Author Topic: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide  (Read 3570 times)

Offline Easyscor

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2018, 02:53:10 PM »
Looks good. I have one concern and one suggestion

Under Square Tile Object separation rules
Quote
Vehicle bases should be placed no closer than 3 miles to each other or to any airbase, flak base, strat or port. This is to prevent players on or very near to a base coming under fire from a neighboring base's AA guns.

When I was writing the TE manual, I called HTC to verify this and was told no, (for MA terrains - paraphrased) "all bases must follow the 3/4 to 1-1/4 sector rule." I understood that to be 18 to 31 miles. I had hoped to see them closer but this what I was told at the time.


Just above the Permitted objects table, it mentions all land should be above 20 feet. This is because some STOs like towns or vBases will show as water if placed too low. Take care if placing along the coast.
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2018, 12:32:34 PM »
The above post should be the final edit. I have added HT's new rule about land being over 20 feet and a couple of Bustr's suggestions regarding weather as well as a suggestion to position supply rivers over flat land. The text has been pruned in places to keep it under the BBS' 12,000 character limit for a single post.

Unless anyone can think of anything else to add to this guide then in a few days I'll post it in a new thread. Skuzzy can then both sticky this and un-sticky the current out of date MA terrain threads.

Very helpful Greebo.  :salute
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Offline Greebo

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2018, 04:17:10 PM »
Looks good. I have one concern and one suggestion

Under Square Tile Object separation rules
When I was writing the TE manual, I called HTC to verify this and was told no, (for MA terrains - paraphrased) "all bases must follow the 3/4 to 1-1/4 sector rule." I understood that to be 18 to 31 miles. I had hoped to see them closer but this what I was told at the time.

Just above the Permitted objects table, it mentions all land should be above 20 feet. This is because some STOs like towns or vBases will show as water if placed too low. Take care if placing along the coast.

Thanks for the clarification Easyscor. Its a shame that V bases can't be placed close together, not sure why HTC would want to restrict terrain designers like that. Does this 18 mile minimum between bases apply to ports and flak bases too?

I'll add your explanation of the 20 foot rule to the next edit.

Offline Easyscor

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #18 on: October 10, 2018, 06:48:04 PM »
Question under discussion: Does the rule apply to Flak bases and Ports?

Flak bases, no. See most of the MA terrains. Ports, yes is my understanding.

As to why the spacing, I didn't question the answer too closely. But as CBM icons and strat paths are a major problem in densely populated terrain (see AvA-ETO etc), and as spawn points would be needed for any reasonable separation on MA terrains anyway, there is really no point.

iirc, Fencer or Fester built a 512 MA terrain (AH classic?) with strings of vBases ~8 miles apart. The spawn camping of the single spawns between vBases rendered the GV game ridiculous in the eyes of players I knew at the time. So yes, it's been tried. Back then there were few hiding places on the densest of tiles.

On the HTC tankland terrain, the tiny vBases are practically on top of each other on the central 16x16 mile custom tiles. It requires little movement before the players are within range of each other. In the AvA terrains, we found it necessary to use multiple spawns and large spawn circles to discourage spawn camping but new players to Tank Night still try to camp the spawns. We try not to .ground anyone unless it gets out of hand.

The next question might well be; Will multiple spawns to the same target base be allowed in MA terrains? I have no answer to that one but I'd want to know before I did the work.
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Offline Greebo

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #19 on: October 11, 2018, 02:17:14 AM »
AH3 MA Terrain Building Rules

For game play and frame rate reasons Aces High Main Arena (MA) terrains are subject to these specific rules and guidelines. I suggest reading the manual for the Aces High Terrain Editor (TE) first to help make sense of this document.


Map layout

Start by laying out your map idea on paper with the fields, coastlines and mountain ranges drawn in and then showing this to HTC and other terrain builders in the Terrain Editor forum. Point out anything unusual, especially if you have not seen done on any other MA terrain, as this may be because it is not allowed. Its better to find out any problems before you do work in the terrain editor than have to redo it later. There are a number of things you should bear in mind when laying out a map.

An MA map's three countries should have equal numbers of fields of each type, so the same numbers of each size of airbase and vehicle base, as well as ports and task groups. Each country should also have a full working strategic system; HQ, city, ammo, fuel, training and radar strats.

Up to 255 bases can be supported on an MA map but the small 256 mile MA maps currently being accepted by HTC are only big enough for around 150 bases. You can have fewer of course, but bear in mind the map will be won when a country has gained 20% of the other two countries' bases. So the more bases your map has, the longer it will be up before it is reset.

