Okay! Well, first off! Vrael has released an RP Template, I wish to make an rp using such a template (and of course, he will get as much credit as I, seeing that I obviously have not done the triggers.) And now this raises a question, Their is a lot of land to cover it appears...and this raises the question on how the hell I am to make it look all natural, how to make the entire map fulfilling, feeling not at all empty (or too cramped) in any places. I'm just curious if anyone has any minor tips in doing such, that way my map doesn't end up being like "Time Fallen Rp" (Which has some cool terrain in some areas, but otherwise it's just empty.)

I also wish to note I was considering in posting this in UMS help, but seeing I desperately need help from the almighty skilled terrainers (assuming that's a word) I found it would do good here to.

(Lets just hope I'm not the next crappy Oblivion, shall we?)

http://Falkoner.CoW.GooglePages.com/Tutorials.html

and

http://www.staredit.net/files/13/

Enjoy

http://www.staredit.net/topic/2403/

http://www.staredit.net/topic/3223/

http://www.staredit.net/files/1103/

http://www.staredit.net/files/1104/

http://www.staredit.net/files/1102/

http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Simple_Waterfall_Terrain

http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Subtile_tool_(Scmdraft_2)

http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Terrain_Height

http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Terrain

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Feb 18 2009, 4:19 pm by Pigy_G.

Here is a short checklist of things you can do to make your terrain look better:
1. Have variety. Unless it doesn't fit the mood you are trying to achieve, try to have different terrain levels (ex. dirt & high dirt) and different colors, such as grass and water. Unless it is your goal, don't make boring, redundant terrain with same pattern over and over again.

2. Make sure it's functional. Since I'm assuming this terrain isn't just for looks, see if units can walk around. (You can try to place a unit in SCMdraft, and it will show you where it can't walk, or you could just test it in starcraft)

3. Doodads. Use the doodads in the tileset you are using (either in doodad form or terrain form). Trees and some rock doodads provide cover, so use those if necessary.

4. Sprites. Use sprites to spice up your terrain, but check to see if the sprite you are using crashes the game.

5. Ramps. These are pretty important, make sure you don't keep using the same ramp, wooden made a ramp compilation(for jungle); it is in falkoner's terrain compilation.

6. BE CREATIVE AND IMAGINATIVE.

I think those are all the important points. O yeah, for waterfalls, they're probably not a good idea because although they look orgasmic in the editor, they look dead and ugly in starcraft because they don't really move.

PRO TIP: For RP try to imagine possible scenarios that would happen on your map and make terrain to compliment them. That's about all.

How I used to terrain back when I terrained:
1. I first conceptually lay out a general layout of a map. (For an rp, I would look for AT LEAST 5 different locations that would be important. Like mountains, a lake, a large city, rivers, an open field, canyon system ect. Then place them randomly, or with some purpose, about the map.)
2. What would be special about each of those regions. (For instance, I would select one mountain out of the range, make it very large and have a cliff face overlooking ruins or something. Make each region have something special.)
3. Fit your dream design into something that Starcraft can handle. (Draw a picture of your imaginary place, using graph paper and only moving about in 2x1 diagonals and vertical lines. I do this mentally, but I used to draw stuff out by hand, it helps and shouldn't take too long.)
4. Make the piece you drew. (This may feel like it takes a while to do, but once you know where tiles are, making huge amounts of terrain will take almost no time. I made the entire terrain of Dam Builders in about 12 minutes, and it still seems better than most terrain I see.)
If you get stuck and something doesn't match, you can try varying the piece your placing, the ones it connects to, or simply change the look of the region of terrain. I used to try to avoid using copy/paste brushes as much as possible, because it really helped in making new things, so that every inch of terrain was different. I do not really make maps anymore, so I don't really care if I repeat stuff now.
5. It should look somewhat decent, but some parts may have looked better on paper, so go back and make little trims or extensions here and there. (For instance, in your original concept, you had a very narrow passageway, but on the map the typical size is either too wide or two small, so edit it slightly to make it just right. This is also usually when you aren't quite sure what you want, but later you can get good enough to do this on the fly.)
6. Make sure the vision is constant. (This is something which very few people seem to do after they terrain. I hate seeming an entire cliff face when I move my ground unit to just the right position, but then having it disappear a second later. BE CONSISTENT!!)
7. Add awesome doodads. (Or don't, it's best to only use them for effects which improve the concept you wanted.)

However, in certain cases, it may be alright to not follow these rules. For instance when your concept is to have a really dense jungle, much denser than sc allows. (Were talking MASSES of trees) I focus less on the underlying terrain, having the most important objective be about maintaining vision and making sure the units can be found in the forest. Then I place sprites to my hearts content.

There are always special cases, but the best way to learn terrain is to just play with the palette, it's what everybody has to do to learn it.

What tileset, another jungle?

How to create RP Terrain:

Make sure the terrain looks good and is fucking functional. I cannot stress functional. If you can't build on it (legitimately), what's the use?

Just make it isom terrain at first, and build extended ontop of it.