Tutorial Terrain Features

[Sevion]

Edit: Whoops, while I was previewing I hit Submit Ignore this while I finish! I have to turn in for the night. I'll come back and finish it in the morning, else my mom will take out the net and I'll never finish it -_-' Sorry guys! My brother whacked my laptop with juice so this won't be finished for a while.

Terrain Features
By: Sevion​

This tutorial was written to show you how to utilize the World Editor's terraining capabilities to it's fullest. When you create your map you want it to look good right?​

Well, to do this you'll need to know what to use in every situation. I suggest NOT using Blizzard's Cliffs, Water, or Trees. However, there are cases where you have to use their water and trees.​

This is no problem. It's just most custom models look better.​

Tools​

Now you ask, "What do I use to do this?" Well, the answer is simple. The Tool Palleted, which is also explained in this tutorial. Some of the things you will NOT want to use are the Increase and Decrease​

tools. They look UGLY! Don't use them, Period. The ones you will want to use are the Raise, Lower, Plateau, Smooth, and Noise tool. Raise can give you nice rolling hills, or large menacing mountains! Plateau is what

we can use to make cliffs! Noise and Smooth can give you a nice looking terrain that's NOT flat. Flat terrain kills my eyes. There's so much you can do with it yet 99% of mappers choose not to use such an easy

tool!

Ground​

Now when you put terrain types you don't want it to jump from plain dirt to dark grass do you? That's where other grass types come in. If you've played Power Towers then you'll know that when the​

Furnace kills grass it goes from Dark Grass to Grass to Grassy Dirt to Stone/Dirt. That should be how you transition from No Grass to Grass. Make it seem more natural. When placing your terrain DO NOT use the

square brush. They are unnatural. Nothing in nature has perfect 90° angles or straight lines for longer than a 100th of a centimeter. NOTHING in nature is perfectly straight. EVER. So use nice blending brushes that

don't look crappy.

Yes, I know I suck Then again, I did that in 3 seconds.​

Try not using the Lordareaon Summer tileset. It's overrated, overused, and most of all UGLY! If you need something along those lines use maybe Sunken Ruins or custom tiles. They're really not that hard​

to create and don't take up much room at all. Remember: Don't make it look crappy by using crappy looking presets. They might be easier, but most of the time, easier things are not as good. You want simple yet

EFFECTIVE. Not simple and crappy!

Cliffs​

Alright, now for creating cliffs! Now, we all don't like the mean looking cliffs that Blizzard has supplied us with right? That's what the Lower/Raise and Plateau tools are for! Lower/Raise a spot then use​

the Plateau to flatten it and raise it. It doesn't go to 90°, but that looks ugly anyways! This CAN turn out looking ugly if you screw up and make it look ugly. That's what you have this tutorial for! Use rock terrain or

custom terrains for the sides. Then use doodads to hide the sharp drops and raises at the corners. WOW! It looks great does it not? Alright, good job. You've created your first realistic cliff! Now. What can you use this technique for? Well for one thing: you can now make walls! Isn't that great? No custom models of walls needed! If you're using a lot of space already on your map, this method only takes up a few kb of space (Custom Tiles) on your map. If you're not, then use custom models for walls as they can look much better.

Screenshot Coming Soon.​

 

[hell_knight]

Uh short , can use some screenies for cliffs, already have a terraining guide by 2-P why don't you show us a good piece of terrain that took time to make as a say inspiration?

 

[Sevion]

Sorry, no screenshots will be available for a while. My brothers trashed my computer with WC on it and WC doesn't run on this computer (This computer sucks :O)

 

[Sim]

There are already such tutorials around here, yours has pretty much nothing more to offer. If you're gonna remake it, well then it's alright but resubmit it

For now, it belongs in the graveyard.