Scenario design request for help - water feature problem

[Badger73]

Posting in both CMBN & CMFI

I'm trying to design a map in a rural farmland area that has a large pond; 24 x 32 m (3x4 action squares) surrounded by grass and stands of trees.  This pond is in a low spot on rising terrain.  The surrounding elevating is 50m.  No matter what I do, the result is a multi-story water pit; a steep-sided sinkhole tens of meters deep.  This is not the desired result!  I've tried both the "clear" and "direct adjust" elevation buttons to make the water terrain both match adjacent elevation or be a trifle lower.  Nothing seems to work for water tiles.  When I change the terrain tile from "water" to other ground, the terrain adjusts correctly and the quarry pit disappears.  

1. What am I doing wrong?
2. How do I fix it?
3. Any map making suggestions for water features in general?

Thanks for all help.

[rocketman]

Please post a screenshot from 2D and 3D editor and preview and I'll have a look at it.

[A Canadian Cat]

Water in the game resides at the same level and at the lowest level. So, if you have a water tile at say 25m for a river or something and then a pond at 48m for the ground at 50m the game will force all water tiles to be at 25m resulting in a pond that does not look quite right.

[Badger73]

Please see attached.  I am using CMBN v3.11 editor but had the same issue in v2.20.  Thanks for your help.

 

Please post a screenshot from 2D and 3D editor and preview and I'll have a look at it.

 

[mjkerner]

Badger, it looks like you need to "Lock" the water hexes, or at least those perimeter pond hexes, at whatever level you want the water to be.  You will probably want to lock the surrounding ground at 50, though, too.  The editor "smoothes out" the terrain between one elevation and another to avoid sharp elevations changes, so as you have it now, the 50 meters ground hexes are dictating that water be 50 hexes as well. If you lock the borders of the pond and the surrounding ground at the elevations you want, then it should work OK.  I hope that makes sense.

[Badger73]

Eureka!  That was the problem.  I had another, very small pond at 11m elevation on the other side of the map.  When I removed it, the large pond appears correctly.  Thank you IanL, Rocketman, and mjkerner.  Appreciate both your efforts.

 

Water in the game resides at the same level and at the lowest level. So, if you have a water tile at say 25m for a river or something and then a pond at 48m for the ground at 50m the game will force all water tiles to be at 25m resulting in a pond that does not look quite right.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Badger73

[mjkerner]

PS, when locked (and I forget, I think you do that by holding down "SHIFT" when clicking the AS on the map, the elevation numbers are in a black box with white numbers....

[mjkerner]

Pffft, nevermind, LOL!

[rocketman]

Good it was solved - as a bonus you found out how to create a sink hole

[A Canadian Cat]

For your smaller pond you can use marsh tiles instead of water.

[Badger73]

Decided on mud for now.  Will keep marsh in mind though (sink holes, notwithstanding!).  Thank you again.

 

For your smaller pond you can use marsh tiles instead of water.

[Pak40]

I hope this is one of the things changed for Battle of Bulge. Rivers and streams in the Ardenness change elevation rapidly. It just wouldn't look right if a stream were all the same height.

[RockinHarry]

If it´s just small creeks and such (1 AS width), then something like footpaths would be imaginable to create something not bound to terrain elevation differences. Just some sort of graphical top layer, that otherwise has little to non cover or obstacle effects.

Too bad, foot path is non moddable for this purpose, as it draws from the basic tile, also used for dirt roads and dirt lot texture.

Maybe BFC could think about offering a moddable map maker tile, just for eye candy and otherwise with no further influence on game mechanics. Preferably one that works the same way as roads, that smoothly connect with adjoining action spots.