Advanced Elevation Guide
By Nottud
created 5/13/06
As some of you want to know how to make high elevation or low elevation past the normal point. I myself will put together some guides step by step on how to make higher/lower elevation!
Creating extreme elevation without random maps
It is possible to create extreme elevation without the use of random maps. This way requires REYKS editor for this to work! I have only found it to work on expansion due for 2 reasons. Tremor works best but that is expansion. Earthquake works too but only really with god owner blocking on off. You could use earthquake on none expansion without god power blocking on off but it will take longer to work. Tremor works best!
Method for tremor: place a gaia reveler on your map and make sure that you won’t get defeated halfway through playtesting. e.g. you could turn victory conditions off. put a trigger on loop to tremor the place with the reveler by making gaia cast tremor. No need to grant tremor to gaia. Playtest the game and then save the game. e.g. quicksave using the shortcut key f8. Now go back into the editor and load your saved game. Find the place with the reveler and place a unit that CAN be tremored onto spot. The land with foul up and bits of it will go lower than ground level and other bits will go miles above the normal ground level. Keep doing it until it gets as high as you want it then read the section called: “shaping the extreme elevation using the water tool”
Method for earthquake: Similar method for tremor. Turn god power blocking on off and make earthquake invoke on loop on a spot. Load the saved game in editor and the ground will continue to rise in editor. When you want it to stop, delete the earthquake invoke trigger and playtest again. Just then simply return to the editor.
Shaping extreme elevation using the water tool
Once you have your extreme elevation, you still face a problem – how do you shape the land while keeping the extreme elevation? I myself have recently found out a way to solve this problem! Open your water tool. Now go to the box labeled “paint land” and click it so that there is a cross in it. Paint some water on top of the hill – fill the entire top of the hill. Now put some at the bottom of the hill. (right the way round the bottom of hill) Now make the brush bigger so it coveres the entire top of the hill and the water at the bottom. Hold alt and move your mouse-wheel, of hold ctrl and drag so it creates the huge brush. Position your brush on top of the hill so that it covers all the hill and the river round the hill at the bottom and click. It will smoothen your hill AND drain some of the water ontop of your hill. Keep clicking until your satisfied with what you have got. Now you can simply remove the water at the bottom of the hill by raising the land the normal way and smoothen it. Use that to create the hill at the top like so. There are other ways of using the water tool to create valleys using it too. If you practice, you will be able to get rid of any water. Practice will also allow you to create valleys without any water appearing in the first place!
The forest tool may not work properly on the hills you have shaped using the water tool, but it will allow you to place seaweed or other water objects in those places, even if you cannot see any water!
Notes on extreme elevation
Do not place buildings on the high elevation! It will muck it up! Same with using hekas, they will destroy the elevation. This means you can really have it on maps you can build on unless that area is unbuildable. You can make your own water types and use those to help you. I have made the shallowest water type that it will let you for the job and also one that is extremely deep. Any units that “fall” down these steep hills will delete themselves! Very useful for deep pits that are not circular, etc. Only works if you fall in! You can still walk down the hill though!
FAQ
Can you use hekas to create this high elevation?
No, hekas do not ignore the terrain height limit so they will not work.
Are there any god powers other than tremor and earthquake that work?
Not that I know of
Can you also create really high water too?
Yes, it is possible but I will not explain it here! Anyway, what is the use of it?
Can you use random map scripting trick for non expansion?
Yes, it is complete possible so no worry for non expansion folks!
Water thing won’t work, it jumps to normal height!
Make sure that the paint land box is ticked!
When making my own shallow water type, why wont it pain at all?
The lowest depth that seems to work for water is 0.5 metres.
My hill using the tremor/earthquake trick is all jagged!
Try using the shaping water trick to smoothen it out!
The cliff stuff on the side of the map is all weird!
Playtest the map the go back into the editor.