Hi, my name is Luke a.k.a. (Red, or Red Warrior,) and I'm a Populous Player.  Now, there's plenty of sites out there that talk about strategies, cheats, CD cracks, have Funny Picture Collections, player galleries, launchers, tips, and tricks for this game, so I'm not going to waste my time taking about that stuff.  Instead, I'm going to explain how to make levels in Hex.  I am part of the MOD World's Team founded by Khickman, and we'd like to have more members join us in making MOD Worlds for the average players to enjoy.  I used to explain this in IM conversations, but there's too many people that want to know how now so I'm going to explain it below instead.  Now I found out recently that people are making Map Editors for this game, so I originally decided not to do this, but recent activities have gotten me motivated again.  So, here we go. 

     The first thing your going to need is a hex editor.  If you never heard of or used a hex editor before, I suggest that you download this one (Hex Workshop) cause it's the one that I use, and it will be easier for me to explain things to you if were both using the same thing.  Another thing your going to need is time, patience, and the ability to stare at a white screen with a bunch of numbers and letters on it for awhile. 

     OK, now that you have everything you need, lets get started.  The files we're going to be working with are the levl2???.dat files located in C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Populous\levels folder.   These files contain all of the land and object data for all of the levels of populous. 

     Open C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Populous\levels\levl2001.dat in the hex editor.  This is level 1.  Before I go any further, let me explain a couple of basic things on the screen.  After opening lever 1, it should look like this:  (Study the picture below). 

This file, and all of the other level files are broken into four parts... Well two parts that are important to us: 

Land Data:  The top section (Valves 0 - 7FFE) contains all of the land data.  The Hex alphabet is (0-9, A-F) with 0 being the least, and F being the most (F for Full).  So, the valves 0000 = one square of water, and the valves FFFF = one square of the highest possible land mass.  However, when land goes up that high, the people of populous cant walk on top of it so the highest you can actually go is 8005.  The first valve is the fine adjustment of the land height, and the second valve is the course adjustment of the land height.  (Remember that 2 digits = one valve.) 

A total of 100 chronological valves will get you all the way around the world on the x axis starting from the y axis, and going to the right of it (see picture below). 

So if you want to make a 7 x 2 chunk of land on level one starting at (0, 0)  at the highest possible height (8005), This is what it would look like...  

and this is what you'd do in the hex editor to make it.  (Note - any editing you do in the hex editor, is going to be replacing what's already there.  Likewise, the file should always be 192137 bytes.  If its bigger or less then that amount, then u probably screwed up somewhere.  (coping and pasting usually)

OK, I think I've gave you the basics on making land.  If you have any questions or comments on this part, you can AIM or E-mail me.  Just play around with it a bit, and you'll get the feel of it.  You'll notice that when making land, there will be major patterns occurring in the hex view, especially if your landmasses are giant squares, or other geometrical shapes. 

 

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Object Data:  The bottom section of this file (Valves 14043 - End) contains all of the object data data such as trees, people and stone heads.  To quickly get down to the object's part of the file, go up to the "Edit" menu, and click "Goto..."  Then type in 14043 and make sure "From Position:  Beginning of File" is selected.  OK, you should now be sitting at a part of the file that looks like this: 

Every object consists of 37 valves as you can see in the diagram.  The object I have selected is the large hut for the Dakini on level one.  Now I'm going to break down those 37 valves and tell you what their functions are below: 

The 02 valve circled above controls the type of object. (For example men (01), or huts (02), or trees (05)). 

Quick reference: 

01 = men group
02 = hut group
05 = tree group
And u can figure out the other wonders for yourself :) 

The 03 valve controls the subtype of the object. (in this case a large hut (03 02), or warrior hut (07 02), or a spy hut (06 02), or a FW hut (08 02), and so on.) 

Quick reference: 

01 01 = wildmen
02 01 = brave
07 01 = shaman and COR site with her

01 02 = small hut
02 02 = medium hut
03 02 = large hut
13 02 = Prison

02 05 = oak tree
04 05 = pine tree


The 01 controls the tribe:

00 = blue
01 = Dakini
02 = yellow (They won't show up on level 1... See Other notes about object editing below.) 
03 = green (They won't show up on level 1... See Other notes about object editing below.) 
FF = Neutral - Used for trees, wildmen, stone heads, and anything else that doesn't belong to a tribe.  You can also use AA for Neutral.  This us useful for making prisons because then all of the tribes can chop them down.  (If you use FF for a prison, no one will be able to chop it.) 

And the AA and D5 control the X and Y axis on the map.  Be careful when you edit this, cause you may not notice right away, but on one object, the X Y coordinates will be like this (00XX 00YY) and then on the next object, they will be like this (XX00 YY00).  This happens because of the odd number of valves in an object (37). 

 

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Other notes about object editing: 

If you try to add the Yellow and Green tribes and their buildings to level 1, or any other level that only has the Blue and Red tribes on it, they won't show up.  This is because in the levl2001.hdr file, the level is classified as a two player level, and deletes all the other tribe information in the level generation process.  So to fix this problem, just use an hdr file that came from a different level containing all four tribes on it or at least the green tribe.  You can then change the "atmosphere" of the level later with Ted's Spell Editor. 

If you choose to make two or more shamans for the same tribe on your map, the shaman that comes first in the hex code is the one that will be dominate, and will have the power to cast spells.  Wherever she is located is where all of the other shamans for that tribe will be reincarnated, and she will also be the only one that will make a reincarnation site.  Also, only the dominate shaman can be placed in a prison.  The other shamans will just simply walk out upon game start. 

For more information on object editing, Chick Here to check out Wargle's Site. 

     Well I think that's enough for me to say for now.  Now that you u know the basics, its just a matter of playing around with different Numbers and Valves to figure out the true power of the game.  I've found out and seen a lot of cool and crazy stuff doing this, and I'm not going to ruin the fun for you by telling you what I've all found.  Using this information to get you started, it wont take you long to pass me up on this stuff, cause I'm going to be lazy and wait around for a Map Editor to come out.  lol :)  Enjoy! 

Red Warrior

     Also, as I stated before, if there's anything that don't make since to you, just ask me, and if there's anything that I just totally screwed up on, just tell me so I can fix it, cause I did this late at night so it's bound to have some mistakes in it. 

Questions? Comments? leave them in the Guestbook or AIM (RedWarrior09), or Email (red@luke.kicks-ass.net) me.