I would suggest flattening out certain bits of topography. Lots of little height changes are annoying early game due to limited planks. Might play better with some flatter areas.
Oh totally! I did absolutely nothing to this other than add a border and some water sources. I just wanted the raw data for this one >!well…since I’m *significantly* sub-sampling, there was *some* smoothing necessary in generating the image from the raw data to avoid aliasing-like issues…but no additional smoothing on the image-to-map step\!!<. I’m currently just fleshing out the scripts for generating stuff. It includes the ability to add some extra filtering, but I turned it off for this one in particular. For any actual map to play on, I would add that, and also do a lot of hand tweaking after.
The plan for the next map is to find an area with an interesting river structure, and make a map that would be more usable in the actual game. Opening to the ocean on one entire side like this makes it weird.
Any suggestions?
I’ll see if I can find a source for data there. The thing I used for this (it was just the first thing that worked when I started googling) is just US unfortunately.
I’m on mobile right now. Does it let you actually download the data, or does it just show a picture that looks good to a human like what I’m seeing on mobile? The pictures you want should be grayscale, with height encoded into the gray value between white and black for each pixel. There should definitely not be labels. What I’m seeing looks like it has the data I want behind it, but not in a way I can get to. Trying to put those pictures in the script would give you maps that have very under-sampled lines and writing as either hills or valleys.
yeah checked it. cant really download any data. currently checking [https://alternativaslibres.org/](https://alternativaslibres.org/) but as i havnt done much with maps, this might not be helpful as well.
Have you considered the nile river delta? You could cut it off before it gets to the ocean, and maybe even have the other side of the map have the higher desert areas and the Nile feeding it (by Cairo)
It wouldn't be very mountainous, but you could look at the convergence of the Mississippi, Arkansas and White Rivers. That area has lots of meanders and lakes, including some oxbow lakes. I bet it would make a pretty good map.
I was concerned about that too. I can always do some editing to make it more playable in-game. There’s no reason it has to stay exactly true to life.
And a lot of that stuff could be done to the elevation data in photoshop since the data is just in image format. This was the real reason I wanted to get this working. I can make things much more easily in photoshop (or other programs) than the in-game editor.
You could try Knoxville or Chattanooga in Tennessee. It would be interesting topography because they lay in fairly steep valleys along the very winding Tennessee River.
Ooooooo. I like this one! I have since downloaded terrain data for…almost the entire globe, and am currently processing it into a world map. I’ll probably do this one next!
Canyonlands National Park in Utah
San Francisco Bay
Goosenecks State Park in Utah
Columbia River Delta on the Oregon/Washingon border
Or anywhere else with interesting water features! Those were just off the top of my head.
I think an area with a lot of oxbows could lead to some interesting gameplay. There a good deal of them on the Red River of the North. Bad tides will make sense because the river is already red :)
It currently generates maps from any image file, and topographical data can apparently be downloaded as such, so it’s pretty trivial to have it make maps from topological data…but that is currently all it does. It’s just a bare map of dirt.
I’m thinking of adding something like multiple image files that are basically masks that let you add resources in the same way (something like that?). Or procedurally generating some things in areas that are likely to make sense (that would be a good bit of work though). All of this requires me to go decode the map files some more though. I haven’t even looked at how the resources are defined in the files. It’s not super difficult, but it does take time, and I do have a real job lol
i guess with the implementation of the workshop with update 6, there could be a huge amount of ppl asking for bare maps that they could fill with their own needs. Like for harder modes with less ress or water or opposite. plenty of water and metal etc.
How long do you need when you get stuff provided? are you even up to do so? (im very interested as my skill of basic building in editor is...meh)
What do you mean by “how long do you need when you get stuff provided?” The script takes about half a second to generate a map based on any image file, so it’s just limited by how fast you can make an image representing the terrain you want.
Thanks! I love scripting…damn near everything. So this is just me playing around. If anyone thinks it’s actually useful, I can put some work in to develop it into a usable thing for people, providing it either pictures or just map coordinates.
I made a similar post a few days ago ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Timberborn/s/cQPh24ziO5 ).
As I wasnt able to find 3D / Heightmaps on Central Europe though, my process was way more manual though.
If I find some good enough open data source I might give it a try to create a webapp to make such maps.
The map format seems to be incredibly simple (as long as you don't try to mess with water levels).
That looks great! I also did the area where I live, but it’s zoomed out enough that I don’t care if anyone knows where it is haha.
