It's definitely getting better. I also like the attempt at 'dirtying' up the river, though I think the reason it looks a bit akward right now is because it's mostly the tips of rocks sticking out of the water. Try lowering all of the doodads in the river once or twice so really only the bare tips are visible, and then add some plants and/or dead twigs and tree trunks near to the actual waterfal. Additionaly, the cliffs near the waterfal need vines and overgrowth and such.
In regards to making your shorelines stand out more; add a couple of really large trees in between all that canopy. A couple of things that makes it look like we're still inside this jungle and not flying over it with a helicopter.
I like it! The terrain seems a bit empty, but it works with your theme of a deserted, gaseous 'nuclear fallout' styled ruin. Maybe adding dead trees and some more areas that indicate that this was once a city will help (especially thinking of screenshot 2 here).
Its not exactly nuclear fallout, more like zerg plague gone a bit awry in terms of toxicity. I agree with giving it more life, haha, so I updated it a bit. The idea is to show that maybe thezerg even dropped the ball on his one. Thats ssuming it was the zerg who released the noxious plague.
Also known as: "what Mar Sara would have looked like if Blizzard had used less colour saturation".
Loving your stuff, you've done it again. I especially like your idea in the black pointy rocks sticking out. I reckon it's really easy to make that very ugly if you go even just a little bit overboard with the Port Zion textures, but you did it just fine. It feels a lot less desert-y than the original Phaeton tileset. I reckon it just needs a few actual units to make the area more lively.
When I saw that first picture I just thought "That's brilliant" because I thought it would be a scrap-desert post-apocalypse type terrain, and we havn't seen many of them. I don't think any of your pictures nails what I was expecting from such a terrain, first one was most appealing to me, but it is also among the simpler ones. According to me what you want to do is place an outpost with desert on all four sides, definitely make it seem less fortified than your pictures and to try to make the viewer fill in some gaps, try to tell a story of what it's like living there, like.
I might have to try making something similar myself, it sounds like fun.
Here's my entry. Meant to be a hydroplant - esq facility, I designed it with the intention of making it seem as if the building was somewhat built in to the area.
Looks very good, so I'm going to steal the concept for Amber Sun, consequently revamping mission 5.
What doodad did you use under (what I assume is) the Skygeirr cliff to make it look like it is standing as opposed to floating?
Tel, could you provide us with that first screenshot again, except this time making sure the bridge is in the middle of the camera view? I might want to use such a screenie as my PC's background...
On another note; how did you make that bridge? Hidden terrain cells or are those plates doodads I haven't seen around yet?
I'll just upload the map, let you find your own angle/resolution and tweak it to your liking.
The bridge is just a section of Char Fortress cliff with a bunch of doodads under it to hide the hole in the world. And a Space Platform Scaffold along the side.
Oh, that doodad is named "Hots - Lava Pillars". they're 'supposed' to be used under char fortress cliffs as lava supports, but can be used like I did as whole cliff meshes.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do terrain stuff.
...
And in a Starcraft haiku,
...
That's all I can do!
You know, I kinda want someone to attempt to pull off a lava/snow world. If done poorly, this would stink more than a bag of vomit. But if done right, it could be fantastic.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do terrain stuff.
...
And in a Starcraft haiku,
...
That's all I can do!
Hey I'm new to the forums here, first post actually. But I saw this topic and decided to give it a try. I used Haven and the Kaldir tile-sets, four textures from each as the rules stated, and this is what I came up with. A forested lake area, if you cant tell 8 textures have been used its because of the amount of blending I did with them... Anyways here's the screen-shots let me know what you think, and ways to improve it!
Yes, but I would think the hardest part would be balancing the lighting, as too much white/blue would ruin the lava, and too much red/orange would ruin the snow.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do terrain stuff.
...
And in a Starcraft haiku,
...
That's all I can do!
