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how to make a good and productive terrain [Reviewed: Ralle]

Level 6
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
175
first of all some tips:

1. dont ever, and i mean never, use blizz cliffs they are not very popular (only use blizz cliffs for waterfalls)

2. when making a new map, always make it shallow water, and then go nuts with the raise tool (change the brush size to 4 or 5) so you get a terrain that isnt too plain.

3. always use smooth tool on raised cliffs, and i mean always.

4. always use envoiremental doodads like rocks and flowers too cover up ugly places (ex. after u have used a ramp cover up the cracks in the layers between shall we say a bridge and a ramp.)

5. dont overcrowd with trees, most dont like when the only thing they can see is trees.

6. and one more thing, fog effects and the right sky gives life to the terrain. (i will get more into this in my actual Tut

7. always make your terrain as natural as possible.

and now... INTRODUCTION

Terraining is the art in the WE, you can make something so beautiful and you can make something so dark and scary, and the only thing that holds you back is your imagination, you should always try to make something you like, if you like barrens go for a Barrens the Theme, if you like pandas go for a Pandaran theme, as i said its only your imagination that sets the limit, and dont ever stop trying, keep working hard, train your skills i assure you its gonna pay of at some point.

BASIC TERRAINING
okay now to the real deal, for starters open WE and make a new map make it 65x65 and change the initial water level to shallow water and then click ok.

now we got ours selvs a map with only shallow water in the right menu theres three maps called Terrain, Units, and i think the last one Doodads
well for the basic part we only need Terrains open it and u can see some maps find the called "Height" open it and take the "Raise Tool" and remember to change the brush size to 4 or 5 (some coms might lag when the brush is at size 5) and go ballistic remember never make a map plain make it hilly and bulky dont leave a single spot of water raise the whole map.

when your done doing that take the "Smooth Tool" the last tool in the height map and smooth the whole map (remember this should also be brush size 4 or 5)

when your done doing that well make the water, now take the "Lower Tool" and change the brush size to 3 or 4 the water depends on the tileset if its barrens you should make small patches of water like an oasis and if its like Ashenvale make long snaky rivers when your done making the rivers/patches (or whatever) take the smooth tool and smoothen the edges on your rivers/patches.

now for making some variation in the tiles deselect Height map and goto... no actually press T on your keyboard and you will see a Terrain Pallette coming up its an easy-to-use pallette with tiles, height, and doodads the default tileset when making a new map is lordaeron summer select the Dark Grass Tile and paint the entire map with this tile just select random tiles (except the Rock tile its unbuildable) well now just go nuts and make a variation in the tiles next up is Doodads the most doodads we will use is the environmental ones and the trees in Destructibles.

when placing doodads you gotta think how does it look like IRL like a pine forest how does that look or a rain forest a sunken temple or what ever you gotta think logical like cattail by rivers and flowers by rocks or inside the forest.

and now for the fog and sky for a lordaeron i would use light blue fog and a generic sky
to set fog: Map options => check the box called something like use terrain fog => now to set the color did you notice when u checked the box something happend to the right of the box yes this is where you set the color set it to light blue

now for the sky: goto map preferences and set the sky display (or something) to Generic Sky

now you should have a good map not to plain and not too egdy i think i got it all covered EDIT: i got some pics now

(NOTE) pic called final pic is how mine looked when i was finished i also put a waterfall in the back just for the looks


View attachment shallow water all over map.tga

View attachment lake for tut.tga

View attachment 27426

View attachment bulky terrain.tga[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
 
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