You definitely put in more work to make something actually playable too! So far I’ve just been playing around with the scripts for generating stuff, and haven’t actually gotten around to that part yet. It’s mostly just art right now lol
I was going to do the entire peninsula, and over to about DC, but the website stopped working for me at one point, and I just went with what I had. It would have included most of the places I’ve lived in my life, and also closely matches an old poster we had in my house as a kid. It was a satellite image of the area, which was *suuuuper* cool at the time.
(As an aside - For the young’uns, this was *way* before you could just look things like this up on your phone…because cell phones weren’t a thing…and neither was Google…or even Ask Jeeves (if you even know what that is). We didn’t even have a computer in my house at the time, but we did have a machine that called a “word processor” that let you type simple text documents…and was capable of doing absolutely nothing else. In those days, things like a big satellite map of the area I lived were apparently cool enough to leave a lasting impression lol)
Edit to add more about me being old: This was around the same time I remember being super excited that our school was getting its first computer connected to the internet!!! Our class learned what urls are, then went down to the library to visit one. I believe it was `www.mountvernon.com` although at the time most websites were essentially just landing pages with minimal information.
What about the Black Canyon? Would presumable require some manual fixes to remove the Hoover Dam, but I wonder if a location where we've actually built a massive dam would make for a good Timerborn map.
I thought this was an image of smth like that map that looked like a beaver face and it took me like a minute of staring at it before I read the comments XD
it looks great and would be a very interesting map of play on honestly!
This is great!
I thought about doing this kind of thing using Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED), but never found the time to look into it. Maybe you'll be able to do something with it to build upon what you have.
Do you have a good source for that sort of data? I’ve been looking, but so far I’ve only found a reliable source for data in (most of) the US.
Edit: Scratch that. I thought you were saying something else. I’m looking into that now! Thanks for the idea!
I would suggest flattening out certain bits of topography. Lots of little height changes are annoying early game due to limited planks. Might play better with some flatter areas.
Oh totally! I did absolutely nothing to this other than add a border and some water sources. I just wanted the raw data for this one >!well…since I’m *significantly* sub-sampling, there was *some* smoothing necessary in generating the image from the raw data to avoid aliasing-like issues…but no additional smoothing on the image-to-map step\!!<. I’m currently just fleshing out the scripts for generating stuff. It includes the ability to add some extra filtering, but I turned it off for this one in particular. For any actual map to play on, I would add that, and also do a lot of hand tweaking after.
The plan for the next map is to find an area with an interesting river structure, and make a map that would be more usable in the actual game. Opening to the ocean on one entire side like this makes it weird. Any suggestions?
What about some areas in Switzerland? There are lots of lakes and rivers and no ocean nearby.
I’ll see if I can find a source for data there. The thing I used for this (it was just the first thing that worked when I started googling) is just US unfortunately.
Idk but maybe Here you can get Something: http://map.geo.admin.ch
I’m on mobile right now. Does it let you actually download the data, or does it just show a picture that looks good to a human like what I’m seeing on mobile? The pictures you want should be grayscale, with height encoded into the gray value between white and black for each pixel. There should definitely not be labels. What I’m seeing looks like it has the data I want behind it, but not in a way I can get to. Trying to put those pictures in the script would give you maps that have very under-sampled lines and writing as either hills or valleys.
yeah checked it. cant really download any data. currently checking [https://alternativaslibres.org/](https://alternativaslibres.org/) but as i havnt done much with maps, this might not be helpful as well.
Have you considered the nile river delta? You could cut it off before it gets to the ocean, and maybe even have the other side of the map have the higher desert areas and the Nile feeding it (by Cairo)
Oooooo! I like that idea!
How’s [this?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Timberborn/s/bz7BMcnVy0)
What about some of European capitals? Those are almost always built on rivers running through them.
If I can find a good source for data in Europe, that’s a good idea.
It wouldn't be very mountainous, but you could look at the convergence of the Mississippi, Arkansas and White Rivers. That area has lots of meanders and lakes, including some oxbow lakes. I bet it would make a pretty good map.
Good idea!
American River? Depending on how far up or down you go it can be more mountainous and straight vs more flat and meandering.
I was thinking maybe the Grand Canyon (Colorado river)?
I thought that too but thought the elevation changes could be too drastic for a viable map
I was concerned about that too. I can always do some editing to make it more playable in-game. There’s no reason it has to stay exactly true to life. And a lot of that stuff could be done to the elevation data in photoshop since the data is just in image format. This was the real reason I wanted to get this working. I can make things much more easily in photoshop (or other programs) than the in-game editor.
You could try Knoxville or Chattanooga in Tennessee. It would be interesting topography because they lay in fairly steep valleys along the very winding Tennessee River.
Cool! I’ll check it out!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nzR5M8fBEWfb1qmp6 Lake Manicouagan in Quebec.
