easy Europe map creation, and new units too

[Harlan]

I have some new files up at the Cradle of Civilization site (http://civ.cx/). One is a collection of 82 Dark Age era units. I previously posted these on the same site in a ToT version (using more colors and bigger size), but these are scaled to work for non-ToT formats.

The second needs a bit more explaining. Used with the program BMP2MAP (and soon to be changed so it will fit with Mercator's new BMP map editor), it allows one to make a map of any part of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East easily. Basically, its a very large map of that whole area with lots of detail, converted into the format BMP2MAP likes. You select an area you want to make a map for, shrink it down to the size Civ2 allows, run it through BMP2MAP, and you've got yourself an instant map. If you pick a large area like all of Europe, a good amount of tweaking will be necessary afterwards, if you pick a small area, less adjustments should be needed.

I hope this will make inaccurate maps a thing of the past, at least for the greater Europe area where most scenarios are based.

[The ANZAC]

but I thought terrain square had specific colors in the editor, like blue for ocean and other colors that wouldn't look anything like their terrain counterparts on a normal map?

[Harlan]

The color problem is one of the reasons BMP2MAP hasn't been used that much. One has to change all the colors of a map to only a handful of colors, all rather odd choices, for BMP2MAP to read them correctly. For instance ocean has to be a certain shade of black.

But with my map I did that, so what looks black when you open the map in a graphics editor will become nice blue ocean after BMP2MAP converts it to .mp format. Ditto with all the other colors.