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Alpha Centauri Editor for Maps
(ACE)
Version 0.10
Copyright by
Fred Chlanda
February 2001
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Installation
Using ACE
Loading a map
Selecting a feature
Probability (PPT)
Place, Clear, Show and Show All
Erase Box
Editing only part of the map
Saving the map
ACE allows limited editing of maps for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (tm) (SMAC) and Alien Crossfire (SMAX). The program was designed to help overcome a peculiarity of SMAC maps (at least as far as I could determine). If you make a map in the SMAC built-in editor the random resources (minerals, food, energy) cannot be removed. As far as I could tell they are not stored in the map file but seem to be generated each time. Maps can be made with random resources and pods turned off but then you have to add them all in by hand. ACE will let you add random resources to a map that was made with the random resources turned off in the SMAC editor. Some of these then can be removed if they are in an inconvenient spot using the SMAC built-in editor. In addition ACE can be set to put variable densities of resources over the whole map or only a portion as well as only on land or sea.
ACE is a 32-bit Windows (tm) program. You can install it wherever you want by unzipping the files but a subdirectory of SMAC would be the most sensible place. Whenever you work on maps you should make lots of backups. THIS PROGRAM IS ALPHA SOFTWARE. IT MAY NOT WORK AS INTENDED FOR YOU ALTHOUGH IT DOES FOR ME.
ACE should work with either map, scenario or save game files from either SMAC or SMAX. (I have only edited map files from SMAX). To get started, click the Load button and pick the file that you want to edit. When you load the file a map outline will appear and the various resources and pods (collectively Features) on the map will appear. The map shows only blue for water and green for land but this should be enough to keep you oriented. The map window is resizeable. Just drag the edges and it will be redrawn to fit the available space... more or less. If there are any resources on the map they will be shown as various colored "squares". Gray for pods, bright green for food, yellow for energy and white for minerals.
Below the buttons is a radio group "Feature". Only one type of resource or pods can be selected here at a time and that is the feature that is operated on. Please note that there is no undo function in ACE so make sure you have selected what you want to edit before doing anything. Following the names in the Feature box is a count of the number of features of that type appearing on the map. This count may not be perfectly accurate if you have added some using the SMAC editor.
Below the Feature box is an edit field which contains the probability factor as the probability per thousand that any given suitable square will receive the selected resource. (This is in tenths of a percent i.e. 40 is 4.0% and 45 is 4.5%). Suitable squares are those which do not already have some sort of resource or other feature. ACE will handle fungus squares so that they are not counted as having a feature but other possible restrictions may apply (see the Inspection Mode later).
Below the Probability edit are several buttons. Starting from the bottom, Show All will redraw the map window with the four features supported by ACE highlight as noted above. The Show button will redraw the map with only the selected feature shown. Clear will remove all of the features of the selected type on the map. If the adjacent box Clear All is checked then all four features will be removed. (Some features that are added with the SMAC editor cannot be removed in this way.) Finally, the Place button will distribute the selected feature over the map according to the PPT field and redraw the map showing all of the resources.
The addition of resources is normally cumulative. Each time you click the Place button, new resources will be added without removing the old ones. If you wish to remove all of the previous resources of a given type before placing new ones use the Erase checkbox. This removes the selected feature before adding new ones so that you simply get a redistribution.
You can apply the addition or removal of features to only a portion of the map. To do this set up a rectangular area by using the four edit boxes for the top left and bottom right coordinates on the map and set the Box checkbox. You can type in the coordinates but it will be a lot easier to just drag a box around the area you want to set by using the map window. Press the left mouse button down where you want the top left corner and hold it down until you get to the bottom right corner then release. You will see the box outline as you draw and it will be displayed when you are finished (if the Box item is checked). When Box is checked all actions will apply only to squares inside the limiting box.
You can also limit the extent of modifications by choosing to have them apply only to Land or Water using the checkboxes.
After you have made some changes that you like, use the Save button to save the file. I suggest frequent saves and also frequent checks with SMAC to make sure everything is going all right.
(A feature for experts and the curious only)
If you have loaded a file and press the Inspect button this will pop up a new window that shows the raw map data in the file. This was here mostly so that I could figure out enough about the map format to write this program but I decided to leave it in the final version. Use it as you wish. I cannot provide help beyond what is here. Each square on the map has a 44 byte record, the first 12-bytes of which are shown in the table. The last 4 bytes are generally repeated several times to fill out the record. You can move to a record for a given square by using the up/down arrows by the coordinates. The coordinates that SMAC displays are given next to these boxes. SMAC has only even x's on the even y lines and odd x's on the odd y lines but the data stored in the file is arranged in a more conventional manner. The three columns show the hexadecimal, decimal and bits numbered 0-7 which are set for each of the first 12 bytes in the map square record. The second (and maybe the first) byte is related to elevation. The last four bytes are used to store the features.
You can send email to me at:
chlanda@hotmail.com
You can find other programs that I have written at:
Derf's Program Page
(derfs.8m.com)
Fred's Program Page
(freds.webprovider.com)