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-angry falk trolling tone-WTF IS UP WITH YOUR HEIGHT ISSUES?-/end angry falk trolling tone-
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Jesus... This is better but if falk was here he would be yelling at you for your terrain height issues.
Well, nice to see so many people are willing to choose my opinion for me, thanks guys
I've actually been discussing this piece specifically with him over PM, and I think it has promise, the only problems I see with it is the left side terrain height, the right side looks correct, although that new addition of that jutting section somewhat messes it up, it's acceptable, the left side is the only issue, and I think your main problem there, is that you are trying to keep it to a scene that will fit in a single screen in SCM Draft on 100% zoom, and that is what you wanna get away from, it's gonna be even closer up in StarCraft, so why does the SCM Draft screen size matter at all? Be willing to make it a huge scene, the waterfall should be part of this scene, I think that left side should turn into more of a mountain.
I've already said this in PM, but it seems like you have a hard time using ramps, from all your terrain I've seen so far, you really like just putting terrain across cliffs, rather than having a transition, if you want to have correct terrain height(which isn't necessary, many great terrainers ignore it), you need to use ramps, for one, custom ramps are impressive, they add more to the piece, they take away from the dullness of repetitive terrain, by creating a radical transition across the cliff, secondly, they make vision work properly, which is a huge part of adding to the SC atmosphere.
Basically, I think you need to make sure there is an adjoining platform of terrain for each cliff face on the left side, furthermore, I think for the look you want, you need to use dirt on the bottom, and use different kinds of terrain, 50% of "cluttering" up an area is placing different bits of terrain, like grass or ruins in this case, just placing a few trees and sprites isn't going to cut it, doodads add clutter, but they don't detract from the repetitiveness of the terrain well, people like transitions, they look nice, and adding bits of different terrain adds lots of little transitions.
I really think this piece can work out, it's a fine idea, it just needs some more work.
EDIT: Okay. I feel a little dumb, although most of what I said it still true, I hadn't seen the map, and let me just say, HUGE improvement from the image, for those of you who are like me and are too lazy to open the map, enjoy:
(BTW, Jesusfreak, that larger image was creating by using File>Save Image in SCM Draft, converting the image to a PNG with Paint, and using Photoshop to copy the area I wanted from the map.)
I think it looks pretty good, although my comment regarding the clutter is still somewhat true, you're overusing the sprite trees, try just using the normal doodads more and more shrubs and terrain mixing up, the terrain height issues are still present, but they at least have transitions now, I don't mind these terrain issues much at all.
Just a suggestion, get rid of a few of the trees, and maybe try adding a few of payne's water trees, they add to a piece Also, those 4 tile water spots in the ground add to the piece, so you may want some of those, I would highly recommend opening up Jungle Custom Doodad Database.scm in my Terrain Compilation, it has many of those little doodads that really add to a piece, also, it doesn't have to be all plant life, little bits of bone and such also add a bit, as long as they're not overused.
Honestly, it looks great now, much better than the initial image, I'm impressed
Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 4 2010, 5:04 am by Falkoner.
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