Help, I'm a newbie

[Justinianum]

Hi to everyone. I'm a long time civ2 scenarios fan and I'm currently working to a fantasy scenario based on Dungeons and Dragons world of Mystara. The scenario takes its inspiration fron an old D&D adventure: Red Arrow Black Shield, that covers the invasion of Mystara by Desert Nomads. I've taken a lot of inspiration form the masterpiece Red Front (although mine will be a fantasy scenario, is focused mainly on the military aspect) and I'm currently working on the events to force the AI to invade fast and furiously. I need to use several type of terrains, but I don't know how to place special resources (gems, iron, oil, gold.....) exactely where I want. Can anyone help me with that problem? Thanks

[curtsibling]

If you go to map editor, you can change the resource seed, which will re-distribute the bonus tiles...

Seeing as I reckon you have already made your map...
I would recommend renaming and using the useless Glacier terrain as a special bonus terrain that you can place anywhere...

And the oil and ivory you could rename to add some variety...

I assume a desert invasion scenario, won't have much use for cold terrain, but the tundra tile can be used if you must...

I hope I am of some help.

[Justinianum]

Originally posted by curtsibling
If you go to map editor, you can change the resource seed, which will re-distribute the bonus tiles...

Actually I haven't understood how to use that tool; but if I'm not wrong it changes the type of possible resources for a particular tile and their distribution. Suppose that I want only 6 oil patches in the map and all them near 1 city only. Is it possible to achieve such a goal using the resource seed?

Seeing as I reckon you have already made your map...
I would recommend renaming and using the useless Glacier terrain as a special bonus terrain that you can place anywhere...
And the oil and ivory you could rename to add some variety...
I assume a desert invasion scenario, won't have much use for cold terrain, but the tundra tile can be used if you must...

The problem is that Mystara's map covers all type of climate. I've already used glaciers as Markets (3f, 4s, 8t), but I want to relocate gold, iron and gems mines to create cities with a great strategic importance.

Thanks for your help

[Mercator]

With the resource seed you can get 64 fixed resource patterns. But that is all the customisation you can get.

Well, there is one way in which these patterns can be adjusted. You can suppress resources on any square using MapEdit (see my sig). But you can NOT create resources on any square.

If you only need those few strategic resource cities, you could try suppressing resources on the entire map, except around those cities. Then adjust the resource seed so you'll have 1-4 of the resources in each of the cities' radiuses. Give the resources appropriately huge benefits and you're set.


There are ways to simulate resources as well. As curt suggested, you can use terrains (if you have any to spare). You could also use terrain improvements (e.g. mines... but these can be pillaged, and they're not specific to one terrain), zero-move units (with events, they could give you money when killed).

[Justinianum]

Greetings to Mercator; the king of maps.
I'll follow your advice on using MapEdit, but I forgot to mention that I'm on a Mac. Unfortunately my dvd drive is broken so I can't install VirtualPC for now. Well, not bad after all; I'll continue to work on events until I'll have my drive fixed. You said that adjusting the resource seed I can have up to 4 resources in city radius; what are the right numbers to achive such an effect?

Thanks a lot

[Mercator]

I see my reputation preceeds me.

Sorry MapEdit isn't for the Mac.

There is no specific number which would place 4 resources in every city's radius.
I suggest you open up the map editor and try some of the seeds. You'll see that the resources appear in a very fixed pattern, spread evenly across the map. The different seeds only slightly move the pattern or change which resource comes in which place of the pattern.

The best way would probably be to decide the approximate coordinates where you want the special resource cities. Mark these spots in the map editor, say, with a sole mountain, or better yet, a (temporary) civ starting point.
When you got the locations, simply try each of the 64 patterns and see which pattern fits best.

It's unlikely each of those cities will end up with 4 resources (in 4 corners of the city radius, the maximum possible), so you'll just have to go with the best you can get... Or, if the city spots don't need to be all that exact, you can move the intended city locations around a few squares if that's enough to give it 4 resources.

[MagyarCrusader]

This scenario sounds cool! We haven't had a good fantasy scenario in a long time.

[Justinianum]

I'm glad someone is waiting impatiently for a fantasy scenario, but keep in mind that mine won't be a role-playing scenario, but rather a warmongering one with a fantasy setting. It wouldn't be a bad idea to put some role-playing in this scenario, but I have to admit that I lack ideas. I'm working on it nearly every day, but I'm still far from the end. What do you think about opening a new thread for collecting suggestions? Perhaps this will speed up a lot the construction of this scenario, considering that I haven't made up my mind yet about some crucial aspects.