Map: Height Maps

[dmnt]

Originally Posted by jp10

I am posting this here since i am working on a map generated from the Venhola map tool.

We are currently considering that each unit of height roughly represents 24 inches or .6 meters. As a simple rule of thumb this would make each hill level represent roughly 20 feet or 6 meters of height


So:
Height 1 = 20 feet/6 meters
2 = 40/12
3 = 60/24
4 = 80/30
5 = 100/36
6 = 120/42
7 = 140/48
8 = 160/54
9 = 180/60
10 = 200/66
11 = 220/72
12 = 240/78
13 = 260/84
14 = 280/90
15 = 300/96

The reason for my seemingly grognard questioning is I am working on a map that highest peaks need to be 656'/200m and I need to set the ratio to translate the scale to WINSPMBT height system. I am calculating that if level 15 300'/96m will be simulating the 656'/200m then each 100'/33m of real height should be a 2.5 level increase on the map. Sounds good?

The map tool assumes 10 meters / level (see the adjustable number 10 next to ↕ character). If you change that to 6 it should produce these numbers. Back to the days when I started there wasn't a definitive guide so I assumed that height is metric and the unit is one meter and went on with that.

I may change the default to 6 meters now, tho.

By default the system uses the lowest point of terrain as the lowest level (height 0) and then converts the terrain features into WinSPMBT map by the said conversion logic. Any height exceeding will be "clipped", that is made to be level 15 if it's higher than 160 meters from the lowest point (or 96 meters on 6 meter step setting). Additionally if you download the source code and run it on command line you can have a manually set lowest point.

For your terrain, you'll have two options:
* compress; set the terrain level to be 200 m / 16 = 12.5 meters
* clip; let the highest points in the terrain be flat level 15 areas and work it with the terrain settings but making the peaks impassable