Suggestions for a new MA Terrain building guide

[Greebo]

I am thinking of writing a new MA terrain building guide for this forum as the existing stickied ones are so out of date. The idea is that I write a first draft, post it this thread and then ask for suggestions or corrections. When its done, post it to a new thread that can be stickied.

Here's how I think it might be laid out, if anyone has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them:

Map design; fairness, equal number of bases, uncaptureable fields and so on. Also some mention of good and bad practice in field layout design.

Field, SP and strat separations; i.e. 18-25 miles between airfields etc.

Square tile objects; what they are, list all types with a brief description. Placement, 6k or less for airfields, no hills next to runways etc. Also what properties to assign to each type of field.

Other objects that can be used in an MA terrain; SPs, SBs, bridges etc. Where they should be placed and what properties should be assigned to each.

Road and rail network; strat routes and vis only routes. Placement rules; route lengths, don't lay across STOs etc.

[bustr]

Which do we go with for 3\4 sector since 25\.75 is 18.75. I've been going with 19. Under special circumstance like the center of my Oceania, 13 between the three small airfields. Since I noted that up front during the design phase while referencing NDisles center island and how it has work out there, I had a reasonable and MA tested precedence. But, for one unique arrangement type.

With our smaller numbers, compressing field distances to shorten time to target and return to engagement generates activity. Also the proliferation of GV bases that became an AH2 standard creates longer flights between key combat points and drags down activity with our lower average numbers. Too many GV bases connected to each other out of band to the airfields is nice for the GVers but, creates a loss of player density and intensity of activity due to balkinization of activities. From experiments I placed into my past two terrains, GVers will follow the action or start action at the available target configurations which in both cases attracts concentrated activity becasue you need activity as a catalyst for increased activity. Allowing balkinization shortens the activity window perceptibly for prime time as I have ongoing observed. Players end up in tin cans on the ground not participating in larger actions. Similar to what happened when the AH2 CraterMA would rotate up.

Creating the perception of easy to capture targets in a capture the flag game increases the willingness to make the effort especially if it turns out to be true. Winning helps the customer feel good about taking risks. The experiment with a number of small airfields having the map room on the field on Oceania promoted activity at those fields. Some intense land\air\sea fights took place becasue of that configuration. The captures I took part in were very satisfying to the attack group equaled by the defenses I took part in at the same type of feilds where we defeated those same attacks. The town attached to a field as a standard should be switched up in AH3 with placing the map room on the field and eliminating the town.   

Also some number of airfields with no GV spawns did what I expected. They attracted concentrated capture effort since they could not be reinforced by GV and became the catalyst for concentrated air to air combat due to placing three at a time 19 apart in a triangle. Winning is infectious and makes players feel good about them selves and the game. Some number of captures perceived as "easy" helps spark players momentum which provides activity for everyone effected by their activity's.

Until our numbers dropped off after 2008, we had a hoard problem which is how our AH2 era converted terrains are designed to slow down 60 man missions running rampant across the map avoiding each other. Today, we need to design terrains to promote the lower numbers coming together and create a density of sustained activity. That density of action and being part of it is the secret to our MA. There is absolutely no purpose to a 10x10 arena if everyone is spread out politely one on one jousting like many of the ACM enthusiasts complain is killing the MA becasue of the group style combat and so forth. If that was what keeps subscriptions coming in, then all we would need is a single sector arena with a timed jousting queue and the occasional KOTH.

The heart of AH is Melee combat and promoting it.

[Greebo]

I guess it would be 19 miles apart minimum. I mis-remembered 18 miles, its been a couple of years since I last placed fields on a map. I can add a note to the effect that in some circumstances these distances may be extended or reduced but that the builder should ask HTC's permission before doing so. Another exception might be an isolated airbase more than 25 miles from the next nearest airbase but that can be easily reached using CV groups. It is not just airfields I need to list but all the minimum distances between v bases, ports, strats, flak bases, SPs and so on.

I will add some stuff regarding terrain design including not having so many available spawn choices that it dilutes fights. However I don't want this guide to be so long that no one reads it, so I think it might be best to keep it mainly to HTC's MA map requirements and leave most of the more complex discussion about MA terrain design to subsequent posts in the stickied thread.

The possibility of replacing towns with map rooms on the airfields is something I wouldn't have thought of and will be included, thanks for that.

[Easyscor]

Yes, it hasn't been updated since NHawks 2007 sticky.

