Also on this lowest ground SC2 also has a organic looking tileset which is basically it's own platform that is looking like it's made out of purely rock/organic tileset and therefor has it's own organic looking edges.
Also I'm a SCMDraft user and I may use terms used in that program.
For this idea I will use certain phrases to describe what I want to get said, when I speak of levels I mean ground height, 1 being low, 2 medium and 3 high.
About cliffs I will refer to the bottom part of those tiles which share the lower ground texture and a part of the cliff in the same tile as cliff edges or borders.
When I speak of platform edges I mean only the platform edges and is entirely unrelated to cliffs.
When I mention organic tileset I mean the SC2 organic platform that are made out of rock and in this text I will assume that this organic tileset will look like desert dirt.
Usually when I'll say border tiles I mean tiles that contain two terrains and is a part of the blend between them.
Tileset phrases I will use
regular platform will be called lower platform not to be confused with the tileset low platform and is from now assumed to be level 1.
organic tileset or dirt will be refer to dark platform tileset made into dirt the reason is because it reacts the same way or similar to the dirt tileset. Level 1
High Platform will be referred as medium platform because of reduced height to level 2.
Catwalk will remain as level 3 and be called High platform and assumed to get a such look and do not be confused please.
This is my assumed attempt at how the SC space tileset would be used to make SC2 like space maps.
About the rusty pit and the low platform which now wouldn't lead to level 2 as they are level 1 as the platform that once was level 2 and therefor all their borders/cliffs have to be changed.
Starting with the Organic tileset and assumed to have imported the appropriate colors too.
Desert dirt and it's edges would replace the dark platform and it's height be reduced to level 1.
Though the desert dirt tiles that border to sand dunes would get it's sand dunes part replaced by lower platform and thus blend.
Though the organic tileset in SC2 also is it's own platform made out of it's organic material and thus would need a own platform edge and to blend well in with the platform edge it would need to be of the same dimensions too so that when put together will not have uneven areas.
I counted the amount of border tiles of the rusty pit and it's 138 tiles used to make the borders of rusty pit to platform and this excludes main rusty tiles and Doodads.
I guess half of the tiles are mirrored and this could save a lot of work.
Anyway looking at the rusty pit it's northern parts have a total of 3 tiles vertically before the transition between the change of tilesets which also the the same as the vertical tile amount of platforms on their southern parts.
The rusty pit's southern area the vertical amount of tiles between pure platform and pure rusty pit is 2 tiles just like the northern parts of the platform edge. You see where this is going?
All the rusty pit's edges could be turned into the organic platform edge. And the rusty pit ramp would be turned into a ramp between organic tileset and the medium level platform tileset and have a nice blend.
This will leave the rusty pit main tiles without borders and I'll get back to it soon.
Since in SC2 you also have there levels of ground and there's a platform tile on low ground too, this means that high ground will make double cliffs.
In SC1 doubled space cliffs do not look good but are possible and I will assume this to be used though.
As already known mapping with StarCraft tilesets of the medium type always only fits to the common tile of the level under and never ith alternative tilesets, like never seen a ramp which goes from Dark Platform to next height of platform while maintaining the regular platform ramp too. The Organic tileset had to be given a ramp as it wouldn't be able to ramp up to medium platform and thus would get a remade rust pit ramp with a smoother blend between both used tilesets.
I guess that when mapping with medium tileset when it would get in contact with the organic tileset there would be no blending as the medium ground would have it's cliffs with a determined border tileset which would be partially platform and partially cliff.
Since the cliffs use teh same amount of tiles between the different tilesets as the platform edges and as the original lower space tileset borders to the origina platform tileset.
I suggest the same to be done using the low platform borders to make alternative cliffs of which the lower ground on the border tiles is the organic tileset though this wouldn't replace the existing one but would become an alternative, even though it probably wont be used automatically and would mess with the organic tileset all you would have to do is remap next to the cliffs with the organic tileset and the cliffs will be updated with the alternative cliff tiles.
The result of this will make both low platform and rusty pit main tiles which are pure and without borders needed to be used elsewhere.
Though as you already know there's no decay for the platform tileset and the rusty pit or low platform main tiles shouldn't be placed directly anywhere as it would look very bad.
I suggest changing the rusty pit to a decay looking platform tileset but not too decayed and do note that it wouldn't have any borders of any kind and therefor needs to look good enough to make every tile blend in well with the platform tiles, or the rusty pit main tiles could be made looking like a heavily decayed platform and the low platform main tiles looking like a lighter decayed platform and thus could work as a border between regular and heavily decayed platform if needed.
solar array and plating will remain as level 2 and thus will be ontop of a cliff level as the low ground now have enough of variated ground and even a new platform being organic entirely and have alternative cliffs to the second level to blend well.
Doodads previously used by the now heavily decayed platform would be adapted to level 3 platform tileset as it doesn't have any doodads except it's ramps, and the rusty Doodads of which the rusty tile now would be medium or light decayed and blend well with platform no mater where put on platform tileset. These rusty pit Doodads would get their border tiles that are partially rusty pit to be light or medium decayed, not too much but not too little as these Doodads would have to look good when placed on both heavily and less decayed Platform tilesets which again wont have any borders.
If any more tiles are needed for blending, especially on those areas where the organic platform meets the lower platform at the same time as it has to blend the tilesets on walkable ground and have a part of the edge as well, such tiles will probably not be placed automatically but can be fixed by replacing the low ground bridge tiles with such special tiles used to finish off the blending of different areas.
Maybe if needed the low ground ramps would be used for the ramps of organic to medium platform as they seem to be a bit bigger.
And the tiles of the rusty pit ramps in this case would be used to make special border or blending tiles to put where the mapping program has failed such as tiles bordering between organic and platform as well as have some part of a platform edge on some of these tiles maybe even have a part from both edges too.
What do you guys think, some Doodads are also inappropriate as some of the platform Doodads look like a part of them is a small whole to the rusty pit and such things, even low ground doodads where there seems to be platform pieces lying on the low platform tileset.
Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 16 2013, 10:09 pm by Raygoza.
None.
