Forest And Pathing

[Chakakhan]

Attached is an old image too for what it is worth

Jason, I think that picture is a great example of how it should work. If you pack trees tightly there is no passage period.

But what about this (from Jason's other link above):

• Forest
  Units – only units with the Boolean attribute of walking in forests may walk in Forest type.
  Structures – no structures may be built.
  A special note about the forest type. When a tree is placed on the terrain, the tile that the tree is placed on has the terrain's secondary texture skin changed to a forest type. When a cluster of trees are placed in adjacent tiles it changes the terrain enough to make a 'closed' forest terrain which means that all eight tiles around it also have a tree on them. When that is the case, the terrain is now of the forest type and there are special permissions applied to it.

How dense do the trees need to be for an area to be considered a forest?

[Wijitmaker]

Ambush and Iberians? Easy, all other nations have increased the cost of movement through forest terrain, Iberians not.

Exactly, a penalty on movement speeds

How dense do the trees need to be for an area to be considered a forest?

Let me preface by saying: I think in terms of tiles, and I'm not sure if that is an appropriate way to think about this matter in a 3d environment. So take this for what it is worth.

A tile would be defined as a forest tile under 2 optional conditions:

1) has a tree on it

AND

2) all adjacent tiles have trees on them

This would automatically change the primary texture of the terrain tile to "forest floor" designated by the biome chosen for the map. This would is key for automatic definition of a forest in random maps.

OR

3) Map maker paints the "forest" floor texture in Atlas

This would get a little bit fuzzy because what happens when trees are cut down? Does the tile texture update to inherit the secondary non-forest floor texture? In AOK, I think I remember the texture remaining, but the tile was passable. I'm sure you guys could figure out some clever solution here.

A note about the ranger unit in battle for middle earth that I referenced. I'm not sure if you have played the game, but they were a unit that if remained motionless and among the trees, they would become invisible to other players (ideal for ambushing). To the player that owned the invisible unit, it would fade in and out to show it's invisbleness (if that is a word ). That would be perfect for the Iberians. Additionally, Iberians would have the added benefit of cavalry in forest, where most other civs/factions it would only be infantry allowed.

[Chakakhan]

A tile would be defined as a forest tile under 2 optional conditions:

1) has a tree on it

AND

2) all adjacent tiles have trees on them

Makes sense, I think the tiles are currently too large for this to work out visually (check out my second picture above). One of the things we are trying is to decrease the tile size and see how that works out. I am making a change that will make the tiles 2 meter squares instead of the current 4 meter squares (so 4 tiles can fit in the space occupied by one now). That should make that work out a lot better visually.