[Greebo]

AH3 MA Terrain Building Rules and Guidelines

Aces High Main Arena terrains are subject to a large number of rules and guidelines not imposed on terrains designed for special events or other arenas. The purpose of this guide is to list these out in order to encourage players to build more of them. If you have not already done so I would suggest reading the manual for the Aces High Terrain Editor to help make sense of this document.

Map layout

Generally you will start an MA map by laying out your idea on paper with the fields, coastlines and mountain ranges drawn in and then show this to HTC and other terrain builders in the Terrain Editor forum. Point out anything unusual, especially anything you have not seen done on any other MA terrain. Quite often if its not been done its because it is not allowed. It is better to find out any problems before you do a load of work in the terrain editor than have to correct it all later. There are a number of things you should bear in mind when laying out a map.

An MA map's three countries should have equal numbers of fields of each type, so the same numbers of large, medium and small airbases, as well as the various vehicle bases, ports, Cvs and BBs. Each country should also have a full working strategic system; HQ, city, ammo, fuel, training and radar strats as well as a road, rail and/or barge supply network.

Up to 255 bases can be supported on an MA map although currently HTC are only accepting 256 mile sized maps and realistically these are only big enough for around 150 bases. You can have far fewer of course, but bear in mind the map will be won when a country has gained 20% of the other two countries' bases. So the more bases your map has, the longer it will be up before it is reset.

The three bases nearest to a country's HQ must be made uncapturable and the base closest to the HQ is the only one allowed to spawn the Me 163.

On a 256 mile map I have used up to 12 carrier or battleship task groups (TGs). If you intend to use more I'd suggest spreading them out across the map and also asking HTC if its OK beforehand. The problem is that too many TGs in too small an area of ocean could cause a frame rate issue for some players.

It is not a rule but I would suggest limiting a player's choice of spawns to enemy bases or nearby enemy airbases to between 2 and 4 per front line. Having too many choices tends to dilute the action.

The map should be fair to each country. It does not have to be a symmetrical layout but it should not favour one country over another. Examples of unfairness would be one country's strats or ports being much nearer to the front lines than the other countries' or one pair of countries having a really long front line and another pair a really short one. More localised examples would be one country having an airfield with a much greater alt than similarly placed fields in the other countries or V bases with more or better spawns than the other countries. Basically you don't want players saying “Oh no, we've got the south country again!”

Objects that can be placed in an MA terrain

Once you have created your land and sea you'll need to populate it with objects. Below is a complete list of the objects that can be put into an MA terrain and what properties should be assigned to each in the Object Properties box of the terrain editor. No other objects in the TE or any custom made objects can be put into an MA terrain.

Many of these are square tile objects (STOs) which are actually collections of many smaller objects like buildings, guns, roads, runways, hills and vegetation designed to fit exactly into one or more of the mile-wide squares shown in the terrain editor. STOs may be rotated exactly 90, 180 or 270 degrees from default (set snap to on) but not to any other angle.

The non-STO objects like shore batteries can be rotated to any angle and positioned more freely on the map, although with the specific limitations listed below.



The small, medium and large types of airfield are all actually all the same size, one mile square. Which to use is really just a question of how easy you want the field to be to close down or take. The larger fields have more AA, hangars and resources than the smaller. In general having smaller fields at the front gets the strategic war going and larger in the rear areas stops it becoming a walkover. Each large, medium and small air base will need a town placed nearby and linked to it so that the field can be captured. Alternatively you can place a map room object on the field itself for the troops to run to.

The super-large airbase is four miles on a side and has its own built-in town and map room. It is quite impressive to look at but is a bit of a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So I'd suggest using it sparingly and not at anywhere where there will be a lot of fighting.

Airbases should be placed at no higher than 6,000 feet altitude. This is because a fully loaded Lancaster will struggle to get off the ground from a base that is any higher. Care should be taken to ensure there are no steep hills or trees blocking the ends of runways that would make take offs and landings hazardous.

Carrier and battleship task groups must each have an assigned port and map room. Also they must have a looped default path assigned to them in the task group tab in the TE. This is the path a TG sails every time it respawns at its port, until a player changes it. When placing ports bear in mind how long it will take the TG to get back into the action after it is sunk. Linked port and TG's numbers should have the same number of digits, so P98 linked with C99 or P100 with C101 are both OK but P99 with C100 is not.

