Terrain Destruction

[EagleDNY]

I know this is a long way down the list, but I'll put a plug in for it anyway -

Ever open up at an enemy tank with a 75mm gun and have your shell hit a tree/bush and explode prematurely?  Ever wonder why the tree is still there afterwards?  The next thing you end up wondering is how the heck to kill the guy behind the impenetrable wooden shield as you see his turret begin to swing towards you...

It would be nice if either:

1) your large caliber shells pass through trees/bushes without exploding.
2) the tree/bush you hit with a 75mm shell explodes and is removed as an obstruction, thus allowing you to shoot at your real target.

Bombing GVs / Shooting 37mm Flak at incoming planes seems to have some of the same problems.  I know my 37mm flak explodes as it passes through a leaf in a tree.  Anecdotally, I see some evidence that what type of bush you are behind/under seems to affect what happens when the bomb hits.  I've been on the other side of the "bright green wall bush" and had bombs explode near me that I'd have expected to kill my GV instead do no appreciable damage.

Player modifiable terrain is a big thing to ask for, but over the long haul I think it would be a plus for the game for the map to begin to show the effects of the players bombing / shelling in a more permanent fashion as the war progresses.

EagleDNY
$.02

[captkaos]

I concur, blasting away trying to get your rounds to go between trees and braches to hit a target gets old.  The Trees sould be destroyed when hit.

[hitech]

Do a few quick calculations of how many trees there are over a 256 x 256 mile terrain.


HiTech

[VooWho]

Originally posted by hitech
Do a few quick calculations of how many trees there are over a 256 x 256 mile terrain.


HiTech

But half of the maps are made of water to.

It would be nice if you could shoot threw the leafs, and not the trunk. Would that help any?

[Tilt]

FE's seem to know when a shell hits trees.........

Could the Shell be allowed to pass thru folliage but have its "lethality" devalued in some way?

[The_Marine]

just make it so bullets pass thru foliage. TADA! Problem solved:)

[Billy Joe Bob]

*guiniess voice* BRILLIANT

[rogerdee]

to make bullets pass through you would also end up with the tanks driving through and planes flying through.

 its not that simple you cant have one with out the other  .if you made all trees killable then i guess there would be so much lag or something with all the updates needed for your pc end that you would complain even more.

yes it is annoying when you cant hit  a guy whos hiding near a tree  but i always get hit when its me by the tree!!!!

[Hazard69]

Dunno if this could help, but what about changing the trees shape?
The aim of the trees is primarily to provide cover for GVs, right? So lets have that.

If the trees shape could be modified from the currebt vertical to a more lateral spread, it would provide enough cover to hide GV icons, and it would also be easier to shoot through the layers.... check out the graphic as a illustration.

[Tilt]

Originally posted by Hazard69
Dunno if this could help, but what about changing the trees shape?
.

This was how HTC trees origionally looked like.........they looked crap............


shells already posses "properties" other objects do not............it not a matter of making trees "soft" its a matter of making shells "soft" when they pass thru trees............

[Hazard69]

Originally Posted by:
This was how HTC trees origionally looked like.........they looked crap............


shells already posses "properties" other objects do not............it not a matter of making trees "soft" its a matter of making shells "soft" when they pass thru trees............  

Really? Wow, didnt know that.
Wasn't able to play for first 5-6 months when AHII was just introduced. Hmm...I would have thought that from the air they would have looked better than the "X" marks we see now........

[VooWho]

Yea when we first got trees they were bunched up together, and it made nice cool little forests. But trying to drive a tank threw them was impossible without flipping, or being thrown half way across the map.

[EagleDNY]

Originally posted by hitech
Do a few quick calculations of how many trees there are over a 256 x 256 mile terrain.

HiTech

Oh yeah - I know the number of objects would be huge, and that doesn't even take into account things like rubble from destroyed bldgs, destroyed vehicle objects, plane wreckage, etc. that you would also be dealing with.  

As I said, this is a long term way down the line wish.  Basically it takes the "tiles" method of terrain and replaces it with an object oriented approach.  What this would let you do is leave objects (like plane & tank wreckage) on the playing field, convert objects like trees into "stumps" when they get hit, shell wrecked buildings "flat", and have bombs defoliate areas when they detonate.

We could have the software implementation discussion of how best to do this (my company does SW too).  Basically, each persons game generates the terrain it can see from the list of objects in visual range.  Yes, as SW projects go, its a bear.  But hey - this is a wishlist, and you asked...

EagleDNY
$.02

[BlauK]

There would be lots of data required to keep track of the state of each object... alive/dead. Now all destroyable objects even keep track of downtime/rebuild time, but maybe that should not be done for ground objects. If a tree goes down, it would stay down until the map was reset. That would leave nice marks of battle history at certain locations... for some time.

Still, keeping track of each object's state would require lots of data and would also present challenges for less detailed object LODs where several objects are combined... e.g. several trees into a forest.

However, what are the challenges there for if not for getting solved? One can dream...