A version of this without wierd unit speed hax would be so much better.

ZK only eliminates typemaps that give unequal bonuses to unit classes (for example 150% speed bonus only to vehicles). If it is 150% for all units, then ZK keeps it.

quote: A version of this without wierd unit speed hax would be so much better.

Or maybe a version of ZK that disables all the typemaps on all maps!

You can change all typemaps to be disabled through modoptions. We could even change the default settings to remove all typemaps if there isn't any objection.

quote: but yeah they're never used well

Some fail-deadly backdoor should be left to allow "legit" maps to use those maybe?

I'm semi-itching to make an "integrated land/water river-type map", which would need typemaps (or bridges, but you get the idea) for allowing land units to cross a few special "fords".

By saying "ford" i use the wesnoth parlance here. In wesnoth, there are four basic types of water tiles:

- deep water - impassable by anything that can't swim
- shallow water - impassable by heavy land units, but passable by the rest at cost of significant defense and speed penalty. without typemaps, this is what you can get in zk.
- swamp - passable by all, slowdown for all, defense malus for most. I think this is what your 'interleave' suggestion could achieve.
- ford/bridge - allows units to use best of both worlds, so both land and sea units move at full speed, and fight on almost equal terms. This allows for some pretty interesting interactions i think.

Removing depthmod for all units except amphs would be better somewhat, but it's an either-or solution that exclusively removes one's ability to differ between "ford" and "shallow" type terrain, which i find useful.

Bridges would be best of course, but they're nowhere on horizon really, especially if you count in ease-of-use.

The approach that you suggested - interleaving water with land - might work to some extent, but i don't feel that it is capable of creating the passable-by-all type of terrain that i crave - mostly because of required resoluton of the alternated tiles, which will likely, at current state of the engine, cause ships to get stuck (as it would with drylanders, if they weren't capable of tolerating water a bit).

Your examples - Scorpio, Tropical, Aquarius - go around the resolution issue simply by being large teamgame maps. I wanna duelmap or small-teams map.

quote: The small slowdown from shallow water you get in zk is really nothing like the huge penalties to defense and movement you get in wesnoth.

but it's enough to make thugs hit glaives 100% of time mostly. But i guess at this stage it's time to experiment.

How would i go around making nonterraformable areas?

Hardness doesn't prevent terraforming, it only prevents weapon-based cratering AFAIK.

Example: Castles. You can sketch with starlight on sand, you can't scratch the castle terrain; but you can terraform both freely.

Completely forbidding map deforms via cratering and terraforming (there's a modoption, so i assume a map can force it) would work, but that removes a whole layer from the game.

Exactly. That's why in my post it reads as "cratering and terraforming". (with implicit accusation that dirtbag mound is but a negative crater)

quote: Although i now figure you only want special areas without ground deformation, right?

Exactly. Like feature cliffs (think starcraft) or maybe bridges.