Invisible Hills

[kesh]

I noticed that some maps that come with the game have elevations that you can't see on the screen, but do restrict LOS. Rolling over the mouse pointer gives an elevation, but no hillside graphics are shown on the map. The invisible hills are all 'hillside' elevations, that is 5m, 15m, 25m, etc.

I tried to recreate this in the editor. I made a 1 hex level 1 10m hill. All the surrounding hexes automatically went to 5m hillsides as normal. I then 'erased' the hill, that is put level 0 clear terrain in its place. The hillside graphics in the surrounding 6 hexes disappeared, but the rollover message still indicated a level 5 elevation in all of them. The hillsides remained, though the hill had gone. The hillsides had to be erased by hand.

This is not really a problem in the editor if you know about it and can erase the hillsides by hand, but I was a teeny bit surprised to find these invisible hills in the maps that came with the game.

Don't shout at me Don!

Regards Kesh

[Pyros]

Hi,

Even in a real topographic map there are only certain levels of heights that are represented/traced on the map.
In our case the maps are a combination of topo and morphological representations.

Concerning the map editor, since there is not any tool to design level 0.5 elevation, then you may consider as normal to have an elevation 5 (slope for hill level 1) ground without graphical modification/trace on the map.

Concerning the metric units of meters (that you use next to the elevation of 10, 20... etc), you shouldn't think a level 1 hill as an elevation of 10 meters, but as an elevation of simply 10 units.

cheers,
Pyros

[kesh]

I think you miss my point.

Attached is a 20x20 map I made full of elevations up to 45, none of which are visible on the map graphic, but can be detected with pointer rollover and do cause LOS obstruction.

Kesh

[Bernard]

Kesh, from what I have read, would I be correct in thinking you want to be able to manually set the elevation for any hex?
If so, just select a hex in the map editor, hit *(the asterisc) and type in the height you want. I've used this in the past to make some interesting detailed maps with lots of small pieces of subtle cover, rather than whacking in level 1 (height 10) hills whenever I need to block LOS.
Hope this helps.

[PlasmaKrab]

One small tip regarding invisible slope remains (the slopes of a hill that was erased):

If they are height 10 or over (case of the "up to 45" invisible elevations Kesh mentioned), they can be unveileed by brushing over any kind of terrain.

Actually,, if you plug some discontinuous elevation (more that 2 levels higher than the surrounding terrain, say level 50 on background 30 or less) the slopes will be automatically calculated but strangely, will not appear on "clear" terrain until you change the terrain type.

Looks like some actualisation bug, possibly already fixed?

[DRG]

kesh said:
I think you miss my point.

Attached is a 20x20 map I made full of elevations up to 45, none of which are visible on the map graphic, but can be detected with pointer rollover and do cause LOS obstruction.

Kesh

I promise I won't "yell" at you. However....

We specifically tell you to not do what you did

This is covered in the in game help file. Go to the editor, load that map you sent as an example then click on HELP and go to page two and read ....

=========
Asterix' - This allows the map editor to input a new height to a hex. it is best used right after placing the hex. Use to adjust a hexagon's height slightly when desired - do NOT use this to create 'invisible' 80 high hills!. for experts only. ('Asterix' shown here instead of the character as this produces a CR/LF pair in SP text files!).
========

OK so you didn't build 80 high invisible hills but 45 is just as bad

That's the way the game works. It doesn't update the map until you actually put terrain on it. This control is for someone who wants to put 1 or two "units of elevation" on a flat patch of ground as cover for troops in scenarios You would build a slightly sunken road with this, or slightly raised if need be

If you want to see what you built on that test map "magically" appear load it in the editor. Go to the second page of terrains. Click on the green grass on the second page ( this button works differently than the grass on the first page ) then click on fill range, type 50 for the range then press FILL repeatedly and your hills will grow with each press of fill

Don

[Marek_Tucan]

I am sometimes using the "invisible hills" to simulate highest points of flat hills and so on - you may try and have a look on my map of military training area Libava (not here, though, you'll have to go to the SPMBT Yahoo group). On several places this is used, as well as on my Kladno map (same file location).
Or it can be useful when you're creating a map of very flat area (for example banks of a large river with very slow rise of altitude) - you can simulate for example levees etc.

In fact as I prefer to use scale "10 SP height units=20 meters", I am using this in such cases quite often as 20m levee is really a bit too much)

[kesh]

Cheers for al the help

kesh