Creating Environments
This is a guide on how to create environments for Dawn of Man.
Environments define the terrain, trees, resources and seasons in a game.
Creating an environment for your scenarios is optional, as you can use one of the builtin ones:
- eurasia – Standard environment, used in the Continental Dawn freeplay scenario.
- eurasia_north – Longer winters, few resources, only perennial trees, used in the The Northlands freeplay scenario.
- eurasia_conflict – Like eurasia but with less resources, used in the Ancient Warriors freeplay scenario.
- eurasia_warm – More resources, shorter winters. Used in Creative Mode.
There are other scenarios tailored to some of the challenges too, like: eurasia_flatlands and eurasia_glacial.
Basics
Environments must have xml extension, and must be located the Environments subfolder relative to the scenario definition file.
So if your scenario is called my_scenario.scn.xml and your environment is in Environments/my_environment.xml, you can then reference it from the scenario using like this:
- <location id=”main” seed=”5492625″ environment=”my_environment” map_location=”0.35,0.35″/>
Sections
We will be using the builtin eurasia_flatlands scenario as an example.
Most sections in the environment file are optional, if not present the defaults will be used.
Terrain
- <noise_amplitudes values=”0.0 0.03 0.2 0.154 0.097 0.045 0.025 0.005″/>
Terrain in Dawn of Man, like in most games, is generated by combining noise of different frequencies: Large mountains are low-frequency high amplitude, small bumps are high-frequency low amplitude.
This line allows you to modify the amplitudes of the different noise layers, the initial numbers define the amplitudes of the low-frequencies (the height of large mountains), and the later numbers define the amplitudes of the high_frequencies (the height of the small bumps).
Terrain Features
- <trees values=”Oak Birch Beech Rye Einkorn Emmer Flax BitterVetch Chickpeas Lentils Peas Blackberry Blueberry Raspberry Strawberry Chestnut Pear Cherry Service”/>
What trees are present in the level.
- <deposits values=”Flint”/>
What types of deposit are present in the level.
- <distance_height_offset value=”0.02″/>
How much bigger are mountains at the edge of map.
- <resource_factor value=”0.75″/>
The amount of resources in the map. 1.0 is the default.
- <ford_distance_factor value=”1.5″/>
The average distance between river fords, 1.0 is the default.
Seasons
This section defines the length, precipitation and temperature of each season.
Misc
- <sun_angle_factor value=”0.8″/>
How high is the sun in the sky, 1.0 is the default.
