Introducing Eleazar's Custom Terrains (for scenario design)

[Eleazar]

Herein shall i post terrain files and the neccesarry code to make them work.
We've basicly run out of terrain letters, but every campaign can have custom terrains. These are offered for the consideration of the campaign designers. I'm not especially looking for criticism or advice, i'm hoping this thread will be a source of alternate terrains. Maybe when we get a new terrain engine this will become normal instead of custom terrains.

Edit: I guess it was silly to expect to introduce terrains without discussion and modification. I'll introduce terrain here, and once perfected, post to another yet-to-be-created thread for easy perusal.

[Eleazar]

The Great Tree
The concept behind this one is that elvish cities are frequently associated with huge trees. (like the Mallorns in LOTR) I've created 3 variants, and the following WML works in nearly all situation. (Does weird things with the canyon)

OK, campaign designers get to use 3 terrain designations of their own, "x", "y", and "z". I'm going to assume you pick "x."

1) Add this at the end of the terrain.cfg file.

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[terrain]
symbol_image=Great-tree-icon
id=great-tree
name= _ "Great Tree"
char="x"
[/terrain]

2) in terrain-graphics.cfg file:

2a) Somewhere amongst the other "{SHEX ..........}" lines add:

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#Single hex Great-tree
{SHEX x overlay 33 Great-tree3}
{SHEX x overlay 25 Great-tree2}
{SHEX x overlay 100 Great-tree1}

2b) Add your terrain character "x" to these lines like so:

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{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            gfx grassland-r1 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            gfx grassland-r2 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            gfx grassland-r3 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE                 gfx grassland-r4}

2c) Then towards the very bottom of the file add the character to these lines:

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{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -189        ftgvXx  ks      grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -190        ftgvXx  cZp\|/  grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -191        ftgvXx  s       grassland-to-water}

Now you have a really big tree.

[aelius]

So, those are perfect for A Desperate Errand, and I'd like to include them (though I may do some color shifting? Make it more golden) Where do I include the terrain wml? Does it go in my campaign .cfg file or in the individual scenario?

Can I have three custom terrains per scenario, or per campaign?

It looks great! I can't wait to see it in the elven city!

- b.

[Jetrel]

Looks cool, the perspective is a bit funny though. Here's a hack edit showing what I think is a better perspective...

[Eleazar]

Nrg. You're right, Jetryl. That's what i get for pointing out the exact same problem with Frame's newest texture.

Aelius, I don't have first-hand information on this but, UtBS places the 2 terrain CFGs in a "misc" folder. I was mostly lucky in figuring out the WML for these trees. I don't know if you can define custom terrains on a scenario basis. You are, of course, welcome to colorshift them. The reason i chose your map was it was the elven city i'd most recently played. i'll post some feedback when i've played further.

[Jetrel]

Nrg. You're right, Jetryl. That's what i get for pointing out the exact same problem with Frame's newest texture.

Ach, I could have worded that better.

You make mistakes, I make mistakes - heck, we're all in this together, watching each other's blind spots.

[Eleazar]

Ach, I could have worded that better.

You make mistakes, I make mistakes - heck, we're all in this together, watching each other's blind spots.

No worries. My attitude in writing that would have been more clear if i had included a winking emoticon. I know i make mistakes, and appreciate it when they are clearly pointed out to me.

[turin]

Hm. I'm going to use that Great Tree - where exactly should I put that WML?

(I know I'm a WML guy, but I am still confused by all the terrain stuff).

[yobbo]

Hm. I'm going to use that Great Tree - where exactly should I put that WML?

The "Generic Campaign Layout" (which I think was fixed recently) has some stuff about custom terrains in it... perhaps it still applies? Can't say I've ever made a custom scenario, but the WML there looked valid.

EDIT: you can probably put the code anywhere, but you should only need the "x" in these lines:

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{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            x grassland-r1 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            x grassland-r2 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB            x grassland-r3 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE                 x grassland-r4}

{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -189        x  ks      grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -190        x  cZp\|/  grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT          -191        x  s       grassland-to-water}

You might also want to put an "aliasof=vf" (or whatever village and forest are) in the [terrain] tag.

Yeah - I'm currently trying to figure out all this terrain WML s*** so I can make better roads .

[turin]

Well, I'm having the tree function as alias of cavewall. This is the code I currently use:

In my custom 'terrain.cfg':

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# the tree terrain (since the maps are smaller & all)
[terrain]
symbol_image=great-tree-icon
id=great-tree
name= _ "Tree"
char="x"
[/terrain]

in my custom 'terrain_graphics.cfg':

Code: Select all

#Single hex Great-tree
{SHEX x overlay 33 great-tree3}
{SHEX x overlay 25 great-tree2}
{SHEX x overlay 100 great-tree1}

{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r1 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r2 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r3 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE			gfx grassland-r4}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-189	ftgvXx	ks	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-190	ftgvXx	cZp\|/	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-191	ftgvXx	s	grassland-to-water}

The great tree appears to work when I do that. Is there a reason I am missing that I should change the "gfx" to "x" (the letter for the great tree) in the "TERRAIN_BASE" macros?

[freim]

Well, I'm having the tree function as alias of cavewall. This is the code I currently use:

In my custom 'terrain.cfg':

Code: Select all

# the tree terrain (since the maps are smaller & all)
[terrain]
symbol_image=great-tree-icon
id=great-tree
name= _ "Tree"
char="x"
[/terrain]

in my custom 'terrain_graphics.cfg':

Code: Select all

#Single hex Great-tree
{SHEX x overlay 33 great-tree3}
{SHEX x overlay 25 great-tree2}
{SHEX x overlay 100 great-tree1}

{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r1 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r2 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r3 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE			gfx grassland-r4}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-189	ftgvXx	ks	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-190	ftgvXx	cZp\|/	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-191	ftgvXx	s	grassland-to-water}

The great tree appears to work when I do that. Is there a reason I am missing that I should change the "gfx" to "x" (the letter for the great tree) in the "TERRAIN_BASE" macros?

When several terrain letters are given as a parameter it means the macro is applied on each of them individually. It's basicly just a more compact syntax.

[Eleazar]

in my custom 'terrain_graphics.cfg':

Code: Select all

#Single hex Great-tree
{SHEX x overlay 33 great-tree3}
{SHEX x overlay 25 great-tree2}
{SHEX x overlay 100 great-tree1}

{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r1 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r2 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB		gfx grassland-r3 20}
{TERRAIN_BASE			gfx grassland-r4}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-189	ftgvXx	ks	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-190	ftgvXx	cZp\|/	grassland-to-water}
{TERRAIN_ADJACENT	-191	ftgvXx	s	grassland-to-water}

The great tree appears to work when I do that. Is there a reason I am missing that I should change the "gfx" to "x" (the letter for the great tree) in the "TERRAIN_BASE" macros?

No, you're supposed to ADD "x" to the "gf" that's already there. Those line cause grassland images to be drawn when the terrain type is grassland, forest, or Great tree.

[yobbo]

Hmm, I assumed turin meant the tree would be used in a custom campaign / scenario. The quickest way to make the tree work on your own copy of wesnoth would be to add the x to those lines in your terrain-graphics.cfg. If you add the lines to a separate .cfg file though (like My_Campaign/data/my_terrain-graphics.cfg), you will only need the 'x', as the original lines will continue to apply .

[Eleazar]

Yobbo, you're picking up on this terrain WML pretty fast. i didn't know you could have a additional terrain WML file for campaigns, but i'm glad you can.

My grasp of it Terrain WML is gradually growing, but quite limited. I should have said to Turin, "this is what i did" not "this is what you should do"