Jungles and Beaches
I've seen a new influx of maps using the Sunken Ruins tileset. Why Sunken Ruins in particular? Perhaps because of its versatility. It can be used for jungles, beaches, temples, and much more. This tutorial will cover basic aspects of making a jungle. Of course, I am doing this to a small island, so it will not be very jungle-like. If you follow my steps on a large scale, however, you will see Tarzan and some Orcs cheering for you.
Code:
Changelog-
7/3/06: Version 1.0
7/4/06: Version 1.0b. Added a few tips in some sections and other minor revisions.
7/6/06: Version 1.1 Added the "you will need" section.Before We Get Started...
You will need the following things:
-World Editor (TFT)
-Common Knowledge To Terrain (Such as placing doodads and brushing terrain)
-Knowledge of using Raise and Lower tools to make nice sloping land formations
-Knowledge of how to make doodads stackable
-Knowledge of how to raise and lower doodads
If you are unaware of any of these aspects, do look around TH.net (try the other tutorials or the search function) to learn of them.
Starting
Start out by making a new map, using the Sunken Ruins tileset. It can be as large or small as you want. Set the initial water level to deep. I would reccomend the initial tile to be sand.
---------------
1) General Outline
Many terrainers come to agree that starting an island terrain via Blizzard's generic cliffs is a no-no. It just is. Anyway, begin by raising some land from the ocean. I reccomend sand as the starting tile (duh), and be sure to smooth it out a bit. A beach is smooth and dune-like, so I see no need to spam the noise tool. You may say otherwise.
2) Grass Transition
Nobody likes to see a sand tileset instantly jump to thick underbrush, do they? :nuts: Start out with a nice layer of grassy sand. Do not simply go over it with one of the brush sizes - well, do go over it with one of them, but afterwards, I reccomend going to the smallest brush, and doing a little random scribbling on the edges. The grass should not look like a perfect oval thingie, but rather have areas where it pushes out, or the sand pushes it inward.
3) Continued Transition
Continue transitioning to darker and thicker grass. Be sure to use the small brush to add a bit of variety to where the grass covers.
4) Trees
Populate your island with some trees. Using the universal tool known as "common sense", you would imagine placing more trees in the grassy areas, and have them spread out along the coasts.
5) Spicing Up The Ground
A jungle has a very thick floor, right? Let's add a lot of shrubbery. Again, make a nice transition, by spreading the shrubs out when farther from the grass. Add some nice wildflowers, too, along with the rugged rock spires that seem to fit oh so perfectly in there, for reasons nobody know.
6) Coasts
Even the edges of the island deserve some attention. How about adding in a cave? Now, when a cave has water in it, what do you imagine? Especially when it comes to tropical islands? Yarr, pirates, hoarding treasure in a stinky, damp, mushroom-filled cave. So let's do just that. I toggled the lighting in this image so you could see it better. Raise/lower cliff vines, and turn them, so that they look decent on the cave. This takes a bit of practice, but it's worth it, as you can't even really see the cliff vines from most incorrect anglings.
7) Stacking Doodads = Yummy
Now for the fun part of the job! As many great terrainers (namely 2-P) know, stacking doodads can allow for some very otherworldly, beautiful, and creative ideas. Before beginning, go Advanced > Enforce Object Height Limits, and uncheck that. Now you can move raised doodads without them falling back down to the ground. Onto the actual work. I will make some murloc hut doodads for my example, link them with a pier, and add some treasure up in one of them. This is just basics - much more can be done, but since few bnet maps have overly attractive terrain, this will suffice.
8) More Doodads
If you know your WarCraft lore as well as I do, you know that wherever you go, those Goblins can find you! Let's have a goblin merchant (doodad, of course) on this island. Since it juts out of the dense jungle, it can double as an outpost of sorts. Let's add some torches and trees to decorate their walkway, too. Also, although not shown in the image, I made some goblin sapper doodad, and placed them on the balcony of the hut. Making doodads of units is a great way to spice up buildings.
9) Sunken Ruins
What good is the Sunken Ruins tileset without some Sunken Ruins? This pretty much speaks for itself. Of course, you would like to conceal the ruins amongst the trees, like I did with Harry the Seahorse over there.
10) Ambience
How about some rays of light, piercing the jungle canopy? Let's also add in some wildlife (skinks and others), to make the jungle more lively. If you ever take screenshots/cameras of your terraining for cinematics or threads, be sure to make it so that you kind of get the feel of being in a thick jungle - and so you can see any weather you bothered to place.
11) Closings and Grandeur
If you want to make some areas more rugged, add on some noise, but be sure to smooth it a fai bit afterwards. Be sure to always calculate shadows and save your map. The calculated shadows aren't the cream of the crop, but anybody who is aware of them will take them into consideration on how devoted you were to making the map. Let's get a nice overview image - including that of some coastal doodads (naturally, you want gunk all over the edges, such as coral piling up, and lots of shrubs).
I hope this tutorial helped you in some manner, as we do need better terrainers these days.
Let your imagination run wild - and remember to use stackable doodads, as they are your best friends (value them more than your life).
