Landslides are a pain, but they allow you to create some pretty interesting dynamic maps.

The manual hints that "Landslides occur along long, diagonal stretches of terrain elevated two levels above ground level."

Here's how to reliably create a landslide area, and some of the gotchas.

Pick a large grassy area, at least 30x30. The area doesn't need to be at ground level, just large and flat. One of my colony maps started out at elevation 15, so I could get the waterfalls that I wanted.

Select the Biggest Square Brush.

Select Raise Land Two Elevations.

Create 3 adjacent plateaus (one continuous plateau), 2 elevations high. This will give you a straight cliff, about 30 tiles on the diagonal.

Click refresh (make sure that Show Zones is selected), and you should have one or more triangular pink areas with about a 10 tile diagonal along the base of the cliff. The pink area is the TOE of the landside, and indicates the area that will be RAISED one elevation when the landslide occurs. An approximately equal area from the TOP of the cliff will DROP one elevation. That's where the dirt comes from.

You cannot have any Marshland anywhere in the lower area, and possibly in the upper area. If you add any, you'll lose the landslide area.

You cannot have any water anywhere in the lower area, and possibly in the upper area. If you add any, you'll lose the landslide areea.

Any elevations changes within about 20 tiles of the landslide zone stands a good percentage of messing it up, but that's exactly what we need to do, so get used to using refresh, undo, and revert. Saving will sometimes zap your landslide area, even if it survives refresh, but more often it will bring it back.

It's "nearly" impossible to get Bronze or other specialied rock structures near the landslide area.

Landslides get really interesting if you create an elevated plateau just beyond the toe of the landside, and create a depression on the backside of the elevated cliff that created your landslide. You now have two elevated areas that will BECOME CONNECTED when the landslide occurs. You can play all sort of games with the access ramps on the uneffected portions of these two accessory plateaus. This approach allows you to create new pathways, and also allows you to destroy pathways that previously existed.

How about a dynamic map?? How about a developed Marble Quarry that is suddenly "Cut Off from the Rest of the World". Any idea how long the buildings will last before they collapse?

The possibilites are endless, and quite interesting.

Summer Solstice

"The Harpie is almost an ally. While she demands a high price, she can find trails that are nearly invisible to mere mortals."

[This message has been edited by MarvL (edited 02-02-2002 @ 01:17 PM).]