I am writing a tool to read Caesar 3 SAV files, aiming for something that would make it easy(ier) to plan cities without actually running the game. If it ever gets to a reasonable enough point, I'll find out where I can post it for people to use if they're interested.
I've got a small snag at the moment. Consider the following:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HO89xmM2jyyWTXGg7d4ioCPpNKlAnmj7
This what my program currently makes of Lugdunum; north corner is in the upper left, I have built a few houses and a road segment near there. The colors for most things should be obvious to players of the game.
The dark grey line is shown between game tiles at different heights; grey is rock, and light grey is what I'm trying to figure out at the moment. It most often looks like rock on the Caesar 3 rendering of the game, but I think of it as "cliff"; it is the higher side of two neighboring tiles of different levels, and the reason I put it on the higher side is that Caesar 3 does not let you build there. Since I want the tool to help one plan where you can build (when it is finished), this is important to get right.
Now for the two red circles; they are both on what I think of as "outside corners" of the plateau, i.e., the cliff wall is going straight up and then turns right, and the two circles both indicate squares above and left of the corner the cliff wall makes.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is why Caesar 3 allows one to build on the square under the circle at the lower left, but not at the one on the upper right. The lower left one is next to a ramp and can be built on, but the square right next to a ramp at the upper right circle cannot be built on.
What I need is a way of figuring out, for a given square, whether it is available for building or not. The current rule for the light grey squares is "if the square is next to a cliff square, diagonally or sideways, at the higher elevation". I will have to adjust that so that the square under the lower circle can be built on, but does anyone have suggestions on what the rule should be?
I've got a small snag at the moment. Consider the following:
This what my program currently makes of Lugdunum; north corner is in the upper left, I have built a few houses and a road segment near there. The colors for most things should be obvious to players of the game.
The dark grey line is shown between game tiles at different heights; grey is rock, and light grey is what I'm trying to figure out at the moment. It most often looks like rock on the Caesar 3 rendering of the game, but I think of it as "cliff"; it is the higher side of two neighboring tiles of different levels, and the reason I put it on the higher side is that Caesar 3 does not let you build there. Since I want the tool to help one plan where you can build (when it is finished), this is important to get right.
Now for the two red circles; they are both on what I think of as "outside corners" of the plateau, i.e., the cliff wall is going straight up and then turns right, and the two circles both indicate squares above and left of the corner the cliff wall makes.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is why Caesar 3 allows one to build on the square under the circle at the lower left, but not at the one on the upper right. The lower left one is next to a ramp and can be built on, but the square right next to a ramp at the upper right circle cannot be built on.
What I need is a way of figuring out, for a given square, whether it is available for building or not. The current rule for the light grey squares is "if the square is next to a cliff square, diagonally or sideways, at the higher elevation". I will have to adjust that so that the square under the lower circle can be built on, but does anyone have suggestions on what the rule should be?
[This message has been edited by y2mbug (edited 04-20-2018 @ 09:15 PM).]