Almost Doodadless

[Rui]

Here's why I endlessly rant about tile limits. For the past few years, I've enjoyed practicing this personal style of terraining. Instead of using many doodads, ground texture variations make the terrain come to life. Never published anything since it probably won't appeal to everyone, but here it is, a result of minimalistic endeavours.

This style probably does not fit Reforged too well, because ground textures lack depth. Also, I have yet to see if there are good ground texture variations — or any, for that matter.

 

[deepstrasz]

Yeah, I really wish they would just make it close to limitless, the doodad and destructible count and of course the tile and cliff variations.

About your pictures, that red Outland dirt looks out of place. It's like a mist among the non-fantastical terrain parts.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

You have some pretty hard transitions there. I think some custom tiles would do your terrain great justice.

Also if you're seeking depth I'd go for a completely custom made ground instead of using tiles. Default tile sets are extremely flat (especially in SD), and feels really bland.

If you have the time and patience, here's how you can make great looking ground;

1. Flesh out the path you wish to create with the terrain height tools.
2. Make the actual tiles invisible by utilizing the alpha tile method.
3. Put ground doodads like rocks or similar under the pathable map to "fill out" the void left by the alpha tiles.
4. Start filling it in with smaller doodads like bushes, brick tiles, plants, flowers, grass, trees and whatever else you need to make it look good.

This will quickly steal your entire doodad budget, but with some smart model editing you can combine models and make "patches" of grass, flowers, rocks and so on. With this method you can literally have as many tile sets as you wish, since they're not actual tile sets.


If you can't be bothered to go through all that you can still edit the actual tiles directly, and make "hybrid" tiles, where one tile contains two tiles. The way you change between them is by their tile variations. This is also a pain in the ass, but will effectively double your available tiles.

 

[Rui]

@FeelsGoodMan thanks for the suggestions. I've heard all about fancy terraining using the Ultimate Terraining Map, of course. Nevertheless, after discovering ground texture variations, I wanted to see how much one could accomplish on terrain beautification with them alone. In this particular map, there is a need to have all kind of ambients (sunny, snowy, urban, underground...); this is why the number of tiles is limited here.

I learned of the the trick you mention in the last paragraph, but have not tried it yet, for the same reason: because of the multiple environments, it will need careful planning.

And, of course, I ran experimentations using doodads to complement the terrain. Yet, taking a look at the third screenshot (bottom right), they look out of place, since the difference in depth is too obvious.

@deepstrasz About the Outland sand. I tried using Ruins sand, but it looked a bit bland, and this one seemed more "alive" somehow.

 

[Mr.Goblin]

Ashenvale + village + Sunken ruins = these are the tilesets I constantly combine together.
Lordaeron winter + icecrown glacier + Underground = these tilesets as well.
Lordaeron Fall + village fall + Barrens = an other exemple.

I'd suggest experimenting with them. Also, tile orders are very important for the best outcome.

 

[Kino]

Great stuff.
Mashing together (Village rocks + grass + grassy dirt) is nice for creating hard ground mass or footing for rock clusters.
Really useful for terrain formats that require open playable spaces (eg. melee)

 

[Celaquil]

Nifty work Rui, I absolutely appreciate me some old school tile-work, and you're utilising them very well, I even see you've fooled around with the tile-positions on the panel to get some hard and soft transitions, which is absolutely essential for a good ground-maker

Unlike deepstrasz, I absolutely love the placement and addition of that outland dirt: It pops out, looks like blood, it gives me the impression of a story, of something having happened. And the fact that it is combined with otherwise more greenish and brownish tiles makes it look even redder than it probably usually would, which is clever.

Ashenvale + village + Sunken ruins = these are the tilesets I constantly combine together.
Lordaeron winter + icecrown glacier + Underground = these tilesets as well.
Lordaeron Fall + village fall + Barrens = an other exemple.

I'd suggest experimenting with them. Also, tile orders are very important for the best outcome.

Ah yes, the complimentary tile-sets! Its been ages since I touched the editor, but I remember toward the end of the death cycle of my computer I fooled around a lot with "unconventional" tile-combinations, and I remember getting a lot of matches that I found surprisingly appealing by combining tiles that didn't seem like they would fit together at first. Making sure they have the right position on the panel for the soft and/or hard transitions is absolutely essential for that though.

 

[Rui]

Thanks a lot, you inspire me to continue!

I forgot to mention this in my last paragraph: have you seen @kantarion's gorgeous ground textures? That grass... oh me oh my. If I had more of these, I'd be in heaven.

 

[kantarion]

Thanks a lot, you inspire me to continue!

I forgot to mention this in my last paragraph: have you seen @kantarion's gorgeous ground textures? That grass... oh me oh my. If I had more of these, I'd be in heaven.

Your wish granted. Now note that i lost hardrives twice, where was tiles i already finished and ready to share with community...So those folders are real mess...I stopped development for half of year, then again and again...

The grasss you are looking for is in Classic folder lordaeronwinter i think (Rui_Wish_Granted)

But there is reforged version...I dont know if i ever sit down and finishe those works, i am chronically ill from something

So..Everyone can have this and experiment..Do whatever u want,just remember if i update and upload tiles one day here, dont forget to use official version in maps, cause they would be tehnically correct (while those are kinda work in progress and lot of mistakes)

So evryone is free to do whatever they want with it,just replace 1 day with official work (if that ever happen)

Reforged wip

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hyJCpkWVVpUlZ7JyupK6UbYd-fQIKsQ-/view?usp=sharing

Classic

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C5yfmQ4uCOMjYzVo3rIaVUsAEP0fNLEv/view?usp=sharing

This lordaeronwinter is latest wip using dirtrough remastered from classic wc3 (also wip but playable at some level xD)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TbH0KBDKVUBTxMP9xdFAZG9uPkM79hrc/view?usp=sharing

lol...