Terrain

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The terrain in Warlords Battlecry 3 doesn't have much of an impact on the game outside of manipulating unit movement, but there are a few other factors that effect the game. Each terrain tile is a flat image but composed of 100 to 400 cells which tells the game the type and elevation (or height) at which to treat the terrain to be per cell.

Hit Chance
Terrain height can affect the accuracy of a missile unit, increasing or even decreasing their hit chance depending on the difference between the attacker and the target's height. If the attacker is actually lower than the target, then the hit chance ends up being reduced. Here is the exact formula:

Hit chance + (attacker's height - target's height x10)

So if a unit with a combat of 10 (60% chance to hit normally) was on High Grass terrain (elevation 6), they would get a bonus of +30 when attacking a target on normal Grass terrain (elevation 3). So their hit chance would become 90%. If the attacker and target switched places, the hit chance would be reduced by 30 and the new hit chance would be just 30%.

Damage Amount
Missile damage from both units and buildings are affected by the elevation difference between the attacker and the target, which can lead to missile attacks dealing more or even less damage when attacking targets that are on higher or lower terrain. This damage bonus (and penalty) are predefined depending on the elevation difference:

Target on lower elevation by 7 = 300% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 6 = 250% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 5 = 200% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 4 = 150% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 3 = 140% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 2 = 130% damage.

Target on lower elevation by 1 = 120% damage.

Same elevation = 100% damage.

Target on higher elevation by 1 = 80% damage.

Target on higher elevation by 2 = 70%  damage.

Target on higher elevation by 3 = 60%  damage.

Target on higher elevation by 4 = 50%  damage.

Target on higher elevation by 5 = 40%  damage.

Target on higher elevation by 6 = 30%  damage.

Target on higher elevation by 7 = 20%  damage.

This means missile units placed on High Grass terrain deal 140% damage to units on normal Grass terrain. But if those missiles units on High Grass terrain were attacking units on Desert terrain, then their damage amount would be boosted to a staggering 250%! (Desert is lower than Grass, which are both lower than High Grass)

Flying units are always treated as having +1 elevation to what ever terrain they are currently above. This makes it so they inherit the missile bonuses when attacking grounded units. However, as this is still based on the current terrain elevation, it means grounded units on higher terrain can still gain a missile bonus against flying units. I.E: An Eagle above desert terrain (elevation 0) would count as having an elevation of 1. A Squire on a nearby dirt cliff (elevation 3) would have its damage increased against the Eagle to 130% as the Eagle would still count as being lower by 2 points of elevation.

Towers (and all other buildings for that matter) also have an elevation bonus - like with fliers, they receive +1 elevation to what ever ground they were built on. This is why attacks from towers tend to sting so much. Because of these bonuses and penalties, it's usually a good idea to attack towers with flying units.

Effect on movement
As grounded units are crossing terrain with differing elevation, their speed will increase or decrease depending on whether they're moving to a higher elevated cell or a lower one. If a unit is moving to a higher elevation, then their speed is halved while transitioning to the new elevation. This is to represent them going up hill and working against gravity. If a unit is moving to a lower elevation, then their speed is doubled during the transition.

Terrain Types
The type of terrain typically decides what units can cross it or whether or not buildings can be built. Again, this is set per cell on a tile, so a single grass tile, for example, won't be entirely classified as grass terrain. The roads of such terrain are actually tagged as dirt. Below are all the terrain types, their pathing rules and any special effects.

Dirt
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = None.

Fords
Rules = Can not be built on.

Specialty = Grounded units (but not true floating units) create splashing sounds while crossing the terrain, as well as displaying splashing effects.

Grass
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = None.

Lava
Rules = Impassible to grounded units, including true floating units. Can not be built on.

Specialty = None.

Marsh
Rules = Can not be built on.

Specialty = Grounded units (but not true floating units) create squelching sounds while crossing the terrain, as well as displaying splashing effects.

Mountain
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = None.

Rock
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = None.

Sand
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = None.

Snow
Rules = Normal.

Specialty = Grounded units leave footprints behind while crossing the terrain.

Void
Rules = Impassible to ALL units. Blocks normal missiles, but not lightning-bolt projectiles. Can not be built on.

Specialty = None.

Water
Rules = Impassible to grounded units, but not true floating units (those marked as having the ability to cross water in their bios on this wiki). Can not be built on.

Specialty = Pure aquatic units leave splashing trails behind while crossing the terrain (such as Boats, although there have been no such unit since WBC1).

Unknown (Default)
Rules = Impassible to ALL units. But can still be built on. (Although units can't ever get onto the tile to actually build)

Specialty = None.

Random Map Generator (RMG)
The Warlords Battlecry series has been gifted with not only an in-game editor, allowing players to make their very own maps, but also an in-built random map generator (RMG) offering almost limitless amount of maps.

Using the RMG
The RMG can be accessed in 3 different ways. Firstly and the most important way is using it when selecting a scenario to play. The very top option of the list of scenarios says "Random" and gives you some parameters to adjust. This starts the RMG just before you go into the battle, and uses the parameters to influence how the random map will look. Here you can change the size of the map, the theme (see below), the amount of mines, animals and utility buildings such as Temples, Quests and even Lairs.

