Concealed Buildings and Trade Routes: Quantitative Guide
From AgeofWiki
Please note: this article contains images and references using Reyk's Editor Mod N3XY for TWC/TAD.
This is a more quantitative guide to using elevations and water bodies to conceal trade routes and buildings in AOE3 and its expansions. Use this as a supplement to the Tunneling Trade Routes Through Mountains and Underwater Trade Routes how-to guides.
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General Tips
Smoke animations are the main limitation to placing trade routes and buildings below the surface of water or default terrain. This guide explores the exact heights at which surrounding terrains need to be to conceal buildings, trade vehicles, and Smoke or Fire particle effects from near view at normal game zoom and pitch.
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
This demonstration makes use of a blank map with a single, straight trade route running horizontally along the center axis. On either side of the route, the terrain is raised to form a set of steps 10 units wide and 1 unit higher than the previous. The heights range from 5 to 12 units above the trade route height (exact heights are setup as explained below) and are marked with numbers. The map is playtested as player 1.
The trade route is exactly 2 units wide, enough to allow the locomotive to travel without riding up on the walls of the valley. Right: A house, factory, and arsenal were placed towards the end of the route, at the base of the 12-unit elevations, to test the height of their smokestack particle effects.
Here the travois poles and stagecoach figure are still visible behind terrain 6 units higher than the route. The travois poles and teamster's hat first disappear behind a height of 7.
Here the train steam first disappears behind a terrain 8 units high.
The smoke from the house rises higher than 12 units above the default terrain, probably coming to about 14 units high. The factory smoke and arsenal smoke both are concealed at 12 units.
Ain't No River Deep Enough
This demonstration makes use of a blank map with a trade route submerged in a river along the center axis. The river bed is graduated to form a set of steps 5 units wide and 1 unit lower than the previous. The depths range from 5 to 9 below the water surface and are marked with numbers. The map is playtested as player 1.
To set up the river bed with exact depths, holes of exact depths are made with the Cliff tool. The Elevation picker tool is used to copy and paste these depths onto the river bed, taking care not to change the riverbank.
The depth of the river water is written on the southern bank in text numbers. Revealers are placed so they can be seen during playtesting. You can also use Reveal map triggers to do this.
At a water depth of 3, neither the travois and the stagecoach are adequately covered by the water. Both are completely covered at a depth of 4.
At a water depth of 3, the train cars peek up above the surface, as well as the smokestack particles. At 4, the cars are hidden, but the smoke still is not covered. At a depth of 5, all parts of the locomotive animation are completely covered.
Additional Tips
The SPC Cave Props cave entrance archways are 8.5 units higher than the default terrain. So if you are working on a default blank map with base height default at 4, you should aim to make your canyon or cave walls about 12 units high, so that the cliff tops and edges blend seamlessly into the cave mouth props.
Use of opaque water types can help conceal the entire route, trade vehicle and all, but only if the proper depth has been set first. For tips on setting the depth of opaque rivers, see Underwater Trade Routes 2.
