Starting a new terrain...TriTone

[Swatch]

Hey guys, I'm beginning my first attempt at terrain building.  There are a few things I'd like to know if people have to assist my planning.

1)  Bitmap overviews (maps) of the current terrains so that I can get a feel for size and distance base to base.

2)  Sizes of current terrains (in miles)

3)  Tips for a first timer...

[Easyscor]

MA terrain? It matters.

See the stickies at the top of this forum.

[Swatch]

Sorry. Yes, MA Terrain... but I think I actually figured out what I needed.

Only other question is can a strat target's AA guns be turned off?  (don't worry, this is not for all strat targets, just for a couple special ones if its possible)

[Easyscor]

That would be a custom object, which isn't allowed in MA terrains.

[Swatch]

ok, is it possible to put a city object down without having it be a strat target?

In otherwords, can those objects be used as clutter?

EDIT:

Once again, I found my own answer, I'll just use TankTown...

[Swatch]

Also, here's my preliminary layout...


Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

[Swatch]

New Question... The HQ acts as a zone master.  Does it need its own set of strats?

[Easyscor]

All zones need a complete set of strat.

Try to make sure you a/f are ~25 miles (about one per sector) from each other, then sprinkle you v-bases and factories as you see fit. See the stickies at the top of this forum.

[Swatch]

yea, that was how I built it up  Airfields first, VH 2nd, then strats..

I corrected for the HQ zone in the new photo.

Are there any fields that look noticeably too close together?

[Easyscor]

Sectors 8,8 and 9,8 have no a/f, probably more.

[Swatch]

ahhh I took that rule to just mean don't leave >25mi between any two.... not that you had to have an airfield every sector

[Denholm]

Is this a 256 x 256 or 512 x 512?

[Swatch]

256 x256

[Greebo]

Layout looks good swatch. The carrier groups have a longer, less direct route to reach the rear area strat in the top right country than the other two, otherwise it seems well balanced.

You don't need airfields in every sector, but there should be some sort of capture path between fields, nothing too isolated.

Apart from the AA guns, the other problem with using strat items (HQ etc.) for a more interesting tanktown is that they always show up on the players' map as strat. So you would get people bombing your tanktown strat groups for no effect on the war. As you say, for now use the tanktown group. I hope the next version will give us some more MA-allowable GV clutter to play with.

[Swatch]

Thank you Greebo, and that little jog in the NE waterway was an accident that I decided to run with because of looks.  I'm looking at other ways to balance it back out, but I don't think it will affect it all that much since I'm trying to keep the bases around those waterways relatively similar distances from the waterways.  Another option is to reduce that side's width and make that jetty an island, thus placing the main waterway back where it should go.

Right now, I'm practicing height mapping.  Does anyone have some rules of thumb for height mapping? (max height, things to watch for, etc)   Also, is there an easy way to place grass tiles on any square that is over 0 ft?  It would make it much easier to back through and have a starting place.