WB TotW #7: Invisible Splines, Free Cover
Welcome back once more, ladies and gents, to the WorldBuilder tip of the week. This week, we over at COH2.ORG are continuing to provide you with small hints and tips to use in WorldBuilder, helping to improve and ease your mapping experience!
In this week's TotW, we are looking at how to fix some objects not providing cover. For example, have you ever noticed how large rocks do nothing to protect your infantry, despite being indestructible? The answer? Splines.
What you may find is that certain objects including support walls will block infantry, but still allow line of sight. These items can prove to be an integral asset in game, but without cover, they're useless.
To fix this, open up your Spline Tool, and look through the Textures. What we're looking for are a specific texture that provides cover whenever and wherever you place it.
Once you're in, look for the ditches folder. Every ditch within here is designed to be hollowed out with the Heightmapping Tool to offer infantry cover. Some ditches provide yellow cover, and others provide green. For the purposes of this example, I'm using ditch_01 for its yellow cover.
Go ahead and place the spline as normal, anywhere nearby, and hit the Colourize button once you have it selected. The Colourize window should pop up.
On this window, hit "Select All" and then drag the "Alpha" bar down to the black, turning the Spline invisible.
Now invisible, this Spline will continue to provide cover for all infantry who step on it, without leaving any unwanted texture on your map. If you were to drag this texture next to the rock in question, any infantry who use it as cover will receive the cover bonus!
A nifty little trick, but simple is its nature. Give it a try next time you playtest your map and find an area that isn't giving cover where it should be. Remember that because the cover is a Spline, you can also change its shape and size to suit your needs!
Also check out our Tip of the Week on Layers, to find out how to keep track of these invisible Splines without losing them!
Here are my sexy Ostruppen putting this rock to good use!
We hope this tip was helpful and you check back next week, when we will provide you with a new Worldbuilder TotW.
In this week's TotW, we are looking at how to fix some objects not providing cover. For example, have you ever noticed how large rocks do nothing to protect your infantry, despite being indestructible? The answer? Splines.
Figure 1
What you may find is that certain objects including support walls will block infantry, but still allow line of sight. These items can prove to be an integral asset in game, but without cover, they're useless.
Figure 2
To fix this, open up your Spline Tool, and look through the Textures. What we're looking for are a specific texture that provides cover whenever and wherever you place it.
Figure 3
Once you're in, look for the ditches folder. Every ditch within here is designed to be hollowed out with the Heightmapping Tool to offer infantry cover. Some ditches provide yellow cover, and others provide green. For the purposes of this example, I'm using ditch_01 for its yellow cover.
Figure 4
Go ahead and place the spline as normal, anywhere nearby, and hit the Colourize button once you have it selected. The Colourize window should pop up.
Figure 5
On this window, hit "Select All" and then drag the "Alpha" bar down to the black, turning the Spline invisible.
Figure 6
Now invisible, this Spline will continue to provide cover for all infantry who step on it, without leaving any unwanted texture on your map. If you were to drag this texture next to the rock in question, any infantry who use it as cover will receive the cover bonus!
Figure 7
A nifty little trick, but simple is its nature. Give it a try next time you playtest your map and find an area that isn't giving cover where it should be. Remember that because the cover is a Spline, you can also change its shape and size to suit your needs!
Also check out our Tip of the Week on Layers, to find out how to keep track of these invisible Splines without losing them!
Figure 8
Here are my sexy Ostruppen putting this rock to good use!
We hope this tip was helpful and you check back next week, when we will provide you with a new Worldbuilder TotW.
MonolithicBacon 
OnkelSam 
computerheat 