Map (Civ2)

The map is the playing board on which a game of Civilization II takes place. It is organized as a rectangular grid using isometric projection. A map can either be cylindrical (eastern and western edges connect, allowing continuous horizontal movement) or flat (boundaries are fixed and cannot be traversed). The map screen forms the main game interface; it includes a "minimap" showing a simplified profile of the world that can be used to quickly re-center the view at a different section of the main map.

In Test of Time, a game can incorporate up to four maps simultaneously. Depending on the specific scenario or mod rules, units can move between maps either through prescribed ability, or via Transporter improvements.

Display

Further information: Map screen (Civ2) and View menu (Civ2)

Minimap of WORLD.MP in Civilization II (top) and Test of Time (bottom) with highlight boxes omitted. The second example is excerpted from the Extended Original mod, and includes buttons to navigate between map layers.

The map is the largest portion of the main game screen. How much of the entire map is shown varies based on the window's resolution and current zoom level, adjustable from the View menu and/or hotkeys z and x; there are 16 possible zoom levels, with graphics optimized to Level 9 (Shift+Z).

The minimap is located in the upper right of the screen, displaying a simplified map of the whole world distinguishing land and ocean tiles, and city locations color-coded by civilization. A white rectangle outlines the portion of the map currently on display; clicking within the minimap centers the view on the given coordinate.

In Test of Time, the minimap is colored to the specific terrain. Using ToT's default map layout, the minimap initially appears as a rotating globe; clicking on it expands to the flat layout as in original Civ II. Games with multiple maps include arrow buttons to navigate between map layers.

Tile

A tile is the basic unit of distance on the map. Tiles can contain a number of elements, rendered in ascending order as follows:

1. Fortress/City
2. Unit(s)
3. Transporter
4. Airbase
5. Village
6. Pollution
7. Mining
8. Road/Railroad
9. Resource
10. River
11. Irrigation/Farmland
12. Terrain

Terrain

Main article: Terrain (Civ2)

Each tile represents a type of terrain that determines unit movement cost, defensive combat modifier, and resource yield. Terrain divides between two domains: land and ocean.

Adjacency

For most purposes, adjacent tiles are the eight tiles surrounding a given coordinate. Two special considerations exist:

Example of straits. Both land and naval units can cross the intersections to their respective terrain tiles unimpeded.

• Water access for irrigation is checked on ordinal tiles (in an x pattern);
• Perpendicular intersections of land and water tiles in cardinal directions (a + pattern) form a strait: ground and sea units can move through to their respective terrain unobstructed.

Map generation

When starting a new game, the player can choose between a randomly-generated map, or a pre-existing file that may have assigned starting locations for different civilizations.

Random map

"Start a New Game" and "Customize World" will create a randomly-generated map to the specified size. "Customize World" allows the player to configure additional attributes of the world:

Size

Dimensions of the map, width times height. In addition to defining the total playable area, map size interacts with the difficulty level in several game mechanics and determines total playable turns.

• Small: 40x50, (2000 tiles);
• Medium: 50x80 (4000 tiles);
• Large 75x120 (9000 tiles);
• Custom: Allows custom dimensions, with several restrictions.

Land Mass

Composition of land tiles compared to ocean:

• Small
• Normal
• Large

Land Form

Shape of the land mass:

• Archipelago: Narrow snake-like continents and scattered islands.
• Varied: Mix of continental and archipelagic features.
• Continents: Fewer, larger continents.

Climate

The world's average humidity, affecting the frequency of "forested" terrain (Forest, Jungle and Swamp). Drier worlds have more plains and deserts, while wetter worlds have more forests and grassland:

• Arid
• Normal
• Wet

Temperature

The world's average temperature, combining with Climate to determine topography. Warmer worlds are drier when arid, and lusher when wet.

• Cool
• Temperate
• Warm

Age

Affects distribution of terrain, especially Hills and Mountains. Younger worlds cluster terrain with like types, while older worlds are more randomly distributed.

