Map environment and doodads

[SenPie69]

How and what did you guys achieved the way you make those doodads and props stuff to not collide with other stuffs while maintaining collision for units, i've seen many rpg & grand maps (like lord of ring mods or other azeroth mods) with mix and match stuffs, i am currently making my first risk/strategy game, a big map too and im also mimicking the total war style campaign map but at the same time a little more detailed like those other mods, but seeing others map feels like mine is inferior, bland or less interesting lol

any tips? aside from model imports...

a little teaser, its currently 40% (i still need to work on the event stuffs) but i still feel unsatisfied with my environment/atmosphere of the map design...

 

[Achille]

The best thing to do is to look at other maps for inspiration and don't be afraid to do a little bit of experimenting with using doodads in new and creative ways. One of my favorite examples of this was a terrain screenshot of a swampy biome posted in the Hive discord a while back that actually used flattened table doodads as board planks to form a walkway between the banks of a marsh. I loved this idea a lot and incorporated it into my own map where it could be applied.

Like anything it just takes practice but making full use of the tools at your disposal in the map editor is key. Resize doodads, rotate them, and watch collision (as you took note of!). I personally enjoy removing the pathing texture from most doodads and then manually placing down pathing blockers after in combination with a modified Terrain.SLK file in order to really allow my creative freedom to flourish first and then worry about the nitty gritty pathing afterwards.

Keep in mind your hotkeys for raising and lowering doodads as well, and some of these latest game patches have even added in a toggleable feature to keep doodad height for copied doodads (which means you can assemble prefabs and then copy them over to where they are needed.)

Above all else be proud of what you accomplished so far and let that feeling of wanting to strive for better detail drive you without bringing you down. Remember that plenty of the maps you may be comparing yours too have had years upon years of development and critical feedback. Rome was not built in a day as they say.

Best of luck friend and as a huge fan of Strategy/Risk maps I am excited to see more. Keep up the good work!