I have noticed while browsing through this forum that many terrain submissions seem to be very similar to concepts thought up long ago. With the newfound knowledge that people have forgotten most of what the really old terrainers had done. (Me, Glytchur, Woodenfire, among others) I do realize there are other terrainers here, (Wilhelm and qPK, and others) that (hopefully) still remember the old terraining days, however this does not really concern you. (You can still participate, but don't be like me and simply drag old terrain in here, I want freshness.)

I wish to hold a challenge for those who do not remember some older blends, and for those who think that they might like to learn how to terrain. There is really only one way to learn how to terrain though, and that is to practice. So, in order to better yourselves I have a list of various landmarks in terrain, and wish for you to construct them.
This is not like the terrain competition, which emphasizes aesthetic values of terrain and ability to match with a theme. This is a puzzle in which competitors must match a doodad to a set of criteria.
So what do I want from you...?

-=:THE LIST:=-
1. A ramp that goes from low ground to low ground without raising to highground in the middle. (So that in crossing it, a unit would never see above the terrain around them.
2. A cave/tunnel that can be walked through without use of teleportation. (So that clicking on the other side of the tunnel would cause the unit to walk through it.)
3. A tall cliff with an overhanging ledge. (So that the top may be larger than the bottom of the cliffside. Extra points if you can get various shapes on the overhang.)
4. A very large tree. (Think deku tree.)
5. A large temple/building with multiple levels and doors to enter at each level. (For elevator fun?)
6. (In jungle) Temple structures joined completely to ruins. (Not even ancient cities had streets made from grass.)
7. (Also in jungle) Two ramps to raised jungle from directions other than the premade doodad. (So the raised jungle can be accessed from the top, or from the lower left.)
8. A small stream. (A body of water using no open water tiles, yet not simply being a small puddle.)
9. A fence. (Sounds simple enough.)
10. High Ground to High Ground Cliff face. (Should be easy.)
11. A wall which can be attacked over, but not crossed. (Even by Zerglings .)
12. (In jungle) Temple stairs to high ground. (Difficult to pull off correctly.)

I know that all of these can be made successfully, and most of them can be done with perfect blending. Some require sprites, which I will allow, so long as the blend cannot be otherwise. Those who attempt one of these tricks will be revealed the old version of the terrain trick, and those images which I feel reflect a new idea will be placed on this post.

I hope there are people out there that want to try to do some of these, because I really don't see many of the blends anymore.

Psh... I remember seeing pretty much all of these, but I'm too lazy to make them and upload to photobucket .

Here's what I made in 30 minutes.

Attachments:

A of s t, screenshots pliz.

Well, you have to admit that there is truly a limit to how much you can do, we can come up with new doodads and such, but real ground-breaking blends are extremely rare now, since most every one of them has been found for the commonly used tilesets.

I disagree.
People have always said that because there are limited tiles that the number of blends has been pretty much near it's maximum. Yet I know that the most hindering part of finding new blends is not the tiles, but the concept of what to make. There is a vast untapped area of utilizing sprites in blends, which everyone has pretty much labeled taboo (again because of the limitations in sprites) but again, the limiting factor in actuality is never in the sc limits, but in how people use them. For instance DK made a wonderful exposition of swamp terrain, which nobody (except maybe Wilhelm) yes it utilized sprites, but it made an awesome show.
This is one reason I think qPK is an important terrainer, not so much of his blending capability, but because he can use sprites for very good effect.

A_of-s_T: There are some well placed blends in the map, however, I am unclear as to which items your going for.
Stairs to High ground: Well done, seems like you remember an older blend though.
Enterable Cave: Close, but it's still possible for units to appear on top of the rocks for quite a duration.
Lowground-Lowground ramp: Does not meet the requirement of not having high ground vision given during crossing.
High ground to high ground cliff: I was hoping for an actual (something you'd find in game) cliff, with maybe edges, but I suppose I was not clear enough.
Temple to ruins: Close, but walking above the temple reveals rooftop blockyness.
Possibly overhanging cliff: Not big enough overhang.

I'll post up some examples of ones he completed sometime, right now it's dinner time!

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Mar 5 2009, 1:51 am by Rantent.

Here are a couple of the ones mentioned. I have attempted to make: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9. I have already seen 4, 10, and 12.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to upload file. Linky.

For the low ground to low ground ramp, just look in WoodenFire's Ramp Database

i would have to agree this falk

though i've come up w/ a few blends, its nothing ground breaking. Woodenfire took the cake on all that. Now its pretty much can we put all this knowledge into somting that looks appealing, is functional and is beyond the level of most mappers. just being able to make a small blend doesnt actually make as much of an impact in a map as a full peice of terrian would.

You know he only did one tileset right? There's quite a few more.

i've actually spent quite a bit of time in other tilesets and good blends are really difficult to make. Mostly everything in jungle and badlands looks similar, or at least generaic so that theres a lot of possibilities. I tried to make extended cliffs in twilight, ice and ashworld but i cant seem to find any tiles at all that look natural.

but you're right, i tend to deal mostly with jungle and badlands cause thats what i know how to use

1. I love the ramp, I think it could be fixed up a bit, but it's different from my low ramp was.
2. Seems like everyone is getting the cave fairly well. You got one of the sprites which really works well for the entrance, but if you play around a bit with them you find that combination's of some sprites produce better entering results. (So it doesn't look like the unit is on top of the entrance.)
3. Interesting idea for the overhang, the only problem is that the temple doodad tile on the end kinda makes it look like it's not a true overhang.
8. The stream only goes from side to side. It might work for a piece in a structured setting, like a pool in a castle garden or something, but it's not very natural looking.
9. The fence is rather blocky, and I'm not sure how I would fix it with some part intact, as it becomes difficult to work with tiles at 1x1 slopes.

Heres my attempt on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (I didn't know what exactly to do for this but w/e), 8, 9 and 10
None are really ground-breaking though

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 6 2009, 12:34 am by xYoshix. Reason: Forgot Attachment Lol

#4 and #9 are both into my actual d2 map uploaded into the DLDB. Have fun checking it out

Lol...I had no idea xD

Yeah, that's why I said:

I know that there are still quite a few blends to be found for other tilesets, every time I do a map in another tileset I generally find something new, I'm just saying that in the more popular ones, such as Jungle, I think that just about all major blends have been found.

I missed the part where I was replying to you, not toothfairy.

His post was in reference to my post, which was only speaking about one or a few more tilesets.

I have worked in other tilesets before... Most of those maps are for myself and prolly in download section on Rantent's computers... Lol

My last terrain ladder had some very interesting blends from other contestants in other tilesets that I purposely raised MANY ranks because of their cool finds.

I kept on trying to do temple to high ground, but that is crazy hard... i have two variants, not amazing, and not done. I kinda just gave up at the end.