Altitude range in map editor moddable?

[Simulanten 681]

Well, Boston is on hold. It still looks deserted with 80% of all trees that disappeared (Why only me? That's so unfair!) and all the bus network that is completely broken. Let's see when I get the spirit back to continue.

In order to relax a bit and to make sense of all that snow (I still haven't bought the DLC though) I'm working on an idea of a small Rocky Mountains settlement - somewhere in Colorado or Wyoming - very detailed and without public transport except for a school bus...

Now - I started to mess around with the map and theme editor and immediately hit one of those incredibly stupid and unnecessary brick walls in the game: the 1024 meter limit for the altitude range. Really? How pathetic is that? It seems to be impossible to create dramatic mountain ranges like around Jackson Hole WY or the valleys around Ouray CO. 

Hm. Is that hard-coded and unmoddable? Why is that? Does one of our modding geniuses ( @boformer ) have an idea? Can we change this?

I would surrender and get Snowfall if it was possible not only to recreate the Finnish tundra but real mountain ranges and dramatic scenery.

Help!

[boformer 3,169]

Just now, Simulanten said:

one of those incredibly stupid and unnecessary brick walls in the game

I think 1024 is reasonable. And that constant is baked into the game just like the 4-cell zone depth, so it would require countless changes (and it's quite difficult to find a common number like 1024 in the code). No idea if there are other data structures which limit the height to 1024.

It might be possible. Maybe BloodyPenguin can do it, or PropaneDragon

[Simulanten 681]

This is what I feared. Thanks for explaining. Hopefully one of your fellow geniuses picks it up.

But why would 1024 meters be reasonable? To avoid visible altitude steps with 16bit images? I don't get it.

Exploring interesting scenery for mountainous villages I usually come across an altitude range of more than 2000 m between valleys and mountain tops. I might transfer to the plains then....

17 minutes ago, boformer said:

I think 1024 is reasonable. And that constant is baked into the game just like the 4-cell zone depth, so it would require countless changes (and it's quite difficult to find a common number like 1024 in the code). No idea if there are other data structures which limit the height to 1024.

It might be possible. Maybe BloodyPenguin can do it, or PropaneDragon