(ROTE) ===[TASK]=== Rice field experiments

[Radagast.]

We currently experiment a lot with the rice field.

Issues:

- not adapting to the terrain (fixed)

- water not shown/rendered for those variants that contain mud walls.

We have added several variants in the process. One variant contains the farmstead as prop/turret (but static) on the field. Still to be determined.

Overall I more and more like 0AD. I would love to thank Stan and Enrique for their tremendous works for the han dynasty.

And micket + strannik for those wolves, the animations are really admirable.

As wraitii's hawk is always a pleasure to watch. (just like in real life, though it may be an animation missing where hawks stand in the air as they do in reality)

[Ayakashi]

Would it be worth attempting to divide each individual field into 3 or 4 terraces of irregular shapes. Each terrace would then adapt to the terrain so that if one field is built on a hill you can get terraces of varying levels to each other. Perhaps not so different from these:

[Radagast.]

That sounds interesting. It also is technically possible.

The problems might be the curvy terraces like in your first screenshot, though I'd really love those. To make the individual field parts blend into each other might be most difficult. We will have to experiment with it and see how it looks like.

In your 2nd screenshot, the visible brownish fields are flooded/ i.e. contain water?

btw. I realized that my current field rather fits a wild rice field and we therefore should label it as such. It may be used as a less productive field in comparison to the flooded terraces.

[Stan`]

Until we find a proper solution I reverted them to mine.

[LordGood]

You could have drop props of different height and shape paddy terraces. It could hug the terrain, and give that terrace effect.

[Stan`]

Problem is water mostly...

[Radagast.]

Were my wild rice fields really that bad?
What are comments that contain info or TODO notes for, if they get removed later without being fixed?

*Radagast is sad, feels reverted constantly, looks for violet mushroom and feels better instantly.

[Stan`]

Were my wild rice fields really that bad?

What are comments that contain info or TODO notes for, if they get removed later without being fixed?

*Radagast is sad, feels reverted constantly, looks for violet mushroom and feels better instantly.

I answered in the PM. Hope you are not too angry. =S

[sanderd17]

As LordGood knows, fields are hard to model

[Radagast.]

Thank you for your apology, Stan. I thought you could have changed the probability of occurrence (frequency) instead of completely removing it. Like I did not remove your model/mesh, but instead created 2+ more variants of it:

- same mesh/model but with deeper into the ground reaching earth walls.

- new field (drop propped with 3 different sorts of plants) which turned out to look more like wild rice.

Those are defined as variants and if you thought the occurrence of my unfinished experiments were to frequent, then I'd prefer lowering the frequency (of occurrence) instead of removing it. But of course you are right, it should be a wild-rice field and be clearly separated from the rice plant.

I agree that we might have to lessen the size of your model/mesh (or the copy of which I deepened the earth walls). Then we might drop prop it and perhaps we achieve something like Ayakashi wanted.

I also feel that those fields are hard to get right. :/

[Stan`]

If this is too much hassle, IIRC, north chinese used to cultivate wheat, so we could use the default field

[Radagast.]

Could we allow both? (wild rice, wheat field + rice plant like Ayakashi's image references show)

Perhaps make the wheat field more productive in the northern areas of a map. Or perhaps the northern China areas are less high in altitude than the south?

Eventhough even in Himalaya there is some sort of corn that grows, I think the harvests are small. While sea-level ground always excels at corn-growth if the geographical latitude (sea- and mountain-proximity) is equal.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Radagast.

[Stan`]

That sounds quite complicated my friend. Would you mind trying to make mine smaller and try to prop it ?

[Radagast.]

Funny, I meant exactly that as well as taking my wild rice field as separate simulation structure.

I have a problem with your initial one, because it didn't extend enough into the ground. I already fixed this using exactly your model, fixing some stretching at the earth walls and deepening those into the ground. So of course I'll use that (your) model, which I tried to improve (without changing anything other than the earth walls).

Perhaps we misunderstand again.

[Stan`]

Let's call it our model then

[Radagast.]

Agreed. Thanks!

See here, I had used your farmstead in the fourth main variant (which didn't work until now because the variant name wasn't distinct).

It's been the only variant I had added that used 6x6 size instead of 8x8.

Ignore the variants with those big plants.

I'll readd at least my big terrain-adapting wild rice field if you are okay with it.

(in a separate actor + simulation template)

[Stan`]

I ´ll suggest we ask the people around. Maybe ask the guys on facebook ? Just wondering how do you explain the rice growth with no water ? Also do you plan to leave the storehouse in the middle or is this just for scale cause making the farm costing stone will be a terrible unbalance. Keep it up

[Enrique]

What's the problem of using LordGood's method of propping different level terraces?

[niektb]

Just my two cents, but how about this?

Split the stone wall into parts and drop prop these individual parts. Instead of a water plane use a water-alike texture that fits to the ground (like the other farms). Finally attach the rice plants and drop prop these too.

Here is a poorly created sample using Atlas on what it could look like (I've modified the Terrain Ambient color a little to let the texture look more blueish):

I think I do not fully understand LordGood's approach (maybe someone else does?)

Edited August 17, 2014 by niektb

[Stan`]

Niektb we dropped the stone to keep up with other civs

Enrique I asked rada to do it, thing is there are two problems. Terrace will be incredbly small and units walking through it would look weird

[Enrique]

Enrique I asked rada to do it, thing is there are two problems. Terrace will be incredbly small and units walking through it would look weird

I envision the units "inside" the rice field looking like they have their feet/legs underwater and will look cool. Terraces shouldn't differ much on the height (except in cases where there's terrain elevations) and they shouldn't be placed more than 3 to avoid very high rice fields, but completely avoid units walking through is impossible though.

[niektb]

Niektb we dropped the stone to keep up with other civs

[...]

But how would you defend the water staying at the field and not flowing away (without some sort of fence, whether that would be stone or earth)?

Edited August 17, 2014 by niektb

[Enrique]

But how would you defend the water staying at the field and not flowing away (without some sort of fence, whether that would be stone or earth)?

Looking at the references, they have like a higher border that prevent the water to go away on each terrace. If the terrace is clipped by terrain, the terrain will make the "natural fence" for the water. I think it could work, that's why I commented here.

[Stan`]

I ´´ll try then then we will choose the best solution

[Radagast.]

Sorry for the late reply, I already added the stairs / terraces field like LordGood and Ayakashi wanted.

Problems:

Not enough rice. Will be hopefully fixed with my next commit. I'll also try making the square terrace even smaller.

Water doesn't show up. See below.

@Stan:

That water doesn't show up in Atlas, was my problem ever since. It not even showed up for me in the original field you provided. Probably graphics settings or graphics related. I'll have to pull from 0AD SVN and recompile.

Note: one field consists of multiple terraces / flooded individual fields.