We use the Edit Terrain Values toolbar to make a number of changes to the terrain. Some concepts are very easy to understand, others will require more time and experimentation to get a hold of.
In all of the following discussion, the following selected hex is always used as a starting point, unless stated otherwise:
The first three buttons from the left side of the toolbar place some extra images onto the map. Just think of them as some very large terrain details - the difference with these details is that instead of been used to denote something that goes across a hex border, these details have an influence over the entire hex in which they reside, having an effect on all six directions of the hex equally.
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Here is the button that adds hilltops to the map. Hilltops have no significance other than that they are noticible landmarks which allow units who are in possession of them to have better intelligence of nearby enemy units. It's up to the scenario maker to use this detail sensibly - covering the whole map with hilltops would result in every unit having better intel, but the map would look hideous. A hilltop, here and there, surrounded by hillsides is what is expected. |
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Clicking in the hilltop button will cause a hilltop to appear in all the hexes that you have selected on your hex map. |
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Here is the button that adds bunkers to the map. Unlike hilltops, bunkers have a significant effect on units on the map. Firstly, there is a slight reduction in a unit's ability to quickly enter and leave a hex with a bunker. Secondly, bunkers make good defensive positions. |
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Clicking in the bunkers button will cause a bunker to appear in all the hexes that you have selected on your hex map. |
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Here is the button that adds a fortress to the map. Fortresses are much like bunkers but even more so: movement is even more slowed and defensively a fortress is really tough. Typically fortresses appeared in cities and factories whereas bunkers appeared cleared fields, but as the editor doesn't check to see that this principle is obeyed it is entirely up to the scenario maker whether or not he wants to pay it any attention. |
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Clicking in the fortress button will cause a fortress to appear in all the hexes that you have selected on your hex map. |
As a quick note: if you already have one of these details in a hex and you want to delete it, then you work very much like any other detail. You first select the hex on the hex map that you want the detail removed from; when there is a green highlight around the hex border you can then click on the relevant detail button in the toolbar and the detail will be deleted.
As a final note: all of these three details are all mutually exclusive. If you have a hilltop and chose to place a fortress in the same hex, then the hilltop will be deleted and the fortress added in its place.
The order in which details are laid down onto the hex map is very important. Small rivers and medium rivers are always overlaped by a corresponding road, but a large river overlaps all corresponding roads. What this is meant to represent is the way that smaller bridges are less of a target (strategically speaking) than larger bridges, hence the smaller bridges are considered permanent features of the landscape, while larger bridges can become the focus of demolition teams.
To show this abstraction on the hex map, a permanent bridge (over small and medium rivers) is displayed by having a road cross over a river, while non-permanent bridge (over large rivers) is displayed on the map as having a green disk placed over a river which is in turn in placed over a road leading to the hex's edge.
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This image shows a surfaced road being used as a bridge to cross a small river. |
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This image shows a surfaced road being used as a bridge to cross a medium river. |
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In this image an attempt to cross a large river was attempted by a surfaced road but the game engine doesn't allow a permanent bridge to form. |
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The only way to have a bridge that can cross a large river is to add non-permant bridge to the hex border. Notice that I'm using surfaced roads to lead up to a Tank Bridge. |
There are three types of bridges: Infantry, Tank and Ferry. The Infantry bridge can only be crossed by foot or semi-motorised units. All units can cross at a Tank or Ferry bridge, with the difference between the bridge types being that you have to manually blow a Tank bridge, while the Ferry only blows when an enemy unit moves up against it and can never be repaired. Both Infantry and Tank bridges can be both manually blown by any unit with advanced demolishing skills and repaired by a bridging unit.
(Note: that in this section, when I often say bridges I often include ferries as a bridge. Although some engineering type people might take issue with me on this, in terms of basic functionality on the map an Infantry bridge, a Tank bridge and a Ferry are the same.)
On an issue of taste: though I don't mind any road type leading to a ferry crossing, I do have a preference for surfaced roads and railroads crossing at a non-Infantry bridge. This means that if you have a surfaced road or a railroad leading to a large river bridge then I use either a Tank bridge or a Ferry, while if the road is a dirt road then I use an Infantry bridge or a Ferry. This isn't a hard rule - it's merely a sense of taste of mine, so you can mix and match as you please.
In the following run through of the bridge buttons I have removed the hex highlight from the image in order to make the graphic clear. In all three examples the hex that was selected was the one that is the center of the image.