The tiny vehicle base is only 1/8th of a mile across, which lets it just fit between four of the closest altitude vertex points on the map when unrotated. With only a couple of AA guns, a map room and one hangar this base is easy to take but its small size lets it fit into narrow canyons, or atop narrow ridges or land bridges. It can be rotated to any angle but it must lie entirely on terrain that is completely flat. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning these.

 The small and large vehicle bases are respectively 1 and 2 mile STOs and have map rooms. As with the various sizes of air base use the larger base if you want it to be harder to take.

Spawn points must not be placed in such a way that they can come under fire from a field, strat or a train's 37 mm AA guns as soon as a player spawns in. These guns have a range of 1.5 miles so the nearest edge of your spawn should be further than this from the nearest AA guns. The normal distance used for incoming MA spawn points is 3 to 3.5 miles from the the centre of the spawn to the centre of the base. Only a spawn point that is from the nearby base can be closer than this as spawning players will not come under fire from their own base's guns.

Shore batteries should be placed close enough to their base that they show up in the base's manned gun selection screen and so that enemy players can easily associate it with that base. It should also have a good field of fire, not be blocked by trees and not be able to fire on its own base's map room. It is best to place them on flat terrain as this prevents gaps around its hill base that vehicles can fall through.

The bridges are a mixture of flat topped and arched stone bridges of differing lengths. It is difficult to use even the longest of these to bridge a narrow stretch of ocean as coastlines placed that close together tend to merge. Instead these are normally used to bridge the narrow rivers that are part of the strat supply system. When positioning these bridges it is important to make sure the ends of the land sections attached to the bridge sit below and not above the terrain itself. This is quite tough to spot in the TE so check it in-game too. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning bridges.

The revetment shape can be positioned on any completely flat land to give a protected place for vehicles to fire from. You should avoid placing them on top of an STO though.

STO separation rules

There are a number of rules and guidelines regarding how STOs can be placed in relation to one another.

Airfields should be placed between 19 and 25 miles apart from each other. A more isolated air base that can be easily reached by carrier task groups might be acceptable but you should check with HTC first.

Vehicle bases should be placed no closer than 3 miles to each other or to any airbase, flak base, strat or port. This is to prevent players on any part of the base coming under fire from its neighbour's AA guns.

Because of their long range puffy AA strats should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield. Also no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. They can theoretically be placed as close as a one mile gap from each other (i.e no corners or sides touching) so long as both are of the same country. However I'd check first with HTC if doing this.

Like strats flak bases should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield and no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. However a flak base may be placed as close as a one mile gap to a strat so long as the flak base is of the same country as the strat and is set to be uncapturable. Apart from the three nearest bases to the HQ, flak bases are the only ones that may be set to uncapturable.

A town should not be placed so far from its air base that enemy players can't easily associate the two but can be as close as a one mile gap.

The two mile square tank town STO is just some interesting terrain for tanks to fight over and has no AA of its own. This means it can be placed at close as a one mile gap to any other STO.

No two STOs can be placed into the same 4 mile red square shown in the terrain editor. This is usually only an issue when placing towns near airbases, flak bases near strats or V bases near each other.

Strat and field supply system

New MA terrains must have a working rail, road and barge supply network. This is done after all the strat and field STOs have been placed. The TE's default setup simply runs dead straight 10 mile long N, S, E or W railways and roads from the strats and fields. When editing these routes to run around mountains or to avoid oceans avoid running any part of a route over an STO. Also avoid crossing any spawn areas as a vehicle could spawn into a river or onto a road and get immediately hit by a passing truck convoy.

You can alter the lengths of the roads from 10 miles but try to keep each countries routes the same lengths for fairness reasons. The game spawns convoys at regular times so a longer route has more convoys to hit. Also don't make your supply routes much longer as too many convoys in play at once could exceed the game's maximum object count. It is permitted to have extra “vis only” routes in an MA terrain for visual or game play reasons. You might for instance place a river with a bridge across enemy vehicles' likely path in order to create a defendable choke point.

Weather

If you build a cloud system for your terrain be wary of going too heavy on the cloud cover as it may cause frame rate issues for players with marginal PCs. If you have an overcast layer keep it over 30,000 ft.

[Greebo]

Above is the first draft of my MA terrain rules guide. My intention is to start a new thread for it once its finished that can be stickied and replace the old out of date threads on this subject. It isn't intended to be a "how to build an MA terrain" guide, just what you can and can't do with one. If anyone has any suggestions for additions or corrections I'd like to hear them.

