Saryeit's Terrains

[Saryeit]

I have a few terrains I have made over my time as a map editor... I wish I was better... But please, look through these screenshots and tell me your opinions, and suggestions so my maps are better in the future. (Im working on another RPG right now, and I want it to be much better than my current one, Naznoran, is turning out.

P1: An attempt at a dungeon... It was going to have a large spiraly ramp that went high into the sky, on the top of the mountain was going to be a large paradise that was corrupted by the undead. After misjudging the size by... A LOT... I decided to make it what it is today. A portal to Naznoran's counterpart, which has a similar story to Emerald Dream in WoW. It is not used in the RPG, but it gives a feeling that there is more.

P2: A blighted forest. It used to connect to the nearby elven homeland of Tandalen, however when the lich Saryeit began to manipulate the ways of time to mend the past mistakes and delays that caused his power over Naznoran to be more limited. The gods created these caverns (once again an idea I stole a bit from WoW), as a gateway for mortals to assist with the past. This blocked part of the forest off, and made it vulnerable to the undead attacks.

P3: The Great Forest, which is another elven homeland. These elves were more of the magic addicted kind, and their addiction brought about their downfall. The elves had lost their leader, Jeremy, who was able to control the magic well enough that all the elves could consume just enough to keep self controlled, but to keep themselves powerful too. They were raided by undead from the nearby woods, and lost most of the forest.

P4: The other half of the great forest, magics still left from Jeremy kept this place well protected. In the back there is a statue surrounded by some trees, this was placed as a memorial to their fearless leader.

P5: I have no idea when I made this, or why I made it. I found it when going through all the files cluttered in my "RPG" folder.. Which is about 20. (And about 2 are actual RPG projects.)

P6: This area is another part of Naznoran with a rich history. The World Tree was planted here many years ago, and is actually the soul of one of the 7 Gods. Evil beings created the Dark Portal near the tree, hoping to harness its' energy to finally bring Saryeit to this realm. After multiple attempts, they finally were able to control the tree long enough to open the portal. At the cost of their lives, they had succeeded. Now their corpses lie tangled in the roots of the tree. (Dark Portal and World Tree are areas still under construction, and so I don't have any good pictures of them)

P7: Tandalen, the elven homeland that is now the location of the God's caverns of time. It is a large zone that looks very similar throughout most of it.


Please tell me what you think I need to improve on, and other feedback that might help me in future terrain works.

There are now 5 more screenshots on a newer project a few posts below. Please check those out too. Those are my main focus at the moment, the ones in this post are much older.

 

[Nudl9]

Sry, didnt bother reading all the text, only the first part.
I cant really say they are good, but your good in one thing: Being creative.
If this be'd a maze/escape or td map it'd be pretty interesting.

Maybe you should go look at other people terrains and download "THW ultimate terraining pack" which contains looooots of great custom models made by the users at hive.

 

[Xarwin]

Use more cliffs,
and try to correctly place the doodads.

And quit that color abuse -_-

 

[Parkietje]

Looks ok for an rpg, if you wish to improve the only advice I can give you is to study other people's terrains

 

[UchihaSasuke.gr]

I can't say I liked it. :/

You should make your terrains better and put some more time in it.And don't use many random doodads.

 

[Gilles]

Average battlenet terrain. It's pretty poor to be honest. Look at other peoples work. If you want some ideas for your rpg terrain PM me and I'll send you some.

 

[Hawkwing]

They don't mean him in specific.. They are refering to your common B.net terraining, I hope. If not that is awfully rude.

Compaired to your average battle.net map the terrain here is awsome.

Compaired to most on the hive it isn't the greatest. Due to a few things.

- Very little tile variation.

- The "roads" that you put don't stay straight, if they aren't straight and you are going for a broken up look, try some ruined doodads. The terrain is still in 100% condition, it just looks like the creators messed up the measurements.

- You used Blizzard Cliffs. Never use those unless they are completely nessesary.

- An unrealistic amount of water coming out of that fountain in P3.

---

Don't give up you will get better.

 

[Gilles]

Heero, I hope your not talking to me. I never said anything rude, I just stated my opinion. There's a difference between being rude and being honest. I was trying to put it as blunt, but polite as possible.

 

[Hawkwing]

Gillies, I don't think he meant you. What would said seemed reasonably polite.

 

[The_wand_mirror]

Please give him positive criticism and help him in place of saying that it sucks.

Man, its just that. If you look at it, how can you possibly think its good?

I cant give constructive criticisms on these kind of things...

 

[Parkietje]

Man, its just that. If you look at it, how can you possibly think its good?

