Section 6 - Editing Terrain Types

Your default scenario comes with 256 premade terrain types, number 0 to 255 (which are listed in the Appendices). However, you can also customize the terrain types to suit your scenario, or add new ones of your own. Click on Edit Terrain Types to bring up all of the terrain icons, and click on a terrain type to bring up the terrain editing window.

The first 91 terrain types (0 to 90), as well as a few others, are used by the game when generating terrain for outdoor combat arenas. As such, it is recommended that you change only the picture.

Defining Terrain Types

To define a new terrain type, you need to enter several values, which determine whether the party can walk through it, what it looks like, and similar properties. What each value means is described below:

• Picture: Simply, what the terrain looks like. To select a picture, click the Pick Picture button (if you don't want the terrain graphic to be animated) or the Animated button (if you do). If you want to use a customized terrain graphic, see the chapter Customizing Graphics.
• Name: The name of the terrain, which is given when the party looks at it. This can be at most 30 characters long.
• Blockage: Whether the party can see through and walk through it. Click on the button by the desired blockage. The blockage values are:
  • Clear - Party can see through and walk through terrain unobstructed. (Example: floor, grass)
  • Walk through, opaque - Party can walk through this terrain, but can't see through it. (Example: secret passage)
  • Clear, special - Party can see through and walk through terrain unobstructed, but monsters will not walk through it. (Example: Special encounter, lava)
  • Clear, blocked - Party can see through, but not walk through. (Example: Pits, water)
  • Clear, blocked, obstructed - Party can see through, but not walk through. Also, this terrain partially obstructs missile weapons passing through it. (Example: Pillar, window)
  • Blocked, opaque - Cannot see through or walk through. Total obstruction. (Example: Walls)
• Can Fly Over - Click on this button to turn on/off the light. If this light is lit, a flying party can pass over this terrain.
• Can Boat Over - If this light is lit, a party in a boat can pass over this terrain.
• Block Horses - If this light is lit, horses will not walk on this terrain.
• Archetype - This specifies that the terrain is the archetype of its ground type. Ideally, exactly one archetype should exist for each ground type. However, should you accidentally mark two archetypes for one ground type, or forget to mark one, the game treats the first matching terrain as the archetype (if any are marked, the first one marked; otherwise, the first one with the ground type).
• Step Sound - The sound that plays when something steps on this terrain. Current options are a regular stepping sound, a squish, a crunch, or nothing.
• Shortcut Key - This is a shortcut for you when editing your towns and dungeons. Enter a single key in this field, and when editing outdoor or town terrain, this terrain type will be selected. If you give more than one terrain type the same key, typing that key cycles among all the different terrain types that have it (for example, you may want to give all your basic walls the key w).
• Light Radius - A number from 0 to 10. This determines whether the terrain type casts light, and how far out that light extends. For example, a torch has a light radius of 4, so all spots in town within 4 spaces of a torch space are always lit.
• Transform to what - This field is used in conjunction with certain types of special nodes (see Special Encounters). If this is a terrain type that you often want to change to something else (such as a closed portcullis, which you may often want to change to an open portcullis), enter the number of the terrain type to change it to here. Then, to change the terrain type, use a Transform Terrain special node.
• Ground Type - This is a number used to identify the basic type of this terrain. For example, all terrains on normal cave floor have ground type 0. Similarly, all terrains on normal indoor stone floor have ground type 13. This is also used for walls and fluids - basic stone wall is ground type 10, for example. This is used for various purposes in the game and the editor, such as conformance of complex frills (like the edges of hills), drawing of small frills on fluids, and so forth.
• Trim Terrain - This is used in conjunction with the trim type. See below for details.
• Trim Type - This specifies the terrain's trim properties. Click the Choose button to select between several options:
  • Wall - Terrains with this trim type will have their outer corners slightly rounded off to match the adjacent terrains. In addition, terrains with transitions will conform to them in the editor.
  • Cardinal Directions - These trim types are used by the editor to draw conforming terrains. The Ground Type field must be set to match the primary terrain to conform to, while the Trim Terrain field should be set to the Ground Type of the secondary terrain. For example, hill trims transition between hills (with ground type 4) and grass (with ground type 1), so their Trim Terrain is set to 1.
  • Frills - Terrains with this trim type will have small frills drawn around their borders to match the adjacent terrains.
  • Road - Terrains with this trim type will be connected with road segments. In addition, if there are two terrains with this trim type separated by a single terrain with an appropriate cardinal direction trim type, the road segment will be extended across the transition.
  • Walkway - Terrains with this trim type have their corners rounded off. The Trim Terrain field specifies the Ground Type of the base terrain to use for rounding off.
  • Waterfall - This trim type behaves like the Wall type but also prevents the drawing of small frills next to it.
  • City - If adjacent to a terrain with the Road trim type, a terrain with this trim type will have a road segment connected to it.
• Combat Arena - Specifies the type of combat arena to be used when the player meets a wandering encounter while on this terrain. You can either use a predefined, randomly-generated combat arena, or create a town specifying the exact terrain you want.
• Object Details - This is only used by the editor. When you place a terrain that has an object set, the editor looks for other terrains with the same object and places them in nearby spaces. For example, this is how the editor knows to place the other half of a large rubble pile when you place the first half.
• Map Icon - Specify the icon to be used when showing this terrain on the automap. If you set it to -1, the game will shrink down the terrain's main graphic.
• Special Properties, Extra 1-3 - These fields are where you give the terrain types the really interesting properties. All of the properties are listed on the terrain type editing window. To select a property, click on the button by it.