I would like to know if there are any other objects allowed for MA terrains. For instance HT mentioned some lake objects in a thread a while back but they are not in the shortened object list in the TE.

I would also like to know if bridges in MA terrains can be set to any altitude or have to be set to terrain alt.

I could add one or two screenshots or diagrams to help explain things if any part of the text seems too difficult to understand.

This is the same guide in rtf format if anyone wants to print it out.

[Devil 505]

The super-large airbase is four miles on a side and has its own built-in town and map room. It is quite impressive to look at but is a bit of a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So I'd suggest using it sparingly and not at anywhere where there will be a lot of fighting.

Major understatement. The frame rate hit for most players in the area of a Super-large base is much more severe. I'd advise not ever using one on a terrain.

[Greebo]

I'm British, understatement is what we do.......apart from Zack, of course. 

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll ramp up the warning on super-large airbases.

[Devil 505]

I'm British, understatement is what we do.......apart from Zack, of course. 

 

[Greebo]

MA Terrain Building Rules and Guidelines

For frame rate and game play reasons Aces High Main Arena (MA) terrains are subject to rules and guidelines not imposed on terrains designed for other arenas. In this guide I have listed these out to encourage players to build more of them. I suggest reading the manual for the Aces High Terrain Editor (TE) to help make sense of this document.

Map layout

Generally you will start an MA map by laying out your idea on paper with the fields, coastlines and mountain ranges drawn in and then showing this to HTC and other terrain builders in the Terrain Editor forum. Point out anything unusual, especially if you have not seen done on any other MA terrain, as this may be because it is not allowed. Its better to find out any problems before you do work in the terrain editor than have to redo it later. There are a number of things you should bear in mind when laying out a map.

An MA map's three countries should have equal numbers of fields of each type, so the same numbers of each size of airbase and vehicle base, as well as ports and task groups. Each country should also have a full working strategic system; HQ, city, ammo, fuel, training and radar strats.

Up to 255 bases can be supported on an MA map but the small 256 mile MA maps currently being accepted by HTC are only big enough for around 150 bases. You can have fewer of course, but bear in mind the map will be won when a country has gained 20% of the other two countries' bases. So the more bases your map has, the longer it will be up before it is reset.

The three bases nearest to a country's HQ must be made uncapturable and the base closest to the HQ is the only one allowed to spawn the Me 163.

More than three task groups in a small area of ocean can cause a frame rate issue for some players. So if you intend to have more than nine of these in total I'd suggest spreading their ports out across the map or even splitting the ocean area into three or more enclosed seas.

It is not a rule but I would suggest limiting a player's choice of spawns to enemy bases or choice of nearby enemy airbases to between 2 and 4 per front line. Having too many choices tends to dilute the action.

The map should be fair to each country. Not necessarily a symmetrical layout but it should not favour one country over another. Examples of unfairness would be one country's strats or ports being much nearer to the front lines than the other countries' or one pair of countries having a really long front line and another pair a really short one. Also an airfield with a much greater altitude than similarly placed fields in the other countries or vehicle bases with more or better spawns than the other countries. Basically you don't want players saying “Oh no, we've got the south country again!”



Objects that can be placed in an MA terrain

Once you have created your land and sea you'll need to populate it with objects. Above is a complete list of the objects that can be put into an MA terrain and what properties should be assigned to each in the Object Properties box of the terrain editor. No other objects in the TE or any custom made objects can be put into an MA terrain.

Many of these are square tile objects (STOs) which are actually collections of many smaller objects like buildings, guns, roads, runways, hills and vegetation designed to fit exactly into one or more of the mile-wide squares shown in the terrain editor. STOs may be rotated exactly 90, 180 or 270 degrees from default (set snap to on) but not to any other angle.

The non-STO objects like shore batteries can be rotated to any angle and positioned more freely on the map, although with the specific limitations listed above.

The small, medium and large airbases are all actually all the same size, one mile square. Which to use is really just a question of how easy you want the field to be to close down or take. The larger fields have more AA, hangars and resources than the smaller. In general having smaller fields at the front gets the strategic war going and larger in the rear areas stops it becoming a walkover. Each of these will need either a town placed nearby and linked to it or a map room object placed on the field itself for enemy troops to run to.

