To be precise trees and bushes are not objects. They are like clutter....... If they were objects they would be individually capable of being set hard or soft, destructible, non destructible.
Clutter can also be set hard or soft. But only as a generic type.
We have hard trees and soft grass and small bushes. Indeed parts of the trees are soft and other parts hard.
The next trick IMO would be to make clutter react to "masks".
One type of mask maybe defined as a shell crater where by all clutter within the crater is switched off.
Another mask may be defined by vehicle tracks whereby all clutter within a set of vehicle tracks is switched off.
Having established this principle then we have to make clutter react to a form of "damage". This does not have to be the same as object damage in game.
We could imagine various damage thresholds..... Let's assume 3 for this purpose.
No damage> light damage> medium damage> heavy damage.
Craters due to bombs or shells or the area between and just infront of a Tiger2 tracks would impart heavy damage..... Removing all clutter within this mask.
A jeep would only impart light damage capable of removing light bushes just infront of and between its tracks.
A T34 might only impart medium damage capable of removing small trees in front of and between the tracks.
To the player a jeep driver would hit and bounce off small and large trees as it does now. A Tiger 2 would seem to drive through all trees masking off and removing the tree as it fell between its tracks. The T34 would still bounce off the large tree but drive through the small tree.
The next question is how and when this clutter would re appear. Obviously if a jeep parks over a clutter mask path made by a Tiger the risk is that a tree suddenly grows under it flipping it over.
There are a number of solutions here. The clutter could transition thru soft to hard as it re appears from the mask. Indeed if it transitioned from fully soft > light> medium> heavy then even a jeep would mask it locally as it went thru the light stage.
I like reading stuff like this....
thanx for taking the time....
a couple thoughts/questions....
wouldn't it be better to have the destroyed clutter just be "destroyed" for the duration of the map?
or possibly once the clutter has been destroyed,if there is collision between an object and terrain the clutter could not "regrow"?
at this point I envy the guys that can script.....
