Makes sense. If the base is supposed to be destroyed, you can do more stuff though - and some craters and smoke would be a must I think.
In regards to your first screenshot again: you have a better basis to work from now, but it's still not there. Your snow doesn't look enough like it's randomly fallen on the area and your grass doesn't look enough like it's been either walked on or simply melted for some other reason. Try and think about the foot of a huge volcano - that's what you want here with textures. Try and stretch that bottom snow 'point' out to that little clot in the middle there (north of the leftmost mineral block). Make the whole thing more star-shaped. I realize it can be frustrating because my advice right now is fairly abstract and it's abou a minor detail, but trust me when I say you'll notice it. I can have a go myself if you want.
First screenshot: Nebuli is right. I realize I touched on this in my previous point, but I think your main issue is that your snow/grass distribution simply doesn't really work. The grass you've placed seems to be there for the 'this is your main building' type of texturing. This generally works well, but in your case it's too large for that purpose, especially with all the trees around it. I'd suggest a different approach at this point. Redo the whole area with the grass texture, then add some rock, then add patches of snow over it, then add more rock. Don't be mistaken, there should still be more snow than grass in the end, but what you need is some of those little lines of grass texture that really show that the area is grass covered in snow instead of the other way around. The problem is that this look is almost impossible to achieve if you don't actually TERRAIN the area from scratch as if it is grass covered by snow. I'm having a difficult time explaining myself - if you have trouble catching my drift let me know and I'll try and show it with a simple example.
Second screenshot: Like this too, though when I talked about the creep I was moreso thinking along the lines of filling up the canyon and perhaps leaving the middle area empty there. Not sure if it needs to be empty for gameplay purposes, but I see no reason for it not to be creeped up for lore reasons. Perhaps you could at least put the creep from both bases in such a way that it looks like they're growing towards eachother?
Third screenshot: Same deal as the second screenshot. You just cut away at the existing creep. I meant for you to add a lot more and then cut away corners and such, like you've done with the grass and snow in the first screenie. I guess I wasn't clear though, so I'll take the blame for that.
You're doing well enough already, looks like I can forego making my own edits. Pointers though!
First screenshot: I like your snow landscape, but it could use a little bit more. Consider a trees or some rocks or such behind the mineral line. Anything that works well, as long as it's a focal pont. Additionally, try and see if you could make the transition from 'forest' to 'pure snow' a bit more gradual. If you look at your left forest you'll see it just ends at one point and the snow starts. Compare this to the right forest, where there's cliffs, rocks, flowers and some more grass in between the snow and the trees. Also, perhaps a cliff doodad or two in the top left corner.
Second screenshot: Looking better too, though the canyon itself is still so empty. Some smaller doodads to the side (char-like flowers, rocks, or other types of Zergy doodads would work) would improve this area. Additionally, is there a reason why this area is not snowy? It'd definitely be less snowy because of the Zerg presence and creep, but if there's no in-game reason for the snow to be absent you could throw some puddles and snowy doodads around, I think. Also, something that also holds true for your third screenshot; you need to play with your creep more. Observe how Blizzard does this in TTychus03, a Zerg-infested Terran city. Creep up everything and carve out the occasional open area with creep blockers. This makes the creep look less like it just 'ends' north and south of the valley and more like it's actually creeping up on stuff.
Third screenshot: Luuuv that canyon. That's how I want to see map borders. Great job! Fog could perhaps be a bit thicker, but that's it. Otherwise - the left side could use an additional focal point somewhere along that ledge. Also, play around with the creep some more with the aforementioned technique.
Last but not least, as a general pointer;
1. Find the Broken Ground Edging doodad.
2. Place it on a cliff.
3. Understand how it works.
4. Fill ALL THE EDGES!
5. Profit.
Sorry I haven't gotten around to my earlier promise - it's not that much work but I've been SO busy lately. Will still try my own hand so you can compare though.
Mfw I type a reply, hit post, the page reloads and my reply isn't there.
Either way - d'you think you could upload the map? There's a lot I can say, but I feel like it might be a lot easier if I could spice up an area of your map myself and toss you some screenshots so I can give you pointers on the differences of our approaches.
Cadimus gave you some fairly good hints. You sure look like a coder to me moreso than an 'artist', and this kind of shows in how you've approached your terrain - all of it is functionality. Clear slick cliffs, even spread of rocks, barely any doodads...
You know how to 'make terrain', what you need to do is figure out how to make it look good. For this I'll refer you to my old tutorial which handles this matter specifically. By now it's somewhat outdated, but mainly the bit about focal points is relevant - you need to get into the habit of creating areas purely meant as eyecandy and hiding up all your terrain that's not eyecandy with bushes, trees, rocks and other doodads to make them pleasing to look at.
