A Divided Nation - Creation Thread

[MacGalleo]

Originally posted by civ2units
During creating new sound files for my units I noticed a problem. Two units don´t use the wav file I given them. When they attack another unit I don´t hear anything. It seems that everything is ok, the wav file works with other units, it´s saved in the sound folder.

Is there anything special when I give the first unit after the "Extra Air" a wav file?

none ; Extra Ship
none ; Extra Air
none ; New Unit a
none ; New Unit b
none ; New Unit c

Maybe someone could help me...

Are you sure the name of the "new unit A" wav is the same as in your sound directory?

[McMonkey]

Started adding rivers and mountains. Hopefully I can get this finished in a reasonable amount of time. I have marked out city locations and will include a text file with their grid refs.

What terrains do you want to use?

I would suggest:

-Ocean

-Grassland

-Plains

-Swamp

-Mountain

-Hills

-Forest

-Desert

-Town (To mark city locations and give each city a little shield/food/trade bonus)

-Industrial Resource (To place near important industrial cities)

-Trade resource (To place near important trade centres)

You may have other ideas you wish to include, just let me know so we can plan ahead a bit

EDIT: Sorted the problem I had in the east with the Mississippi river. I checked everything and found I had miss placed Tampa, mistaking Charlotte Harbour for Tampa bay. I had used Tampa as a reference for placing New Orleans and other south coast cities meaning that the whole south coast was out of line and needed to be re-done. Was not too difficult as I took screenshots of the coast for reference when re-drawing them. Now the Mississippi from Memphis should flow to the sea at New Orleans as it should, phew!

[civ2units]

@MacGalleo:
It was my mistake, I didn´t restart the savegame after changing the sound settings in the rules. That was the cause why my settings didn´t have any affect in the game.

@McMonkey:
The map looks great.
With the Terrains I would like to include Cotton Fields instead of Trade resources. The other types are very good.

[Elensar]

Might not be a bad idea to have some sort of "city" (like town, but better) for the areas that were especially well off in that regard (for their location).

Richmond, Washington, maybe New York City come to mind.

[McMonkey]

Thats the idea of the Industrial terrain which can have good shield and trade values and can be place near to such cities.

[Elensar]

Not all the "important" cities were highly industralized, though. Washington for instance really doesn't make sense to have any "industrial" terrain nearby.

Point taken, however. How much difference would there be (visually) between plains and grassland for purposes of this map?

[McMonkey]

Good point, not all Important cities were industrial giants.

I don't quite get the meaning of your question about plains and grassland. Once I have finished the map Civ2units can alter whatever he needs to suit his design, or do you mean terrain graphics?

[McMonkey]

Oh, and an update on the map progress. The Mississippi is nearly finished. Just a few tributaries and a couple of other rivers in the south west to add. After that I will start filling in swamps and highlands.

[Elensar]

Thusly, the suggestion for "city" for areas that are a bit better but not full out industrial giants. Not necessary, but a nice touch for areas that should be worth a little bit extra. If standard city region terrain is say, 2/0/0, and town squares are 3/1/1 (not counting terrain improvements), "city" could be 3/1/2 (Food/shields/trade). Maybe 3/2/1 and 3/2/2 (since the game gives the city square itself +1 shield in areas that don't produce a shield by default for reasons unknown.)

Terrain graphics. Other than the "don't want it to be too boring looking", it'd make sense to have all the open farmland areas be plains or grassland (production values tweaked as seems best, but that's scenario design, not map designs) after all. As in, one or the other, not both.

Might be interesting if they look similar to have patches of plains in Tennessee and more grassland in Georgia, or something like that.

Wonderful in regards to map progress.

[techumseh]

I suggest lots of rough terrain. Channel movement into historical routes and limit open terrain to areas around major historical populations. The eastern theatre was largely mountainous, with a strip of open, fertile terrain along the Atlantic. The western theatre had lots of forest and swampland. As a general rule, I double or triple the amount of present-day forest and swamp when making pre-modern maps.

[McMonkey]

Terrains: Ocean, Grassland, Plains, Swamp, Mountain, Hills, Forest, Desert, Town, Industrial, Cotton Field.

Unfortunately there is a limit on how many types. The town marker/terrain is necessary as are industrial squares for the north and cotton fields for the south. I think this set should work well.

The Appalachian mountains will be surrounded by extensive wooded and hilly terrain which should channel movement more towards the coastal plain which runs roughly: Atlanta-Savannah, Charlotte-Wilmington, Lynchburg-Norfolk and around Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

I will include some east-west passes through the highlands and important features such as the Shenandoah valley. I am also using Google maps to pick out detail such as Harper's Ferry and Island #10.

Before starting this map I was fairly ignorant of US geography so it has been a very interesting learning process

[civ2units]

Wow, I´m really looking forward to this great map.

[Arthedain]

Indeed. Map looks awesome!

[McMonkey]

Thanks guys, flattery will get you everywhere

As I said before I was planning on making this map one day and the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone was too good to miss. I'm sure I could have done the job a lot quicker with a utility but I actually enjoy making maps. Gives me time to think through ideas and really get the geography imprinted in my memory.

I will try to stop posting updates and fishing for compliments so the thread can return to discussing Civ2units scenario

[techumseh]

Suggest the lower Mississippi have fewer crossing points.