Thanks. Interesting concept, I haven't played around with the HotS doodads yet, but I like the idea... was wondering why you put so much rubble just beneath the bridge, but it makes sense :P
Welcome to Mapster Arcticwolf! You've got an interesting thing going there - I was secretly hoping for a bunch of Tileset X+Kaldir terrains. You seem to instinctively have worked out the importance of focal points and grouped your trees in bunches that keep the terrain from becoming too repetitive. Could we get a top-down shot? Quite curious as to that look. I reckon the lake could be improved a lot...
Sure the top-down is below this. Yes the lake is very plain actually, I had intended the terrain to only be seen in those screen shots so I didn't bother putting many doodads on the lake in this small terrain map. Thanks for taking a look at the shots and giving me some feedback!
Edit: Also it may seem instinctive that I put the trees how I did but I have a lot of practice in terrain making from Warcraft 3, and have been doing it in Starcraft 2 for quite some time now as well. So I suppose I have a little experience in making a map look nice and still be playable by having focal points like that. I also try and think of logically where trees would grow and of course trees grow next to each other because of how they reproduce. I'm glad you feel I placed the trees appropriately, anyways let me know if you think of ways to improve my terrain! Its always good to learn new tricks and try new types of terrain, this was my first shot at snowy terrain as I recently got HotS. I look forward to the later exercises as I am best at forests and mountain areas, so it will be great for me to get help from those who are more experienced than I at types of terrain I've not done before.
Ok, so here's what lava looks like when mixed with snow, and some natural char fortress tiles. What do you think (this isn't meant to be an entry, just an experiment with lava and snow combined)?
ATTACHMENTS
Lava_snow.png
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do terrain stuff.
...
And in a Starcraft haiku,
...
That's all I can do!
@HydraMannequin: Go
It's definitely getting better. I also like the attempt at 'dirtying' up the river, though I think the reason it looks a bit akward right now is because it's mostly the tips of rocks sticking out of the water. Try lowering all of the doodads in the river once or twice so really only the bare tips are visible, and then add some plants and/or dead twigs and tree trunks near to the actual waterfal. Additionaly, the cliffs near the waterfal need vines and overgrowth and such.
In regards to making your shorelines stand out more; add a couple of really large trees in between all that canopy. A couple of things that makes it look like we're still inside this jungle and not flying over it with a helicopter.
@Alevice: Go
I like it! The terrain seems a bit empty, but it works with your theme of a deserted, gaseous 'nuclear fallout' styled ruin. Maybe adding dead trees and some more areas that indicate that this was once a city will help (especially thinking of screenshot 2 here).
Its not exactly nuclear fallout, more like zerg plague gone a bit awry in terms of toxicity. I agree with giving it more life, haha, so I updated it a bit. The idea is to show that maybe thezerg even dropped the ball on his one. Thats ssuming it was the zerg who released the noxious plague.
Go play Antioch Chronicles Remastered!
Also, coming soon, Antioch Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos!
Dont like mapster's ugly white? Try Mapster's Classic Skin!
@Cacho56: Go
Huh... could have sworn I saw my Shuttle's wing in there somewhere. Ah well, it's awesome anyway :)
Phaeton and Port Zion.
The map borders and the bottoms of some of the ravines are unfinished on account of laziness.
Also known as: "what Mar Sara would have looked like if Blizzard had used less colour saturation".
Loving your stuff, you've done it again. I especially like your idea in the black pointy rocks sticking out. I reckon it's really easy to make that very ugly if you go even just a little bit overboard with the Port Zion textures, but you did it just fine. It feels a lot less desert-y than the original Phaeton tileset. I reckon it just needs a few actual units to make the area more lively.
@Telthalion: Go
When I saw that first picture I just thought "That's brilliant" because I thought it would be a scrap-desert post-apocalypse type terrain, and we havn't seen many of them. I don't think any of your pictures nails what I was expecting from such a terrain, first one was most appealing to me, but it is also among the simpler ones. According to me what you want to do is place an outpost with desert on all four sides, definitely make it seem less fortified than your pictures and to try to make the viewer fill in some gaps, try to tell a story of what it's like living there, like.
