I think I know what I did wrong and can rectify that situation.. It'll take a while to work out, and some experimentation, but what I want to do is place roads on the strat....temporarily, to get an idea where they will go on a given map, and then attempt to use the already in-game graphics to display a number of small villages and towns in a region. You could, in tandem with this, create a building tree called 'towns'...or something like that, that allowed you to basically build a 'virtual village'...the purpose of which is to spread out population and ease the load on large cities.

The effects of these buildings could be to reduce population by a certain percentage.....thereby 'transeferring' population to other villages and towns that would at least be visible. It would give the player the opportunity to control population up or down (destroy the 'town' and you lose the effects), plus, I think it would be more visually pleasing to see a region with a large central city and a few villages and towns. Just more realistic.

There was concern about the game's ability to display all this, and would it slow things down (over at EB, I think)....but I really don't think it would matter that much, and I don't mean to go hog-wild.

Thoughts?

[pseudocaesar]

that would be incredible! perhaps you could take a look at and talk to the guys over at Casus Belli, i think, (the italian made one). they have a crapload of unique strat map features that look really cool.

[cherryfunk]

One of the things that first got me excited about the Metro/Naval mod were the little villages they had on the map. But... they didn't really do anything in the game. If I understand you correctly when you say this:

You could, in tandem with this, create a building tree called 'towns'...or something like that, that allowed you to basically build a 'virtual village'...the purpose of which is to spread out population and ease the load on large cities.

...you'd somehow be representing actual towns, that have populations? Would they gradually appear as the player 'built' them in the main city's 'towns' building tree?

I THINK this might be a fantastic idea, but I'm not quite following you as far as how it actually appear in-game, and what effect it would have. Can you elaborate a bit more as to what it would look like from the player's perspective?

[Spartan_Shame]

This sounds like a really good idea, but we definitely so not want to end up as slow as EB.

[dvk901]

Unfortunately, in thinking this out, I released that the location of a city or port is determined by black or white squares in descr_regions.txt....a pretty fussy process, and it alone determines the 'dynamic' things that are displayed on the map. For example, when a town grows, changing from a town to a city, you see a dynamic change on the map. Same with ports. But these are the ONLY dynamically changing things....determined by those specks in a map file. So you can't do it 'dynamically so you'd see a visual change.

My thoughts are to put them there anyway...using a resource that I create (if it's possible to do this), otherwise, I'll use 'pigs' or something stupid....so that when you look at a region, you see several villages, if it's a poorly developed region where the main village is just a 'village'. They'll all look the same, but one will grow. Likewise, towns and cities with small villages around them or placed in reasonable or historic places.

The building tree for 'village, town, large_town' would simply add a little 'flavor' to what you see. It won't 'create' one on the map because it can't, but it could give you the 'impression' of shifting population or growing or whatever you wanted it to do. The building tree itself would have the bonuses...whether positive or negative.

It's just another idea like the Villas...where you build this 'virtual' building that doesn't really show up anywhere, but offers a Trade Bonus because it's a more productive farm for crops or livestock, but a negative law bonus because the locals resent the Roman Estates you build in their lands.

Just another way, I guess, of trying to simulate reality better, even though it's hard with the limitations of the game engine.

[Spartan_Shame]

Is it possible that they upgrade randomly, yet more so the higher the city nearest to it is? Sp a small town would have some large villages around it, but a huge city would have thriving communities all around its region?

[cherryfunk]

It would definitely make the map look more realistic, so even if it's only an 'eye candy' feature, I think it's worth trying. We could put the little towns where there really were towns, historically, so for example the Nile delta would have a bunch of them, but the Libyan desert would be empty. This would at least give the sense of a more historically accurate map...

Oh, and I also love the 'trading fleet' idea, dvk, I hope that can work out somehow. It would be great if you could generate cash by sending trading convoys to your distant cities.

[Squid]

If I understand correctly and you're doing this using resources keep in mind there is a limit on the number of resources in the game, and I'm pretty sure we've already hit the limit.

Now if it were possible to add extra terrain types to the map (and I have no clue if you can) then NR might be able to add "farm" terrain, and "village" terrain, etc.

[dvk901]

As it turns out, Metro Mod did it the same way I'm thinking. No big deal.

[Northern Ranger]

I think adding these new 'villages' would be good, I like how EB does it, but the maps too small-it's too cluttered. And it's slow and the buildings are confusing

add "farm" terrain

This already happens after a farm is built in the region, and I also have no idea how to add terrain

[dvk901]

I think adding these new 'villages' would be good, I like how EB does it, but the maps too small-it's too cluttered. And it's slow and the buildings are confusing

This already happens after a farm is built in the region, and I also have no idea how to add terrain

When you say 'farm terrain' gets added, what do you mean? Enlighten me. Does it thus, look like a farm?

As for EB, I am convinced that EB's 'lethargy' is not it's map or graphics. Their script is a very intensive 'active' script, monitering and constantly doing things in the background every time you end turn or fight a battle or take a settlement. Graphics that don't MOVE, however, don't cause all that much of a video drag...it's just a function of the memory you have to display them. You'll notice that you don't have enough memory if your mouse is 'sticky' or slow moving. So I'm not too worried about this..(Famous last words, he says)

[dvk901]

Did some tinkering last nite and got the little towns to show on the map. I'm not going to do much more with it until you guys see the hotfix and give some input. I think it adds a nice touch, so we'll see what you guys think.

[cherryfunk]

I like it, even if it doesn't impact gameplay -- though would be great if we could get it to have an impact somehow...

[Northern Ranger]

farm terrain just makes all of the fertile terrain look like fields, you can see the contrasts in places like the steppes.

[pseudocaesar]

by the way guys...EB runs slow because it literally has thousands of turn based scripts that run EVERY time the end turn button is clicked, so unless your running it from NASA its slow as hell, the strat map graphics are less of a factor than anything, besides the computer automatically assesses the graphics card and displays it accordingly ie nice fluffy 3d trees or 2d trees, i noticed when i got my new card straight away.

[dvk901]

by the way guys...EB runs slow because it literally has thousands of turn based scripts that run EVERY time the end turn button is clicked, so unless your running it from NASA its slow as hell, the strat map graphics are less of a factor than anything, besides the computer automatically assesses the graphics card and displays it accordingly ie nice fluffy 3d trees or 2d trees, i noticed when i got my new card straight away.

Thank you for backing me up on that.....I suspected the slowdown was their scripts, not the map graphics.

[dvk901]

Didn't anybody even notice???

[Spartan_Shame]

Sorry DVK, havnt had a chance to play yet...

[pseudocaesar]

ok had my computer gutted, could you please post the instructions as to what i need to download and what patches i need to install etc. i got lost last night lol.

[aja5191]

1) RTW
2) 1.3 patch
3) 1.5 patch
4) Roma Surrectum
5) Patch 8 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< omitted.
6) patch 10
7) hotfix 2 for patch 10
8) run UI.bat