The super-large airbase is 4 miles on a side and has its own built-in town and map room. It is quite impressive to look at but is a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So I'd suggest using it sparingly in rear areas not likely to see any fighting or preferably not at all.

Airbases should be placed no higher than 6,000 feet altitude because a fully loaded Lancaster will struggle to get off the ground any higher than this. Ensure there are no steep hills or trees blocking the ends of runways that would make take offs and landings hazardous.

Carrier and battleship task groups (TGs) must each have an assigned port and map room. You can link more than one TG to a single port. Each TG must have a looped default path assigned to it in the task group tab in the TE. This is the path a TG sails every time it respawns at its port until a player changes it. When placing ports bear in mind how long it will take the TG to get back into the action after it is sunk. Linked port and TG's numbers should have the same number of digits, so P98 linked with C99 or P100 with C101 are both OK but P99 with C100 is not.

The tiny vehicle base is only 1/8th of a mile across, which lets it just fit between four of the closest altitude vertex points on the map when unrotated. With only a couple of AA guns, a map room and one hangar this base is easy to take but its small size lets it fit into narrow canyons, or atop narrow ridges or land bridges. It can be rotated to any angle but it must lie entirely on terrain that is completely flat. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning these.

The small and large vehicle bases are respectively 1 and 2 mile square STOs and have their own map rooms. As with the various sizes of air base use the larger base if you want it to be harder to take.

Spawn points (SPs) must not be placed in such a way that they can come under fire from a field, strat or a train's 37 mm AA guns as soon as a player spawns in. These guns have a range of 1.5 miles so the nearest edge of your spawn should be further than this from the nearest AA guns. The normal distance used for incoming MA SPs is 3 to 3.5 miles from the the centre of the spawn to the centre of the base. Only an SP that is from the nearby base can be closer than this as in this case spawning players will not come under fire from their own base's guns.

Shore batteries (SBs) should be placed close enough to their base that they show up in the base's manned gun selection screen and so that enemy players can easily associate it with that base. It should also have a good field of fire, not be blocked by trees and not be able to fire on its own base's map room. It is best to place them on flat terrain as this prevents gaps around its hill base that vehicles can fall through.

The bridges are a mixture of flat topped and arched stone bridges of differing lengths. It is difficult to use even the longest of these to bridge a narrow stretch of ocean as coastlines placed that close together tend to merge. Instead these are normally used to bridge the narrow rivers that are part of the strat supply system.

When positioning these bridges it is important to make sure the ends of the land sections attached to either end of the bridge sit below and not above the terrain itself otherwise it leaves a gap vehicles may not be able to climb over. This is quite tough to spot in the TE so check it in-game too.

The revetment shape can be positioned on any completely flat land to give a protected place for vehicles to fire from. You should avoid placing them on top of an STO though.

Square Tile Object separation rules

There are a number of rules and guidelines regarding how STOs can be placed in relation to one another.

Any two STOs must have at least a 1 mile gap from each other (i.e no corners or sides touching).

No two STOs can be placed into the same 4 mile red square as shown in the terrain editor. This is usually only an issue when placing towns near airbases, flak bases near to strats or vehicle bases near to each other.

Airfields should be placed between 19 and 25 miles apart from each other. A more isolated air base that can be easily reached by carrier task groups might be acceptable but you should check with HTC first.

Vehicle bases should be placed no closer than 3 miles to each other or to any airbase, flak base, strat or port. This is to prevent players on or very near to a base coming under fire from a neighbouring base's AA guns.

Because of its long range puffy AA guns a strat should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield. Also no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. It can theoretically be placed as close as a 1 mile gap from another strat so long as both are of the same country. However I'd check first with HTC if doing this.

Flak bases should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield and no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. However up to two flak bases may be placed as close as a one mile gap to a strat so long as the flak bases are of the same country as the strat and are set to be uncapturable. Apart from the three nearest bases to the HQ, flak bases are the only type of base that may be set to uncapturable.

A town should not be placed so far from its air base that enemy players can't easily associate the two but it can be as close as a 1 mile gap if you want to help the defence of the field.

The two mile square tank town STO is just some interesting terrain for tanks to fight over and has no AA of its own. This means it can be placed at close as a 1 mile gap to any other STO.

