Terrain ideas

[johnnymra]

I'm making the terrain for a RPG map... and even tough i have ideas... i would like to hear yours. I need a lot of amazing places... magical landscapes and such, so i am asking you to "forge" some ideas of places or terrains.



In this photo i am showing you the basic idea... and so i would like your ideas to come a bit related to this map. The photo states almost everything.

Also i must state: I am not asking you to make me the terrain, i only ask for different ideas, yours or from different maps you played/made, so that i could inspire myself, modify them... and make a beautiful RPG landscape

EDIT: In order for you to explain me the ideas easier, you could just state the exact terrain you have in mind. (Like: a high mountain... with trees on sides and one path on the center.... continuing to the peak... on the peak, some special effects or ruins... P.S. This idea i'm planing to use but you could tell me on which side grass/snow )

 

[keychup]

This looks almost like the landscape in Legend of Legaia from PS1
Add a mountain in the snowy area xD

 

[johnnymra]

The map is 256x256... only one simple mountain would't be that amazing...

Anyway thanks for replying.

 

[death_knight]

When you do the hills, I reckon that you should use the "Apply Height: Raise" tool. If you ant cliffs, then by all means use the other tool, but for good looking hills I think you should consider the Raise tool. If you're looking for inspiration for the snow area, look at the terrain in Castle Builder Highlands 1.74. For forested areas and areas with high hills, I suggest you look at Gaias Retaliation ORPG. You should also consider importing models for things like trees, buildings and heroes.

 

[keychup]

You could try shrinking the units, and perhaps in turn it would allow you to make room for more landscape. Mind the move speed if you do though
You might also want to zoom in with a camera too x)

 

[johnnymra]

death_knight
I'm more like a classic fan, so i will use most blizzard models, but also some imported ones. As for the raise tool, i already taught of that . Thanks for the help.

keychup
Yes, interesting idea it would help me make more things ... i will see what i can do.

EDIT: ALSO TO BE KNOWN! my map is NOT an ORPG, it is an campaign style map... but with different ROLE-PLAY and TEAM-WORK characteristics.

 

[WolfieeifloW]

Change the grass part to some different terrains.
Too much green, IMO.
Are those islands going to be reachable, via boats or something?

And is that black area going to be for taverns and building and such, or just black?

 

[johnnymra]

The green area shall have many tiles, different sections and such... i won't be a green place.
The islands are reachable by boats, yes.
The black area is a special zone, which i will not reveal . Just don't mind that.

 

[Dinowc]

my advice is to make as much playable area as possible, in RPGs variety is important
along with keychup's idea of reducing units' sizes, here are few other methods:

-reduce the sea size, too much terrain is wasted cause of the unpathable water, also what's with those tiny islands? you can't put more than 3 trees on them xd
-put more snow and terrain variations, a monotonous terrain makes it look both boring and smaller
-use raise tool for cliffs, except that it looks better, it saves a lot of pathing space
-I suggest make only 1 bigger city (where players can tp to at any time to buy items, spells or whatever), while adding smaller, but many villages all around the map, with different races and quests in them, for instance you could put a furbolg village in the forest, a troll village near the sea and a tuskar village in the snow

Why?
Cities waste too much space and 80% of cities are just houses and trees = pathing wasters. With 1 bigger city, you could put many different merchants, class trainers, quest givers etc. at one place.

anyway, good luck with the map

 

[keychup]

Otherwise use the campaign editor. when i shrunk my units an an old map i had i lolled when my illidan model left those huge ass footprints behind.

EDIT: I haven't tried this yet but if you use the campaign editor, I don't think you'll be able to load the map for multiplayer games. Campaigns are likely to be playable only for Single Player mode. But if you intended on using one player only in the first place the campaign editor's the best choice. You get to insert several maps so the number of places you can visit can be alot bigger.

 

[johnnymra]

my advice is to make as much playable area as possible, in RPGs variety is important
along with keychup's idea of reducing units' sizes, here are few other methods:

-reduce the sea size, too much terrain is wasted cause of the unpathable water, also what's with those tiny islands? you can't put more than 3 trees on them xd
-put more snow and terrain variations, a monotonous terrain makes it look both boring and smaller
-use raise tool for cliffs, except that it looks better, it saves a lot of pathing space
-I suggest make only 1 bigger city (where players can tp to at any time to buy items, spells or whatever), while adding smaller, but many villages all around the map, with different races and quests in them, for instance you could put a furbolg village in the forest, a troll village near the sea and a tuskar village in the snow

Why?
Cities waste too much space and 80% of cities are just houses and trees = pathing wasters. With 1 bigger city, you could put many different merchants, class trainers, quest givers etc. at one place.

anyway, good luck with the map

PLEASE UNDERSTAND. MY MAP IS NOT ORPG...
1) i will not make a whole bunch of creeps around the map... with a lot of quests and a city to TP to.. or things like those...
2) if you did not read, the map is 256x256... the islands you see are as big as to put a whole big city on them... or at least a forest and something..., also the sea will be navigable so it is a playable area.
3) i do not see the point of your comment... you just pointed out some obvious or senseless things without even giving me an proper idea about the terrain, as i really asked in the thread.


EDIT: I apologize for being rude, people. But please, if you do not want to post something related to my question then do not post it... i already have in mind the process of making the terrain. The problem is that i need ideas on how should it look like... if you have any ideas of landscapes that was my question. The only one who gave me some help was death_knight who pointed me to some maps which i saw and already inspired me with some ideas of my own.

