How Might One Go About Resolving the Terrain Mod Elevation Issue?

[SyntheticBiscuit 5]

Recently I noticed a bug in which any new tile I attempted to terraform appeared to be at a considerably higher elevation than those that I had previously built on. This was indicated by the fact that attempting to reconcile edges yielded this sheer cliff and removed neighbor connections:

I have done some searching and found that a terrain mod could cause this issue (I am using Sudden Valley) and found that this issue did not occur when the mod was uninstalled.

I am now wondering how I might go about altering the mod data to adhere to standard Maxis height values. I believe the new sea level to be the issue (in Sudden Valley it is 250, and from what I know this is considerably higher than normal) and I am wondering what the default sea level is. And if the sea level is not the issue, what else might I need to change to eradicate this bug?

Thank you.

EDIT: I have found a solution to this by uninstalling the mod and rendering all of my region's tiles, which causes the height to be fixed at the standard level when the mod is reinstalled. Still, if anyone knows anything about what feature of the mod might be altering the terrain like this, information would be welcome and appreciated.

  Edited July 25, 2015 by SyntheticBiscuit  
Temporary solution found

[rsc204 21,836]

I'm not sure it's a bug per-se, but it can be annoying if you don't know about it, this question was asked very recently, there are others who understand this way better than I, but in the meantime you may find the info here to be helpful.

[SyntheticBiscuit 5]

That thread you linked me to gave me the idea to use terrain query, but that seemed to just elevate my confusion. I found that my sea level is actually about 250, which is the same as it is in Sudden Valley. I also found a file in the mod files that changed the default terrain height when starting a new map to 255, which is actually lower than the base height in my developed cities, while in the actual game new tiles are elevated to 360.

At least now that I have that value I'll know what I might need to look for while I'm sifting through the terrain files.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I haven't looked at the mod, but from your description it must have a height factor built in.  Take a look at the mod and see if there is a separate file for changing the default land height.  Also, you should re-read the mod's description and readme files to see if they mention this.

[SyntheticBiscuit 5]

I found no mention of this in the readme file or description, but I think I have the file that the terrain setting is located in narrowed down. One of the files contains all of the values for sea level and other various height parameters, so the problem is likely somewhere in there.

I still haven't found any item with a value of 360, so I'm assuming some other factor is working with the standard default terrain height to produce higher elevation.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Luck with this.  Someone who is more familiar with the Reader could guide you in a fix for this.

[rsc204 21,836]

As I mentioned in the other thread, I remember somewhere there was a detailed explanation of what is going on here, however I can't find a link anywhere and my memory is no use for this sort of thing, I have a sinking feeling it was somewhere on Simpeg.com though.

This problem usually seems to occur when using a region map that is made within SC4 itself, imported SC4M files should not show this problem provided you don't remove the SV mod from your plugins folder at any point. Something to do with a value that is applied to new regions by SC4, but that is not an issue with custom-generated maps seems to trigger the issue and causes the game to adjust the terrain higher. It doesn't occur once, but with every subsequent save and can get out of hand if you are not careful, I don't think simply changing a value in the terrain mod would fix the problem at this point, it would only stop the height from increasing, if anything. As I mentioned before, I'm almost certain this isn't broken, it's intended to work this way, the altered setting was considered to give preferable results.

If you use a Maxis generated region, import/save it in SC4 Terraformer (or a similar tool) and then render all the tiles with the SV terrain mod installed before starting development, this should bypass any potential problems. In fact, if you've not developed the region, or at least the city/(cities) with the problem, SC4 Terraformer can rectify the problem by importing the region, fixing the terrain height for affected tiles and then saving the region.

Once more I'll state that the most knowledgeable user I know that's still around on these sorts of things is EpicBlunder, so if you need more information I'd suggest sending him a PM as I have only a moderate understanding of advanced terrain settings/modding.

[SyntheticBiscuit 5]

Thanks for this! I'll need to keep that in mind.