Map seed files

Changed in 0.2.0

Stores random-map generator inputs in a `[RandomMap]` section.

Format

Kind: Configuration file
Filename: *.SED

A map seed file holds the settings of the random map generator and no map data. The game uses these files in two ways:

The random-map dialog saves its settings as a .SED file in the saved-games folder, and lists and loads the .SED files it finds there.
Scenario loading treats any file whose name ends in .SED as a seed file and generates the map from it, using the file’s own Seed. When the host accepts a random map in the skirmish setup or a multiplayer lobby, the game saves the settings as RandMap.Sed and the match plays that file.

RandMap.Sed is found through the ordinary game file search, and the dialog does not list it. Any other .SED name is read from the saved-games folder.

A scenario file can carry the same section. With RandomMap=yes in its [Basic] section, its map is generated from its [RandomMap] section. That key’s page says which seed the map uses and which of the file’s other settings still apply.

[RandomMap]
Description=Four-player temperate map
Width=1
Height=1
NumPlayers=4
Seed=12345

Map size

Width and Height are size indices from 0 through 3, not cell counts. NumPlayers selects a row of the table below, which gives the smallest and the largest size for that many players:

Index 0 gives the smallest size and index 3 the largest.
Indices 1 and 2 give the size one third and two thirds of the way from the smallest to the largest, rounded down.

Width and height use the same table, so equal indices give a square map. Width=3 is 100 cells for two players and 175 for eight.

`NumPlayers`	Cells at index `0`	Cells at index `3`
2	50	100
3	65	115
4	75	128
5	85	140
6	100	160
7	120	170
8	135	175

These sizes are the playable area, which the generated map declares in [Map] LocalSize=. The playfield, declared in [Map] Size=, is four cells wider and twelve cells taller. The example above builds a 92 by 92 playable area on a 96 by 104 playfield.

Missing and out-of-range settings

Before a map is built, a setting the section leaves out takes its default, and a value outside a setting’s range is moved to the nearest end of that range. NumPlayers=9, for example, builds an eight-player map. This applies whether the file is loaded into the random-map dialog or played as a scenario. Each setting’s key page gives its default and range.

The Firestorm expansion also changes some settings at that point. Without Firestorm enabled, the mutated biome becomes temperate, and TiberiumWildlife, VeinholeMonsters, UseIonStorms, UseTransitions and UseBlueTiberium are turned off. With Firestorm enabled, UseBlueTiberium is always turned on.

Accepted settings

Filter settings

21 of 21

Key	Description	Value	When omitted
`Accessibility`[RandomMap]	The chance that neighboring pieces of high and low ground are joined by more than one ramp, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`Biome`[RandomMap]	The kind of country a generated map is laid out in, as a position from 0 through 4.	integer	`0`
`Description`[RandomMap]	The text a campaign, a multiplayer map, or a saved map seed is listed under.	string	Context-dependent
`Height`[RandomMap]	A structure's vertical extent, the number of cell rows a smudge covers, or a generated map's size index.	integer	`0`
`NumPlayers`[RandomMap]	The number of players a generated map is built for, and the start positions counted for a map without waypoints.	integer	`2`
`NumPlayers`[RandomMap]	The number of players a generated map is built for, and the start positions counted for a map without waypoints.	integer	`0`
`RegionSize`[RandomMap]	How large a piece of ground a generated map may hold at one height before it is broken up, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`Ruggedness`[RandomMap]	How hilly a generated map's ground is, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`Seed`[RandomMap]	The number the map generator's random sequence is started from.	integer	`-1`
`Tiberium`[RandomMap]	Marks an overlay as Tiberium, lets a warhead set Tiberium off, or sets how much Tiberium a generated map receives.	integer	`0`
`TiberiumLayout`[RandomMap]	How many tiberium fields a generated map is given, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`TiberiumWildlife`[RandomMap]	Scales how many tiberium creatures each tiberium field spread across a generated map releases, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`Time`[RandomMap]	The hour a generated map is fought at, as a position from 0 through 3.	integer	`1`
`UrbanPresence`[RandomMap]	How many settlements a generated map is given, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`UseBlueTiberium`[RandomMap]	Ignored, because the Firestorm addon alone decides whether a generated map's tiberium fields can grow from the second tiberium overlay set.	boolean	Computed
`UseIonStorms`[RandomMap]	Makes the random map generator load `ION.INI`, the file that sets up a generated map's ion storms.	boolean	`no`
`UseTransitions`[RandomMap]	Loads the hour file for a generated map's hour, whose triggers can change the map's lighting during play.	boolean	`no`
`Vegetation`[RandomMap]	How thickly a generated map is planted with green ground and woods, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`VeinholeMonsters`[RandomMap]	Veinhole monsters the random map generator plants.	integer	`0`
`WaterAmount`[RandomMap]	How much of a generated map is put under water, as a figure from 0 to 100.	integer	`0`
`Width`[RandomMap]	A smudge's width in cells, or a generated map's size index.	integer	`0`

Source files

Linked at revision 51b52aa38392.

History

Changed0.2.0In development
Hold a seed file's settings in range when it is played