[Psitticine]

It'd be some extra work for the map-makers, but possibly scale effect look up maps would work?

This is right off the top of my head, so please excuse me if I'm not being very clear with it. What I'm thinking about would be optional files that show both what areas should be affected by each scale's settings, and what color effects each scale will have on that particular map.

For example, black areas would not be affected by scales at all. However, if one goes in and uses a paint program to quickly replace all the greenery with a tint of white (or, if feeling ambitious, do more detailed work), then their hue will shift one way or the other based on the scale represented by that look-up map. A map for Heat/Cold look-up could have a brownish-red color for Heat and a pure white one for Cold placed in an otherwise nul area at the top, so that those treetops appear to "dry out" in the Heat as the brown is multiplied in with the straight color off the main map file. Likewise, they would be frosted with snow in the Cold.

The amount of white in a pixel in the look-up map, adjusted by scale settings as they change during the game, would give the actual intensity of the color overlay, rather the same way an alpha channel affects image opacity. Thus, the brown would get more and more so as the Heat index climbs due to the effects of Dominion there. If you give the grass a pure white and the trees an airbrushing of white-grey, the brown will have more life-like variety in how it is applied.

Heat/Cold would be the primary recipient of this attention, I'd think, but I'm also thinking of all the interesting special effects possible to map-makers. What if Growth/Death settings tints the foilage and water to white or black? It'd make the land seem more (or less) vibrant, or even unnaturally vital/dull. How about if Magic/Drain uses a very lightly flecked map to add subtle traces of blue for an unusual energetic quality to magical lands or a flat brownish-grey to deaden things? Some unique and wild effects would be possible - a perfect tool for all the lively imaginations around here!

It wouldn't be hard to produce at least a quick-and-dirty map of this kind with color selections and the other tools available in any decent paint program. They should be optional, however, to prevent people who only have time to do the straight map file from being overwhelmed and thus not being able to produce anything at all. Still, as I say, it shouldn't be much work to produce these overlays. I have to whip over dozens of similar things for even a small animation project and they can be produced very quickly!