The three bases nearest to a country's HQ must be made uncapturable and the base closest to the HQ is the only one allowed to spawn the Me 163.

More than three task groups in a small area of ocean can cause a frame rate issue for some players. So if you intend to have more than nine of these in total I'd suggest spreading their ports out across the map or even splitting the ocean area into three or more enclosed seas.

It is not a rule but I would suggest limiting a player's choice of spawns to enemy bases or choice of nearby enemy airbases to between 2 and 4 per front line. Having too many choices tends to dilute the action.

The map should be fair to each country. Not necessarily a symmetrical layout but it should not favour one country over another. Examples of unfairness would be one country's strats or ports being much nearer to the front lines than the other countries' or one pair of countries having a really long front line and another pair a really short one. Also an airfield with a much greater altitude than similarly placed fields in the other countries or vehicle bases with more or better spawns than the other countries. You don't want players saying “Oh no, we've got the south country again!”

All land should be at 20 feet altitude or higher, apart from coastlines where it transitions down to the sea at 0 feet. This is because some STOs like towns or vehicle bases will show as water if placed on land that is too low. So take particular care if placing an STO near to the coast.





Objects that can be placed in an MA terrain

Above is a list of objects that can be put into an MA terrain and what properties should be assigned to each in the Object Properties box of the terrain editor. No other objects in the TE or any custom made objects can be put into an MA terrain.

Many of these are square tile objects (STOs) which are actually collections of many smaller objects like buildings, guns, roads and vegetation designed to fit exactly into one or more of the mile-wide squares shown in the terrain editor. STOs may be rotated exactly 90, 180 or 270 degrees from default (set snap to on) but not to any other angle.

The non-STO objects like shore batteries can be rotated to any angle and positioned more freely on the map, although with the specific limitations listed above.

The small, medium and large airbases are all actually all the same size, one mile square. Which to use is really just a question of how easy you want the field to be to close down or take. The larger fields have more AA, hangars and resources than the smaller. In general having smaller fields at the front gets the strategic war going and larger in the rear areas stops it becoming a walkover. Each of these will need either a town placed nearby and linked to it or a map room object placed on the field itself for enemy troops to run to.

The super-large airbase is 4 miles on a side and has its own built-in town and map room. It is quite impressive to look at but is a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So I'd suggest using it sparingly in rear areas not likely to see any fighting or preferably not at all.

Airbases should be placed no higher than 6,000 feet altitude because a fully loaded Lancaster will struggle to get off the ground any higher than this. Ensure there are no steep hills or trees blocking the ends of runways that would make take offs and landings hazardous.

Carrier and battleship task groups (TGs) must each have an assigned port and map room. You can link more than one TG to a single port. Each TG must have a looped default path assigned to it in the task group tab in the TE. This is the path a TG sails every time it respawns at its port until a player changes it. When placing ports bear in mind how long it will take the TG to get back into the action after it is sunk. Linked port and TG's numbers should have the same number of digits, so P98 linked with C99 or P100 with C101 are both OK but P99 with C100 is not.

The tiny vehicle base is only 1/8th of a mile across, which lets it just fit between four of the closest altitude vertex points on the map when unrotated. With only a couple of AA guns, a map room and one hangar this base is easy to take but its small size lets it fit into narrow canyons, or atop narrow ridges or land bridges. It can be rotated to any angle but it must lie entirely on terrain that is completely flat. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning these.

The small and large vehicle bases are respectively 1 and 2 mile square STOs and have their own map rooms. As with the various sizes of air base use the larger base if you want it to be harder to take.

Spawn points (SPs) must not be placed in such a way that they can come under fire from a field, strat or a train's 37 mm AA guns as soon as a player spawns in. These guns have a range of 1.5 miles so the nearest edge of your spawn should be further than this from the nearest AA guns. The normal distance used for incoming MA SPs is 3 to 3.5 miles from the the centre of the spawn to the centre of the base. Only an SP that is from the nearby base can be closer than this as in this case spawning players will not come under fire from their own base's guns.

Shore batteries (SBs) should be placed close enough to their base that they show up in the base's manned gun selection screen and so that enemy players can easily associate it with that base. It should also have a good field of fire, not be blocked by trees and not be able to fire on its own base's map room. It is best to place them on flat terrain as this prevents gaps around its hill base that vehicles can fall through.

The bridges are a mixture of flat topped and arched stone bridges of differing lengths. It is difficult to use even the longest of these to bridge a narrow stretch of ocean as coastlines placed that close together tend to merge. Instead these are normally used to bridge the narrow rivers that are part of the strat supply system.

