Custom Map Sizes and Editing the terrain/elevation of Tiles

Scroll down and navigate  (or search for the hex values “9DFFFFFFFF”)  untill you come across this part of the deep_water.hex file:

The 9DFFFFFF long data is what initiates the actual map, followed by two long data with a decimal value of 144, or “9000000090000000” in hex values. These are the length and width of the map.

The many pairs of “160100” following them are tile data (160100 is a single tile), in the following format:

• 16 – The first byte is the  terrain type (16 for Deep Water).
• 01 – The second short byte is the elevation level (ranging from 00 (lowest) up to 07 (highest) . 
• 00 – Marks the end of the tile. Never edit this value or your map WILL crash.

In this (default) map size case, you have 144 x 144 = 20736 sets of “160100” here. 

Changing the Map Size

Step 1. In order to modify the map size, you must change the two “90000000” into another long data value (two must be the same and not bigger than 255×255 in decimals, or FF000000FF000000 in hex values).

Step 2. Insert or delete the corresponding amount of “160100” tile data (sets, depending on the map size chosen) – this must meet the square amount (decimal value) of the length/width chosen.

Step 3. See the Map Size Table below to see which map sizes you can choose, and the correct decimal and hex values you must use . 

Changing the terrain type

As you have noticed above, “16” byte is the  terrain type for that particular tile. By editing this value you have access to every terrain type made for AoE, even the hidden ones which are not availavle in the normal scenario editor. You can easily change the terrain type by doing the following:

Step 1. Change the “16” byte into any of the hex values corresponding to the terrain type (for example, changing it to “01” tranforms the current Deep water into normal Water terrain) from the Terrain Table below.

Changing the elevation level

Elevation 1 is “00“. If you make the value higher than 07 (which is the maximum hight), then it will go back to Elevation 1 plus how much you went over “07“. For example, if a single tile has a value of 08 and the rest would be 07, the Elevation will be just slightly “floating” above the rest. Depending on the height of a single tile’s Elevation level towards the rest of the other Elevation levels of your tiles, you can create awesome effects and tricks such as objects which can be passed through, or illusions. You can view a very nice example of this in my showcase scenario The Big Hill. You can change the evelation by doing the following:

Step 1. Change the “01” byte into any of the hex values corresponding to the elevation level from the Elevation Table below:

Terrain Table Tile Graphic Terrain Hex value Description/Properties 00 Grass 01 Water 02 Beach (Desert Terrain Appearance, Cannot Place Building, Mess Up Other Terrains) 03 Thin River (Dark Terrain, Blue on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 04 Shallows (Passable for nearly all units) 05 Jungle Edge 06 Desert 07 Crop (Dark Terrain, Light Brown on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 08 Rows (Dark Terrain, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 09 Wheat (Dark Terrain, Brown on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 0A Forest 0B Dirt (Desert) 0C Grass 2 (Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 0D Desert Palm 0E Desert Impass (Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 0F Water Impass (Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything, Can Change Elevation) 10 Grass Impass (Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 11 Fog (Dark Terrain, Dark on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 12 Forest Edge 13 Pine Forest 14 Jungle 15 Pine Edge 16 Deep Water 17 Grass 3 (Dark on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Can Place All Units & Buildings) 18 Grass 4 (Dark on Mini-map, Retarded Navy Speed, Can Place All Units, Cannot Place Buildings) 19 Grass 5 (Dark on Mini-map, Cannot Be Passed Through, Cannot Place Anything) 00 Beta Beach (Same as Grass Hex Value – Only available through McCloudEffects trick, or placing Water Impass next to it) — Beta Road (Not available, leftover in border.drs) Elevation Table Elevation Height Elevation Hex value 1 00 2 01 3 02 4 03 5 04 6 05 7 06 8 07 Map Size Table # of Tiles (Decimal value) Map Size (Hex value) 1×1 0100000001000000 2×2 0200000002000000 3×3 0300000003000000 4×4 0400000004000000 5×5 0500000005000000 6×6 0600000006000000 7×7 0700000007000000 8×8 0800000008000000 9×9 0900000009000000 10×10 0A0000000A000000 11×11 0B0000000B000000 12×12 0C0000000C000000 13×13 0D0000000D000000 14×14 0E0000000E000000 15×15 0F0000000F000000 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The Thin River, Crop, Rows, Wheat, Dirt and Beta Road terrain tiles appear as black terrain in-game – those shown in the Terrain Table are their original graphics.

Next up: The Lengthen Combat Mode (3xHP).

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