The aesthetic purpose requires a bit more discussion. It is true that extended terrain is often very good-looking; but it hardly follows from that that it deserves to be the only style of terrain. Look at art; realistic depiction of pretty scenes is hardly the only type of art, and there is plenty of art that aspires neither to realism nor prettiness. It's the same way with computer game graphics; old-computer-raping fancy 3D graphics might be all the rage these days, but there are plenty of highly atmospheric games that are non-3D or lower-tech. What possible sense could there be in saying that "fancy" graphics that do not succeed in creating the desired atmosphere are better than old-style graphics that do succeed? Are they better because they make the game use more system resources? Because they are newer? No; such reasons are utterly ridiculous. Look at Yume Nikki as an example; the graphics are completely low-tech, but also successful.
So I think that there is a lot of potential in alternative terrain styles waiting to be explored. Right now, the blended style may be responsible for the most atmospheric maps; but that style has also had the most "research" done on it. Very little if any work has been done on non-blended but effortful styles; sure, there are a lot of maps with isometrical, rectangular, or blocky terrain, but typically, such styles are used only because the map's creator doesn't want to put the effort into making something blended. If one is making a map with extended terrain, there are plenty of compilations and other resources to help; on the other hand, non-conforming terrain is often dismissed without people giving it much thought. Of course, there's lots of terrain that is genuinely bad, and I'm not trying to endorse it; it's just that there's bad-because-it-fails-at-its-purposes and bad-because-it-doesn't-conform-to-SEN's-dominant-style, and I don't regard the latter as bad at all.
Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone else here had done anything towards developing alternative terrain styles. I have a few that I have been working on; they're not anywhere near fully developed, and it will probably take a lot more work before their techniques are able to produce things that are as good as the best extended terrain. Even when they are fully developed, alternative styles would not be "better" than blending, but not worse, either, just different. Maybe having a thread like this to discuss alternative terrain styles will help them grow. But before I share anything of mine, I'd like to know what others have done in terms of exploring other possibilities in the terrain field. Only serious attempts, please; the fact that something is bad at the blended style does not thereby make it a good example of a viable alternative style.
None.