• 3 billion years
• 4 billion years
• 5 billion years

Test of Time games using multiple maps apply additional layers after the main game setup. By default, they use the same settings as the initial map; certain mods use special logic to configure landmass composition and player starting locations. See "Multi-maps" for details.

Premade world

"Start on Premade World" allows the user to load an existing map file. Premade maps may specify the starting location of specific civilizations, otherwise initial settlers are placed randomly. The player is given options to force randomization of starting locations, and/or the seed determining placement of bonus resources and villages.

 The game does not compute the actual size of premade worlds when configuring internal settings such as maximum turns, but uses the dimensions of the most recent random map configuration in memory. Therefore, to ensure accurate gameplay, the user must first specify the map size through random map options, then begin a premade start.

Prompts for additional maps in appropriate Test of Time game modes occur after all other game settings are configured. A file must be provided for each layer; a random map cannot be generated. Unlike other options, cancelling map selection aborts game setup and returns to the main menu.

Modding

Main articles: Map editor (Civ2) and Modding (Civ2)/Map

See also: Modding (Civ2)/Terrain

Civilization II includes an external map editor with tools for drawing rivers, assigning civs' starting locations, and altering the seed used to distribute resources and villages. The editor can import map data from saved games, but not scenario (.SCN) files.

The map can also be edited in-game through the Cheat Menu function "Change Terrain At Cursor"; in addition to modifying terrain, this also allows adding/removing tile improvements and pollution. "Change Terrain" cannot modify rivers or tiles containing cities. The "ChangeTerrain" scripted event will modify tiles within a rectangular set of coordinates; this removes all units, cities, and features present.

Graphics for terrain, tile features and yield-boosting improvements, and the general map interface (selection marker, tile edge dither mask) are defined in TERRAIN1 and TERRAIN2; graphics for Fortification markers, military improvements, and Transporters are defined in CITIES.

Multi-maps

See also: Map menu (ToT)

Additional maps are generated for each line under the @SECONDARY_MAPS section of Rules.txt, up to three. Each line consists of a set of 18 numbers that determine the world's topography. Settings of 6, 0,0, 0,0, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, generate a standard random world; if the first parameter is 0, no map will be created. Map names are defined under the @TRANSPORTOPTIONS section of Game.txt.

Each additional map layer uses a unique version of @TERRAIN definitions (@TERRAIN1, @TERRAIN2, @TERRAIN3); these can also be given their own Civilopedia descriptions. Likewise, each layer uses its own terrain graphics files (Terrain3/4.bmp, Terrain5/6.bmp, Terrain7/8.bmp). River names are defined per-map under the @RIVERS section of Rules.txt; the first line supersedes the label in Labels.txt.

The in-game Map Menu allows importing a map file into the next unused layer, and exporting the active layer to an external file; unlike importing saved games through the Map Editor, these files retain tile improvement data. The map menu also allows toggling between layers (Ctrl+Shift+1) as a substitute for missing minimap arrows if no secondary maps are defined in Rules.txt.

 Importing maps will restore explored villages and hide city sprites from existing maps; names are still visible but the cities themselves are unselectable on the map screen. It is therefore recommended to have all map layers in place before founding cities outside the player's control.

By default, all players begin on the first map layer. The @INITIAL_SETTINGS section of Rules.txt allows assigning each civilization a different starting layer, and a primary and secondary unit different from the normal Settlers.

Transporters

Main articles: Transporter (city improvement) (ToT) and Transporter (tile improvement) (ToT)

 Unlike most settings defined in Rules.txt, Transporter relationships are written to the session at the start of the game and can only be modified through hex editing. It is therefore strongly recommended when creating a scenario to generate the initial game using a custom Rules file with Transporter settings preconfigured.

Tile-based transporter relationships are defined in the @MAP_TRANSPORT section of Rules.txt. Up to 16 lines can be entered; each line comprises two numbers separated by a comma, defining a link between the respective map layers (0–3). A link between a map and itself (e.g. 0,0) is ignored.