Strat and field supply system

MA terrains must have a working rail, road and barge supply network added after all the strat and field STOs have been placed. The TE's default setup simply runs dead straight 10 mile long railways and roads N, S, E or W from the strats and fields. When editing these routes to run them around mountains or water etc. avoid running any part of a route across an STO. Also avoid crossing any spawn points as a vehicle could spawn either into a river or onto a road and get immediately hit by a passing truck convoy.

You can alter the length of the routes from 10 miles but try to keep the other countries' similar routes the same length for fairness reasons. The game spawns convoys at regular times so a longer route has more convoys to hit. Also don't make your supply routes a lot longer as too many convoys in play at once could exceed the game's maximum object count.

It is permitted to have extra “vis only” routes in an MA terrain for visual or game play reasons. You might for instance place a “vis only” river across enemy vehicles' likely path and then place a bridge across this river to create a defensible choke point.


Weather

If you build a cloud system for your terrain be wary of going too heavy on the cloud cover as it may cause frame rate issues for players with marginal PCs. Cloud types 1-6 in the cloud editor are less of a problem frame rate-wise than the heavier types 7-11 and if you use one of the four cloud layers set it to over 30,000 ft. Maintain a gap of 40 miles between each block of clouds at all times.

[Greebo]

Above is version two of the MA terrain guide. I have altered the following from version one:-

Added some more guidelines regarding weather based on Bustr's test findings.

Added a note regarding having two TGs per port being permitted that I noticed in one of Bustr's posts.

Made the super-large airbase FPS warning a bit stronger as per Devil's suggestion.

Added more bold text to make things easier to find and to explain acronyms used in the text as per Easyscor's suggestion.

Changed the bridge "set to terrain alt" setting to "either" in the table as per HT's clarification.

Edited the text a bit to keep the whole thing under the 12,000 characters limit in order to get it into a single post.


If anyone has anything else to suggest I'd love to hear it.

[bustr]

Hitech gave me some rules when I created all the weather for the MA terrains with the new cloud editor.


A 40 mile spacing between cloud blocks and no stacking of cloud blocks on top of each other. The high altitude layer has to be a single layer and above expected combat elevations say 35k. It is ok if clouds touch the tops of mountains, no socking in play spaces so minimums at 3k above local ground level. Upon review of your terrain and weather file, who knows he may not like a little creativity to try and skirt the edge of the socking in concept. Things like a bowl with a 3k mountain top lip with a 3k cloud block is obvious or, a 3k mesa air or VH base and a 4k cloud block. He was very pointed in telling me what he would not accept when he reviewed some of my first weather for BowlMA. I broke my MA turning in a number of DMP files during testing with the first version of the cloud editor, running 50 or so weather tests some up to 8 hours. Your weather for the MA will end up being kind of pedestrian so players FPS is not impacted. I keep my weather system speed to about 50mph, faster and I suspect some PC will have FPS problems. Also at 50mph you get less of the sudden jerky redraw problems while looking at clouds. It allows for about a 1.3 hour life time with zero cool down to give an illusion of clouds all the time for so many who play 2hours or less.

Also the Type 9 cumulus line clouds will kill FPS when you fly in them and why I don't use them for MA terrains. Type 7 gives you the largest area covering and density of cumulus with a few lowering of FPS spots if you decide to fly the full length of formations in the center. Just above or below has no FPS impact. In the cloud menu, the elevations are generally how the cloud selected would form in the real world. That does not mean you cannot create a custom 40,000ft tall Cumulonimbus with the custom cloud creation part of the editor. I doubt Hitech will allow it in the MA, the FPS hit would enormous. When he asked me to look at one of the first versions of the new cloud editor, he included his own Cumulonimbus which was incredible.

[hitech]

New rule, no land below 20ft unless you are transitioning to ocean.

HiTech

[Greebo]

AH3 MA Terrain Building Rules

For game play and frame rate reasons Aces High Main Arena (MA) terrains are subject to these specific rules and guidelines. I suggest reading the manual for the Aces High Terrain Editor (TE) to help make sense of this document.

Map layout

Start by laying out your map idea on paper with the fields, coastlines and mountain ranges drawn in and then showing this to HTC and other terrain builders in the Terrain Editor forum. Point out anything unusual, especially if you have not seen done on any other MA terrain, as this may be because it is not allowed. Its better to find out any problems before you do work in the terrain editor than have to redo it later. There are a number of things you should bear in mind when laying out a map.

An MA map's three countries should have equal numbers of fields of each type, so the same numbers of each size of airbase and vehicle base, as well as ports and task groups. Each country should also have a full working strategic system; HQ, city, ammo, fuel, training and radar strats.

