Some ideas / questions

[Dwarden]

1.Can engine support "structures" at which You can build another structure ?

ie:
- floating platform to be build (e.g. above water / mud) allowing build structures on them
- hovering platform in air to be build (e.g. above acid / lava) allowing build structures on them
and
- concrete plates (low profile like in Dune2) allowing build structures on them (can be expanded to roads / railroads usage for faster movement)
- walls (high profile) allowing place units / defense / scout structures on top of them (suitable for "castles" etc usage)

support for this will be useful for "out of TA" genre mods (like MAX/MAX2 etc) ...

2. How hard will be to implement "real" river streams / lava streams ? (these who knows latest SimCity editions understood)
rivers can work like "natural" roads (downstream movement of ships is faster than against it etc).

i hope it will be possible one day in future

any comments / thoughts / critic? :)

[Sean Mirrsen]

It's highly theoretical, but it could be possible. It would have to be a very specifically defined feature, that would involve a) deforming the heightmap without visually affecting the landscape, or b) creating a very complex pathing mechanism that could allocate a structure's build space together with the terrain. For the concrete slabs of Dune, or paths, I doubt it would be needed, simply because unless you are doing a Dune mod, it's pretty much useless.
This brings up another idea though, different terrains could have different effects on units' speeds. Making a certain "terrainer" unit to change the terrain type in a given area would be interesting then.
In general, units buildable on units is an interesting and useful concept, but I am unsure how exactly it can be implemented.

As for flowing rivers and lava streams, it is hardly possible to simulate the flow of liquids currently, but imitating currents in water sounds like another interesting idea. There would have to be some special changes made to the mapconverter though...

[AF]

With number 1 I think you should refer to the buildable tag faces on mdoels idea, where any object face with this tag added can be built on and utnis can walk across or use ti as a bridge etc.

[Dwarden]

Actually i wasn't asking for "emulating" real river stream physics ...

but You remember SimCity 2000 ? when You made "river source" on top of hill ... it auto-deformed terrain down to the "sea" level creating "like" river-basin ...

the problem with this is that SC2000 maps and map editor was working quite differently than TAS so this will be quite harder (yet possible) ...

[Dwarden]

Sean ... yes i asked mainly for mods (even D2 mod will be fun i got different games in mind) ...

but like You noticed ...

different terrain types (like mud slowing down heavy units) can bring some strategic fun ...

sure these who don't like changes or new stuff will argue but ...

if it's optionable ... it's another plus and more mods can appears :)

[table473]

1.

:D wow interesting way of putting it.

[Maelstrom]

You can already change terrain type information to make units speed up/slow down on different terrains. Look at some of the metal maps, the roads on them have about a 1.5 speed multipler for all units. To do this in a map, you need to create a type map that defines terrain types, then in the .sdm map file, change the options for these terrain types.

As for the other options, buildable walls that you can drive/build on would be excelent, but this could just as easily be done by adding in support for units to modify the terrain. Then you could just lump the terrain up into a wall type structure, and you would have a wall that is usable by units and can be built on.

[AF]

hmmm wouldnt that require water retention to be implemented?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Actually, building of walls would also require changing their texture - and that's something the engine can't handle at the moment. So I'm thinking altering the heightmap without disturbing the terrain, and building a feature in that.

[smokingwreckage]

So can you define an area to say that units take % reduced damage within its bounds? That would mean you could define an area as slows movement/reduces damage, like "cover" in Dawn of War but also potentially useful for WW2 or modern or near-future warfare mods with lots of infantry.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Namely, these could be forests. But actually, unlike DoW, this is a simulator-type game engine, and if the units would take less damage in a forest, it would only be because the trees absorb some of the shots.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Wow, MAX, that's a classic, i'd love to see a MAX-style mod released with platforms and such, dune style concrete would be great too, so you could actually make a base that looks like a base.

[Das Bruce]

Link to "MAX" please?

[Dwarden]

MAX 1
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2441

MAX 2
http://www.3dgamers.com/games/max2/downloads/