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To make some Infantry bridges appear on the map, I first (shift-)click on the hex map to select the hex(es) that I want the bridge(s) to appear. I then go to the toolbar and click on the Infantry Bridge... button, which brings up the following dialog: |
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Clicking Cancel does nothing to the map, but clicking on the OK button will cause some changes to occur. For whatever check box you click in then the respective bridge shall appear on the map, if you leave the check box blank then any infantry bridges that correspond to that choice will vanish from your selected hexes. In the image to the right we can see what happens when we select the upper left edge of the hex. |
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To make some Tank bridges appear on the map, I first (shift-)click on the hex map to select the hex(es) that I want the bridge(s) to appear. I then go to the toolbar and click on the Tank Bridge... button, which brings up the following dialog: |
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Clicking Cancel does nothing to the map, but clicking on the OK button will cause some changes to occur. For whatever check box you click in then the respective bridge shall appear on the map, if you leave the check box blank then any tank bridges that correspond to that choice will vanish from your selected hexes. In the image to the right we can see what happens when we select the left edge of the hex. |
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To make some River Ferries appear on the map, I first (shift-)click on the hex map to select the hex(es) that I want the bridge(s) to appear. I then go to the toolbar and click on the River Ferries... button, which brings up the following dialog: |
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Clicking Cancel does nothing to the map, but clicking on the OK button will cause some changes to occur. For whatever check box you click in then the respective bridge shall appear on the map, if you leave the check box blank then any tank bridges that correspond to that choice will vanish from your selected hexes. In the image to the right we can see what happens when we select the lower left edge of the hex. |
You may have noticed that a hex has six sides but I have provided only three choices of which hex side the bridge should appear. To get a bridge to appear on the right side of a hex you merely select the hex to the right and set its left bridge. That is if you want a hex to have a bridge at its top-right edge, you select the hex to the top-right of the hex you want and set that hex to have a bridge at its lower-left edge. It might seem confusing at first but you'll pick it up quickly enough.
Bridges also possess mutual exclusivity. If you try doing something like placing an Infantry bridge on top of a Tank Bridge then the Tank bridge shall be deleted and the Infantry bridge shall appear.
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To fight without surrendering, units need to be connected to a supply route. The starting point of all supply is the supply hex which can be set by first selecting the hex(es) that you want changed and then clicking on the Supply Hexes... button to bring up the following dialog. |
The first thing to note is that if you don't select either of the "Does Side 1 Have Supply" or "Does Side 2 Have Supply" then all of your selected hexes will no longer have any supply state asociated with it.
The second thing to notice is that both sides to a battle can possible draw supply from the same supply hex, but this is not a necessity - so having only one side drawing supply from one hex is acceptable.
The third thing to notice is that there are five levels of supply to chose from:
Very Good Good Moderate Bad Very Bad
Units that can trace their supply path to a hex from which they can draw Very Good supply levels then they shall be very strong in attack and strong in defense. At the other extreme, if a unit can only trace its supply path to a hex from which they can only draw Very Bad supply levels then they shall be weak in attack and defense.
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In the image to the left you can see how the supply hex is marked out with an orangish border. But the other information about who can draw supply and how much supply is now unavalible to the scenario maker (though that information is still preserved by the editor and will be used by the game), so it might help to keep some notes about how you have set your supply hex values. |
This "unavailibility" of the information that you have entered for the supply hex is something that I should one day fix. When I made the decision that lead to this terrible user interface, I was going through the first development phases of the game and I needed some level editor fast - in other words I was merely concerned that I have an editor that somehow allowed me to make a scenario, which would then allow me to concentrate on the game itself. If you feel that I should fix this interface limitation to the editor then feel free to email some feedback on what you would like to see done.
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Battles need objectives and in in the Joy Of Hex these objectives take the form of Victory Hexes. To place some victory hexes on the map you first must shift-click them as you normally would do to select hexes on the hex map, then you click on the Victory Hexes... buttons, which is pictured to the left, to bring up the following dialog: |
The first thing to notice is that both sides will get a victory points contribution from a hex that has been deemed a Victory Hex by the scenario maker. This contribution can then be set at different values for each side. The values are:
Very High High Moderate Low Very Low
For any Victory Hex set to Very High for a side, then for that side to do well in the victory calculations it must possess the victory hex for a large part of the battle and be holding at the end. At the opposite extreme, it is almost a matter of indifference to a side if it is in possession of this hex or not.
Notice that there is a Clear Hexes button. If you have set a hex to be a Victory Hex and you don't want it to be set, then select that hex, click the Victory Hexes... button, wait for the dialog to appear, then click the Clear Hexes button.