Up to 255 bases can be supported on an MA map but the small 256 mile MA maps currently being accepted by HTC are only big enough for around 150 bases. You can have fewer of course, but bear in mind the map will be won when a country has gained 20% of the other two countries' bases. So the more bases your map has, the longer it will be up before it is reset.

The three bases nearest to a country's HQ must be made uncapturable and the base closest to the HQ is the only one allowed to spawn the Me 163.

More than three task groups in a small area of ocean can cause a frame rate issue for some players. So if you intend to have more than nine of these in total I'd suggest spreading their ports out across the map or even splitting the ocean area into three or more enclosed seas.

It is not a rule but I would suggest limiting a player's choice of spawns to enemy bases or choice of nearby enemy airbases to between 2 and 4 per front line. Having too many choices tends to dilute the action.

The map should be fair to each country. Not necessarily a symmetrical layout but it should not favour one country over another. Examples of unfairness would be one country's strats or ports being much nearer to the front lines than the other countries' or one pair of countries having a really long front line and another pair a really short one. Also an airfield with a much greater altitude than similarly placed fields in the other countries or vehicle bases with more or better spawns than the other countries. You don't want players saying “Oh no, we've got the south country again!”

All land should be at 20 feet altitude or higher, apart from coastlines where it transitions down to the sea at 0 feet.



Objects that can be placed in an MA terrain


Above is a list of objects that can be put into an MA terrain and what properties should be assigned to each in the Object Properties box of the terrain editor. No other objects in the TE or any custom made objects can be put into an MA terrain.

Many of these are square tile objects (STOs) which are actually collections of many smaller objects like buildings, guns, roads and vegetation designed to fit exactly into one or more of the mile-wide squares shown in the terrain editor. STOs may be rotated exactly 90, 180 or 270 degrees from default (set snap to on) but not to any other angle.

The non-STO objects like shore batteries can be rotated to any angle and positioned more freely on the map, although with the specific limitations listed above.

The small, medium and large airbases are all actually all the same size, one mile square. Which to use is really just a question of how easy you want the field to be to close down or take. The larger fields have more AA, hangars and resources than the smaller. In general having smaller fields at the front gets the strategic war going and larger in the rear areas stops it becoming a walkover. Each of these will need either a town placed nearby and linked to it or a map room object placed on the field itself for enemy troops to run to.

The super-large airbase is 4 miles on a side and has its own built-in town and map room. It is quite impressive to look at but is a frame rate hog for players with marginal PCs. So I'd suggest using it sparingly in rear areas not likely to see any fighting or preferably not at all.

Airbases should be placed no higher than 6,000 feet altitude because a fully loaded Lancaster will struggle to get off the ground any higher than this. Ensure there are no steep hills or trees blocking the ends of runways that would make take offs and landings hazardous.

Carrier and battleship task groups (TGs) must each have an assigned port and map room. You can link more than one TG to a single port. Each TG must have a looped default path assigned to it in the task group tab in the TE. This is the path a TG sails every time it respawns at its port until a player changes it. When placing ports bear in mind how long it will take the TG to get back into the action after it is sunk. Linked port and TG's numbers should have the same number of digits, so P98 linked with C99 or P100 with C101 are both OK but P99 with C100 is not.

The tiny vehicle base is only 1/8th of a mile across, which lets it just fit between four of the closest altitude vertex points on the map when unrotated. With only a couple of AA guns, a map room and one hangar this base is easy to take but its small size lets it fit into narrow canyons, or atop narrow ridges or land bridges. It can be rotated to any angle but it must lie entirely on terrain that is completely flat. I find it best to use the wire frame mode of the TE to see where the altitude vertexes are when positioning these.

The small and large vehicle bases are respectively 1 and 2 mile square STOs and have their own map rooms. As with the various sizes of air base use the larger base if you want it to be harder to take.

Spawn points (SPs) must not be placed in such a way that they can come under fire from a field, strat or a train's 37 mm AA guns as soon as a player spawns in. These guns have a range of 1.5 miles so the nearest edge of your spawn should be further than this from the nearest AA guns. The normal distance used for incoming MA SPs is 3 to 3.5 miles from the the centre of the spawn to the centre of the base. Only an SP that is from the nearby base can be closer than this as in this case spawning players will not come under fire from their own base's guns.

