Adding New Terrain Type

[guille1434]

Hello to all:

Here is a question for anyone who can give some information about the subject: I am thinking about adding a new terrain type, that would be called "Air Base", which would be, no more, no less, than a combination between a city and an airfield. So, it would combine the attributes of both previously mentioned terrain types: it would be able to refuel and upgrade/repair aircraft, to upgrade land units, and also to embark units in air and railway transports. This would represent in any map the presence of a large and well supplied/stocked air base capable of supporting not only aircraft but also land units. My idea was to implement a terrain type able not only to repair/upgrade aircraft units, but also paratrooper units. Of course, I think it is not possible to make it able to upgrade (and/or attach organic transports) just to paratrooper land units, so, other land type units could also be upgrded in such large air bases...

I have already designed the graphic for such a terrain type, and I would like to know if to implement the new terrain type in the game, the only remaining steps necessary are to add the corresponding lines in the terrain.pzdat and strings.pzdat and that`s it... I am missing something? Will the scenario editor show the new terrain type in order to make or edit maps using that new terrain type?

Thanks!

[cw58]

For certain, you would need to add a graphic to the terrain file in the Graphics\Editor folder. Compare the folder in McGuba's mod to the vanilla folder. You'll notice he's added 2 more graphics at the end of the file. This isn't the same as the graphic you would see in game; it's just a very rough graphic to represent a type of terrain. The graphic that you've made for in-game viewing would be added probably to the LayerStations (and LayerStationsFrozen) file in the Graphics\Tiles folder.

I'm not sure what else you might need.

[maguro]

Hi Guille and cw58,

It's been a while since I was on the forum and thought I'd see what's new. Glad to see Scenario Design is still alive and well.

I never did get new terrain entries to work, but I didn't experiment all that much either. Someone posted a while back that altering the stats for an existing entry in the Terrain file is easier than adding a new one, so I did that with the jungle entry (I never use it). I added my desired graphics to the LayerTerrain files. The LayerTerrain graphic goes to tiles-overlays and alters the entire tile underneath (probably stating the obvious here) so the Jungle graphic is completely is gone. So then it's your new graphic over the terrain type you edited in the Terrain file. In hindsight, I think putting the graphic in LayerStations, like cw58 is saying, is a little easier, since you will only need to add the graphic to the dry and frozen files (no Muddy file for stations).

This would represent in any map the presence of a large and well supplied/stocked air base capable of supporting not only aircraft but also land units. My idea was to implement a terrain type able not only to repair/upgrade aircraft units, but also paratrooper units. Of course, I think it is not possible to make it able to upgrade (and/or attach organic transports) just to paratrooper land units, so, other land type units could also be upgrded in such large air bases...

I guess the place to start here is in the Terrain text file. In the trait column for your new terrain entry, give it the traits of both city and airfield... and cross your fingers. That sure would be cool if it worked.

I would like to see how McGuba made new terrain work. If you do add a new entry, I would be very interested to know what steps are needed. I like your idea, and the graphic you made for it in the other thread looks great. One way or another, I hope it works. This type of terrain would be appropriate especially for large scale, theater sized maps.

[guille1434]

Hello Maguro!

It is nice to see one of the old timers to be back here in the forum.

After having a look to the Battlefield Europe mod files, it looks like McGuba did not add new terrain types, but he just recycled some types into others (by what I could see, he used the Jungle and Escarpment terrain types for other different uses). The one that did add (or at least made the attempt) was Yrfin who also uploaded a new and expanded movements types mod. I will ask a question in his thread to know if he could test those new added terrain types.

I am not in position to make in-game tests because my desktop Pc is broken down. In case it could not be added new terrain types, I think I would reuse the "Jungle" terrain for the new "Airbase" one, as I think that the jungle terrain can be assimilated to the Forest or Thick Forest types refering to the movement and entrenchment values in the movement tables...

