Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: OOZ662 on July 11, 2007, 10:37:28 PM
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After a day's worth of screwing with terrain editing and learning the ropes of that, I've come up with this. It's a rough field layout on the terrain I've chosen. The white lines are "front markers" just to use as a measurement.
Please give constructive criticism; I'm learning! This map is meant to be an MA map and is actually designed to give a slightly (not majorly) faster playthrough than the current maps. This map is 256x256 miles. It doesn't have a TT or FT since the other maps have plenty; I don't plan on adding one. HOWEVER, I've yet to put in vehicle field locations; there will be plenty of GVs for all. The terrain is generally flat (Max Alt of just under 6k) to keep the "high ground" farther in the rear without giving too much advantage.
Large Airfield - Blue
Medium Airfield - Red
Small Airfield - Yellow
Port - Green
HQ - Green X
Strat - White (Strats will be arranged by importance for distance from HQ)
(http://www.geekstudmuffin.com/images/498153978Fields.jpg)
(http://www.geekstudmuffin.com/images/114826356Altitudes.jpg)
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It looks like all of the elevation changes are very abrupt, like steps (or steppes)... is this true? If so, you might want to blur the transitions a bit.
Looks like an interesting layout so far. :aok
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I think that may just be the image. The changes are very...very very gradual on the map itself from what I can tell in the TE.
Here's the greyscale:
(http://www.geekstudmuffin.com/images/929562516Greyscale.jpg)
EDIT: The riverbanks have a slight uphill effect which I kinda like. The transition along the terrain itself is very blended as I've seen so far. No doubt I'll have to fix a couple things when I can actually fly around the terrain. :)
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Try something along the lines of this (http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/7983/929562516greyscaletn0.jpg)
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I'll have a look at that one tomorrow. I kinda like the riverbank slope of mine, though. Gives the CA gunners something to think about.
Which reminds me; I might need more coastal targets.
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Originally posted by OOZ662
I'll have a look at that one tomorrow. I kinda like the riverbank slope of mine, though. Gives the CA gunners something to think about.
Which reminds me; I might need more coastal targets.
I doubt skuzzy will accept it like that. IE: Poor lvt's wont be able to make it up a half mile slope lol.:D
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Looks like a nice terrain, but.... ( ;) )
- the country layout seems a bit unbalanced. The bottom and right countries have much shorter distance to their HQs than the left country. IMO the left country has the best and safest position overall.
- many of the bases are pretty far away from enemy bases at the front lines.
- the ports and naval battles are also problematic. Only the bottom country can have naval battles with borh other countries... most likely with the right country.
It is always difficult to place a circle of 3 equal pies on a square terrain, but it is worth a try. See if an equal distribution would fit on your terrain, rotate it to any position and then adjust the location those bases that require it.
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I was going to set it up so that the towns would be closer to sea level than the fields. Like I said, this is a first-draft just to get the general airfield and large target ratio/spread together.
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Originally posted by BlauK
Looks like a nice terrain, but.... ( ;) )
- the country layout seems a bit unbalanced. The bottom and right countries have much shorter distance to their HQs than the left country. IMO the left country has the best and safest position overall.
- many of the bases are pretty far away from enemy bases at the front lines.
- the ports and naval battles are also problematic. Only the bottom country can have naval battles with borh other countries... most likely with the right country.
It is always difficult to place a circle of 3 equal pies on a square terrain, but it is worth a try. See if an equal distribution would fit on your terrain, rotate it to any position and then adjust the location those bases that require it.
- I'm going to have to play with that a bit. It's an interesting struggle trying to get amount of land and field saturation to match without unbalancing the entire map. The southern country bothers me the most.
- I want a little bit of seperation at the fronts. This will help with geting teams to use the CVs and be a bit of a replacement for an FT (I hope :D)
- I'm thinking of putting mostly vehicle fields close to shore and maybe one or two airfields for each country. That way the fact that the CVs are parked on your lawn no matter what won't be quite such a huge factor. CV to CV combat will be more encouraged as well (barring the lancstukas). (Yet again...I hope. :rolleyes: )
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While I like maps with channels for CVs (old AKDesert was the best), what I always picture is some squad taking off in Lancs, going into outer space and cruising the channels killing CVs as they come upon them.
You can kill 3 birds with one stone. Make the center an island. That gives CVs access to all countries. And the center island becomes a common battle ground for all 3 countries. And with a little modification, the rivers can be your country borders.