Shore batteries (SBs) should be placed close enough to their base that they show up in the base's manned gun selection screen and so that enemy players can easily associate it with that base. It should also have a good field of fire, not be blocked by trees and not be able to fire on its own base's map room. It is best to place them on flat terrain as this prevents gaps around its hill base that vehicles can fall through.

The bridges are a mixture of flat topped and arched stone bridges of differing lengths. It is difficult to use even the longest of these to bridge a narrow stretch of ocean as coastlines placed that close together tend to merge. Instead these are normally used to bridge the narrow rivers that are part of the strat supply system.

When positioning these bridges it is important to make sure the ends of the land sections attached to either end of the bridge sit below and not above the terrain itself otherwise it leaves a gap vehicles may not be able to climb over. This is quite tough to spot in the TE so check it in-game too.

The revetment shape can be positioned on any completely flat land to give a protected place for vehicles to fire from. You should avoid placing them on top of an STO though.

Square Tile Object separation rules

There are a number of rules and guidelines regarding how STOs can be placed in relation to one another.

Any two STOs must have at least a 1 mile gap from each other (i.e no corners or sides touching).

No two STOs can be placed into the same 4 mile red square as shown in the terrain editor. This is usually only an issue when placing towns near airbases, flak bases near to strats or vehicle bases near to each other.

Airfields should be placed between 19 and 25 miles apart from each other. A more isolated air base that can be easily reached by carrier task groups might be acceptable but you should check with HTC first.

Vehicle bases should be placed no closer than 3 miles to each other or to any airbase, flak base, strat or port. This is to prevent players on or very near to a base coming under fire from a neighbouring base's AA guns.

Because of its long range puffy AA guns a strat should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield. Also no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. It can theoretically be placed as close as a 1 mile gap from another strat so long as both are of the same country. However I'd check first with HTC if doing this.

Flak bases should not be placed any closer than 8 miles from an airfield and no closer than 3 miles from a vehicle base or port. However up to two flak bases may be placed as close as a one mile gap to a strat so long as the flak bases are of the same country as the strat and are set to be uncapturable. Apart from the three nearest bases to the HQ, flak bases are the only type of base that may be set to uncapturable.

A town should not be placed so far from its air base that enemy players can't easily associate the two but it can be as close as a 1 mile gap if you want to help the defence of the field.

The two mile square tank town STO is just some interesting terrain for tanks to fight over and has no AA of its own. This means it can be placed at close as a 1 mile gap to any other STO.

Strat and field supply system

MA terrains must have a working rail, road and barge supply network added after all the strat and field STOs have been placed. The TE's default setup simply runs dead straight 10 mile long railways and roads N, S, E or W from the strats and fields. When editing these routes to run them around mountains or water etc. avoid running any part of a route across an STO. Also avoid crossing any spawn points as a vehicle could spawn either into a river or onto a road and get immediately hit by a passing truck convoy.

You can alter the length of the routes from 10 miles but try to keep the other countries' similar routes the same length for fairness reasons. The game spawns convoys at regular times so a longer route has more convoys to hit. Also don't make your supply routes a lot longer as too many convoys in play at once could exceed the game's maximum object count.

It is permitted to have extra “vis only” routes in an MA terrain for visual or game play reasons. You might for instance place a “vis only” river across enemy vehicles' likely path and then place a bridge across this river to create a defensible choke point.

Apart from where they transition down to the ocean I suggest you run any supply rivers over flat terrain, as on sloping water reflections of nearby objects like trees can become misplaced.

Weather

If you build a cloud system for your terrain going too heavy on cloud cover can cause frame rate issues for players with marginal PCs. Cloud types 1-7 in the cloud editor are less taxing than the heavier types 8-11. Maintain a gap of 40 miles between each block of clouds at all times and do not stack one block above another. Mountain peaks can touch the clouds but in general allow at least 3,000 ft between the clouds and the land below it. Overcast layers should be set to over 35,000 ft.

[Greebo]

The above post should be the final edit. I have added HT's new rule about land being over 20 feet and a couple of Bustr's suggestions regarding weather as well as a suggestion to position supply rivers over flat land. The text has been pruned in places to keep it under the BBS' 12,000 character limit for a single post.

Unless anyone can think of anything else to add to this guide then in a few days I'll post it in a new thread. Skuzzy can then both sticky this and un-sticky the current out of date MA terrain threads.