@Gradius12: Go
Makes sense. If the base is supposed to be destroyed, you can do more stuff though - and some craters and smoke would be a must I think.
In regards to your first screenshot again: you have a better basis to work from now, but it's still not there. Your snow doesn't look enough like it's randomly fallen on the area and your grass doesn't look enough like it's been either walked on or simply melted for some other reason. Try and think about the foot of a huge volcano - that's what you want here with textures. Try and stretch that bottom snow 'point' out to that little clot in the middle there (north of the leftmost mineral block). Make the whole thing more star-shaped. I realize it can be frustrating because my advice right now is fairly abstract and it's abou a minor detail, but trust me when I say you'll notice it. I can have a go myself if you want.
@Gradius12: Go
Beginning to like it more and more.
First screenshot: Nebuli is right. I realize I touched on this in my previous point, but I think your main issue is that your snow/grass distribution simply doesn't really work. The grass you've placed seems to be there for the 'this is your main building' type of texturing. This generally works well, but in your case it's too large for that purpose, especially with all the trees around it. I'd suggest a different approach at this point. Redo the whole area with the grass texture, then add some rock, then add patches of snow over it, then add more rock. Don't be mistaken, there should still be more snow than grass in the end, but what you need is some of those little lines of grass texture that really show that the area is grass covered in snow instead of the other way around. The problem is that this look is almost impossible to achieve if you don't actually TERRAIN the area from scratch as if it is grass covered by snow. I'm having a difficult time explaining myself - if you have trouble catching my drift let me know and I'll try and show it with a simple example.
Second screenshot: Like this too, though when I talked about the creep I was moreso thinking along the lines of filling up the canyon and perhaps leaving the middle area empty there. Not sure if it needs to be empty for gameplay purposes, but I see no reason for it not to be creeped up for lore reasons. Perhaps you could at least put the creep from both bases in such a way that it looks like they're growing towards eachother?
Third screenshot: Same deal as the second screenshot. You just cut away at the existing creep. I meant for you to add a lot more and then cut away corners and such, like you've done with the grass and snow in the first screenie. I guess I wasn't clear though, so I'll take the blame for that.
You're doing well enough already, looks like I can forego making my own edits. Pointers though!
First screenshot: I like your snow landscape, but it could use a little bit more. Consider a trees or some rocks or such behind the mineral line. Anything that works well, as long as it's a focal pont. Additionally, try and see if you could make the transition from 'forest' to 'pure snow' a bit more gradual. If you look at your left forest you'll see it just ends at one point and the snow starts. Compare this to the right forest, where there's cliffs, rocks, flowers and some more grass in between the snow and the trees. Also, perhaps a cliff doodad or two in the top left corner.
Second screenshot: Looking better too, though the canyon itself is still so empty. Some smaller doodads to the side (char-like flowers, rocks, or other types of Zergy doodads would work) would improve this area. Additionally, is there a reason why this area is not snowy? It'd definitely be less snowy because of the Zerg presence and creep, but if there's no in-game reason for the snow to be absent you could throw some puddles and snowy doodads around, I think. Also, something that also holds true for your third screenshot; you need to play with your creep more. Observe how Blizzard does this in TTychus03, a Zerg-infested Terran city. Creep up everything and carve out the occasional open area with creep blockers. This makes the creep look less like it just 'ends' north and south of the valley and more like it's actually creeping up on stuff.
Third screenshot: Luuuv that canyon. That's how I want to see map borders. Great job! Fog could perhaps be a bit thicker, but that's it. Otherwise - the left side could use an additional focal point somewhere along that ledge. Also, play around with the creep some more with the aforementioned technique.
Last but not least, as a general pointer;
1. Find the Broken Ground Edging doodad.
2. Place it on a cliff.
3. Understand how it works.
4. Fill ALL THE EDGES!
5. Profit.
Sorry I haven't gotten around to my earlier promise - it's not that much work but I've been SO busy lately. Will still try my own hand so you can compare though.
Mfw I type a reply, hit post, the page reloads and my reply isn't there.
Either way - d'you think you could upload the map? There's a lot I can say, but I feel like it might be a lot easier if I could spice up an area of your map myself and toss you some screenshots so I can give you pointers on the differences of our approaches.
Cadimus gave you some fairly good hints. You sure look like a coder to me moreso than an 'artist', and this kind of shows in how you've approached your terrain - all of it is functionality. Clear slick cliffs, even spread of rocks, barely any doodads...
You know how to 'make terrain', what you need to do is figure out how to make it look good. For this I'll refer you to my old tutorial which handles this matter specifically. By now it's somewhat outdated, but mainly the bit about focal points is relevant - you need to get into the habit of creating areas purely meant as eyecandy and hiding up all your terrain that's not eyecandy with bushes, trees, rocks and other doodads to make them pleasing to look at.