this is an Aces High terrain i'm developing with the Main Arena (MA) in mind. it's not yet available for download.

here's a small version of the latest plan, which shows the basic layout of landforms, plus zone boundaries (yellow lines), airfields, ports, vehicle bases, primary fields (shown with white outlines), strategic targets, and areas over 9000' altitude (white):

features of the terrain

the three large lakes are separated by three huge mountain ranges.   each country initially occupies one lake basin, including the mountain areas on either side.   for example, the field colours could represent Bishops=red, Rooks=yellow, Knights=green.   the central part of each mountain range is a large networks of valleys, at up to 9,000 feet altitude.   the mountain peaks are up to 20,000 feet high.   there is a small central point where the three lakes meet.   this is the only connection between the countries' initial areas apart from the mountain ranges.

mountain elevations

the mountains can better be understood with the picture to the left (but note that the altitudes are now out of date - the fields are mostly now lower than shown in this picture).   this is a greyscale image showing the elevations of a section of the western mountain range.   the light shaded areas are the highest (up to 16,000 feet) and the darker areas are the lowest.

on the northern slopes, there are very deep and steep river valleys winding up to the high ridge area, of nearly 16,000 feet, that runs along the northern edge of the range.   this then drops to a central plateau where the main six airfields are positioned at altitudes of around 8,000 feet.   moving south, the plateau rises to another ridge of over 13,000 feet which then drops steeply down to the plains.

the most extreme terrain - in terms of slopes and ruggedness - is on the northern and southern areas rising out of the plains.   the only airfields in these areas are small (single runway).

gameplay and strategy

the crucial factor in the new strategic system is the primary airfields.   take a primary field and you take over the supply system for the whole zone.   when gameplay on this map starts, there are three main options in attacking towards an enemy zone's primary field.

the first is the most direct - the shortest route, across the high ridges of the mountain range, working into enemy territory by capturing fields down the mountain valleys and onto the plains.   this is clearly the preferred route, and consequently the most frequent and intense fighting will likely take place in the mountain ranges in the early stages.

the second is longer, but has the advantage of being entirely at sea level, and in most areas supporting attacks can be given by naval forces.   this is the option of working around the tip of the mountain range and along the coastline, capturing fields progressively towards the primary field.   the central junction point (the ring of large airfields - perhaps i'll call it the Ring of Fire) is a very strong position strategically, and will likely be another hot point for fighting.

the third option is in many ways riskier but can provide a quick route to the primary field if the mountains are not an option.   this is to use naval force to launch attacks on a coastal field deep in enemy territory, in some cases in the home zone.   once a foothold field is taken, the attacking force will need to work quickly to establish a corridor of a few fields to allow a strike on the primary field.   initial supply is a big threat here - without the option to use C-47s for resupply, base defence for the first coastal field will have to be very effective for this option to be viable.

construction of the terrain

gr8lakes is based on topographic elements of three real-world places:   the Great Lakes region on the US/Canada border (for the lakes themselves), a section of the edge of the Cordilla Oriental mountain range in Colombia (for the three mountain ranges that run in towards the centre) and a large areas of the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau (for the ring of mountains that surrounds the map).

first, i created the lake outlines, by taking the real-world shapes of Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, and making a slight modification: rotating and moving Lake Superior so it lies more directly to the north.   this was needed to make an evenly balanced 3-sided layout.   apart from this, the lake shapes are largely unchanged from reality, except for the addition of some extra islands.   i didn't take any elevation data from this region.

the next step was to create the mountain ranges.   from the excellent (and free) USGS GTOPO30 site, i took a DEM files that included Colombia and the Himalaya.   i initially played around with Ogre's MapMaker, but i found i needed to manipulate the terrain more comprehensively using Photoshop.

i then opened the DEM file in Photoshop to create a greyscale height map.   Photoshop doesn't open DEM files directly, so i had to rename the DEM file to have a .raw suffix, and then open the file in Photoshop as type RAW, using these settings (only appropriate for GTOPO30 files):

• width 4800 pixels
• height 6000 pixels
• channel count 1
• depth 16 bits
• Mac byte order
• header size 0 bytes

the file then opens as a greyscale 16-bit-per-channel image.   to begin using it as a 256-level height map, i needed to switch to 8 bits per channel, and perform a Levels operation to set the highest point to 255 (white).   i could then start to select the real-world mountain areas i wanted to add into the terrain.