When positioning these bridges it is important to make sure the ends of the land sections attached to either end of the bridge sit below and not above the terrain itself otherwise it leaves a gap vehicles may not be able to climb over. This is quite tough to spot in the TE so check it in-game too.

The revetment shape can be positioned on any completely flat land to give a protected place for vehicles to fire from. You should avoid placing them on top of an STO though.


Square Tile Object separation rules

There are a number of rules and guidelines regarding how STOs can be placed in relation to one another:-

Any two STOs must have at least a 1 mile gap from each other (i.e no corners or sides touching).

No two STOs can be placed into the same 4 mile red square as shown in the terrain editor. This is usually only an issue when placing towns near airbases or flak bases near to strats.

Airfields, vehicle bases and ports should be placed between 19 and 31 miles apart from each other. A more isolated base that can be easily reached by carrier task groups might be acceptable but you should check with HTC first.

Because of its long range puffy AA guns a strat should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield. Also no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. It can theoretically be placed as close as a 1 mile gap from another strat so long as both are of the same country. However I'd check first with HTC if doing this.

Flak bases should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield and no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. However up to two flak bases may be placed as close as a one mile gap to a strat so long as the flak bases are of the same country as the strat and are set to be uncapturable. Apart from the three nearest bases to the HQ, flak bases are the only type of base that may be set to uncapturable.

A town should not be placed so far from its airfield that enemy players can't easily associate the two but it can be as close as a 1 mile gap if you want to help the defence of the field.

The two mile square tank town STO is just some interesting terrain for tanks to fight over and has no AA of its own. This means it can be placed at close as a 1 mile gap to any other STO.


Strat and field supply system

MA terrains must have a working rail, road and barge supply network added after all the strat and field STOs have been placed. The TE's default setup simply runs dead straight 10 mile long railways and roads N, S, E or W from the strats and fields. When editing these routes to run them around mountains or water etc. avoid running any part of a route across an STO. Also avoid crossing any spawn points as a vehicle could spawn either into a river or onto a road and get immediately hit by a passing truck convoy.

You can alter the length of the routes from 10 miles but try to keep the other countries' similar routes the same length for fairness reasons. The game spawns convoys at regular times so a longer route has more convoys to hit. Also don't make your supply routes a lot longer as too many convoys in play at once could exceed the game's maximum object count.

It is permitted to have extra “vis only” routes in an MA terrain for visual or game play reasons. You might for instance place a “vis only” river across enemy vehicles' likely path and then place a bridge across this river to create a defensible choke point.

Apart from where they transition down to the ocean I suggest you run any supply rivers over flat terrain, as on sloping water reflections of nearby objects like trees can become misplaced.


Weather

If you build a cloud system for your terrain going too heavy on cloud cover can cause frame rate issues for players with marginal PCs. Cloud types 1-7 in the cloud editor are less taxing than the heavier types 8-11. Maintain a gap of 40 miles between each block of clouds at all times and do not stack one block above another. Mountain peaks can touch the clouds but in general allow at least 3,000 ft between the clouds and the land below it. Overcast layers should be set to over 35,000 ft.

Offline Greebo

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #20 on: October 11, 2018, 02:32:36 AM »
In this edit I've added Easyscor's correction regarding base placement rules and also his explanation of the 20 ft land rule.

It was Fester's map that led me to believe the 18 mile limit didn't apply to V bases. If nothing else writing this has taught me a few things about MA map building.

I have placed multiple spawns in a small area on an MA map before, nine from three bases in the centre of the TT area of CraterMA. The main issue with doing this is making sure the rotation direction of the spawn points makes some sort of sense to the player. So if for example the spawn area for three spawns is SE of the base then you might have these spawn points rotated east, south east and south. A player would then see a cluster of three buttons in the bottom right of the button cluster and should be able to figure out what this means. I think its important though that there is a gap between those three and any other spawn buttons on the cluster.

It is getting quite difficult to add anything more to this text as I am bumping into the 12,000 character limit. I tried to increase the size of text for the section headings and even the HTML tags for this put me over.


Offline Ciaphas

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2018, 10:07:46 AM »
thanks for all of your hard work on this man!


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Offline Greebo

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2018, 04:59:20 AM »
AH3 MA Terrain Guidelines

For game play and frame rate reasons Aces High Main Arena (MA) terrains are subject to these specific rules and guidelines. I suggest reading the manual for the Aces High Terrain Editor (TE) first to help make sense of this document.