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In the image to the left you can see how the Victory Hex is marked out with an bluish border. But the other information about the Victory Hex is now unavalible to the scenario maker (though that information is still preserved by the editor and will be used by the game), so it might help to keep some notes about how you have set your Victory Hex values. |
As a final note, the game uses Victory Hexes as a help to its AI. If you use Victory Hexes carefully then the AI can do a better job at either defending or attacking. In fact it is the ownership of these Victory Hexes that the AI uses to determine whether, on the large scale, to attack or defend: for if the AI finds that it has most of the Victory Hexes then it will slow down its attacks, whereas if it finds that it doesn't have many of the Victory Hexes then it will move into a more offense attitude.
I doubt that I'm alone on this, but my opinion is that programming the game AI is the hardest part of putting together any game. Making some units on a map move about in an intelligent way is incredibly difficult and can often be the death of a game.
To provide a pathway where a scenario maker can help the game AI I've provided something called Game AI hexes. These act like Victory Hexes and can be use to provoke the AI to switch from attack to defense modes, in that if it has little or none of the Victory Hexes or Game AI Hexes then the AI will switch into a more agressive mode, while if it possesses most of these hexes then it will be more defensive.
Game AI hexes can also be used to help the game AI to not do stupid things. Often when a battle map is made there are clearly (to the human eye but not to a computer) locations that are critical. Holding these hexes can be the key to victory, while not holding them can lead to embarrassing defeats. To make the game realise that certain hexes are important, use Game AI hexes.
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To set the Game AI hexes, you first select those hexes that you want to be Game AI hexes in the map by shift-clicking. You then click on the Game AI Hexes... button that is portrayed in the image to the left. Clicking this button will bring up the following dialog: |
The first thing to notice is that this dialog looks exactly like the dialog for setting the Victory Hexes, which isn't surprising for the computer AI uses Victory Hexes and Game AI hexes as if they are one and the same sort of object. This means that all that was said before for Victory Hexes applies here.
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In the image to the left you can see how the Game AI Hex is marked out with an purplish border. But the other information about the Game AI Hex is now unavalible to the scenario maker (though that information is still preserved by the editor and will be used by the game), so it might help to keep some notes about how you have set your Game AI Hex values. In the game, these Game AI hexes will not be displayed - these are things that the game AI uses, as a human game player should be able to figure out proirities for himself. |
Because of how they are marked out supply, victory and game AI hexes are mutually exclusive, meaning that you cannot have one on top of the other. If you try to do so then what you have placed earlier in a selected hex will be deleted and replaced with your new choice.
Joy Of Hex has a few climates that a scenario maker can choose from. Though these variations in climate choice don't really appear to do very much in the editor, the game on the other hand uses the climate to determine the ground state. So if the weather is cold enough and there is enough ice on the ground then the ground can change to a snow covered landscape. Water has the effect of once there is enough then the ground can turn to mud.
To initialise the ground state you need to pay attention to when you want your scenario to start. Having a lot of ice about will probally be confusing if you choose to start during the middle of summer. The best way to get a feel for the climates and how they work is to play many of the different scenarios and, in particular, keep an eye on the climate sidebar and watch how the amount of ice and water change and how these relate to the temperature.
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You don't need to select any hexes to change the initial ground state as the ground state is something that effects all hexes simultaneously. To adjust the initial values you only need to click on the Initial Ground State... button to bring up the following dialog: |
All values are in centimeters. For those who aren't familar with centimeters, there are roughly 30 cm to a single foot.
In Europe2 and Russia1, to trigger the lightly frozen conditions you need to set the amount of ice to 20cm or higher. The more ice that you have, the longer it will take to unfreeze when spring comes around.
As a final comment, if you have chosen Europe1 or Desert1 as your climates then adjusting the values in the above dialog will have absolutely no effect. In Europe2 you can cause a mild freeze to occur, while in Russia1 you can have not just a light freeze, but extensively deep snow and muddy conditions.
There are some recommended guidelines that go towards making a consistent scenario appearance, the editor doesn't check for them but you probally should:
A fortress should typically go in city or factory hex. A bunker should typically go in a clear hex - as when a complex of bunkers is built the terrain is typically cleared. Of course this is all typical behaviour. If a dirt road comes to a large river, then it should be crossed by an Infantry Bridge or a Ferry. But this is a matter of taste. If a surfaced road or railroad comes to a large river, then it should be crossed by an Armour Bridge or Ferry. But this is a matter of taste. Infantry, Tank and Ferry bridges shouldn't be placed anywhere on the map. They should only be used where one wants to cross a large river. When you place down an Infantry, Tank or Ferry bridges you should have some sort of road leading to the river and away from the river. You shouldn't place Supply, Victory or Game AI hexes on lake hexes. Though a ferry can reach these hexes, whenever an enemy unit comes into contact with the ferry the ferry shall be blown, making these hexes unreachable by anyone.