Maps and Terrains

[The Witch King of Angmar]

I was wondering what type of places battles will be going on at, whether in a frozen wasteland or a forest. Also, will you be able to use natural things to your advantage? For example, if archers are on a cliff, will they get any bonuses such as sight or accuracy? Finally, will there be islands or caves that could form some sort of natural fortress?

Thanks

[Puppeteer]

I think that archers get advantages in sight and perhaps damage (due to GPE). In one screenshot you see a couple standing on a log!

[The Witch King of Angmar]

Nice. That's the kind of stuff I can't wait to see. But I wonder if they will automatically take control of good terrain or if you have to manually tell them to.

[Dylan Bales]

When archers are on a hill, I believe they have a bigger line of sight than if they were just on a flat plain; types of battles... I don't know what to say about that, I'll let someone else answer, since I really don't know what to say .

[nickson104]

Originally Posted by Dylan Bales

When archers are on a hill, I believe they have a bigger line of sight than if they were just on a flat plain; types of battles... I don't know what to say about that, I'll let someone else answer, since I really don't know what to say .

Bigger line of sight... check
Longer range?
Damage i wouldnt think so

And yeah the differing terrain would be cool but i hope the armies dont automatically take advantage of terrain, that would really set the micromanagement of the game up a notch and make a skilled player have the advantage over a lesser skilled player who wouldnt take advantage of the terrain around them...

And yeah Cliffs or islands, really defensive or death trap... One way in or the defensive advantages land-sea.... on the other hand, you could easily be cut off/blockaded and slow siege untill you starve to death...

[Esculas the Mighty]

Originally Posted by nickson104

Bigger line of sight... check
Longer range?
Damage i wouldnt think so

And yeah the differing terrain would be cool but i hope the armies dont automatically take advantage of terrain, that would really set the micromanagement of the game up a notch and make a skilled player have the advantage over a lesser skilled player who wouldnt take advantage of the terrain around them...

And yeah Cliffs or islands, really defensive or death trap... One way in or the defensive advantages land-sea.... on the other hand, you could easily be cut off/blockaded and slow siege untill you starve to death...

total death trap overwhelm them with your superior navy

[Darvin]

Rather than giving those on high ground a bonus, why not give those on low ground a penalty?

If the attacker has an offensive (range or damage) bonus, there is no imperative on the defender to move to another position; by the time this is achieved, they will be dead anyways due to the damage bonus. You're better off returning fire to kill some of the attackers and reduce their damage output that way. Alternately, giving a defensive boost makes returning fire an impractical response, and makes moving your army's position (a more tactically interesting and realistic response) the imperative.


As for what environments we may see, we've seen forest, swamp, and desert environments in various screenshots. I hope, like WKoA, that we see snowy environments. Tropical environments would also be nice. Beyond that, more important than many types of environments is many permutations of them. It's the variation from one battlefield to the next that makes matters interesting. As a mapper, I'm looking forward to seeing what can be done to make interesting map designs.

[aVeron]

I have a similar question about maps and terrain.

I havent fully understood the whole concept of the mmo world map. If you're able to fight battles far outside your own borders. How will the environment in the tons of different areas be like? Lets say you send out an army to explore, and you met up with another army, and you have to fight them, will a battlemap be loaded by then? Will the battlefields terrain and environment be same as it should be on the world map? Will it be random how the map looks like in that area, for example, if you fight first time in that area its a large forest area with a lake in a valley in middle, second time in the exact same place, will it look the same as it did the first time, or will it be randomised how it looks like?

Sorry if its hard to understand the question, i dont know how else to put it.

[Joseph Visscher]

Originally Posted by aVeron

I have a similar question about maps and terrain.

I havent fully understood the whole concept of the mmo world map. If you're able to fight battles far outside your own borders. How will the environment in the tons of different areas be like? Lets say you send out an army to explore, and you met up with another army, and you have to fight them, will a battlemap be loaded by then? Will the battlefields terrain and environment be same as it should be on the world map? Will it be random how the map looks like in that area, for example, if you fight first time in that area its a large forest area with a lake in a valley in middle, second time in the exact same place, will it look the same as it did the first time, or will it be randomised how it looks like?

Sorry if its hard to understand the question, i dont know how else to put it.

None of our maps are randomly generated, all done by hand in our editor.

Originally Posted by The Witch King of Angmar

I was wondering what type of places battles will be going on at, whether in a frozen wasteland or a forest. Also, will you be able to use natural things to your advantage? For example, if archers are on a cliff, will they get any bonuses such as sight or accuracy? Finally, will there be islands or caves that could form some sort of natural fortress?

Thanks

I am not sure if our snow environments will make it into the game, we might save it for a expansion pack, most of our playable world area is not around snow, leaving out northern Dwarven realm; still, we have many more quests to make.

About the archers, Yes sight and range increases with higher height, but it wont be like in bfme2/1 where they shoot across the entire map if they are really really high.

[aVeron]

Originally Posted by Joseph Visscher

None of our maps are randomly generated, all done by hand in our editor.

Oh, thats good! So, there will be like several of thousands and thousands of different areas around the world map then?