A TT or FT is unavoidable. Every map has a center and it's next to impossible to not wind up with one or the other. What would be "adopted" as a FT on your map is in sectors 9,9 - 10,9 - 10,8. The only way around it is to either put strat there or mix GV, AF and strat in that area.
I know it's a rough layout, but double check your field counts per country.
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Note that there still aren't any Vfields. I might plan on adding a very slight spawn disadvantage to the southern country because of their locale. Maybe. Also note the big red X; that's a mountain that will have nothing on it. Just taking up space to take away a big advantage from the south.
Large Airfield - Blue
Medium Airfield - Red
Small Airfield - Yellow
Port - Green
HQ - Green X
Strat - White
(http://www.geekstudmuffin.com/images/625767861Fields.jpg)
(http://www.geekstudmuffin.com/images/402871341Altitudes.jpg)
The map has been smoothed, so these aren't steppes either, just how Tile Setter outputs the map.
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Take a screenshot with TE and let us see a few mountains.:D
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There really aren't any mountains. Mostly gradual slopes up to 5.8k. The only mountain is marked with an X and is a slope up to 20k. It's just gradual enough to not be able to take a screen shot due to the crappy ground visual range in the TE.
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OOZ, before you submit it make sure that the CVs can get through the majority of those channels. It looks a little difficult to navigate.
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I think I'll end up widening the one NW of the island a bit. They aren't supposed to get in N of the mountain. Field layout still applies though.
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Here's a question; is there an object that would work as a TT city already in the TE? If I used any of the factory tiles, they'd have to be "customized" to get rid of the AA guns, yet there's a TT map already. Is that one exception to "customized" tiles on an MA map?
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Originally posted by OOZ662
Here's a question; is there an object that would work as a TT city already in the TE? If I used any of the factory tiles, they'd have to be "customized" to get rid of the AA guns, yet there's a TT map already. Is that one exception to "customized" tiles on an MA map?
Yes.. Its called city lol:aok
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Originally posted by OOZ662
Here's a question; is there an object that would work as a TT city already in the TE? If I used any of the factory tiles, they'd have to be "customized" to get rid of the AA guns, yet there's a TT map already. Is that one exception to "customized" tiles on an MA map?
Yes, and it's called ttown0 NOT city.
You don't need to modify anything.
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Thanks NHawk. Can't believe I didn't think of that. :D
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One more question that a search yielded too many results to sort; If I place a Port centered in a grid, the ground underneath the docks remains and is solid. Trying to move it around makes it look horrible or doesn't work. What's the correct procedure for actually placing ports these days?
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Originally posted by OOZ662
One more question that a search yielded too many results to sort; If I place a Port centered in a grid, the ground underneath the docks remains and is solid. Trying to move it around makes it look horrible or doesn't work. What's the correct procedure for actually placing ports these days?
I don't quite understand what your saying.. You don't set ports on land you set them on water connected to land. Then you select it all and rotate it.
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The more I read this thread the more I get this overwhelming feeling of "Uh-Oh!".
Ooz...since you have some bases placed already, build the terrain and fly it offline. See if it's what you intended it to be.
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:lol I get that feeling a lot in this forum.
Still, like you, I try to be helpful without discouraging anyone and sometimes that's hard to do.
One thing I notice is the comparative width of the fronts. As drawn, the SE front is only two bases wide (75 miles) while the other two fronts are up to 4 bases wide (150 miles.) I think you'll gain a lot of experience working on this but don't become married to it, keep your options open, and don't be afraid to start more then one at the same time.
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Originally posted by NHawk
Ooz...since you have some bases placed already, build the terrain and fly it offline. See if it's what you intended it to be.
I have been. Frequently. Though it's a little smoother than I'd hoped, I like it.
I only have about five of sixty fields left to place. Then spawn points. I need to learn how to manually do a road for one base and widen out the northern canal. Then, theoretically, I should be done. Never works that way, though. ;)
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Originally posted by Easyscor
I think you'll gain a lot of experience working on this but don't become married to it, keep your options open, and don't be afraid to start more then one at the same time.
I'm just going to go all the way through one before I branch, to catch all the sticking points is all.
EDIT: As to the SE front, I may add another small field that's about ready to fall off the map. The GV spawns in that area are also to be slightly leaning toward an advantage for the southern country.
EDIT2: I forgot to ask. I saw a while ago in an update that CVs no longer need maprooms. True?
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Originally posted by OOZ662
EDIT2: I forgot to ask. I saw a while ago in an update that CVs no longer need maprooms. True?
No, CVs still need maprooms. They just don't show as yellow dots in the terrain anymore. And make sure you set it for No Collide, otherwise you can capture with 20mm. :)