 

[Dinowc]

1. Don't post rude responses, then few seconds later putting an apologize down bellow as it's not very convincing. Instead edit the whole post with a proper manner, I've found it almost degrading and insulting tbh.
2. I don't see how my comment wasn't terrain related. It seems that you expect an idea like "put a mountain over there, put a river over there, add lake in there". I was giving you a starting idea how you should build the terrain yourself, not how we should build it for you.
3. Sorry for not understanding what an RPG is. I thought Diablo was RPG since you fight bunch of creeps, complete quests and tp to cities. I was obviously wrong. /sarcasm
4. Respect other ppl opinions. Whether they are wrong or not. With posts like this you'll make them stop helping you in the future. I know that I will.

Still, good luck with the map. And I mean it.

 

[death_knight]

I agree with Dinowc. That was a fairly rude response, Johnnymra; and you should respect other people's opinions. You should have said something a long the lines of "Thanks for your response, but that wasn't wuite what I was looking for." You also must remember that this is a Help site, and that we don't do stuff for you. Short of instructing you what to do or actually making the map for you, some of the best responses are the ones which, like mine, suggests places from which you can draw inspiration; or ones like Dinowc's which give advice on space management.

Dinowc's points about wasted space and pathing are very valid and would generally be considered helpful because the number and size of the towns you place will directly effect how you shape your terrain. I do agree with him on this as well. Having too much deep, impassable water is just a waster of space and does nothing for aesthetics. Especially considering how large the map is, you should definitely consider reducing the amount of "ocean" you have. Consider extending the mainland or having many large islands. If you can, try to get a few tiles from the "Sunken Ruins" Tileset.

As I recall from your initial post in this thread, you said '...RPG Landscape...". This implies you are making an RPG. And the only difference between a RPG and an ORPG is one is only with many players and the other is the exact opposite. And don't RPG maps have lots of creeps and quests and stuff like that? So the following statement from your last post seems redundant and just plain wrong:

PLEASE UNDERSTAND. MY MAP IS NOT ORPG...
1) i will not make a whole bunch of creeps around the map... with a lot of quests and a city to TP to.. or things like those...

Also, if you have seen the maps that I suggested, then why did you start this thread? If you had ideas of your own, you should have a layout of the map down-pact, leaving the small terrain details to handle, which only you can do. A better thread to have started could have been something along the lines of quest ideas, where you ask people what sorts of quests they would like to see as side quests in an RPG map.

 

[micolord]

Go make me boss there!! :3 Micolord the Epic Boss

 

[johnnymra]

I sincerely apologize and hope that on the future i will not be so rude.
Tough... i must admit this might seem odd... but in my opinion RPG means a Role-Play game... in which each player has a specific, or chosen role in the game.. therefor there isn't need for a lot of creeps and such... yes they will be... there can't be only players, but not like in PvE maps in which all you do is making quests that require killing monsters or bosses, or looting items and such.

Also about the quests i can state that they aren't always present in RPG-s... there are many RPG maps... in which you do not have quests... just a basic idea of the game itself and you proceed with that. An good example i think might be Island Troll tribes, or Phase killer. Those 2 maps are 100% RPG in my opinion, yet they are nothing like ORPG... that is why i got so upset in my previous reply (again sorry). Many people, when they see the RPG acronym they think people only talk about a lot of dungeons and monster killer, or a long line of quests with amazing requirements.

 

[keychup]

Legend of Dragoon and Final Fantasy 7. Now those were real RPGs. Go suck some ideas out of those.

i.e. they had a lot of wasted space. make sure you waste your space wisely.

 

[johnnymra]

Legend of Dragoon and Final Fantasy 7. Now those were real RPGs. Go suck some ideas out of those.

i.e. they had a lot of wasted space. make sure you waste your space wisely.

Thanks this really helped .
Yep and i will have a lot of time looking for correcting any wasted space

OFF topic: this is what i liked to have as a reply some indications for ideas at least.

 

[death_knight]

How would you describe exactly what type of map you're aiming to make? You implied in your initial post that you were making an RPG map. The you said that you weren't making an ORPG. Then you're essentially having a go at people for making the assumption that RPG's have quests and creeps. Please enlighten me as to what game type you are actually trying to create, because you're giving a bit of a confused picture here.

And Island Troll Tribes is an ORPG because it a Role-Playing game which involves more than one human player.

 

[johnnymra]

Fine... then maybe i am a bit stupid. I misunderstood the acronym ORPG... as it means a RPG map with many players... Yet in my history of playing W3 all ORPGs have been PvE maps... and that is not what i want to do... I do not wish to make a map in which players just kill monsters and bosses for items an level.

In order to be respectful, i will explain you a bit of my map. I want to make a "make your own life" map... It is a about 9 players which chose different classes of heroes,( all look the same and have the same attributes. damage, etc) but they are going to create a life until ascension.

They have to do anything they want to please the gods (which will be other 3 players) (i know the idea might be a bit stolen... gods and mortals... but i haven't seen maps like these, just Titan land... which is a modified melee map). The heroes will be able to create bases and armies, kingdoms, or just create a small farm... raising animals or growing crops, they will alternatively be able to become merchants... trading goods... hunters... hunting wild animals... mighty warriors and mages that will rely on using their class spells and other acquired spells along with armor and weapons (that will appear on them as attachments and give them bonuses).

The idea comes a bit from Founders of the North but also came up to me when i played Escape builder and saw how the builders helped the players find the end. (in my map a player will win when a god decides to give him ascension... making him a divine being)

And that is why i need some fabulous terrain.... which has initially brought me to asking here on the helper about different terrain ideas.


Also i must mention... i decided to start this project because my former project... Forest Shifters has been blocked. I really cannot find the problem to the loading in that map and so i decided to put it in a "pause", as i am busy almost all time and i can't afford working to discover what made that bug, at the moment.