[kevinp]

Hi nounette
I think it's only possible to add lights in mission building. When you place a light on the map you should click on its Properties Tab & then assign it to either the blue or red side. I think you also need to add a Home Base to the airfield & assign it to the same side as the lights. The lights will then be off when you start the mission & should come on when requested although I haven't had any success getting the lights to come on yet.

Cheers, Kevin

[kevinp]

Hi Kevin
I'm so proud - I got Manam to function on the first attempt!

You're a genius.

I'm glad the tutorial is sill useful, it's a bit out of date now.

Thanks for your kind words.
Kevin

[nounette]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your answer. I've assigned the lights to the right army and I managed to get them on (after you request it to the tower it takes a bit of time until they become visible).
I've tried both with and without defining the home base and it works in both cases (I had read somewhere that there was a bug and that it didn't work for home bases but for me it worked).
It's a pity that we cannot put lights directly in the map.
Cheers,
N

[Uzin]

I'm glad the tutorial is sill useful, it's a bit out of date now.
Kevin

If there is any chance that you will update the tutorial , I frankly
speak for some words about creating rivers in maps, both in low and high terrain. Cannot express enough gratitude for the tutorial as it is, however.

[felix_the_fat]

kevinp wrote:I'm glad the tutorial is sill useful, it's a bit out of date now.
Kevin

well - I'm a bit out of date, too!

[kevinp]

If there is any chance that you will update the tutorial , I frankly
speak for some words about creating rivers in maps, both in low and high terrain. Cannot express enough gratitude for the tutorial as it is, however.

I am working on an update but I have to keep it simple, remember it's for beginners. Also I am not an expert, I really don't know much about making rivers.

[nounette]

Hi Uzin,

There's no mistery in creating rivers either on altitude or at sea level. You've just have to add the rivers in the source_map_c (the one in clear you'll indicate as source to the tool map). This map is only black and white, white for land and black for water including rivers. If you don't touch your map_h (height) the rivers will be normally added at the current land height (I think it's better to create first your sea map, generate your first map_c with the map tool and align coasts with it, then edit again your source_map_c with the rivers and create again the map_c but without aligning coasts anymore as this could affect the rivers height).
Then, you can manually edit the heights either in map_h or through the Map Building FMB (height).

Remember that bridges can only be put at sea level. If you want to put a bridge on altitude you'll have to descend the river to sea level in order to see it (another solution would be to use a static object of the bridge but it will not allow the same functionality).

If you use a static object it will work in this way:
1) if in your map_t the road crosses the river without a cut, vehicles will be allowed to pass through the river even if the object is destroyed.
2) if in your map_t the road is cut by the river, vehicles will never be allowed to pass through .

Rivers must be at least two pixels wide when turning (if in a meander you've got only have one pixel the river will be shown as cut).

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
N

[Uzin]

Hi, nounette,
thank you for your post,
my experience with rivers is very similar to yours. Just cannot decide which solution to choose for upper ranges of rivers: with or without bridges ? The area I am working now is between Brest and Minsk, and more historical studies are needed there, including the existence of bridges.

[nounette]

Hi Kevin,
Someone tried to make a ship pass through the Suez Channel on my Mideast Map and realized that they can't go through.
I've made some tests and, in effect, it seems to be a limitation on the way ships can approach to land (I guess it's at least full water 3 pixel wide -so 5 pixel in all-, but I'm not very sure). I've already verified that all the way long the height is 0 on map_t. Do you know something about it?
Thanks,
N

[kevinp]

Rivers have to be very wide for ships to pass along them. Probably at least 700 metres wide I would say.

[DaveOD06]

Not true, you can make ships be allowed to go anywhere as long as you have the route made passable by ships in ed_map_t.tga. ed_map_t.tga basically tells the game where ships and land vehicles can and cannot go. Isn't that correct? If I am wrong someone please say so because I am led to believe that is how it works. You just have to make sure you don't want tanks and other land vehicles to be able to go near the canal.

[kevinp]

I've never managed to get ships to go anywhere I want with ed_map_T. All I can do is stop them going certain places. I have more luck getting vehicles to go to places they wouldn't normally go.

[nounette]

Hi Kevin,
This is a big constraint.
Do you think that the only factor that affects the ships is map_c or could some textures (water or whatever) or height have an impact too?
Cheers,
N

[kevinp]

The texture does have an effect. You need to use one of the Water textures ( like RGB 31 ) wherever the ship needs to go.

If you really must have ships travailing on the Suez Channel I think it can be done. You need to use a land texture all along the Channel & either remove ed_map_T or paint it black all along the Channel. Then in the FMB set waypoints for a vehicle along the Channel & save it as a mission file. Exit the game & open the mission file & change the vehicle to a ship.

I haven't tried this so I don't know for sure it would work but the same principle is used to get the trains to go anywhere.

[Mission_bug]

Hello nounette, if you take a look at my South Vietnam map you will see all the rivers are navigable. To do this it is necessary to have the rivers above a certain width, can't remember exactly what that is now as the map has been WIP for so long, :wink:



This means obviously there has to be a compromise with scale accuracy, I went for playability rather than complete accuracy as this allowed river craft to operate on all the rivers. Even though the rivers are wide enough to allow this the ships still can't come right into the river bank.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.