Up to three separate transporters are available, with graphics defined in the bottom-right of Cities.bmp. Each transporter encompasses every map link on the nth line in @MAP_TRANSPORT (so Sprite 1 reads Lines 1, 4, 7; Sprite 2 reads Lines 2, 5, 8, etc.). Note that individual transporter improvements only provide one map link at a time. Transporter names are defined at lines 882–884 under the @LABELS section of Labels.txt.

The Transporter city improvement functions similarly to airlifting through Airports: a city can send or receive one unit per turn, subject to its transporter permissions.

Units

Unit map transport settings are controlled by several fields under the @UNITS_ADVANCED section of Rules.txt. All fields are byte-values written in programming notation and read right to left; excepting Column B, the fields are 16 bits, corresponding to the pairings in @MAP_TRANSPORT:

• "Not allowed on map" (Column B): Forbids the unit from being constructed in cities on the map layer, or teleporting to (but not from) the layer, regardless of other transporter permissions. Encompasses 8 bits, but only first 4 are relevant. Unlike other settings, this can be adjusted in-game by modifying the original Rules file.
• "Build transport site" (Column D): Allows the unit to construct Transporter(s) for the specified map link(s), if it has the worker role.
• "Use transport site" (Column E): Allows the unit to use Transporter(s) for the specified map link(s).
• "Native transport ability" (Column F): Enables the unit to move instantaneously between maps via the specified map link(s).

Unit transporter rules can be modified in-game through the Events macro, without requiring hex editing.

Unit transporter attributes in the Civilopedia are defined on lines 922 (use) and 923 (native teleport) in the @LABELS section of Labels.txt. The "Transport" order is named at Line 17 under the @ORDERS section of Menu.txt; it uses the hotkey n.

Map files

Discrete map files are saved with the .MP extension. Civilization II includes several maps, located in the main game directory:

• EUROPE – 75x120 distorted flat map of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, with an abstracted island on the western edge representing North America, featuring historical starting locations. Used in the World War II scenario.
• GREECE – 50x80 flat map of eastern Greece, the Middle East, Egypt, and southern Central Asia, with (quasi-)historical starting locations. Used in the Alexander the Great scenario.
• MEDITERR – 50x80 round grassland map of the Mediterranean basin. Essentially a featureless version of the map for The Rise of Rome scenario.
• PACIFIC – 75x120 distorted flat map of the Pacific Ocean, ranging from eastern India to the United States western seaboard. Used in the "East Wind, Rain" scenario.
• WORLD – Map of Earth with historical staring locations, in three sizes: WORLD (75x120), WORLD_M (50x80), and WORLD_S (40x50).

In addition to the source maps for the Midgard scenario, Test of Time includes several additional maps, sourced from scenarios previously featured in the Multiplayer Gold Edition:

• Battle – 75x120 map with two continents in the shape of Mars and Venus, with starting locations for Greece and France, respectively. Used in the Battle of the Sexes scenario.
• Cloud — 61x163 archipelago, used as the Cloud World in Midgard. Islands comprise forest, hills and mountains, and are unintended for use in a standard game.
• Eastus – 47x120 flat map of the U.S. eastern seaboard, southeastern Canada, and abstracted Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and Martinique). Used in The American Revolution scenario.
• Namerica – 50x95 flat map of North America ranging from roughly 51° north to the Darién Gap. A modified version is used in The New World scenario.
• Samurai – 50x120 flat map of Japan, eastern Korea, and southeastern Manchuria. Used in the Samurai scenario.
• Surface – 61x163 fantasy map used as the Surface World in Midgard. It is a completely different design from the Fantastic Worlds Midgard scenario.
• Undersea – 61x163 map used as the Undersea World in Midgard. Interior continents are largely tundra, but the map is playable in a standard game.
• Undrgrnd – 61x163 map used as the Underworld in Midgard. Land is predominantly desert and hills, and unintended for standard play.

References

• William Keenan (October 1999). "Map Transport Relationships". Civ2 Scenario League. Retrieved 23 November 2023.

See also

• Map in other games

External links

• Maps for download on CivFanatics