Map layout

Start by laying out your map idea on paper with the fields, coastlines and mountain ranges drawn in and then showing this to HTC and other terrain builders in the Terrain Editor forum. Point out anything unusual, especially if you have not seen done on any other MA terrain, as this may be because it is not allowed. Its better to find out any problems before you do work in the terrain editor than have to redo it later. Bear in mind the following when laying out a map:-

An MA map's three countries should have equal numbers of fields of each type, so the same numbers of each size of airbase and vehicle base, as well as ports and task groups. Each country should also have a full working strategic system; HQ, city, ammo, fuel, training and radar strats.

Up to 255 bases can be supported on an MA map but the small 256 mile MA maps currently being accepted by HTC are only big enough for around 150 bases. You can have fewer of course, but bear in mind the map will be won when a country has gained 20% of the other two countries' bases. So the more bases your map has, the longer it will be up before it is reset.

The three bases nearest to a country's HQ must be made uncapturable and the base closest to the HQ is the only one allowed to spawn the Me 163.

More than three task groups in a small area of ocean can cause a frame rate issue for some players. So if you intend to have more than nine of these in total I'd suggest spreading their ports out across the map or even splitting the ocean area into three or more enclosed seas.

It is not a rule but I suggest limiting a player's choice of spawns to enemy bases or choice of nearby enemy airbases to between 2 and 4 per front line in order to concentrate the action.

The map should be fair to each country. Not necessarily a symmetrical layout but it should not favour one country over another. Examples of unfairness would be one country's strats or ports being much nearer to the front lines than the other countries' or one pair of countries having a really long front line and another pair a really short one. Also an airfield with a much greater altitude than similarly placed fields in the other countries or vehicle bases with more or better spawns than the other countries. You don't want players saying “Oh no, we've got the south country again!”

All land should be at 20 feet altitude or higher, apart from coastlines where it transitions down to the sea at 0 feet. This is because some STOs like towns or vehicle bases will show as water if placed on land that is too low.





MA terrain Objects

Above is a list of objects that can be put into an MA terrain and what properties should be assigned to each in the Object Properties box of the terrain editor. No other objects in the TE or any custom-made objects can be put into an MA terrain.

Many of these are square tile objects (STOs) which are actually collections of many smaller objects like buildings, guns, roads and vegetation designed to fit exactly into one or more of the mile-wide squares shown in the terrain editor. STOs may be rotated exactly 90, 180 or 270 degrees from default (set snap to on) but not to any other angle.

The non-STO objects like shore batteries can be rotated to any angle and positioned more freely on the map, although with the specific limitations listed above.

The small, medium and large airbases are all actually all the same size, 1 mile square. Which to use is really just a question of how easy you want the field to be closed down or taken. The larger fields have more AA, hangars and resources than the smaller. In general having smaller fields at the front gets the strategic war going and larger in the rear areas stops it becoming a walkover. Each of these will need either a town placed nearby and linked to it or a map room object placed on the field itself for enemy troops to run to.

The super-large airbase is 4 miles square and has its own built-in town and map room. It is impressive to look at but is a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So use it sparingly in rear areas not likely to see any fighting or preferably not at all.

Airbases should be placed no higher than 6,000 feet altitude because a fully loaded Lancaster will struggle to get off the ground any higher than this. Ensure there are no steep hills or trees blocking the ends of runways that would make take offs and landings hazardous.

The small and large vehicle bases are respectively 1 and 2 mile square STOs and have their own map rooms. As with the various sizes of airbase use the larger base if you want it to be harder to take.

The tiny vehicle base is only 1/8th of a mile across, which lets it just fit between four of the closest altitude vertex points on the map when unrotated. With only a couple of AA guns, a map room and one hangar this base is easy to take but its small size lets it fit into narrow canyons, or atop narrow ridges or land bridges. It can be rotated to any angle but it must lie entirely on terrain that is completely flat. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning these.

Carrier and battleship task groups (TGs) must each have an assigned port and map room. You can link more than one TG to a single port. Each TG must have a looped default path assigned to it in the task group tab in the TE which is the path a TG sails every time it respawns at its port until a player changes it. When placing ports bear in mind how long it will take the TG to get back into the action after it is sunk. Linked port and TG numbers should be concurrent (i.e. P34 with C35) so players can easily associate them.

Spawn points (SPs) must be placed in such a way that they cannot come under fire from a field, strat or a train's 37 mm AA guns as soon as a player spawns in. These guns have a range of 1.5 miles so the nearest edge of your spawn should be further than this from the nearest AA guns. The normal distance used for incoming MA SPs is 3 to 3.5 miles from the the centre of the spawn to the centre of the base. Only an SP that is from the nearby base can be closer than this as in this case spawning players will not come under fire from their own base's guns.

