Replacing the center area with a rock texture looks way better than with sand. It kinda blends into the cliff.
Replacing the sand area with a rock texture looks good too, but I'm worried if it would trick the player into thinking it's an unpathable area. I am currently considering, if I were better off just replacing the whole highground with metallic borders and textures.
This might be better, yeah. Before you do that though, try putting some more sand and dirt over the rock texture to make it look less unpathable - that might solve your problem. This is exactly what I did mean though - the problem with your cliffs is that they look odd when combined with so much sand. You simply needed to use a rocky texture.
Would you consider the attached image as an improvement?
Hmmm, yes, you're getting there. Try making that top cliffline man-made as well perhaps? As for the bottom, it seems a bit more obvious this way that your problem is actually texture use moreso than the cliff borders. Try painting all the high-ground area in a different texture, perhaps? Something that's neither metallic nor sand. Try something rocky or such, and maybe add a couple of small rocks. Don't overdo it if you go rocky though, or it'll look inaccessible.
I won't remove the borders, but I've made them look more natural. Making the whole platform metallic would require me to put a man-made cliff at the end, which would then ruin my beautiful spikey hole. :(
I thought as much, yeah. Try a rocky texture here too, then?
Comments right now:
-I still don't like those main bases. The metal-border-littlebitofsand-cliffborder combination just doesn't work. Maybe try making just the main ramps man-made cliff? Then you can paint them with a metallic texture and close off both ends with the coloured decals you've been using. This would allow you to paint the rest of the base with a metal-with-swept-over-sand-on-it texture. Either that, or draw the texture/decal/sand border further away from the cliff edge, like you've got for the side expo's.
-The middle looks great now, though I think you're better off just painting the whole thing metallic; right now you've left those two side areas open. It's a nifty little touch, but I think it doesn't work well enough.
-The asteroid rocks with crystals in them... See if you can find a replacement doodad. Their different style of colour makes them feel a bit iffy. Maybe Xil rocks instead? Or the 'Xil Rock Arch'?
-The entire body of your map could use some more height play. Start up StarCraft 2, find a game of Income Wars, see what I've done with my Xil terrain there. I won't say "copy it", but it'll demonstrate how Xil dunes are really lenient towards height play and how creating dunes can make a map feel pretty cozy.
To clarify, I'm not suggesting he inverts the textures. I just said that to me it felt a bit as if they have been inverted; a fully man-made 'space station' with some sandy patches would work better than what he has right now. It feels as if someone tried to make that and then inverted the textures.
I... think I don't like your texture play, then. It's very creative, but it's just a tad confusing. The metallic texture insinuate some kind of 'base' located underground; right under where the texture is. There is no logical reason why these bases would be located just underneath natural plateaus and then be bordered by simple decals. The areas don't really work as 'plating' either because A) the rest of the map is loose sand, which would be at least partially blown over said plates and B) the shapes follow the outline of the cliffs too well. It's as if a group of people decided to terraform half the area, but saw the natural cliffline and said "nah, changing that little cliff is too much work, let's just build our base within the outlines of the it". It feels a bit inverted; if the whole map were metallic texture and the areas currently metallic would be sandy, it would feel right - currently it feels like someone just flipped the textures around.
It's hard to explain exactly - it just doesn't feel natural to me, yet it doesn't feel clunky and man-made either. I suggest adding some more man-made cliffs (speficially on those small filled-up areas of higher ground) and focusing on making certain areas completely man-made with others being completely natural, rather than this odd hybrid. Then, insinuate wind by lightly brushing the man-made areas over with sand to simulate a desert where no texture is completely clear.
Edit: I have to add, I do like your decal colouring. It reminds me of Team Fortress 2, in a way. If you could use this to seperate man-made 'areas' rather than man-made 'blocks of odd plating', it could give you an interesting theme.
Aesthetically, what am I looking at? Your terrain isn't bad, but I can't really grasp the general idea of it. Is this some kind of desertish platform floating high above a planet in thick fog with parts of it having been turned man-made?
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This might be better, yeah. Before you do that though, try putting some more sand and dirt over the rock texture to make it look less unpathable - that might solve your problem. This is exactly what I did mean though - the problem with your cliffs is that they look odd when combined with so much sand. You simply needed to use a rocky texture.
Hmmm, yes, you're getting there. Try making that top cliffline man-made as well perhaps? As for the bottom, it seems a bit more obvious this way that your problem is actually texture use moreso than the cliff borders. Try painting all the high-ground area in a different texture, perhaps? Something that's neither metallic nor sand. Try something rocky or such, and maybe add a couple of small rocks. Don't overdo it if you go rocky though, or it'll look inaccessible.
I thought as much, yeah. Try a rocky texture here too, then?
Liking it a lot more, good job!
Comments right now:
-I still don't like those main bases. The metal-border-littlebitofsand-cliffborder combination just doesn't work. Maybe try making just the main ramps man-made cliff? Then you can paint them with a metallic texture and close off both ends with the coloured decals you've been using. This would allow you to paint the rest of the base with a metal-with-swept-over-sand-on-it texture. Either that, or draw the texture/decal/sand border further away from the cliff edge, like you've got for the side expo's.
-The middle looks great now, though I think you're better off just painting the whole thing metallic; right now you've left those two side areas open. It's a nifty little touch, but I think it doesn't work well enough.
-The asteroid rocks with crystals in them... See if you can find a replacement doodad. Their different style of colour makes them feel a bit iffy. Maybe Xil rocks instead? Or the 'Xil Rock Arch'?
-The entire body of your map could use some more height play. Start up StarCraft 2, find a game of Income Wars, see what I've done with my Xil terrain there. I won't say "copy it", but it'll demonstrate how Xil dunes are really lenient towards height play and how creating dunes can make a map feel pretty cozy.
@OutsiderXE: Go
To clarify, I'm not suggesting he inverts the textures. I just said that to me it felt a bit as if they have been inverted; a fully man-made 'space station' with some sandy patches would work better than what he has right now. It feels as if someone tried to make that and then inverted the textures.
I... think I don't like your texture play, then. It's very creative, but it's just a tad confusing. The metallic texture insinuate some kind of 'base' located underground; right under where the texture is. There is no logical reason why these bases would be located just underneath natural plateaus and then be bordered by simple decals. The areas don't really work as 'plating' either because A) the rest of the map is loose sand, which would be at least partially blown over said plates and B) the shapes follow the outline of the cliffs too well. It's as if a group of people decided to terraform half the area, but saw the natural cliffline and said "nah, changing that little cliff is too much work, let's just build our base within the outlines of the it". It feels a bit inverted; if the whole map were metallic texture and the areas currently metallic would be sandy, it would feel right - currently it feels like someone just flipped the textures around.
It's hard to explain exactly - it just doesn't feel natural to me, yet it doesn't feel clunky and man-made either. I suggest adding some more man-made cliffs (speficially on those small filled-up areas of higher ground) and focusing on making certain areas completely man-made with others being completely natural, rather than this odd hybrid. Then, insinuate wind by lightly brushing the man-made areas over with sand to simulate a desert where no texture is completely clear.
Edit: I have to add, I do like your decal colouring. It reminds me of Team Fortress 2, in a way. If you could use this to seperate man-made 'areas' rather than man-made 'blocks of odd plating', it could give you an interesting theme.
Aesthetically, what am I looking at? Your terrain isn't bad, but I can't really grasp the general idea of it. Is this some kind of desertish platform floating high above a planet in thick fog with parts of it having been turned man-made?