I just uploaded a test version of my New Terrain Mod (NTM) to the Steam Workshop. If anyone is interested, try it out, I'd like to get some feedback while I'm still working on it.

Additions:

1.) New landscape options : Lakes, Rivers and coastal. (360+ map masks.)
2.) New seasons options: Spring and Autumn.
3.) New peace time options: 5 & 15 minutes.
4.) New warship options: with or without warships.
5.) New additional start options: 17th century barracks, log Cabins and a village.
6.) New resource start options: 10000, 50000, 100000 and 500000.
7.) New foreststype option: Countryside (rural), Taiga (default), Black forest (Dense), temperate forest (new trees mix).
8.) New harvestable treetypes : Willow, Oak, Beech, Birch, Cypress, Olive, Poplar, Maple, Oak bushes,...
9.) New flowers and deco types: cabbage, cornflower, thistle, caluna, editor buildings (rubbled houses, farmsteads, graves).
10.) New map textures (summer, winter, autumn, spring)
11.) New random map masks (350+) for existing landscape types bringing more variety in start positions & terrain, particularly for 8 player maps but also for 2-7 player maps.
12.) New patterns for more landscape variety (200+)
13.) Animated trees. They appear to be moving with the wind.
14.) All new options are localized in the various available languages.

Tweaks:

15.) Added a small amount of gold to following additional start option : cannons, towers and cannons & howitzers to cover for the initial maintenance cost.
16.) On 18th century barracks start option: one fewer Log Cabin (4 -> 3) for Ukraine, one fewer 17th barracks for Ukraine (5 -> 4), Algeria and Turkey (4 -> 3) to not cause issues on small islands maps, where some of these buildings might spawn in water.)
17.) 2 extra towers for the 'towers' start option, Ukraine gets 2 Log Cabins (previously they would get nothing).
18.) Lowered the number of peasants Turkey/Algeria get on start option 'Army of Peasants', they previously would get many more than any other nation.
19.) Changed the winter textures to be darker, as opposed to being blinded by the current snow textures.
20.) Moved the desert landscape option from seasons to landscape.
21.) Various changes to terrain generation, eg: landscape type 'plain' now is plain and no longer has hills generating on them. Hills generate hills and not plateaus/mountains, etc...

Fixes:

22.) Fixes to existing random map masks (see list)
23.) Fixed misdecor7 & 8 having a bad texture (tent texture pointing to wrong file.)
24.) Fixed desert_plain_medium pattern group error (Generator.cfg/dogenerate.inc)

I got a bit annoyed at the lack of variation in the random maps GSC provided us with. They all look the same. You can tell the game was rushed. But even after a year, it still feels lacklustre in this aspect.

I started working on this mod last winter, but didn't have time to finish it due to work. The constant release of patches didn't help much either, because it meant I had to update more often than spend time on my mod. At the time, I had made a desert and artic option, along with various other map options (no diplo, etc), but GSC added these to the game shortly after, so I scrapped them out of my mod and continued with the other stuff I wanted in the game.

The mod isn't entirely finished yet. This is probably version 40 of the mod, i've spend many hours on it already, but it needs more polishing ( not entirely happy with all the textures yet and the terrain generation can use more tweaking aswell.), but I rather get some feedback and constructive critiscism, to see in which area's the mod needs improvement while I'm still working on it.

The intent of the mod is to bring more variety in map generation, and most additions are optional. This means, you can choose what you want to play. Try out the different options, see what you like. Some combinations of options may appear a bit weird eg; countryside + mountains, others are a match made in heaven. Some are disabled entirely eg: desert+ foresttype: it will always be palm trees on the desert maps. I didn't think a 'countryside' option with farms would fit well on a desert map.

I'm open to more suggestions/ideas/feedback in regards to the terrain generation, if they are feasible and doable, I might look into adding them. I still have plenty of 'things to do/add ' on my list, so if I find time, I hope i'll release a second version of the mod at a later time. (Wild & farm animals are on the top of my list.)

Compability with other mods:

It's unlikely this will be compatible with any 'big' mods, as many files are changed. However, I didn't touch the country scripts, so it all depends on the mod I guess, or if you are a mod creator, ask me if you can incorporate it into your mod.


Thanks to following people for checking the translations:

[KGR]-^K[o]K^- - Czech
[GDF]Warren - Polish
Francesco_Cavalli - Italian
Foeurdr - French
Carlos - Spanish
Mark Kandaurov - Ukrainian
Mark Kandaurov - Russian
[1453]Atabey - Turkish
Anderstein - German

~Ebel