In our last Session we began work on a custom scenario, which we named New Bavaria. We created an imagery file, created the new map and began filling in the terrain layer. This Session will cover further aspects of the scenario design. As well as defining the player borders we will look at the basics of player configuration files and the placement of population and cities.

For those who are following along without creating their own version, click to download the scenario so far to see what we’ve created.

2-A. Updating the design

Since scenario creation can be a long process, many design decisions will be made or changed as work progresses. While there is a recommended “sequence” to creating scenarios, it is often helpful to think ahead or make notes on elements that will go into other files.

While map editing you will spend a fair amount of time looking at your image and some ideas are likely to form on how you wish to proceed. Inspiration for things like border placement, resources or region names will often strike while working on other areas of the map. Writing these down will save time later on.

2-B. Region Borders

Our next step will be to fill in the player borders. For fictional maps there is of course no set border to follow so we will simply chose our own. Often rivers, coasts and mountains can provide guidelines for borders. When doing coastlines it is usually suggested to give at least 2 hexes of ocean out from the land unless this gives control of a passage to a player where this control is not desired. Control of such passages could however be one of that player’s advantages.

Ownership is painted in a similar fashion to terrain. We will go back to the terrain section of the mapeditor and unlock it for editing. Next we will need to set “No Terrain” and “Info set” in the Current Map Edit Modes. The info set is the data for terrain ownership and loyalty. The two values are usually the same but can be set independently. The values will need to be filled in the right panel Individual Hex Settings next to Owner and Loyalty. The player number should be put here starting with #1. To paint the ownership simply left click on the map.

(Click for a larger screenshot.)

Technical Notes:

Like terrain painting, a right click will work as an eyedropper tool to pickup any info set. The fill function will not work for info set only, but could be used if filling both terrain and info set. Since we have the edit mode set to “No Terrain”, as we paint the ownership the terrain underneath will not change. The larger brush can be used by selecting “Hex Group” edit mode the same as it does for terrain. See the Mapeditor documentation for further information on the terrain layer’s info set.