[maguro]

Hi Guille,

I did a quick test using my modified jungle terrain (it currently acts as "small city/town"). I gave it all the traits of a city and airfield in the terrain file's entry. Everything seems to work as you would hope except for one somewhat minor thing. When I tried to embark a ground unit that is capable of both rail and air transport, it automatically choose air transport without giving me the option for rail. If I embarked a ground unit that cannot use air transport, then the unit goes by rail (obviously in that case rail is its only option). Disembarking had no issues. (As a side not, my game is modded so that "heavier" units don't have access to air transport.)

Otherwise, you can buy and place air and ground units at the town. Air units were resupplying normally. I forgot to check that ground units resupplied but I'm assuming they do. Apart from the minor issue above, the idea seems to work well enough. Maybe some fiddling around will get the transport thing figured out.

[guille1434]

Hello Maguro:

Thanks for making the tests and providing information. It is most useful to me. As adding new terrain types will not work, to "reuse" the Jungle slot seems to be the most acceptable wy to implement the "Airbase" terrain, because I think that jungle type can be safely "assimilated" to thick forest type because they present very similar obstacles to unit movement and can use the same movement table stats, thus freeing one terrain type slot.

The result of your tests are encouraging, and the glitch refering to the rail/air transport availability does not surprise me, because of the "clumsyness" of the in-scenario transport (non-organic) units availability system in PzCorps. As an example of this, I do not like either that when the player has both types of air transport available (transport aircraft and assault gliders) it is not possible to choose which one to use first, and you can only embark units on aircraft, and when there is no more transport aircraft available, then you can start using the available glider units. I think, provided that the player cannot make his choice of air transport type when both of them are available, at least it would be more useful that the program gives the glider as first choice, because it is more "versatile" (it can land the ground unit in more places than a transport plane, that can only land on airfields). I don´t know if it would be possible to change the priority order of air transport units availability, though...

Well, back on the airbase subject, I think it is not a major problem that the program assigns an air transport in first place when the unit to be embarked has the ability to be airlifted instead of giving the choice of using either air or rail transport (I suppose the programmers did not foresee the existence of terrain types with both abilities: rail embarkation and air embarkation). The player just have to be careful in embarking first any unit that needs to airlift, and then when no more transport aircraft are available, it can use rail transports, or just send the unit you want to move by rail to a city hex and embark it on a transport train in that location.

Thanks again for your hekp!!

[maguro]

I think you are right. The game was not designed with expectations that players would be tweaking things like terrain and transport. Still, I am surprised at how much can be changed under the hood. It's a probably the reason PzC has been my favorite game all these years.

The transport hiccup wouldn't keep me using that type of terrain in the game. I think it is a nice addition. Are you planning to release a winter graphic as well?

[guille1434]

I agree with you, the modding posibilities that the PzCorps engine give the players also makes this game my all time favorite. Of course, it could be improved, but it ws a game that right from the start had nearly all what was needed to make it such a GREAT game!

And yes, yesterday I made a "frozen" version of the airbase hex... Thanks for asking!

[maguro]

Awesome guille, Thanks for the great graphic! I will be adding it.

[guille1434]

My pleasure... Also, I made a replcement graphic for the schematic terrain types graphic file in the editor, where the thick forest type was "consolidated" with the jungle (they have exactly the same stats in the terrain types table file), and the jungle slot was replaced by the new Airbase terrain type...

[maguro]

Looks good. I never did anything to this image, but I think it is very useful for others using the new terrain type. Are the images with "2" new terrain types in the works?

[guille1434]

Oh, no... Those two last icons with the "2" were present in the file that I "borrowed" from the "Battlefield: Europe" mod. I don´t know if in the original PzCorps file those two spaces are empty or if they hve different graphics on them. As I don´t currently have the game installed, may be you can upload the original game file (it is in the Graphics\Editor folder) for me to edit... Thanks!!

[cw58]

Here's the file from the "vanilla" folder. And thanks for the new graphics.

terrain.png (116.45 KiB) Viewed 1652 times

[1ang]

Hi everyone,I know it does nothing but I try the same.i would like to take an existing naval unit and create one as a support unit for refueling, ammo and repair, what should i do?