A shore battery (SB) should be placed close enough to its base that it shows up in the base's manned gun selection screen and so that enemy players can easily associate it with that base. It should also have a good field of fire, not be blocked by trees and not be able to fire on its own base's map room. It is best to place them on flat terrain as this prevents gaps around its hill base that vehicles can fall through.

The bridges are a mixture of flat topped and arched stone bridges of differing lengths. It is difficult to use even the longest of these to bridge a narrow stretch of ocean as coastlines placed that close together tend to merge. Instead these are normally used to bridge the narrow rivers that are part of the strat supply system.

When positioning these bridges it is important to make sure the ends of the land sections attached to either end of the bridge sit below and not above the terrain itself otherwise it leaves a gap vehicles may not be able to climb over. This is quite tough to spot in the TE so check it in-game too.

The revetment shape can be positioned on any completely flat land to give a protected place for vehicles to fire from. You should avoid placing them on top of an STO though.


Square Tile Object separation rules

There are a number of rules and guidelines regarding how STOs can be placed in relation to one another:-

Any two STOs must have at least a 1 mile gap from each other (i.e no corners or sides touching).

Any 2 or 4 mile square STO should be placed entirely within one of the 4 mile red squares shown in the TE.

All airfields, the large and small vehicle bases and ports should be placed between 19 and 31 miles apart from each other. The tiny vehicle base can be placed as close as 3 miles from another tiny vehicle base but 19 to 31 miles from any other air or vehicle base.

Because of their long range puffy AA guns strats should be placed 8 miles or more from an airfield. Also at least 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. A strat can theoretically be placed as close as a 1 mile gap from another strat so long as both are of the same country. Too many strats too close together may cause frame rate issues though so make sure to check this in-game.

Flak bases should also be placed 8 miles or more from an airfield and 3 miles or more from another flak base, vehicle base or port. However up to two flak bases may be placed as close as a 1 mile gap to a strat so long as the flak bases are of the same country as the strat and are set to be uncapturable. Apart from the three nearest bases to the HQ, flak bases are the only type of base that may be set to be uncapturable.

A town should be placed close enough to an airfield that enemy players can easily associate the two and can be as close as a 1 mile gap if you want to help the defence of the field.

The 2 mile square tank town STO is just some interesting terrain for tanks to fight over, has no AA of its own and so can be placed as close as a 1 mile gap to any other STO.


Strat and field supply system

MA terrains must have a working rail, road and barge supply network added after all the strat and field STOs have been placed. The TE's default setup simply runs dead straight 10 mile long railways and roads N, S, E or W from the strats and fields. When editing these routes to run them around mountains or water etc. avoid running any part of a route across an STO. Also avoid crossing any spawn points as a vehicle could spawn either into a river or onto a road and get immediately hit by a passing truck convoy.

You can alter the length of the routes from 10 miles but try to keep the other countries' similar routes the same length for fairness reasons. The game spawns convoys at regular times so a longer route has more convoys to hit. Also don't make your supply routes a lot longer as too many convoys in play at once could exceed the game's maximum object count.

Keep all railway lines at least 3 miles apart from each other at any point on their length.

It is permitted to have extra “vis only” routes in an MA terrain for visual or game play reasons. You might for instance place a “vis only” river across enemy vehicles' likely path and then place a bridge across this river to create a defensible choke point.

Apart from where they transition down to the ocean I suggest you run any supply rivers over flat terrain, as on sloping water reflections of nearby objects like trees can become misplaced.


Weather

If you build a cloud system for your terrain going too heavy on cloud cover can cause frame rate issues for players with marginal PCs. Cloud types 1-7 in the cloud editor are less taxing than the heavier types 8-11. Maintain a gap of 40 miles between each block of clouds at all times and do not stack one block above another. Mountain peaks can touch the clouds but in general allow at least 3,000 ft between the clouds and the land below it. Overcast layers should be set to over 35,000 ft.

Offline Greebo

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Re: Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2018, 05:10:53 AM »
I've updated the guide to cover some answers HT gave to Easyscor in a phone conversation about MA terrain rules, particularly in relation to STO placement and TG numbering. I've also rewritten some of the rules to avoid too many negatives in the text.

He also said that using the non-berm bridges ganged together in an MA terrain was acceptable so long as they are aligned correctly and there are no anomalies or bugs introduced as a result of doing this. I doubt many terrain builders would have the skill to do this and it would have taken too many words to explain so I left this out of the guide. Placing berm and non-berm bridges into a terrain probably deserves a post of its own with screenshots and diagrams etc.