request: flag to disable slope transition between hexes for creating "stairs"

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Currently, elevation differences of 11 or more are needed to form cliffs
between adjacent hexes. This means it's impossible to form a decent-looking
staircase that leads up along a wall or cliff, as for the most part this
staircase will warp into a long slope.

A terrain flag (call it "auto-cliff"?) to enable cliff-formation between a
hex and it's neighbors at any elevation would allow map designers to create
well-formed stairs. This would just affect the graphical representation,
the movement would still be handled normally (and be possible based on
height difference - a neighbor more than 10 elevation units apart would
form a "natural" cliff and that should remain unclimbable).

Original issue reported on code.google.com by [email protected] on 25 Oct 2007 at 7:34

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Some more thoughts:

Instead of a boolean flag this could be an integer value of elevation 
difference at
which to create a cliff. This could be a terrain configuration property, so the
editor doesn't have to deal with it in its UI.

Suggestion: "maximum_slope" (default 10)
At an elevation difference of maximum_slope or less, the graphical 
representation
would be just like it is now (slope to the neighboring hex). Above that it 
would form
cliffs.
For the wall terrain, the maximum_slope could be set to 3 or 2 (need some
experimentation in the editor). I expect that it is desirable for all walls to 
form
relatively borders with their neighboring hexes - not only for forming stairs.

A per-terrain default would be more KISS than a per-hex situational flag.

Original comment by [email protected] on 26 Oct 2007 at 10:19