Terrain engine update fantasy list

[Karnak]

I am sure HTC has an internal fantasy list for the new terrain engine, and while I would love to know what it is that is unlikely to be revealed.  That being the case I thought it would be fun for us players to post our fantasy additions.

1) Destructible trees, bushes and non-gameplay structures.  I am not sure, but I think a 64bit database would be large enough to track damage to these objects.  I'd suggest making it easier by not having a timer to respawn them and instead have their destruction last until the map is reset.  This would also reduce network load by only requiring the client to be informed once that the object was destroyed.  To prevent carpet bombing from removing them en masse trees would need to be resistant to blast effects.  Bushes, small trees and buildings should be damageable by tanks running into them, hedge cutters could increase tank collision damage to bushes.

2) Higher resolution terrain mesh that allows for small hills, roads, creeks, gullies, rivers and coastal cliffs to be created as part of the base terrain mesh rather than as added objects.  Roads should be drivable, no 20+ degree tilts or climbs.

3) More terrain tile types for greater variety and terrain appropriate ground surface appearance.

4) Road networks running from town to town or city.

5) Light diffusion so that shadows don't have the hard lines as though it is a vacuum.

6) Probably already in based on the tree and building shadows in the video, terrain casting shadows.

[Easyscor]

Repost from the other thread.

snip...when traveling over open ground or sand as well as differing sounds for each. Imagine hearing the snap crackle and pop of a tank moving through a wooded area or the clank clank clank when traveling over a road

What a cool idea. It would require an optional config file, like the defset file for eto/pto, so that the terrain builder could specify different sounds if he replaced a farm tile with a forest or desert sand tile.

[guncrasher]

sheep would be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.


semp

[Easyscor]

One non-destructible bridge.

Specifications:
Similar to the three span bridges used in my terrains (I'll furnish the source if you'd like.)

1320 feet between the toes of the two ramps so it will match city object tiles.

Three x 330 feet spans, arched Pratt type bridge

165 feet Each ramp is 165 feet long
32.5 feet Deck height
(This combination of length vs height on the ramp is pretty critical for smooth operation of GVs but there is room for variance.
It also allows 31 feet clear height under the bridge for planes.)

Guard rails on the ramps are a nice touch if you can accept the extra drawing.

[Easyscor]

Probably a vehicle wish instead of a terrain wish, but what the hey, it's a fantasy list.

Please add the ability to drive PT boats and LVTs under bridges. Currently they always do the crash dance that kills the engines.

Thanks

[Karnak]

Bridges, destructible or otherwise, would be needed to cross rivers, streams and gullies.

[Easyscor]

Destructible bridges kill the fight and ruin game play!

Hence my specific request for a non-destructible bridge. Two or three bridges at a river crossing would allow choke points and some tactical maneuvering. And yes, you don't need a bridge unless the terrain builder includes rivers.

Edit: I may have misunderstood your comment. Adding rivers isn't much good if they aren't around where they can be seen and used. The availability of bridges would make bases next to rivers more likely.

[Tinkles]

Destructible bridges kill the fight and ruin game play!

Hence my specific request for a non-destructible bridge. Two or three bridges at a river crossing would allow choke points and some tactical maneuvering. And yes, you don't need a bridge unless the terrain builder includes rivers.

Edit: I may have misunderstood your comment. Adding rivers isn't much good if they aren't around where they can be seen and used. The availability of bridges would make bases next to rivers more likely.

Rivers where PT boats can go into?   

[Volron]

1) Tree's, bushes, terrain in general, destructible.  I agree with Karnak on that these items should stay down once destroyed until reset, but for a different reason.  My reason would be is that it would give a little more immersion.  That tree/barn/grain silo you shot and/or bush you ran over intentionally (or very much likely in my case, COMPLETELY by accident) 2 days ago, didn't magically go back to what it was after a little bit.  It would still destroyed, and will remain so until map reset.

2) FAR more realistic road and rail networks.  No random indestructible bridges.  If there is a bridge, let it be for a reason (IE River, gully, etc.).  No sharp turns for said road and rail as well.  Connections between the towns and the fields as well as with each other EXIST, both road and rail.  At the very least, a road or two that leads from the base to the town.

3) Revamp the look of the warehouse that Road Convoys and Trains come out of.  Bring back the revamped warehouse that Road Convoys and Trains use to go into when delivering their supplies.  Have BOTH of these destructible like the non-strat items that exist at fields, but come back up like said non-strat items.  I believe their down times are a fixed 60 minutes?  I've honestly forgotten.  This will only be for visuals and will NOT affect game play.

4) Ports that are not half into a landmass.  Terrain editor will automatically adjust so that piers and docks are actually in water.  The same with bases that are half into water.  Editor would automatically readjust so they would be completely on land.

5) Area's where water would be shallow, have GV's be able to go through these shallow bits.  Water depth is what I'm getting at.

[Karnak]

Volron,

Your reasoning also occurred to me.  It is crucial for the war effort to get the hangars back up, rebuild the radar and put the factories back together so respawning those makes sense not just from a gameplay perspective, which is why it happens so fast, but also from a realism perspective.  Farmer Grover's house, not so much, low priority and he can rebuild it on his own.  Trees simply don't grow fast enough to matter much over the course of a war and thus don't get replaced by other trees.

[Easyscor]

Good point about the supply system road bridges Volron.

Even though the old river tracks were removed, the bridges and their hills still remain.

I'm another that would like to see all those bridges and hills removed and replaced by grade level crossings. There can't be that many occurrences when a train would hit the trucks and it would rarely be seen if it happened.



As for terrain clutter, with a current limit of 50,000 destructible objects in a terrain, it will likely be decades before you see destructible terrain clutter like trees and buildings. Can you imagine the size of such an indexed list of objects!

[Drane]

Objects that can burn with flames and smoke, then look burnt after fire goes out.

And.....maybe some flamethrower vehicles to set those objects on fire. 

[Scherf]

Trains, river barges, staff cars, aircraft parks, tank depots, training aircraft (AI), transport aircraft (AI), subs, V-1s, marshalling yards and mountain goats.

[Skuzzy]

Just to bring up a point about dynamic terrain destruction.

I can see a player (1) in a tank taking out a tree to get a clear view of another player (2).  Player 2's computer has not gotten the update about that tree being blow up and is still blocked from player 1.  Meanwhile player 1 fires a round at player 2 because has a clear view of the player.

Meanwhile, player 2 sees a round coming through a tree and blowing him up.

We get a phone call or an email, or both from a very pissed off player who just lost his perk tank to a round coming through a tree, and he has a film of the cheater doing it!

Whenever you think of real time damage, being done in a not-so real time environment there is almost always some tradeoffs and compromises.  How long have we been explaining the collision model and how many still get angry about it and think it is wrong?

[artik]

Something easier to implement for HTC but yet powerful:

- Allow to embed non-default skins to the terrain, so you can give a list terrain specific skins independently of MA skins.

Stuff for TE:

- Undo please
- List of favorite objects so you don't need to scroll entire list from filed to town and back when you add fields
- Predefined set of different small airfields from basic grass strip with rearm pad, map room and few guns and so on. Small GV fileds with and without map-room.
- And last but not the least... please, make TE more stable software that does not crash too easily