We are now ready to set down our paths to the mountains, place the bunkers and run some dirt roads around the central highland area where I plan to setup a few small houses.

First thing to do is to select and place our bunkers. This will give us a starting area for path placement. Select the "Place Object" tool and and find the civilian bunker, it will be located in the civilian house under structures. The bunker is a unique structure, in that it can be placed on the edge of a cliff and the lower concrete wall will raise and lower to the contour of the cliff.... very neat looking effect. Click on and then drag the bunker to the area of choice and then left click to drop it. There will be an icon on the bunker. By going to the center of the icon you can make fine adjustments or drag it to another location, by going to the edge of the icon or grabbing the directional line coming from it you can rotate it to the proper angle. You can also rotate the structure by typing in angle or using the slider in the object properties box. Screenshot 69 shows you the bunker after placement with the icon visible.

Lets lay down our paths now. Start by selecting the "Road" tool then make your choice Screenshot 70. There are no transitions from paths, roads, sidewalks, etc. to another texture so placement needs a bit of forethought. Start the path by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the road out until it is the length desired and then releasing the mouse button. Start the path INSIDE the structure so that it appears to come from the entrance. The paths (et al) don't bend, therefore we need to make several sections then choose the type of curve from the object properties box. Lay down a second path, we will join them later, running down the ramp we created in the last chapter Screenshot 71.

After laying down the all the sections for our paths we'll join them together by dragging the icon from one section of the icon to the other then going to the object properties box and selecting the curve type needed (Screenshot72).

Because we have 2 bunkers per player we can run the paths to the center of the player starting area and form a junction where we will join another path that leads off the map. To join three paths together the same technique is used as that for 2 (Screenshot73). The difference being that the three way and four way junctions are sensitive to direction, so you need to be aware of this when setting a junction up. If the junction looks bad try moving it around by dragging the icon a bit until it looks normal and natural.

Roads are created the exact same way using the exact same techniques. I placed road systems in the central highlands area in the form of small oblong circles, with a single 3-way junction for each side, and ran the open ends off the map (Screenshot74).

Bridges are placed the same way as roads and paths, as a matter of fact they are located in the same directory. So selecting the "Road" tool we can also get to the bridge section. I have elected to install 2 wooden sectional bridges, one in each of the small valleys formed between the mountain areas and the central highlands areas. This also gives the bunkers a meaning for existence as they will be looking out over the bridges (Screenshot75). If you have some ground poking up thru the bridge use the dig tool or the smoothing tool to flatten the ground. Also try to make the bridge ends the same height, you don't have to but they sure look stupid if you don't. The screenshot doesn't show the repair huts but they are created at the same time as the bridge automatically.

The last thing in this chapter is the placement of some structures in the central area. I was given advice from Richard Kreigler, the lead artist at EAP, about the placement of structs. He stated that the artwork looks better and should be placed at a 45 degree angle to the default view. I strive to do this is most cases, however, there are situations where this just can't be done. So my advice to you would be the same as Richards, try your best to place the stucts at a 45 degree when you can and if you can't at least try to make it so there is no straight on view when in the default, or North up mode. Screenshot76 shows the structs placed and in the isometric view.

Next chapter we will be placing the trees and other props.

« part 3 | part 5 here »