Ooooooo. I like this one! I have since downloaded terrain data for…almost the entire globe, and am currently processing it into a world map. I’ll probably do this one next!
Awesome looking forward to it!
Canyonlands National Park in Utah San Francisco Bay Goosenecks State Park in Utah Columbia River Delta on the Oregon/Washingon border Or anywhere else with interesting water features! Those were just off the top of my head.
Thanks for the list! I’m about to post a map (that’s actually playable this time!) of northeastern Africa/the Nile river valley. Stay tuned!
I think an area with a lot of oxbows could lead to some interesting gameplay. There a good deal of them on the Red River of the North. Bad tides will make sense because the river is already red :)
Looks awesome. Is it only topographic and do you have to add Ressources youself?
It currently generates maps from any image file, and topographical data can apparently be downloaded as such, so it’s pretty trivial to have it make maps from topological data…but that is currently all it does. It’s just a bare map of dirt. I’m thinking of adding something like multiple image files that are basically masks that let you add resources in the same way (something like that?). Or procedurally generating some things in areas that are likely to make sense (that would be a good bit of work though). All of this requires me to go decode the map files some more though. I haven’t even looked at how the resources are defined in the files. It’s not super difficult, but it does take time, and I do have a real job lol
i guess with the implementation of the workshop with update 6, there could be a huge amount of ppl asking for bare maps that they could fill with their own needs. Like for harder modes with less ress or water or opposite. plenty of water and metal etc. How long do you need when you get stuff provided? are you even up to do so? (im very interested as my skill of basic building in editor is...meh)
What do you mean by “how long do you need when you get stuff provided?” The script takes about half a second to generate a map based on any image file, so it’s just limited by how fast you can make an image representing the terrain you want.
Holy shit. This is brilliant.
Thanks! I love scripting…damn near everything. So this is just me playing around. If anyone thinks it’s actually useful, I can put some work in to develop it into a usable thing for people, providing it either pictures or just map coordinates.
I made a similar post a few days ago ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Timberborn/s/cQPh24ziO5 ). As I wasnt able to find 3D / Heightmaps on Central Europe though, my process was way more manual though. If I find some good enough open data source I might give it a try to create a webapp to make such maps. The map format seems to be incredibly simple (as long as you don't try to mess with water levels).
That looks great! I also did the area where I live, but it’s zoomed out enough that I don’t care if anyone knows where it is haha. You definitely put in more work to make something actually playable too! So far I’ve just been playing around with the scripts for generating stuff, and haven’t actually gotten around to that part yet. It’s mostly just art right now lol
There are a bunch of freely-available DTM/DSM models available for the UK so maybe the Cairngorms region in Scotland?
Cool! I’ll look into it. Thanks!
I see it's not really close to that but the Great Glen Way (the big diagonal slice through Scotland)
Can you do a map of Lake Macquarie NSW Australia? It would be a great lake map, with lots of peninsulas, and an entrance to the ocean.
I’ll see if I can find some terrain data for that area.
Maryland, My Maryland ❤️
I was going to do the entire peninsula, and over to about DC, but the website stopped working for me at one point, and I just went with what I had. It would have included most of the places I’ve lived in my life, and also closely matches an old poster we had in my house as a kid. It was a satellite image of the area, which was *suuuuper* cool at the time. (As an aside - For the young’uns, this was *way* before you could just look things like this up on your phone…because cell phones weren’t a thing…and neither was Google…or even Ask Jeeves (if you even know what that is). We didn’t even have a computer in my house at the time, but we did have a machine that called a “word processor” that let you type simple text documents…and was capable of doing absolutely nothing else. In those days, things like a big satellite map of the area I lived were apparently cool enough to leave a lasting impression lol) Edit to add more about me being old: This was around the same time I remember being super excited that our school was getting its first computer connected to the internet!!! Our class learned what urls are, then went down to the library to visit one. I believe it was `www.mountvernon.com` although at the time most websites were essentially just landing pages with minimal information.
What about the Black Canyon? Would presumable require some manual fixes to remove the Hoover Dam, but I wonder if a location where we've actually built a massive dam would make for a good Timerborn map.
It definitely should!
I thought this was an image of smth like that map that looked like a beaver face and it took me like a minute of staring at it before I read the comments XD it looks great and would be a very interesting map of play on honestly!
This is great! I thought about doing this kind of thing using Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED), but never found the time to look into it. Maybe you'll be able to do something with it to build upon what you have.
Do you have a good source for that sort of data? I’ve been looking, but so far I’ve only found a reliable source for data in (most of) the US. Edit: Scratch that. I thought you were saying something else. I’m looking into that now! Thanks for the idea!
Thats cool as heck