there should be a relax brush in the edit poly modifier http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/3ds_max/autodesk_3ds_max_9_reference/paint_deformation_rollout.html just select the relax one and brush over that area
if you want to desaturate the whole scene you could try just modifying the default post process (in worldinfo). There should be a setting in there which will desaturate the scene.
you can set a variable to be "private" and then only its owner (the class itself) can see or modify it but I'm not sure if you can change this dynamically.
I tried the heightmap to normal function, but it doesn't accept a font as an input. I opened it up but I don't know enough to modify it to work with text.
yes i tried it but it didn't work. i made a modify health and added a delay at the end and repeat the action but the take damage animation is still here.
Doesnt this literally change geometry though? When I do this it just shell-modifier's the crap out of it (for lack of a better term) even at a low setting