It has some weird color seams in the texture, but the Aiur skybox in my screenshot above is definitely a full 360 degrees - no modifications or custom content.
Unfortunately, it's the only one I can find that is.
Once again, it's impossible to give much feedback during such early stages of development.
My main suggestion for now is to use a soft brush with a fairly low Increment to blend your textures together, rather than leaving a hard edge.
I like the idea behind the cliff columns, but the loss of the natural hills from the first map is very noticeable. You might also try lowering some parts of the coastline into the water, so it's more like a natural beach with the columns sticking out - just to see how it looks.
Update (A couple new posts while I was typing this up - I agree with Tekaichi that there wasn't anything particularly flawed with the original):
The way I would go about making a swamp is to use a soft brush to sink lakes and rivers into a mostly-flat ground, blend some mud or dirt textures into the low spots, then cover them with water. Then pull up some small hills in between, add some trees and line the water with bushes.
And for some atmosphere maybe add a scaled-up Fog doodad or three, as you see fit.
The main comments I have at this point in development are to remember that even flat ground isn't perfectly flat. Throw in some subtle hills and depressions to liven up flat areas whenever they show up.
And the proper application of textures is the single most important aspect to creating a good terrain, in my book. Mix in some darker/rougher texture immediately around large rocks, trees or cliffs. Try to break up large areas of similar terrain (add darker spots in grass, rocky patches in dirt, etc). And except in specific circumstances (like perhaps in a desert setting), trees will almost always be found in grassy areas - rarely growing out of bare dirt.
I can't really offer anything more specific until the terrain is closer to completion.
I can't really comment on the gameplay aspects of the layout without seeing it in action, but I have a few (minor) suggestions and nitpicks to make the terrain itself look that much more polished. With some screenshot examples that I plucked out to help illustrate what I'm talking about.
Sink your dirt roads a little, to make them look well-worn and break up the flat ground a bit. (Or slightly raise the grassy areas along the sides of the same roads - maybe a bit of both). A bit like so:
The large rocks near the paved road at the very bottom/center of the map look a bit... dull. A bit of grass or rougher dirt right around the base of the rocks would help immensely. Maybe a bit of raised ground and some smaller rocks/plants hugging the bottom for some extra flavor.
Along the lines of this:
And while it's practically off the map, and a very minor feature: add some flow to the river on the right edge of the map. It looks a bit weird just sitting there, not moving.
All subtle changes that can add up to make a much more solid-looking terrain.
Overall, I like the style and detail. I envy your ability to create urban/industrial sites. One thing I've always been terrible at...
Edit:
Also, you have a few plants growing on your roof south of the helipad. Might want to find some Roundup.
I can do some exports for you. But a few questions that need answering first:
What color do you want him?
And what animations do you need? Stand/Run/Death for sure. Walk? Spellcasting? (For spellcasting, the animations are broken up into a bunch of smaller sub-animations: charging up, release toward a target, release "into the air" for non-targeted spells, channeling towards a target and general channeling)
He has 4 different unarmed attack animations (sweep with his big arm, top-down smash with his big arm, spear with his tentacle arm, and whip with his tentacle arm) Any preferences?
And for the dwarves: do you want standard dwarves, stone dwarves, or iron dwarves? (Or all of the above?)
(They have some color variations too, but they're more subtle than the other guy's - and the regular dwarf has a choice between brown hair or blonde)
[Note that this is the only single-model regular dwarf; fully customized player-character dwarves are a lot more involved, and I've heard they tend to cause issues in SC2 at present.]
And same question about the animations: do you need Walk or spellcasting? For attacks: unarmed, 1-handed weapon swing, dagger stab, 2-handed weapon swing, staff swing? Guns, bows, thrown?
Being that they're based on player-character models, they also have various emote animations like dance, bow, cheer, drink, roar, wave .... lots of things like that. Need anything like that?
And on a somewhat related note, I also recently finished exporting a bunch of dwarven (or dwarflike) architecture and props: If you want anything in these pictures, I can upload the whole collection too.
The gates (including the big "wall" in the back) in the second image include open/close animations.
Just started mapping again for the first time since the beta, figure this is a nice way to hone my abilities with the SC2 editor.
I had huge difficulties finding a skybox to match this, ended up having to overhaul my lighting at the end to fit the sky, rather than matching the sky to my original lighting...
Updated with some of brood's advice. And changed it to a sunset scene to make the cliffs pop a bit more.
I agree that the bunker/marines were a bit out of place, but I couldn't find a way to make them fit better, so they got axed.
0
I enjoyed this one. Enough to take a page out of Scbroodsc2's book and make a video.
I call it Damocles Shipyards and Naval Space Command (N-SCOM).
Editor time: 8 hours. Finding music that wasn't too over-the-top epic: 2 hours (Sigh...)
This video is outdated. Scroll down for the new version
Music: 1) Two Steps From Hell - Surveillance, 2) Two Steps From Hell - Coup D'Etat
And a few screenshots, since the video's a bit fuzzy after compression.
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@HatsuneMikuMegurine: Go
It has some weird color seams in the texture, but the Aiur skybox in my screenshot above is definitely a full 360 degrees - no modifications or custom content.
Unfortunately, it's the only one I can find that is.
0
The Aiur skybox is a starry night sky.
0
Once again, it's impossible to give much feedback during such early stages of development.
