AOK:Terrain

From GenieWiki

Terrain is a game term referring to the base upon which all units are placed. Terrain has several properties - it consists of a repeated pattern of a certain colour, and may include trees and other ambient objects when placed. Though these objects are a part of the terrain in the sense of the terrain painting process, they are still normal units and can be deleted, moved etc without affecting the terrain underneath. Besides its appearance, the other key property of a terrain is its passability to units. Most terrain will only admit certain units - for example water is only passable to naval units, while land terrains will (not surprisingly) bear only land units. Shallows terrain is an exception and allows most units to pass, but cannot be built upon. Elevation is also an aspect of terrain, though this article mainly focusses on the its properties. Cliffs, while informally considered to be part of the terrain, are technically units, and are not terrain in the game sense. In the scenario design community, the definition of terrain is also sometimes expanded to refer to all Gaia objects on the map.

Using data editing, terrain restrictions (as described above) can be removed, allowing designers to place objects upon any terrain they desire, with none of the normal restrictions. Beta terrains (e.g. ice in AoK original, shoreless water) can also be unlocked through various methods and painted using the map copy feature.

In the AoK editor, the following terrains are available (TC denotes those available only in The Conquerors):

• Bamboo
• Desert
• Dirt 1
• Dirt 2
• Dirt 3
• Forest
• Grass 1
• Grass 2
• Grass 3
• Ice (TC)
• Jungle (TC)
• Leaves
• Oak Forest
• Palm Forest
• Pine Forest
• Road
• Road, Broken
• Road, Fungus (TC)
• Road, Snow (TC)
• Shallows
• Snow (TC)
• Snow Dirt (TC)
• Snow Grass (TC)
• Snow Pine Forest (TC)
• Water, Deep
• Water, Medium
• Water, Shallow

In addition, there are a few terrains that can only be placed by map copying from a scenario with the terrain, or by placing and removing certain units. These include:

• Farm, Unplanted
• Farm 1
• Farm 2
• Farm 3
• Farm, Dead
• Shoreless Water
• Walkable Water