Some trees are blocking the view of the ground, making it hard to chop them

[Deicide4u]

See the image. Art on some of the trees should be corrected, as to not block the view as much. It's making it vary hard to guess where the base of the tree is, or where or when a storehouse needs to be placed.

Bug: The trees are blocking the view of the ground beneath them.
Desired state: Trees should not block the view.

Map: Lake with Temperate biome. Also affects all random maps with the temperate biome, maybe some others.
Version: 27.1

Edited July 26 by Deicide4u

[TheCJ]

@Seleucids got a mod for you

[Deicide4u]

I know the mod she uses, but that doesn't address the issue. Only obscures it.

Also, I want to look at the pretty graphics

Edited July 26 by Deicide4u

[TheCJ]

1 hour ago, Deicide4u said:

Also, I want to look at the pretty graphics

Well, pretty trees have bigger treetops than trunks. So unless I understood you wrongly, you cant have pretty trees that dont block the view?

[Atrik]

Alt+Shift+S (enable silhouettes), it's disabled on your screenshot.

Edit: ah actually foundations don't produce silhouettes lol

Edited July 26 by Atrik

[Deicide4u]

15 minutes ago, TheCJ said:

So unless I understood you wrongly, you cant have pretty trees that dont block the view?

I...can?

How hard it is to have a pretty tree that doesn't have huge treetops?  

We aren't playing real life simulation game here.

EDIT: Age of Empires 2: DE trees, as an example. We are 3D, so just grow them a bit. I am not saying that they should look exactly like that, but older tree models from A23b looked better, IMHO.

Edited July 26 by Deicide4u

[real_tabasco_sauce]

@Deicide4u there isn’t a specific small trees mod as far as I know, but you can try playing on biomes (in random maps) with smaller trees like the steppe.

also, rotating the camera up and down makes placement easier, although it requires figuring out a good set of key binds. I’d like to know what key@ValihrAnt uses for this, but maybe it is top secret.

[TheCJ]

4 hours ago, Deicide4u said:

I...can?

If the trees from AoE2:DE as seen in the screenshot you provided are your measure of pretty, sure.

I think most people would agree that realistic trees are prettier, though? 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

12 hours ago, Deicide4u said:

Ain't gonna happen, unless in a mod. 

 

When you place a storehouse, it'll turn red to tell you it's too close. Back off by a meter and boom, it's placeable. This takes no more than a second. 

[Arup]

13 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

also, rotating the camera up and down makes placement easier, although it requires figuring out a good set of key binds. I’d like to know what key@ValihrAnt uses for this, but maybe it is top secret.

I rotate for aligning as well, rotating the camera just needs E ans Q for right and left respectively, as for rotating the storehouse we already know all you gotta do is hover your mouse around while having the building selected 

[Gurken Khan]

3 hours ago, Arup said:

rotating the camera just needs E ans Q for right and left respectively

I use the thumb buttons on my mouse.

[Deicide4u]

6 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Ain't gonna happen, unless in a mod. 

If the art guy says it isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen.

Feel free to close the "bug report". 

[Deicide4u]

On 26/07/2025 at 2:30 PM, TheCJ said:

If the trees from AoE2:DE as seen in the screenshot you provided are your measure of pretty, sure.

The trees in AoE 2: Return of Rome mode are 10x better, though.