I might have to try making something similar myself, it sounds like fun.
@SheogorathSC: Go
That was my goal, but I had trouble making the structures fit the feel - so they ended up being a lot less prevalent than in my original idea.
Agreed with this, and I like it too. Reminds me of a nicer adaptation of Broodwar's desert tileset.
Go play Antioch Chronicles Remastered!
Also, coming soon, Antioch Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos!
Dont like mapster's ugly white? Try Mapster's Classic Skin!
Looks very good, so I'm going to steal the concept for Amber Sun, consequently revamping mission 5.
What doodad did you use under (what I assume is) the Skygeirr cliff to make it look like it is standing as opposed to floating?
@Telthalion: Go
Tel, could you provide us with that first screenshot again, except this time making sure the bridge is in the middle of the camera view? I might want to use such a screenie as my PC's background...
On another note; how did you make that bridge? Hidden terrain cells or are those plates doodads I haven't seen around yet?
@Mozared: Go
I'll just upload the map, let you find your own angle/resolution and tweak it to your liking.
The bridge is just a section of Char Fortress cliff with a bunch of doodads under it to hide the hole in the world. And a Space Platform Scaffold along the side.
@EivindL: Go
Oh, that doodad is named "Hots - Lava Pillars". they're 'supposed' to be used under char fortress cliffs as lava supports, but can be used like I did as whole cliff meshes.
You know, I kinda want someone to attempt to pull off a lava/snow world. If done poorly, this would stink more than a bag of vomit. But if done right, it could be fantastic.
If the cliffs and their edges were dark, it could work. Then there would be a buffer between the snow and the lava.
Hey I'm new to the forums here, first post actually. But I saw this topic and decided to give it a try. I used Haven and the Kaldir tile-sets, four textures from each as the rules stated, and this is what I came up with. A forested lake area, if you cant tell 8 textures have been used its because of the amount of blending I did with them... Anyways here's the screen-shots let me know what you think, and ways to improve it!
@EivindL: Go
Yes, but I would think the hardest part would be balancing the lighting, as too much white/blue would ruin the lava, and too much red/orange would ruin the snow.
@Telthalion: Go
Thanks. Interesting concept, I haven't played around with the HotS doodads yet, but I like the idea... was wondering why you put so much rubble just beneath the bridge, but it makes sense :P
@ArcticWolf420: Go
Welcome to Mapster Arcticwolf! You've got an interesting thing going there - I was secretly hoping for a bunch of Tileset X+Kaldir terrains. You seem to instinctively have worked out the importance of focal points and grouped your trees in bunches that keep the terrain from becoming too repetitive. Could we get a top-down shot? Quite curious as to that look. I reckon the lake could be improved a lot...
Sure the top-down is below this. Yes the lake is very plain actually, I had intended the terrain to only be seen in those screen shots so I didn't bother putting many doodads on the lake in this small terrain map. Thanks for taking a look at the shots and giving me some feedback!
Edit: Also it may seem instinctive that I put the trees how I did but I have a lot of practice in terrain making from Warcraft 3, and have been doing it in Starcraft 2 for quite some time now as well. So I suppose I have a little experience in making a map look nice and still be playable by having focal points like that. I also try and think of logically where trees would grow and of course trees grow next to each other because of how they reproduce. I'm glad you feel I placed the trees appropriately, anyways let me know if you think of ways to improve my terrain! Its always good to learn new tricks and try new types of terrain, this was my first shot at snowy terrain as I recently got HotS. I look forward to the later exercises as I am best at forests and mountain areas, so it will be great for me to get help from those who are more experienced than I at types of terrain I've not done before.
The lake more specifically:
Ok, so here's what lava looks like when mixed with snow, and some natural char fortress tiles. What do you think (this isn't meant to be an entry, just an experiment with lava and snow combined)?
@HydraMannequin: Go
Definitely a workable concept.