Terrain engine update fantasy list

[Karnak]

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.

Hmm.  I am skeptical that the update would ever take longer than the reload time, or even close to it.  What is the update rate for objects in AH at a range of up to, say, 3000 yards?

I can see a very narrow window of, at the extreme outside, a quarter second or so where a third GV gets the update before the target GV does and has a round loaded and is already pointing its gun at exactly the right place and is able to react to the tree's destruction and get the shot off.  That is a lot of things that need to line up right for any issue to happen.

Even if we limit ourselves to two GVs and the first uses his pintle MG to destroy the tree (trees should be tough enough to make that take awhile) he would still have to know exactly where to point his main gun when the target was out of sight so I still don't see that as a likely scenario.  If the target is close enough to use rough aiming then he should notice the MG fire, if the shooting GV doesn't just shoot part of his tank that is not hidden by the tree.

[Greebo]

Stuff for TE:
- List of favorite objects so you don't need to scroll entire list from filed to town and back when you add fields

That would be good and more specifically how about a button that restricts the objects shown to just those that HTC allow to be used in an MA terrain?

[Easyscor]

- 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
See the shpfilter.txt file in Hitech Creations\Aces High Editors\ahiiterr.
Each entry hides that item.

[Easyscor]

I'll add this here as well so everything is in one place.

Please provide documentation for the ac3d plugin, htcac3d.p, or maintain the current backwards compatibility for ac3d objects converted with Object Editor 2.15 Patch 3.

Thanks

[Easyscor]

That would be good and more specifically how about a button that restricts the objects shown to just those that HTC allow to be used in an MA terrain?

It could tab through up to nine versions of the shpfilter.txt file, ie shpfilter0, shpfilter1, shpfilter2... shpfilter9.

I like it.

Oh, and the first line of each file might be displayed in or next to the button so each file could come with a name, ie MA list, Default list, myterrain list, etc.

[Tilt]

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?

When the tree is fired upon and plummets to the ground a large amount of debris flies up everywhere on impact and gradually settles . This occurrence masks player 1's view for the period of update. The same effect as smoke clearing.

[Skuzzy]

When the tree is fired upon and plummets to the ground a large amount of debris flies up everywhere on impact and gradually settles . This occurrence masks player 1's view for the period of update. The same effect as smoke clearing.

The player that destroyed the tree could have been doing it to fire at the remote player and would not wait for anything to clear.  To artificially restrict firing until everyone got the update would be frustrating as well.

[ReVo]

Why not simply allow GV's to fire through trees/bushes/barns just as aircraft can?

[Tinkles]

Why not simply allow GV's to fire through trees/bushes/barns just as aircraft can?

Would cause even more problems than we have to deal with now. Not to mention trees would have to be re-designed to allow rounds to go through them.  If they can't make trees or certain terrain features destructible, then leave things as they are now.

[RotBaron]

Preview of the new terrain looks great 

[Bruv119]

new objects submarine Pen and Rail yard!   

[Volron]

new objects submarine Pen and Rail yard!   

Oh yes please!

[artik]

You know what....


HTC, please, forget the terrain engine...

Please fix the Terrain Editor...

It is horribly, horribly bugged...

- Filed zones are changed without being requested.
- It crashes randomly for various reasons.
- Now I discovered that about 2/3 of all the fields I added to the map are gone due to files corruption.

Guys... I really like your team and you are doing great job.

But you can't give tools like that to your community if you respect them. Seriously...

What you have done if your compiler or IDE was crashing/get stuck every hour? What would you do if you would loose your work accidentally? You guys are programmers... Bugs in basic tools should drive you crazy.

Please don't do it to us.

[Tinkles]

You know what....


HTC, please, forget the terrain engine...

Please fix the Terrain Editor...

It is horribly, horribly bugged...

- Filed zones are changed without being requested.
- It crashes randomly for various reasons.
- Now I discovered that about 2/3 of all the fields I added to the map are gone due to files corruption.

Guys... I really like your team and you are doing great job.

But you can't give tools like that to your community if you respect them. Seriously...

What you have done if your compiler or IDE was crashing/get stuck every hour? What would you do if you would loose your work accidentally? You guys are programmers... Bugs in basic tools should drive you crazy.

Please don't do it to us.

I'm sure they will get around to making a better terrain editor.  And they obviously care for us as a community since they are doing something that has been requested before. Aka, new terrain.  This new terrain will most likely add many more things that map editors can finagle with.  I do agree that the map editor should be more.. user friendly and not need a PH in Hitechnecs to use it. But the terrain comes first.. then everything else 

[Greebo]

One non-destructible bridge.

I'd like bridges added to the MA as well, it would give an added dimension to map design. There is a problem with putting them on an MA map however. Someone playing with detailed water turned off would see the bridge but no river. A narrow strip of water like a river just vanishes with the game in this state, but driving into the invisible river will still stop the GV.

One solution would be to add river bank objects either side of the bridge or turn it into a bridge V base tile with river banks and a river coded in as objects. The other would be to make coastlines a non-removable graphics option in the game, so turning off "detailed water" would turn off the pretty wave effects but leave a flat blue water area with sharp coastlines. I'm not sure how much of an FPS penalty this would impose on a very slow system however.