Terrain Editor

[bustr]

I have a 4 mile tank gunnery range by one grid width with tanks set everywhere. Radar towers marking every mile on each side with radar towers and flack towers across the 4 mile mark. And the shooting stand is elevated 50ft above the level of the 4 mile plain. Most of the tank optics are not that good at 4 miles. I set a 5000yd range with tanks off the back side of my airfield with the last 1000yds rising up 50ft higher for the 88 to see the 5000yd tanks. Wish the 88 had direct fire optics installed.

At one point with all of the tanks set to "structure" I was able to reduce the down time to 30 seconds and the pounds of bombs so a single AP round would kill any tank. This visual effect helped immensely with both jabo and tanks. I still place tanks in the drone circle for real shooting practice with IL2 and Ju87. Then today I have an interesting problem.

1. - Nothing I do with the object settings will any longer allow the tanks to be destroyed.
2. - Now all of my tanks and GV won't shift out of 1st gear. The M8 finally did after the last build processing this morning.

Is it possible placing part of an object on the edge of the small airfield larger object is effecting the tanks?

With a 4400ft mesa under the drone flight path, I never realized how bad my lead assumptions were in the game with a wirbel. I used a small airfield for the single base on the terrain. I still can only get one GV spawn button for the north. I have to ".fly 2" to get vehicles up on the mesa spawn to the west. Still haven't figured out how to use the object copy or to create roads and rivers. More button pushing as close to the ground as I can stand to look at my screen. Once I put my virtual nose 30-70ft from the ground, it became obvious how to put objects on the terrain and manipulate them with move and rotate.

This is not something for the attention span of a gnat.....

[USRanger]

I still can only get one GV spawn button for the north.

You can place additional spawns north of your field, but only one of the spawns (the one you already have) can have the spawn directional arrow pointing north.  The others will have to have their arrows rotated, such as NW & NE.  Each spawn requires its own button on the CBM, so you can't have two GV spawns facing the same direction if they are from the same field.  Even if you have 8 GV spawns all in a row north of the field, only one can be given the north CBM button.  All the others need to have their arrow rotated to receive their own button, even though they are all north of the field.  The button each spawn receives is purely dependent on its direction arrow, regardless of where the spawn is in relation to the field.  If you have a spawn directly north of the field, but the arrow points due south, it becomes your S spawn.

I don't know if using structure for the tank targets is causing the GV issue, but if you change their type to Fuel Bunker, the tank target will explode & then burn.  I neat after effect.

Don't give up!

[bustr]

Are you telling me to locate my invisible spawn entry point object I set down on the mesa, highlight it in the object group list.  And use the rotate and set it left to west? I have caught on that all objects are set down oriented north.

By default only an entpnt object is in the object list. I've been using the expanded list to use the spawnentry object. What is the difference between these object's functions? I noticed once you set a spawn, making the map responds with an arrow. In my case the two spawns are about 1000yds off the small field's object edge NE and W. So I have two gigantic yellow arrow heads versus looking at the map like I was at 30,000ft and seeing normal sized field icons and spawn point arrows.

Never ending fun.....

[bustr]

Rotated my object left and ended up with a new spawn button. Still cannot get the structure objects to respond to the down time and percentage of 1000lb bomb setting. I tried resetting the auto ack to come back up in 15 seconds, I get 120 minutes for 0.15. Should I be trying to set down time and hardness in each objects properties GUI?

[USRanger]

That may be something HTC needs to play with to make sure it's working correctly.

[Easyscor]

Rotated my object left and ended up with a new spawn button. Still cannot get the structure objects to respond to the down time and percentage of 1000lb bomb setting. I tried resetting the auto ack to come back up in 15 seconds, I get 120 minutes for 0.15. Should I be trying to set down time and hardness in each objects properties GUI?

I have not tested hardness in 6 years or so, downtime much longer. I'm still not home but I brought a copy of my manual. Here are the appropriate lines:

Down Time is the time in seconds the object will remain down when destroyed.  Rebuild time is exactly half of a given object’s down time. (That would be with strat disabled.)

Hardness determines how much damage an object must receive to be destroyed. The Hardness setting changes the amount of damage an object will sustain. Each lb for bombs needs 6.4 points of hardness, and each 1000 points of hardness equal one HE Panzer round.

[bustr]

Tried setting structure to .0001 of 1000lb bomb and time .03. No change, but, about 6 builds ago on sunday night it was working for everything I set it on. I tried adjusting other object's settings with only the time seeming to change like 140 hours to 120 hours and things like that. I should try something like a fuel storage tank on the base and change it's 1000lb bomb setting so a single 37mm will pop it as a test.

I was thinking of creating a bombing target with buildings in concentric rings or some pattern like that. Then find out how to create an air spawn for bombers to pop them up to a good training altitude. Or several air spawns with different alt. That way you can bomb, bail, and re-spawn in a short time period. Maybe even put in a port near by. Can the CV have a default patrol pattern set so when you first start up the map it is running in one of those standard defensive circles we use in the MA to thwart bomb runs? Might be of some use to players who like to bomb them. And setting the down time to 30 seconds will help.

The objects like tanks and buildings I set on the terrain, when they are destroyed are they supposed to not give a message about their destruction? Making a giant bombing target with a pattern of buildings, that would be helpful feedback for the player practicing level bombing. I would put in a town for this but, a bombing target made of destroyable buildings is a neat touch.

This is all the things I used to wish for in the wish list for offline training, and the wishes of some other players over the years. Hopefully it's something I can present as a download like my old Historic Pack of gunsights.

[USRanger]

A CV must have a default patrol route on a terrain, so it is not only possible, it is required.  It sounds like you are making the exact same type of terrain that I have on the server for AH2, with a tank gunnery range and a bombing range, so everything you've listed as wanting to do is doable.  I hadn't really planned on making an AH3 version of my terrain, so this will be most welcome.

[hitech]

I would assume the tanks are stuck in first gear is because of either slope on the terrain or the terrain type.

HiTech

[bustr]

I would assume the tanks are stuck in first gear is because of either slope on the terrain or the terrain type.

HiTech

I ran another terrain build and the tanks cycled through all gears flawlessly.

[bustr]

If I use HE ammo in the manned 88 and tanks, my object setting for the hardness value of a 1000lb bomb works. When I switch to AP, I get the impact explosion but other wise the static tanks I set out as "structure", will not blow up and disappear for the down time I set. The manned 37mm can kill Tigers because the round is HE.

Where can I set the hardness related to AP ammo?

[hitech]

You can't

[USRanger]

Set them as "bombable" to disappear, or as fuel bunkers to have a fire after they are destroyed.

[bustr]

Does the TT object have to be placed on "0" elevation because of the ponds? When I flatten a 2050ft mesa to receive it, clicking OK on the properties GUI generates a Windows error GUI.

[Greebo]

The TT object does not have to be placed at 0 feet, it is placed the same way as any other object group. I'd suggest placing it over 70 feet as there is (or at least was) a minor graphics glitch when it is placed lower. See post 111 in this tread.

I am not sure why you are getting an error as I did not. Can you post the settings you are putting in the properties box?