Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >>

Page: << < prev 1 [2]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

- 8/1/2001 4:45:00 PM

Fabs

Posts: 444
Joined: 6/5/2000
From: London, U.K.
Status: offline

I have been busy learning to use the basic skills pioneered by Fred, Rockin'harry and Ectizen. I have also received the "mountainizer" beta from Rockin'Harry, Ectizen and Wild Bill, thank you very much guys! :D Anyway, the purpose of this post is to say that I have managed to build a 250m high hill using only the 5 elevation levels obtainable by combining the summer set with the rough set of tiles. I have done this by using bigger steps between the elevations, and different increments between the various levels. It works very well from the LOS point of view, and I have found that it is a good way to represent steeper but straight terrain, using slopes between levels to simulate false crests. I have to do more experiments with this, when I get some time, but I am very excited about the possibilities. Oner thing that is still unclear to me is: are slopes purely a graphic device or do they have effects on LOS, combat and movement that make their use indispensible? In one of my experiments I tried to obviate one of SPWAW's graphic weaknesses, the one where if oyu have woods on a slope you lose the slope. I did this by following the slope contour with # characters in each hex. It works for me, although it is certainly not "pretty".

_____________________________

Fabs

(in reply to Fabs)

Post #: 31

- 8/3/2001 6:24:00 PM

RockinHarry

Posts: 2963
Joined: 1/18/2001
From: Germany
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Fabs: Anyway, the purpose of this post is to say that I have managed to build a 250m high hill using only the 5 elevation levels obtainable by combining the summer set with the rough set of tiles. I have done this by using bigger steps between the elevations, and different increments between the various levels. It works very well from the LOS point of view, and I have found that it is a good way to represent steeper but straight terrain, using slopes between levels to simulate false crests. I have to do more experiments with this, when I get some time, but I am very excited about the possibilities. Oner thing that is still unclear to me is: are slopes purely a graphic device or do they have effects on LOS, combat and movement that make their use indispensible?

Hi Fabs, nice to see you�re more into it now. Thanks to ectizen, life is also much easier with his new "mountaniser" tool. :) Needs a little bit of preplanning but also is intuitive enough for most needs. Ok,..if you need these steeper slopes then you still have to work more with Freds Editor, but you need it anyway. Besides the graphical apperarance of the slopes, you need to set the slope byte in S8 if you stick with the "5" increments to get the additional movement points spent by units entering them. Also the slope byte provides defense modifier for units in the hex but what still is unclear to me is the "hull down" thing. :confused: In one of my experiments I tried to obviate one of SPWAW's graphic weaknesses, the one where if oyu have woods on a slope you lose the slope. I did this by following the slope contour with # characters in each hex. It works for me, although it is certainly not "pretty". Actually this is the trick,...misusing the "woods" layer! :D As this layer (6) is actually used exclusively for woods you can either have woods or slopes (..or else) on it, but not both at same time! For me this layer6 is multipupose and I use it for some more possibilities. Remember,...you can place any graphic tile in it and at the same time make it (almost) any terrain type also! No ideas on S8 bytes 6+8 from anybody?? _________ Harry

_____________________________

RockinHarry in the web:

https://www.facebook.com/harry.zann

(in reply to Fabs)

Post #: 32

- 8/12/2001 7:07:00 PM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by RockinHarry: Lately I found out, how to set wind direction in SPWAW. I wanted to know how to setup smoke screens properly. Example: The allied rhine crossings at Wesel in 1945. The byte can be found (and edited) in Freds SPWAW Editor (Tools/Hex Editor). It�s section 37, Row6, Byte7. Values are 1-6 I think,.. with value=1 wind coming from SO (<\). Other values going counter clockwise. Example value2= <- etc.

Naughty me! I've been keeping my secrets to myself! :D The wind directions are the same as other SP:WaW directions: 0 = East 1 = South East 2 = South West 3 = West 4 = North West 5 = North East This is the direction to wind blows to, not from. In the raw data, the wind direction appears in S37, at byte offset 103. In Fred's editor, as you mentioned, it's in S37, row 6, byte 7. A slight variation on these is also used for road and rail connections (it's used as a bit number, like in the first 4 bytes of S8: 1=E, 2=SE, 4=SW, 8=W, 16=NW, 32=NE - you add these together to get the value used by SP:WaW to draw the roads) As far as I can tell, whenever SP:WaW needs a single hex direction, it uses 0,1,2,3,4,5. If it needs several hex directions at the same time, it uses 1,2,4,8,16,32 added together as required.

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to Fabs)

Post #: 33

- 8/13/2001 3:17:00 AM

Belisarius

Posts: 4041
Joined: 5/26/2001
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
Status: offline

Took a look at your map ecitizen - looks nice. Question, the river/stream looks really interesting, but is says height=-2, while the adjoining hexes are at height=60. Sounds more like a gorge to me? :p

_____________________________

Got StuG?

(in reply to Fabs)

Post #: 34

- 8/13/2001 5:01:00 AM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

Coming soon! What-if scenarios taking place in the aftermath of an earthquake!! Or maybe not

A workaround exists, and this issue is being addressed...
In other news, I think I've come up with a solution to the problem of partly obscured images on higher slopes. It's horribly complicated, but should work for nearly every case. This might push the 2nd beta back a day, but it will certainly be worth it.

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to Fabs)