How To Use The TileData Editor

The TileData Editor is a tool that makes adding/editing buildings in Cytopia easy! If you haven't already, you can download the tool from here. This tutorial will cover the basics of adding a new building to the game.

Before I begin, there are two important rules regarding the TileData Editor:

1. If you add a building, you are responsible for filling out all the fields and boxes. Do not push this task onto other people by leaving all the fields blank.
2. Always make sure no one else is editing the TileData at the same time you are. If you don't, we will have to manually combine your changes with someone else's changes, which is long, frustrating, and prone to error.

Anyway, let's start the tutorial. The editor's GUI should look something like this: All the buildings and categories are listed on the left. Buildings are sorted alphabetically based on their IDs.

You can get basic info for most buildings by just looking at their image's filename. Most images follow this format: type_WidthxHeight_NumberOfRotations_Name_Author.png (Example: com_3x1_RF2_PhelpsCo_KT.png)

To add a new building, click one of the categories and click "New Item" on the top left. Then insert an image by clicking the button with three dots: Next, you'll need to fill in the ID, title, and description. For the ID, just copy and paste the image file's name. Make sure you use US English for the title and description (this will keep the language consistent). If you wish to translate the game, please visit this page instead.

Don't worry about editing the category and subcategory boxes yet. The UI doesn't work with those anyway.

Now you should select a tiletype. Most buildings use default, but RCI buildings need to use their own special type.

If you choose RCI, make sure you select a zone and wealth level. Only choose one of each (one Zone type and one wealth level). Also, you should choose a style for the RCI building. If you know which country the building is from, choose the region that is closest to it (for example, if a building is from Canada, select "US" as its style). If you don't know what region it's from, don't select any of the regions.

Next are tags, biome, and ground deco (located at the bottom). Tags are words or names that describe the building. They should be comma-separated lists, without spaces. Like this:

Generally, you should list the color, size, country of origin (if known), material (brick, glass, etc), and shape (short, tall, tower, etc) of the building.

Some buildings should only appear in certain biomes. For example, there are a handful of buildings made specifically for the desert biomes. Just click the edit button and select the biomes, if applicable. Adding ground decos to a building is a similar process. However, I like to copy and paste the ground deco definitions from similar buildings to save time. For those who are confused, ground decos are tiles that will spawn under the building when they are built. That's why most buildings have transparent bases.

Additionally, there are the attributes and required tiles (located in the bottom-right). Required tiles can be found in the image's filename, and the number of inhabitants should be self-explanatory (try to keep it realistic though). Just leave the other fields blank for now. We are still unsure of how they'll be implemented.

Finally, the building you're adding may have multiple frames. If this is the case, make sure you change the "count" accordingly. If you've set everything up correctly, you should see purple boxes appear over every frame.

That should be everything you need to know to add custom buildings to Cytopia. Of course, there are a few advanced features that I have not covered here, so if you have questions, ask a member of the Cytopia Team.