posted 08-14-06 10:30 AM CT (US)
In order to produce quality scenarios, the caliber of the map design is one of the most important factors - yet it is harder than you might believe to produce a "pretty" map.
A believable a map helps engage the player and bring the scenario to a whole new level. Say if you wanted to do an Aztec scenario, it would be wise to try and make the map look as much like the terrain and vegetation found in Central American as possible. This is common knowledge, for you don't put jungle trees with snow for this would just be unbelievable, even if you were making a fantasy scenario, this would spoil the map and put the player off.
So, if you have the correct setting, say a road in the country-side you have to make it look convincing. It's no good just placing down "dirt 1" on plain "grass 2" lined by lumps of trees. This is where this Tutorial comes in, this is a guide for any designer of any skill and is aimed at trying to teach yourself the simple, yet effective way of mixing terrain to produce an effective landscape. I will use various different example to show how easy it is to bring landscapes to life. 2. It still bland at the moment, but now you have a good base, you can build up the foundations. Seeing as this will be a road you may think "oh, put down some broken road and we done". Partly true. You should now place down some "broken road terrain" in the path you wish it go, but that is not the end. Mix this "road" and "road fungus" to give the effect of a well worn track. 3. But still, with now have to do the embankments and more of the road it's self. Not many roads running through the countryside are in that good nick! Add the all the dirt set and desert sparingly along the road and embanks to give a worn and weathered feel. Dirt 1 is good on road and often giving the portrail of worn road and track. Dirt 2 is good also for roads and worn land. Dirt 3 and Desert give a more "scrubbed" land feel, which should be using irregularly, yet make the area feel more real. 4. Now we can start by placing down vegetation, at first place down trees that you will be unlikely to use, for example place bamboo down first. And remember, when placing down trees, always put it down from the Gaia menu under players, so we do not effect the terrain below 5. Continue to place down trees, but remember to vary the types and make sure the styles do not look out of place. Also we can now start to place more gaia items down like broken carts, craters, skeletons and rocks etc. 6. Now soon, just to top it off, continue placing down come eye candy, if you want to use gold mines and other resources, take care to note that you should use the "pile of..." so as to get rid of the outlines when placing down. These can be found in various templates and also found with Enhanced Editor and GeniEd2 That was one example of terrain mixing, but as you know - the Aok Editor can produce a vast array of different styles of land and show ranges of temperature, from freezing tundra to boiling jungles. I will now to continue to show a few more example's of more terrain mixing but in other locations. 1. For our base terrain, we would use "grass 2" - though normally this is a bad choice, as grass 2 is one of the most blandest terrain textures, it will suit our needs for now to outline the shape of the shore. For the sea base terrain, use whatever water terrain tile that will be of most use. For example, need a cliff you would have deep waters, in man-made docks the water will be deep, but not as much, and by the shore it will be very shallow in comparison. 2. Now we will start to add more terrain verities. For start, we could line the coast in "desert" to give the look of a beach, and the further from the beach the less sand there should be. Eventually, we will be aiming for a natural looking beach where the sand fades out. Using "desert" then "dirt 1" then "dirt 2" and finally "grass 3" to show the way a beach slowly ends, going up into sand dunes. 3. For the meanwhile, we will forget about the beach and dunes for a minute and turn our eyes back out to sea. Now, just a block of one type of water is unrealistic looking, so we must mix the water "shallow, medium and deep" for these has different shades of blue that allow use to make the sea more animated. 4. Back to the shore, we will now start to mix the terrain of the sand dunes. Mixing the 3 dirts and the 3 types of grass will be able to give the feel of either worn land, scrub land or dunes - the possibility are actually endless when mixing grass and dirt, for it just depends on the percentage of each terrain you are using. The more dirt you put it, the more worn the land will seem, the more grass the more it seems like a meadow, etc. 5. Now, depending on what sort of beach you are trying to aim for, different trees will be needed. If you were making a beach in central/northern Europe, it would be a lot of pine and oak. Yet if you were making a beach set in the Pacific ocean you would use palm and jungle trees. Though, an interesting style of beach i think would be one in the rock shores of japan, with bamboo and pine trees and cliffs. Remember the type of vegetation shows the location and setting of your beach, so keep this in mind. 6. The beach still hasn't taken