Terrain deformation.

[Saktoth]

Im messing around making a mod and found terrain deformation to be a lot of fun, and perhaps have a little potential as a major game mechanic in a mod. Closing off or opening paths, making walls, creating hills to put artillery on, even creating rivers and lakes to put ships in etc.

A few questions though:

1. Does it desync, cause lag issues, etc?

2. Is there any way to make a weapon raise the terrain, rather than lower it (And no, i dont mean the 'restore' builder function.)

3. What are the variables that effect terrain deformation?

Thanks, any help appreciated.

[Ishach]

It definitely causes performance problems, but I dont know about desyncs or lag though.




You can set a negative hardness on a map, that makes explosions form hills. But I dont know how you can do it on the mod-side.

[Maelstrom]

Those new crater affecting multipliers implemented two versions ago, setting them negative might do it. Dont ask what exactly they are, but I think AA uses them extensively.

[Saktoth]

Afraid ive tried that one already, Maelstrom. It seems to just make it have no effect whatsoever on the ground. I havent figured out the difference between craterMult and craterBoost though so maybe there is hope....

Ive seen the deformation cause a performance hit on my machine, but usually only when you do a whole lot of it at once. It doesnt seem so bad most of the time.

[Argh]

Terrain deformation causes CPU usage that is directly proportional to the amount of deformation. Essentially, it makes the pathfinder a lot less efficient. I can't really recommend it for a game design that features a lot of units running around, but if you keep the unit-count low, then it should be just fine.

[Neddie]

Deformation was one of the main attractions of the engine to me, originally.

[Uberleechen]

XTA. Minelayers. Many 500metal mines... :) :) :)

electricteaparty.net/index.php/v/Neuffy/Spring/Mines01.jpg.html?q=gallery&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
electricteaparty.net/index.php/v/Neuffy/Spring/Deformation01.jpg.html?q=gallery&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
electricteaparty.net/index.php/v/Neuffy/Spring/Deformation10.jpg.html?q=gallery&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Although...It's pretty hard to actually push down and destroy land. You generally just (or at least mainly) push it to the sides of the crater.

[Dragon45]

Spring is a closed system; land is never cerated or destroyed, just rearranged.

[Argh]

... lolz... somebody needs to be taught the .give command.

[Strategia]

One of the first things I did when I first got Spring (.062 IIRC), was go onto SmallDivide - .cheat - .give 25 ARMCOM - .give 25 CORCOM - .give 25 ARMCOM - .give 25 CORCOM - .give 25 ARMCOM - ctrl+d.

Lost my PC for a while, but I DID get to see a crater with minus several hundred height in the center and plus several hundred (or was it thousand?) on the edge Also, the debris billowing down to Earth was UNBELIEVABLE.

[Uberleechen]

Actually, I did for the fusions....

I just wanted to see if megamining was at all feasible in an actual game. I'm thinking not so much, unless I'm on Supreme Battlefield and I think the other guy'll be sending a Krogoth alone soon.