the actual section of the Cordilla Oriental i used (for the three ranges that run in toward the centre) runs from about 75 degrees W, 3 degrees N to the Venezualan border.   in fact, the capital, Bogota, lies in the central valley area.   the scale of the mountain range on this map is quite close to reality - the range is just over 300 miles long.   i used Photoshop to build up the elevation map for the whole terrain by copying a section of the mountain range edge onto each side of the three ranges, and then carefully merging the topographic elements together.   it's not easy to make a valley taken from one source abut one taken from another source realistically - it takes a lot of very detailed editing.   for large scale areas, i found the best way was to create a layer containing the best original mountain area, then work with the edges in a layer mask to add various levels of transparency so as to blend in with the surrounding terrain.

similarly, i opened greyscale data for the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau, pasted it in as a layer in the Photoshop file, and set a layer mask so that the outer ring of mountains would blend smoothly into the existing topography.

i imported the outlines of the lakes, and set the lake areas to be fully black, with all the land being just slightly off-black (RGB 1,1,1 at a minimum) ranging up to fully white at the highest peaks.

once the greyscale map was complete, it was a simple matter to use AKWabbit's elegant and invaluable bmp2map utility [2.13 Mb] to generate the elevation fle (and an initial set of ground cover types) for the Aces High Terrain Editor.   the current maximum altitude for the gr8lakes terrain is 16,000 feet.

i also found that the map.bmp file generated by the AH Terrain Editor appears to be in a format not recognised by Photoshop, so i had to use the freeware IrfanView to open it and save out again in order for Photoshop to be able to open it.

i use a single large Photoshop file to generate the planning images you see on this page and the greyscale 8-bit BMP files to use in bmp2map.   some layers contain planning stuff, such as fields, strategic targets, zone borders, the 9000' altltude threshold, and the map generated by the Terrain Editor.   other layers contain greyscale data for the various parts of the terrain.   i find this way of working is much more flexible than trying to maintain multiple files.

feedback

if you have any comments or criticisms of the terrain, i'd love to hear them.   you can email me at this address:

wantok [at] xomerang [dot] com

latest update: Sunday 14 July 2002

• added large mountainous area to ring the whole map.   drawing real-world elevation data from the Himalaya, there are now high mountainous areas ringing the entire map.   i think this will be more visually interesting than just having flat plains going off into the distance.

update: Saturday 13 July 2002
[archived terrain map]

• added several islands to the lakes and put airfields on them.   the main purpose here was to place fields so as to link existing fields onshore, to avoid bottlenecks in areas where the potential front onshore was only one or two fields across.
• changed the colour on the map indicating areas over 9000' to white.   probably better than orange to indicate high mountains :).

update: Friday 12 July 2002
[archived terrain map]

• major changes to mountain topography.   moved the base of the mountain ranges well away from the water at the central "Ring Of Fire" point.   this should help to avoid strategic bottlenecks around the coastal areas.   i also reduced the overall altitude of all the mountain areas, so the highest points are now at 16000 feet (previously 19500 feet).   this now makes the placement of a network of fields across most of each mountain range possible.
• added and moved many fields.   having confirmed that the new maximum number of fields (in 1.10) is 255, i added fields to bring the total up to 255.   there are now 85 fields per country.   virtually all the central land area is now covered by a network of fields within attack range of each other - there are no more large empty areas, except those over 9000' altitude.
• added a colour to the map indicating areas over 9000'.   the orange areas on the map images shows the areas over 9000 feet high - the practical limit for airfields, using the highest altitude to support a fully loaded B-17 on auto-takeoff from a large field as a benchmark.
• other changes to the map display.   i removed the field altitudes and the field attack lines (to reduce visual clutter).

update: Thursday 23 May 2002
[archived terrain map]

• moved zone borders.   most of the rear borders of the buffer zones (i.e. the zones without an HQ) have been changed to provide better defence for the primary fields of the buffer zones against the home zones (the zones with an HQ).   i've also tried to add some forward territory for the home zones - some outposts towards the Ring of Fire.
• repositioned many fields.   almost all fields in the mountain ranges have now been repositioned to better balance them in terms of altitude and location.   also, many fields in the home zones have been moved around to accomodate the zone border changes.
• added field altitudes for all mountain ranges.   these can be seen in light blue text.
• added a picture showing mountain range elevations.   this should help explain the topography of the mountains.