Many of the special properties need more information to work, which you enter in the three fields at the bottom of the terrain type editing window. The window will prompt you with what information needs to be given.

The special property types, and what you need to enter in extra fields are as follows:

• No Property - The default. The terrain is ordinary. The extra fields are ignored by the game. (However, the scenario editor uses the first extra field to specify a small icon to apply to the terrain, which can be useful if you have two terrains with different properties but the same appearance.)
• Change When Walk - The terrain type changes to another when the party tries to walk into it. This happens even if the terrain is blocked to travel. Extra 1 is the number of the terrain type the terrain changes into. Extra 2 is the number of the sound that plays when this happens. If Extra 2 is left at -1, no sound plays.
• Does Damage - When someone walks on this space, some type of damage is inflicted. Damaged inflicted is inflicted using a dice roll, with the number of dice in Extra 2 and the sides per die in Extra 1. The type of damage to inflict is in Extra 3. Only monsters with at least half resistance to this damage type will walk through this space. If the damage type is not fire, cold, poison, or magic, only invulnerable monsters will walk through this space.
• Bridge - This terrain is considered to be a bridge. If a party boats into this terrain, they will be given a choice whether to stay in the boat. When a boat enters a space that would be passable on foot but doesn't have this ability, the party is forced to stay in the boat.
• Change When Occupied - When the party or a humanoid monster is on this space, the PC/monster graphic is suppressed and replaced with a different terrain graphic. This is used to show people huddling in bed, for example.
• Inflicts Status - Inflicts a status effect on people walking on it. Extra 1 is the intensity of the effect (usually a number from -8 to 8; depending on the status effect, negative intensities might be either good or bad). Extra 2 is the percentage chance of being affected, a number from 0 to 100 (0 meaning never, and 100 meaning always). Extra 3 is the status effect to inflict.
• Crumbling - If Extra 2 is 0 or 1, it turns into the terrain in Extra 1 when Move Mountains or Shatter is cast on this space. If Extra 2 is 1 or 2, it turns into the terrain in Extra 1 when quickfire attempts to spread into this space.
• Lockable Terrain - Indicates a terrain type that can be locked. This only comes into play when a special node which locks a terrain type is used on the space (see the chapter on Special Encounters for more information). When that happens, Extra 1 is the terrain type the space changes to. Extra 2 is ignored.
• Unlockable Terrain - This terrain type can be unlocked, by picking locks, an Unlock spell, or a special encounter which unlocks terrain (though not by bashing). Extra 1 is the number of the terrain type the space becomes when unlocked. Extra 2 is the difficulty of unlocking the door. This is a number from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the harder the door is to unlock. If the difficulty is 5 or above, picking locks always fails (the door is magically locked and requires an Unlock spell). If the difficulty is 10, the lock can't be picked and unlock spells don't work. In this case, the only way this space can become unlocked is if a special encounter unlocks it. If Extra 3 is 1, you can also attempt to bash the door down.
• Is a Sign - This terrain type is a sign. When a space is given this terrain type, you will be asked what the sign says. When the party looks at that space, that will be the text that is displayed.
• Call Special - When stepped on, this space calls a special node. If Extra 2 is 0, a scenario special is called. If Extra 2 is 1, an outdoor special is called if stepped on outdoors; otherwise a town special is called. The number in Extra 1 is the number of the special encounter node to call.
  Warning: If you create a terrain type with this special property, using it in more than one area can have unpredictable effects. If you, for example, have a terrain type with this property that calls town special encounter 29, make sure every town you use that terrain type in has a sensible special encounter in slot 29.
• Is a Container - This terrain type can contain items. In the town editor, when you place an item on terrain with this property, the item is automatically considered to be inside it. Extra 1 and Extra 2 are ignored.
  Example: A dresser, chest, or body.
• Wilderness (Cave/Surface) - When travelling through a terrain with one of these abilities, a PC with the Cave Lore or Woodsman traits may occasionally hunt for food. Extra 1 indicates how much food you can obtain from this ability. The ability activates at random. The choice of Cave/Surface determines which trait is required.
• Waterfall (Cave/Surface) - If the party, while outdoors (not in town), moves in a boat to the space (for example) just north of a spot of terrain with this property, they are sucked through to the space south of it. There is a screaming noise and they lose some food. Extra 1 specifies the direction of suction (the example above is for a south waterfall). The choice of Cave/Surface determines whether the Cave Lore or Woodsman trait is checked for to reduce the food lost. Extra 2 specifies how much food they lose as a percentage of their total food, and Extra 3 places a hard cap on how much food they lose.
• Conveyor belt - This space is a conveyor belt, which moves everything on it in the indicated direction. Extra 1 specifies the direction it pushes in.
• Blocked to Monsters -Monsters will never walk into a space of this type. Extra 1 and Extra 2 are ignored.
• Town Entrance - For use when outdoors. This is the entrance to a town. Stepping on a space of this type has no effect when indoors. When you place a space of this type while editing the outdoors, you need to click on the Edit Town Entrance button and then click on the town entrance to attach it to a town or dungeon.
  If the town in question is hidden, when the party sees it it will look like the terrain type in Extra 1a.
• Usable Space - When the player clicks the Use button and selects this space, it will change to a different terrain type (an example being an open door, which closes). Extra 1 is the number of the terrain type it changes to. Extra 2 is the number of the sound that plays when this happens (for a list of sounds, look in the Appendices). If Extra 2 is left at 0, no sound plays.
• Call Special when used- When used (using the Use button in town mode), this space calls a special node. The node to call is determined in the same way as the Call Special ability. Note however that, since using a space is impossible outdoors, this ability will never call an outdoor special node.