Terrain, The First Milestone and Game Structure

Terrain
We have random terrain being generated at the start of a mission, although it only uses the simplest methods of the Terraformer since there appears to be no information on how to format the variable information when using multiple terraforming methods. This isn't really a problem though as there is very little noticable difference when the extra methods are used to terraform the terrain.
Placing objects on the map such as bases, foliage, rocks, etc. is my next task. Placing non-interactive objects should be easily assomplished using the shape replicator and using a suggestion from Jordan bases and other interactive objects will be placed at markers scattered around the map.

The First Milestone
The generation of random terrain at mission start has been my primary goal for the first milestone. Since this has been achieved I can focus on attempting to place objects on the and to texture the terrain appropriately. I will approach the remaining tasks for the random generation of maps by firstly dealing with texturing the terrain, then placing static shapes, and finally placing interactive shapes.

Game Structure
We've decided that levels will be run on the server and at mission start a new terrain with objects will be created. This means that several copies of Torque will have to run on the server as the multiplayer host for each level we are running. These copies should be suitably customised for there purpose so as to not waste resources on the server.

Terraformer Script

I've managed to run the Terraformer tool through script, meaning now we have a method to generate terrain when a mission loads. So now I just need to provide random values for the variables that musst be passed.

Terrain

Through analysis of the functions run by Torque's built-in terraformer tool I have found a way in which settings for random terrain generation may be passed. In an annoying twist variables must be passed in a different format than normal, meaning whilst I can pass values in I cannot yet pass them in them in a format that does not result in errors and does what we want it to.

I've spent the last week looking at how random terrain can be generated in Torque and it appears it can be done either with the C++ engine code or through Torque Script.
Generating the terrain through C++ is a more efficient method, however it would require more time than we have to implement the code in a manner that does not cause fatal errors in the engine.
Torque Script on the other hand is less efficient but may be implemented in usable form with little likelihood of fatal errors occurring. There is also the added benefit of providing access to the Torque Terrain Editor’s random terrain generation system.
As such I will attempt to implement random terrain generation through Torque Script. Hopefully this will be an easy task, thus allowing more time to focus on the more difficult aspect of generating passable terrain with level areas for the placement of bases.

Game Maps Outline

I was going to post a screenshot of the Torque Game Engine we are planning to use, but Blogger keeps having an internal error when I try to upload the image.

Anyway I'm apparently in charge of the maps, which includes randomly generated terrain, obstacles (rocks and trees, I guess), and the bases.
The randomly generated terrain is likely to be the most time consuming task. In particular ensuring that bases and players are not spawned in positions they can not esacpe from (e.g. in a pit).
If time becomes a problem the supplied objects in Torque and the available content packs may be used for obstacles, and models I've made in the past may be used for the bases.