map_features and cliffs

[Red Spot]

Hi all,


Am in the proces of making a huge map for RTW, am at the point that I'd like to include a big cliff on 1 side of a big Iland like piece of land, am however in doubt how cliffs actually work and if it works at all like I think it does.

I know I can figure this out myself (most likelly), but am hoping this is general info to some of you and you'd be able to save me a few hours ...


Thing is I'd like to raise a piece of land so you get a clear cliff in-game between land and ocean, now the AI can still cross it and I can make the ground mountains but I'd love to just be able to say its a cliff to the AI so basicly they just cant cross the actual steep area and dont try to land there.


Thanks in advance for any intel..


G

[Makanyane]

As you mentioned map_features already I'm not sure if you have realised yet or not that the yellow lines in map_features.tga represent cliffs ?? You can add more cliffs to map by adding 1 pixel line using the same yellow colour - dodgy bit is trying to get your cliff to line up with your coast.

To do that re-size a COPY of your map_heights.tga down to map_features.tga size, copy that re-sized version into map_features as a new layer, select all the sea area in that layer then with selection still active switch so you are only viewing the original map_features.tga, invert the selection and you should be able to paint your cliff in the right place. (note that works a lot better if you have PhotoShop and can use 'nearest neighbour' re-sizing, some other programs re-size mechanism don't tie up as well with the way the game relates the various maps).

Once a cliff is placed you and AI can't land troops in those locations.

There is a cliffs_debug.tga that gets generated when map.rwm is re-generated (that is found in Rome - Total War upper level folder) I assume that is meant to correct things if you place cliff in sea - but have never really figured out what you're meant to be able to do with it.....:embarassed:

[Red Spot]

yeah thats basicly what I already figured out, but that again makes me wonder whats the point of them ...

I mean I made a big cliff on an Iland and just made the cliff itself mountain and the land ontop just normal ground wich achieves a similair goal, big difference is that I can now have like 3 rows of mountain so the cliff mildly crosses over from the cliff over to the land ontop, using cliffs as feature it seems to me that my troops still will be able to get 1/2 down the cliff before the cliff as feature is coming into effect ..


also on a side-note, its actually the vanilla map_features that makes me doubtfull about its use as its cliffs are mostly wasted afaik, running over the middle of mountains they to me seem to have little effect (except give me the impression I had to use them on any big mountain .....)


G

[Squid]

Actually from what I've been able to figure out, cliffs are used to block ships from being able to disembark at certain locations, and I'm guessing if placed in the center of a landmass to force movement around the cliff areas. This can be helpful if an area has a plateau or something.