shape yet - now we should continue to mix the terrain using small brushes to fit in with the vegetation. Use objects from the "gaia" list like rocks improve the look of the area. Like before in the first example, adding "eye-candy" and various gaia objects, different trees and further mixing of your terrain so it fits in with the trees and other items you have placed will finish off the area you are designing 1. As our base terrain we will use "snow", you do not have to always use snow as a base terrain for it depends on the location/temperature/harshness of the winter. If you are doing a scene where you want to display late winter almost nearing the spring thaw, use snow sparling and keep snow to the edges of roads and mix plenty with grass and dirt to give the impression spring is coming. But in this example i will choose to show mid-winter, Jack frost still has yet to have a complete hold on the landscape, this is why i choose snow as a base terrain. Let use place down our base and then think of what we want to show, i say we will do the edge of a forest. 2. Like before, we will add some elevations, but not much, only a few tiny brush strokes to show the subtle grooves in the land, remember to use your discretion when using terrain - terrain can give a scene a totally different feel or location depending on what types and how much you use. Now we add some "snow grass" and some "snow pine" lightly around, so we get a brief overview and potential direction of our edge of a forest winter scene. 3. Now we should start to mix the ground terrain. We can use "snow grass" and "snow dirt", as per usual on tiny brush size, like before use each square sparingly and keep mixing till you are satisfied with the terrain. Remember to keep your final goal in mind, if your want an unspoilt glade, you wouldn't add much dirt into the area - for it would be untouched. Remember to keep your final goal in mind so you Can aim for that and know when you are going off target. 4. Continue to mix the terrain now. Don't be afraid to use terrain like "leaves", "dirt 2" and the grasses - you may think it is winter, but that doesn't mean it has to be all snow. Using tiny brush sizes allows the scene to come alive. This all comes when mixing forests, vary "snow pine" and normal "pine" but use "oak forest" very rarely, for they are not ever-green tree and have no leaves in the winter. The use of the bare trees through the gaia menu add the sense of the coldest and shedding of the leaves and tells us it is winter. 5. Now add various eye candy and finish the vegetation to suit the style and location you are aiming to achieve, remember gaia objects and good use of the different types of trees can bring your location to life. I hope from this tutorial you have learned the basic way terrain mixing can be implemented, yet how important it is to map making. [This message has been edited by Scud (edited 02-25-2007 @ 02:17 PM).]
If you look at Image I, this is a poor example of map design. It it rather bland and boring, so how would you go about trying to engage you're player into your map through your map design?Yes there is various eye-candy tricks and techniques, but to a new designer these can be off putting, and even experienced designers can find some of the more advanced eye candy techniques hard to pull off.
1. You can see in "Image I" that that road is bland, so how would you go on improving it? Firstly, get a
Now, in this section this will show terrain mixing when trying to make a beach in the editor. This part of the tutorial will also include terrain mixing for water, varying the water types to produce a realistic sea.
Also, if you wish - you should add minor elevation changes, small brushes of "elevation 3" are a good way to show the natural height changes in the land - for it is very rarer to see 100% flat land.
If you look at the screen shot you can see the "desert" terrain has been used as the beach, and then there is "dirt 2" in a narrow band, and on the edges a little bit of "dirt 1" mixed in, remember to always mix in with the tiny brush size. This starts to look like a natural beach, for the sand slowly fades as dirt and grass take over as into goes into the sand dues, which is why terrain has been placed to wards the back of the beach.
When mixing water, remember to use light water closer to the shore and darker shades of water further out to sea to give the idea of depth. To get rid of that shore that always come with placing terrain next to water, you could use "shore less water" which is available in various templates. Another benefit of using shore less water is that it can be used on slopes - useful when making water falls.
We should now move on to adding the vegetation.
Winter terrain can be some of the hardest to make in the editor, for at first glances, it seems to have a lack of "winter" terrain types. Though there might not be many terrain that features snow, using to terrain mixing with can overcome this lack of winter textures and be able to produce life like winter scenes.
"Scud: the man who could even make God feel foolish." - A Banned User
"Anyway, Scud's not mean, it's not in his nature...he is a bit eccentric though!" - Anastasia
I've already said it at SWS, but this is a very good tutorial. Nice Job 