Secondly, the RMG can also be accessed via the in-game editor by pressing Ctrl+R or just pressing Alt by itself while on the create new map panel. The text box for the map's name must be blank at this point and deselected. (Pressing the Escape key deselects it when there's no text within it.) However, maps generated through the editor don't allow you to choose the map's theme, but it does use the map size option. Also these maps are only purely terrain and features only - no buildings nor animals or even the start locations.

Thirdly, the RMG is accessed through the campaign. This time, though, you'll have no control over the parameters and the RMG will use preset ones from the campaign's data files.

RMG Themes
When a map is being made the RMG will only use tile designs from predefined themes, so the maps aren't totally random. There are 10 themes that the RMG can choose from:

Grasslands: A relatively flat terrain of grass and a few roads, populated with trees and a lot of plants.

Plains: This baron land of just grass and dirt is almost entirely flat. There's not much vegetation here, either, but that does mean there is plenty of room to build.

Wetlands: This theme is build with grass, water (via grass coasts) and patches of marsh dotted around the place. With a respectable amount of overgrowth as well, building space can become somewhat limited.

Jungle: With heavy focus on the jungle tiles themselves, this theme can seem a little more empty than one would expect from a theme based on heavy overgrowth.

Desert: A typical desert theme with very little but sand and a few palm trees. There are also desert roads that cut through the map, where players can see campers set aside.

Outlands: This wasteland of a map is made with desert and dirt, via the cliffs. Dead trees and some minor plant life can be found occasionally, but the cliff edges separating the terrain designs are what shape the map.

Lava: This rocky terrain is shaped by the lava that gives it its name. With no objects at all, this theme relies on the lava and a few tile features to prevent the map from being entirely flat.

Caverns: Pretty much the same as the Lava theme but switches out the lava for the cavern walls (void). Because of these cavern walls, flying units' mobility are almost equally restricted as grounded units.

Snow: A typical snow themed map with snow covered trees, rocks and icy roads.

Highlands: Made with grass and high grass tiles, this theme uses those cliff edges to break up the map. There is also a respectable amount of vegetation that can further divide up the map.

How it all works
It would be truly amazing if the RMG actually did make maps out of thin air (although it's not far from doing that), but in reality it actually uses pre-made slates of a map, known as Geomorphs or GOMs for short. Each GOM contains 9 map tiles in a 3x3 fashion with features already placed on them. The RMG works by placing these GOMs down like a jigsaw - placing only GOMs next to each other that have matching edge data. There are typically 40-80 GOMs in each theme, so there's plenty of variety. But eagle eyed players can spot repeats of a GOM used multiple times on the same map. When a GOM is about to be placed, the RMG checks to make sure that a grounded unit can always walk to all 4 corners of the map. If the tiles of a GOM would break this, then it won't be used and another GOM is placed instead.

Once all the GOMs have been placed down, setting up the tiles and feature objects, the RMG then places the start locations. The true location of each one is randomized but with a very high chance of being placed into the corners. Otherwise, the start locations can be placed anywhere beyond a minimum distance from any other player. Unfortunately, this minimum distance has to take the smaller map sizes into account and thus the minimum distance is quite small. But it still prevents players from starting inside someone else's base. When a start location is placed, the RMG then removes all feature objects around the start location up to 20 cells away in all directions making a 40x40 square - ensuring the player has enough room to build a base. In addition to that, any large / big 2x2 tiles that are also on a GOM with a start location are replaced for flat plain tiles of the same group as the removed tile. This further improves the building space around any start locations. Once done, 3 towers for that player are then placed somewhere around the start location.

With the terrain built and start locations placed and cleared, the RMG then chucks in the mines and utility buildings with little care. Apart from making one of each Resource Mine start close to a player and a minimum distance for Lairs to be placed away from a player, there are no other restrictions - allowing for extra mines and even other utility buildings being placed within a player's start location.

Gorgon's Lawnmower: There is a bug in the connectivity check when the RMG ensures grounded units can reach all 4 corners of the map. The bug incorrectly causes 2 of the columns of tiles placed on the far right side of the map, as well as 2 rows at the bottom of the map, to be completely purged of all feature objects. However, the 2 columns and rows purged aren't actually next to each other, for the column / row between them avoids the purge and retains all of its features. This phenomenon is not to be confused with the mass removal of features on feature heavy themes, such as Grasslands, where the amount of features across all the GOMs used exceeds the game's internal limit for feature objects, and thus no more can be placed.

Trivia

 * WBC3 supports animated tiles, like past installments. However, there are no official animated tiles in the game.
 * The mountain terrain theme doesn't actually use the mountain terrain type but instead uses grass with all cells set to block pathing. However, the mountain terrain type doesn't actually do anything different to the normal grass type, anyway.
 * The lava terrain theme and type make their first appearance in the series with WBC3, but yet what the game was shipped with is the second incarnation of the lava theme. The original lava tiles are much different to what you see today but you can still see them in alpha screenshots and even on the back of the CD case for those lucky enough to have bought a physical copy of the game when it first came out.
 * There are 18 unused tiles in the game, all perfectly usable, but can't be accessed via the editor due to their definition lines not being present in their respective terrain .en files. (End users can easily add the required lines to get these tiles back. I'll probably make a section about this sometime)
 * A flying unit or building placed on the High Grass or High Dirt terrain themes count as being on the highest terrain possible (elevation 7).
 * 30 of the GOM files that came with the game to be used with the RMG are actually from WBC2. However, they are unused but otherwise still within the game's files.