Not if you are making a campaign . As that is all a campaign really is, persistant main Char(s), special between map UIs, and linked predesignated maps.

You can make a location as big as you want, though the "active center" will still be 2x2 max. So why make a thing, that consists from 4 parts if you can make one really big?

For example I have made huge dragons with 2x2 "active" tile  You can even gp out of the "green square" limit

Or you will make 4 different active zones for location?

It would be four tiles that all link to the same tactical battle map. No matter which of the four tiles you were to step on all of them would send you to the same tactical battle screen. I've tried making it on one 4x4 tile and even if I increase the sizes of the pieces they still come out too small for my tastes on the actual world map. I haven't tried making four separate tiles that fit together for a hand made map because I'm waiting for release so that hopefully the tile editor will be a bit more stable.

Frogboy mentioned way back when we were discussing land types that he would love to see what terrain types the community comes up with and he expects the community made types to quickly surpass the ones that come with the game, so, I'd say it's Definitely possible to make your own terrain types .

Ideally you could add it as a 'set' of 4 tiles for a random map.  Then have flags where once piece 1 is placed, then all others MUST be placed adjacently and in proper orientation.

The map editor allows you to save groups of tiles as a stamp. In theory, you could easily make 4 tiles that connect with each other to form your thing, save it as a stamp, and use the stamp in maps. Then just attach the same XML info for each of the 4 tiles, so no matter which one you step on, they all behave the same.

But do the stamps ever appear on the randomly generated maps? Right now the only stamp included with the game is the volcano, but I don't think I've ever seen a "natural" volcano on a map (although I guess that could maybe have something to do with how they are created).

I wasn't aware the 'stamp' could be randomly seeded.  Hence the odd idea workaround type.  Obviously it will most likely be patched in, as you could create a small 'stamp collection' and remake the temple of elemental evil :}

One would hope that stamps can be randomly seeded - as I recall a year ago at PAX that's how Boogie described them when he was talking about the concept. Whether or not it actually works, I don't know as I'm not a mapper. If it doesn't, then I'd definitely vote for the random generator to pick up the stamps.

PLease, what do these do ?

  <Rarity>70</Rarity>
  <PreferredTerrain>Land</PreferredTerrain>
    <SpawnRating>1</SpawnRating>
  <LevelLo>3</LevelLo>
  <LevelHi>5</LevelHi>

 Let me guess: rarity is the percentage it will appear in a given GAME

Preffered terrain: well, where it will appear

Spawn rating: I have no idea what it does, and what the overall odds are.

LevelLo and LevelHi: I have no idea

Np bro.

ok ... how do you make things really, REALLY tall? (like stack things on top of each other).

I'm trying to make some Towers for a netherworld type reality.

Use the Y-axis offset. If you can't raise it far enough, select a different object, then go back to the original one, and the offset sliders will be reset, allowing you to raise it more. Just repeat that until it is tall enough. Just note, however, that if you raise it too much it will "disappear." There is a kind of invisible ceiling on the tile editor, and you can't see anything above it (although I think it will still work if an object is above it, you just can't see it in the editor. 

We wouldn't want our Orthancs to be sticking out of our monitors and poking our eyes would, would we

Hehe ... well actually a couple of my towers I wanted to have "a height beyond comprehension" so disappearing into the sky sounds ideal

Its a new 3d feature! Eye-gougingly good!

Excuse me, but you have no idea, nobody cares, or wrong place to post ?

what are you talking about?

I was talking about these technical modding specific questions. I am sorry if I may sound agressive, but this forum overall starts to make me feel like civfanatics forum, where you won't get an answer if you are not from "the club", or answers like "I could do it, so just try to figure out yourself..."

These are (for the most part) complete guesses so ...

Rarity of 70 is out of 1000, so there is a 7% chance in each game that it will appear.

Perferred Terrain (land)

for Spawn Rating, LevelLo, and LevelHi ... it has something to do with what Adventure level has to be teched (by anyone) for them to start appearing.

Ok, thanks a lot.

1000 guesses won't make 1 fact, so maybe lets wait for a dev or more documented answer.

Just saying.

And so I did, but hardly noticed anything. And I also thought that playing around with many values could be time consuming, to say the least, while an enlightened explanation of the value, as there are many nice ones on this forum, would help. Maybe I am too impatient, because this game has a huge modding potential, and grinding to the final game, with no updates for at least a week, is getting on my nerves ^^.

Some more "goodie hut" questions please

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<GoodieHutTypes>

 <DataChecksum NoParse="1">
  <Ignore>DispName</Ignore>
  <Translate>DispName,Description</Translate>
 </DataChecksum>

 <!-- *************************** -->
 <!-- **     Core Artifacts    ** -->
 <!-- *************************** -->

 <!-- *************************** -->
 <!-- ** GoodieHuts by Terrian ** -->
 <!-- *************************** -->

 <!-- ******     Land      ****** -->

 <!--      AbandonedCaravan1      -->

 <GoodieHutType InternalName="AbandonedCaravan1">

 <Name>Amazing tree</Name>
 <Description>This tree looks amazing, you could probably harvest it for gold or material.</Description>
 <Rarity>100</Rarity>
 <PreferredTerrain>Land</PreferredTerrain>
    <SpawnRating>4</SpawnRating>

    <Medallions InternalName="">
      <All>Artifact_ToppledWalls1.png</All>
    </Medallions>

    <TileDesign>FRONT_AMAZING_TREE</TileDesign>
    <DrawnIcon>Gfx/TacticalIcons/Artifact_Wagon1_ClothIcon.dds</DrawnIcon>
    <IconSize>70</IconSize>

  <Treasure>
   <Title>You found materials</Title>
   <Desc>Chopping down the tree, you dicover some materials!</Desc>
   <Liklihood>50</Liklihood>
   <GameModifier>
    <ModType>Resource</ModType>
    <Attribute>Materials</Attribute>
        <Value>33.00</Value>
        <PerTurn>0</PerTurn>    
   </GameModifier>
   <SFX>Click_CrumblingStatue_01</SFX>
  </Treasure>

  <Treasure>
   <Title>Found Gildar!</Title>
      <Desc>Scouring the area, you find 10 gildar!</Desc>
      <Liklihood>80</Liklihood>
      <GameModifier>
        <ModType>Resource</ModType>
        <Attribute>Gold</Attribute>
        <Value>10.00</Value>
        <PerTurn>0</PerTurn>
      </GameModifier>
   <SFX>GoldPouch_2</SFX> 
  </Treasure>

    <OnSelectSFX>Click_WoodenCrate_01</OnSelectSFX>

  </GoodieHutType>

</GoodieHutTypes>

Ok, so I created this new file, FRONT_goodiehut, and I copied/pasted the original core goodie hut file, and removed everything, except the "first part":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<GoodieHutTypes>

 <DataChecksum NoParse="1">
  <Ignore>DispName</Ignore>
  <Translate>DispName,Description</Translate>
 </DataChecksum>

As I think it is a reference for the other files, as the name of the files is irrelevent, it still needs to know what to look for, although I might be really wrong on this issue.

Then I C/P a goodie hut "block", to add to my mod.

Two questions, here: Is the "first part" indeed required ?

and

I figured almost everything, except the "liklihood" of the treasures to drop. What are the odds, and how are they calculated ?

Please pardon the primitive question, but how the frak do you rotate the view in the Tile Editor?

Brad's caps are not from the top-down view that I see when I start the Editor. I stabbed around the tip-less UI and tried pretty much everything I could think of by way of mouse+key things. What is the 'obvious/intuitive' thing I'm missing?