My quest appears to have ended before it began :(

[8thJinx]

Maybe I'm reading the posts wrong, but it appears that creating berm objects will never be accepted for a main arena terrain.  I'm basing this on the sticky about what's allowed, and custom objects are not allowed.

I am now really, REALLY depressed.

[bustr]

What did you plan to do with them?

[8thJinx]

I don't know the lingo well, but what I wanted to do was create areas (tiles?) that you could drop into a terrain (much like you can drop a town into a terrain) that had berms and busted up buildings, to enhance GV play at spawn areas on a main arena map, or on the approaches to towns.  I don't want to add them everywhere, just in certain spots.  If a town is roughly 1 mile by 1 mile, this berm area would be similar in size.  It wouldn't have anything destructible in it.  Just an inert area (is it tile, am I saying this correctly?).

[ghostdancer]

Correct, no custom objects are allowed for the MA is my understanding. AvA and SEA do allow custom objects. That said about the MA you can contact HTC to make sure about the MA; I am not sure if they have made exceptions to this rule in the past but never hurts to message them and double check.

[8thJinx]

Can you guys help me with the lingo?  Is a tile what I think it is: a pre-constructed area that you can drop into a map, like a base object or a shore battery.  Or is a tile something that gets smeared into the terrain, like the repeating pattern of fields and such.  Thanks


Edit:
I think I understand now.  A tile set consists of the actual colors and features that are painted into a terrain overlay.  An object is something you drop into/onto the terrain.  Objects are the things you interact with in the game, like towns, bases, guns, etc.

With that said, I was hoping to created a berm field object, with berms, small hills, etc, that could be placed near converging spawns or outside of bases, to enhance the ground game. 

[bustr]

8th have you even built a terrain yet and created the 6 mile area of an airfield, town and GV spawns, then driven your creation to test it for play ability? The current trees would make the old AH2 berms unusable since the trees make better hiding places. And sitting on top of the berm, you become a sitting duck out in the open to everyone hiding in the trees. Have you played with trees and grass\bush tiles trying to cover hills while leaving openings for tanks?

I suffered through that on my first terrain and finally opted to use the village tiles with pastures instead. Have you driven the tank pit on the center island of my terrain BowlMA? I went through all the permutations of trying to mix tree tiles with grass tiles to attempt to blend a custom tank combat clutter\tree mix. The limitations of how the tiles paint into the smallest possible area eventually made me toss all of my attempts at mixing and matching tiles along with trying to be clever with mini hills and just use what Waffle provided. Waffle using a 3rd party 3D object editor created tiles with features spaced closer than the terrain editor will allow with it's 1\8x1\8 mile poly squares. Those squares are why your smallest hill will start at the center of four of them when you pull one up.

Have you tried asking if Waffle can either provide as a tile his berms he placed on the tank town 2x2 object or provide them as individual objects for the static object list in the terrain editor? They already exist and are sanctioned for the MA so you might be able to ask for them. You may end up with berm objects having the same problem as the mounds for the new shore battery in terms of flashing and shiny finish that never blends into the terrain properly. Or as a tile you can paint, have tile merge boarders that look like garbage. And then you may have FPS issues with the maximum number of berm objects you can place inside of the combat zone. What works fine on your PC while you are alone testing it may kill half the community's FPS when they have a fight going on over what you placed on the terrain. That's why Hitech didn't want me dropping in static factory building objects to create my own tank town on my newest terrain even though they are available in the object list.

First and for most in the MA is how a custom object will effect FPS unless Waffle builds it and goes through what ever in house process they have to check for FPS impact. Unless, your object is only used on a custom terrain or the AvA terrain team likes it.

 

[8thJinx]

I'm throwing in the towel on this.  Doesn't sound like what I have in mind is possible.  All I wanted was berms.

[hitech]

there is a revetment0 shape that can be places with the terrain editor to create individual berms.

HiTech

[8thJinx]

Well I played around with the TE, and I am happy to say that very tankable terrains can be made.  I had it stuck in my head that objects were needed to jazz up the ground game.  I am happily wrong.  All you need to do is play with the existing textures, and you get some really interesting effects.

[bustr]

See, now you know the secret, there is not secret, just invent.