My main suggestion for now is to use a soft brush with a fairly low Increment to blend your textures together, rather than leaving a hard edge.
I like the idea behind the cliff columns, but the loss of the natural hills from the first map is very noticeable. You might also try lowering some parts of the coastline into the water, so it's more like a natural beach with the columns sticking out - just to see how it looks.
Update (A couple new posts while I was typing this up - I agree with Tekaichi that there wasn't anything particularly flawed with the original):
The way I would go about making a swamp is to use a soft brush to sink lakes and rivers into a mostly-flat ground, blend some mud or dirt textures into the low spots, then cover them with water. Then pull up some small hills in between, add some trees and line the water with bushes.
And for some atmosphere maybe add a scaled-up Fog doodad or three, as you see fit.
0
Buildings automatically flatten the ground they're built on, so no need to worry about that.
Though I'm not sure whether it reverts to its original state after the building is destroyed.
0
I've been doing a bit of playing myself, and the Distance fields do work. However, you need to lower the Falloff as per CosmicMind's suggestion first.
The only thing I changed between these two scenes is the Fog Distance Far. From 150 in the clear picture, to 120 in the hazy one.
0
@Reaper872: Go
The main comments I have at this point in development are to remember that even flat ground isn't perfectly flat. Throw in some subtle hills and depressions to liven up flat areas whenever they show up.
And the proper application of textures is the single most important aspect to creating a good terrain, in my book. Mix in some darker/rougher texture immediately around large rocks, trees or cliffs. Try to break up large areas of similar terrain (add darker spots in grass, rocky patches in dirt, etc). And except in specific circumstances (like perhaps in a desert setting), trees will almost always be found in grassy areas - rarely growing out of bare dirt.
I can't really offer anything more specific until the terrain is closer to completion.
0
@Debe2233: Go
I can't really comment on the gameplay aspects of the layout without seeing it in action, but I have a few (minor) suggestions and nitpicks to make the terrain itself look that much more polished. With some screenshot examples that I plucked out to help illustrate what I'm talking about.
Sink your dirt roads a little, to make them look well-worn and break up the flat ground a bit. (Or slightly raise the grassy areas along the sides of the same roads - maybe a bit of both). A bit like so:
The large rocks near the paved road at the very bottom/center of the map look a bit... dull. A bit of grass or rougher dirt right around the base of the rocks would help immensely. Maybe a bit of raised ground and some smaller rocks/plants hugging the bottom for some extra flavor. Along the lines of this:
And while it's practically off the map, and a very minor feature: add some flow to the river on the right edge of the map. It looks a bit weird just sitting there, not moving.
All subtle changes that can add up to make a much more solid-looking terrain.
Overall, I like the style and detail. I envy your ability to create urban/industrial sites. One thing I've always been terrible at...
Edit: Also, you have a few plants growing on your roof south of the helipad. Might want to find some Roundup.
0
Here's my take on the final mission.
The outlying zerg bases aren't entirely polished; the main focus is on the player base where 90% of the action happens.
This one was a bit more difficult than the desert terrain for sure. And I'm not nearly as satisfied with my final product.
0
@Yeti434: Go
Alright, Link Removed: http://www.mediafire.com/?j7g7kv9q7fmuacv . Everything you listed, including Corborus and Slabhide.
I tested the models in-game to ensure they all work properly. Animations are all there.
Credit's not really needed but if you do, Telthalion works fine.
0
I can do some exports for you. But a few questions that need answering first:
What color do you want him?
And what animations do you need? Stand/Run/Death for sure. Walk? Spellcasting? (For spellcasting, the animations are broken up into a bunch of smaller sub-animations: charging up, release toward a target, release "into the air" for non-targeted spells, channeling towards a target and general channeling)
He has 4 different unarmed attack animations (sweep with his big arm, top-down smash with his big arm, spear with his tentacle arm, and whip with his tentacle arm) Any preferences?
And for the dwarves: do you want standard dwarves, stone dwarves, or iron dwarves? (Or all of the above?)
(They have some color variations too, but they're more subtle than the other guy's - and the regular dwarf has a choice between brown hair or blonde)
[Note that this is the only single-model regular dwarf; fully customized player-character dwarves are a lot more involved, and I've heard they tend to cause issues in SC2 at present.]
And same question about the animations: do you need Walk or spellcasting? For attacks: unarmed, 1-handed weapon swing, dagger stab, 2-handed weapon swing, staff swing? Guns, bows, thrown?
Being that they're based on player-character models, they also have various emote animations like dance, bow, cheer, drink, roar, wave .... lots of things like that. Need anything like that?
And on a somewhat related note, I also recently finished exporting a bunch of dwarven (or dwarflike) architecture and props: If you want anything in these pictures, I can upload the whole collection too.
The gates (including the big "wall" in the back) in the second image include open/close animations.
0
Just started mapping again for the first time since the beta, figure this is a nice way to hone my abilities with the SC2 editor.
I had huge difficulties finding a skybox to match this, ended up having to overhaul my lighting at the end to fit the sky, rather than matching the sky to my original lighting...
Updated with some of brood's advice. And changed it to a sunset scene to make the cliffs pop a bit more.
I agree that the bunker/marines were a bit out of place, but I couldn't find a way to make them fit better, so they got axed.
Much happier with this version.