Why are all the maps spring or summer

[Eagler]

Where are the snow covered ones?

How about a desert without trees?

Eagler

[oboe]

Yes, and an autumn-themed map would be cool too.  Crystal clear blue skies, tan/brown grasses and colorful trees with oranges, reds, yellows, and browns. 

I wonder if leaf-colors is a setting on Speed Trees, rather than controllable by the terrain builder?

[The Fugitive]

i believe its because all of the terrain tiles would have to be rebuilt for each "season", and they no longer have an art team at HTC.

[RotBaron]

Fall/autumnal terrain I don’t know about.

However, about winter terrains I’ve played in, GVs standout like a sore thumb and they’re already pretty easy to find and bomb as it is.

[SPKmes]

do you really want shorter days           








 

[Marco]

Where are the snow covered ones?

How about a desert without trees?

Eagler

There were snow maps back in the day, weren't there? Or am I mistaken? 

[SIK1]

There were snow maps back in the day, weren't there? Or am I mistaken? 

There are Special Events winter maps. You could come fly on one this Saturday (3 pm edt) in frame 1 of the "Cherkassy Pocket" scenario.

http://www.ahevents.net/index.php/events/scenarios/current-or-next-scenario

I can't remember if there ever was a winter map in regular rotation.

 
Sik

[Mongoose]

  You would need two or three versions of each map, one for each season.

  Spring or summer is best flying season.

[Eagler]

Just flight in the other sims is enhanced with different seasons

Yep it would make spotting much easier which is one of the reasons I would like to see it.

Sik can I pop in anytime in the 3 hr window or do I need to join at the start?

Eagler

[SmokinLoon]

I really liked playing on winter maps for the different scenarios "back in the day".

Greebo went and did snow camo skins for a lot of the gv's and it is a shame we can't use them.

[SIK1]

Just flight in the other sims is enhanced with different seasons

Yep it would make spotting much easier which is one of the reasons I would like to see it.

Sik can I pop in anytime in the 3 hr window or do I need to join at the start?

Eagler

Eagler, according to the rules write up the arena will be locked after the start time.

"Please show up at or before the given time in Special Events 2 arena -- the arena will lock after that.  End of frame will be nominally at 6:30 pm US Eastern time."

 

[Puma44]

I really liked playing on winter maps for the different scenarios "back in the day".

Greebo went and did snow camo skins for a lot of the gv's and it is a shame we can't use them.

Come try Thursday Night Tank Nights when the winter terrain is used.  Great fun with the winter camp tanks.

[Greebo]

When the AH3 winter tile set was introduced I considered using it to make a winter MA terrain. I figured it would be something a bit different and it would get my winter skins some MA use. However when I thought about it a bit more I decided against doing it.

The main problem is there are plenty of players who will go to any length to gain an advantage in the game. Remember in AH2 when GVers would turn off every type of ground clutter making the game look like crap just so they could see enemy tanks easier? In a winter terrain what would happen is many players would pick a winter skin for their own tank and then click the "turn off other players' skins" button so the opposition tanks showed only the default skin to him no matter what they selected themselves. As a skinner I don't want to encourage players to use that button as them might not turn "other players skins" back on later. Although it is possible for a terrain designer to replace the original default skins with winter ones in a special events terrain this is not permitted for an MA terrain.

As I recall there were also some visual limitations to the winter tile set which killed off any remaining enthusiasm I had for the idea. The airfields, vehicle fields and strats in the winter tile set are the same as the summer ETO tile set, so they stand out as big green squares against the white terrain and there's no snow on top of buildings and other objects. Again while its possible to get round this for a special events terrain, these work rounds are not allowed for an MA terrain.

[Spikes]

FWIW, I think the bases are/can be fixed on the winter sets, I know some of our event terrains, especially the newer ones, have white bases now.

[Greebo]

My recollection is that changing base, clutter or object textures is not allowed for an MA terrain. I think the reason is to avoid any possibility of introducing a bug in the terrain that might crash the MA. Its bad enough that might happen during a scenario but a lot worse in the MA where Hitech might not be around to fix it.