update: Monday 13 May 2002
[archived terrain map]

• added field altitudes for the western mountain range.   these can be seen in light blue text on the planning map.   fields in the other ranges will be done shortly.
• repositioned several airfields in the western mountain range.   as a result of finding that some fields originally weren't at reasonable altitudes, i repositioned several, trying to stagger the altitudes from the high front down to the plains.
• changed the appearance of the mountain ranges on the planning map.   purely cosmetic - the highest areas are now lightened up. the effect looks a bit like snow, but i'm not intending all these areas to be snow-covered. hopefully it's now easier to get an impression of the topography: where the high ridges and peaks are.
• rewrote the 'gameplay and strategy' section of this page.

update: Saturday 11 May 2002
[archived terrain map]

• tweaked a couple of airfield positions.   moved a couple of airfields in zone 7 to bring them within range of fields across the border in zone 6.
• repositioned vehicle bases.   now there is a vehicle base within striking distance of the ports in the capturable zones. also, no vehicle base is within striking distance of a primary field, and they are now better spaced along the zone borders.
• redrew zone border lines.   just a cosmetic change on the planning map to make it clearer which fields are in which zones.

update: Thursday 9 May 2002
[archived terrain map]

• added field attack overlay.   the network of pink lines on the plan map shows where an airfield is within reasonable attack range of another airfield (within 1.5 sectors, or just under 40 miles).   this makes the strategic layout much clearer: the central ring with six corridors radiating out along the coastlines, and the battle zones ranging across the mountains.

update: Monday 6 May 2002
[archived terrain map]

• added airfields, ports and vehicle bases.   now the plan is getting close to completion.   placing fields is crucial to the balance of the map.   i decided not to try to fill the whole land area with fields - there would be just too many. instead, i've gone for a more strategically challenging approach - where the placement of fields creates passages of advance and defence.   essentially, on any border between countries there are just two passages: the high-altitude fields in the central part of the mountain range, and the narrow coastal strip.   long-range strikes at fields deep in an enemy zone will be practically impossible to sustain, except from a carrier.   i've also tried to set up the primary field of each zone to be as reasonably protected as possible from both borders.   after doing an initial field placement, i checked the numbers of the different field types in each zone and found some big imbalances.   so, after lots of tweaking, there are now 24 fields in each zone - 7 small airfields, 6 medium airfields, 8 large airfields, 2 vehicle bases, and 1 port.   for comparison, each country in the current Main Arena maps has between 18 and 23 fields.   all maps in the existing system are limited to around 80 fields, due to the upper limit of 10,000 objects in any terrain.   HTC has said this limit will be lifted.   this terrain plan now has 216 fields, so here's hoping the new limit will cover it!   each country initially holds 3 zones - which is 72 fields.
• numbered the zones.   essential for building up a picture of the balance between zones.

update: Sunday 28 April 2002
[archived terrain map]

• added zone boundaries.   the new strategic system for the larger Main Arena maps will feature zones, each around the size of a current MA country.   each zone will have its own set of factories and will support all friendly fields in the zone.   conversely, fields captured by enemies will not be supplied.   a zone as a whole is captured, along with control of the supply of the fields, by capturing a single field in each zone known as the primary field.
• added primary fields and strategic targets in each zone.   note that there is one zone per country that contains the HQ and is not capturable.
• brought the southern shore of Lake Michigan further north.   this was needed to ensure there is enough land on the southern edge for a reasonable fighting front.

update: Sunday 21 April 2002
[archived terrain map]

major changes!

• the map is now 512x512 miles (4 times bigger) in line with the upcoming changes to MA maps;
• lake outlines completely redone.   used higher resolution source maps, and rearranged the layout so they are now quite close to the real geography.   only the area where the lakes join has been significantly modified from reality;
• mountain areas and elevations completely redone.   i dropped the Himalaya as a source and searched for a natural mountain range with a shape similar to the final form i wanted, to avoid extensive detailed modification and to end up with a more natural result.   the source is now a section of the Cordilla Oriental in Colombia.
• after testing the takeoff capabilities of various heavy aircraft from high altitude fields, i concluded that large fields should be at a maximum altitude of 9000 feet, and small fields at max 8000 feet (the latter only if they don't support large bombers).   consequently i lowered the elevations of the central plateaux of the Cordilla Oriental to allow fields to be placed within these limits.

[archived original 256x256mi terrain map]