Goal: trying to make an atmosphere battle over some islands. Players on both teams are in carrier/hangar, use planes, as in space planes can't land outside. Very large area to fight over. Set of islands with small cities + forests.

So two problems/questions:

1. Is it possible to get a huge amount of water in game without having CTDs? By either getting rid of the fancier rendering (eg specular maps) or by somehow scaling up each square? Or would it be better to just use object with animated texture + shadow region.

2. Does having troops use lowrez models relieve strain on the game engine? And more to the point, do troops use lowrez models at long range anyway. Part of the idea of this map is having lots of (unplayable) ground forces, so would setting them to use lowrez models all the time (only a few simple classes for ground forces so no drama) be worth it?

@#2: If the purpose isn't really involving the ground then I'd say yes, less polies to render=faster engine=less lag.

If the battle's gonna be too far away for even lowrez players to show, i would just forget it, as it would be taking up memory usage.

Though, if you play it well, you can still have the feel of being high above the ground, while you're actually not so far. That way, you would see the fight going on. It is a good idea. I am interested in how it would turn out.