I cant give constructive criticisms on these kind of things...

Then just shut up. The dude asked for tips and constructive critisism, not to tell him he sucks. So yeah, the terrain kinda sucks, if you don't like it then tell him what he needs to improve. If you can't be supportive, don't say anything.

 

[Hawkwing]

This is amazing compaired to your average Battle.Net terrainer, like I said earlier, but there is lots of room for improvements.

He needs help to see how he can improve.

He dosen't want to hear how bad it is.

 

[Super-Sheep]

But it isn't possible to improve anything, if we don't know whats bad, and needs to be fixed/improved.

- Use more cliffs.
- Use more environment doodads, like grass and rocks.
- Try to have better tile variation.
- - For an example, if you're making a road, dont just do it with "Dirt". Also mix "Rough Dirt" in it. (same when doing grass)
- Try to avoid making of empty areas.
- Add fog.

 

[Kwah]

When you say cliffs, you dont mean warcraft cliffs do you?


Environemt doodads are nice because they do nothing but spruce up the area nicely.
Tile veriations can be difficult with a large map, and limited tile size.

They are all good points and I reccomend that you follow them.

 

[redscores]

Well, I give you a list of tips for terraining:

-Use no blizzard cliffs, use raise and lower tool and pathing blockers.
-Quit using flashy colors, only if they match the theme of the picture you can use them.
-Use a good tile variation.
-Don't make your terrain flat and boring (only if it is something that IS usually flat, like a city or such).
-Give the terrain life, so it looks more natural.
-Use lighting, fog, weather and take a good sky.

and a special tip for you, in the terrain board forum of THW is a sticky with UTM (Ultimate Terraining Map) which is packed with lighting stuff and doodads(indoor, outdoor, natural etc etc and many high quality trees, shrubs and such) try it.

Link to UTM: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45316

 

[Super-Sheep]

But its a playable map, so Blizzard Cliffs are ok. :/

 

[Gilles]

But its a playable map, so Blizzard Cliffs are ok. :/

There's still no need to use them. The raise tool does take up more room, but it looks far better.

 

[Dakho]

No I'd say blizzard cliffs are fine if you use them right. I've seen great terrain with cliffs. For playable terrain it's fine. It's a waste of doodad space to use pathing blockers for everything.

As for the terrain, a little fog and weather would massively improve them. They're pretty good as they are, but some colors stand out too much.

 

[Saryeit]

Wow, this post was brought back from the dead! Thank you for the feedback, however for playable maps I try not to be a memory hog with extras. Since I am now working on a campaign that takes place over multiple maps, I have a bit more freedom on the use of the map space.

I just got started with this campaign, so some of what you will see is obviously unfinished. The terrains above were all from one single RPG map, which made space management difficult for a terrainer. I know I still have plenty of room for improvement, however I feel the next terrains have some hope.

P1 - A small troll village along the edge of Norhald.

P2 - A memorial on an island.

P3 - The passageway once used to enter the troll empire, Zul'Antaroth.

P4 - Beginning of a new map, Frostbite Cliffs, very little objects added yet. (Blizzard cliffs ZOMG!) =P

P5 - A graveyard next to a waterfall, long crystalized.

Once again, please give constructive critisism. I know they aren't very good, but I cannot improve if I don't know what is wrong. Thanks again!

 

[Sabertooth]

If these are playable terrains -- and meant to be so-- can you show some screens from an in-game view? I like to judge things how I'd be seeing them if I were playing the map.

For art terrains, no, they're really lacking in pizazz, but they're quite obviously not artistic terraining pieces, right?

EDIT: I disagree with blizz cliffs. They're easier, and as long as the rest of the terrain makes up for it and doesn't make my eyes bleed, it's all good. In artistic stuff yea, no blizz cliffs D:

 

[Saryeit]

Yes, it is playable terrain. All my work is.

Right now Im typing up some stuffz, Ill put up some in-game shots tomorrow, if thats cool with you.

 

[Kwah]

Wow, those are very good. . .


Keep up the good work!

 

[Saryeit]

Thank you, since I started working on campaigns, I notice that since I have more freedom over the multiple zones (since they are different maps) my terrains started looking much better. They still can't compare to some others that people do though. But I'm getting better.

 

[Kwah]

Well, I can't terrain with anything. So, be proud.

 

[Dr. House]

i see som nice ideas in this terrain but well dind worked out well (not like i can do it eny better) but still for me it feels very basic like

 

[Saryeit]

i see som nice ideas in this terrain but well dind worked out well (not like i can do it eny better) but still for me it feels very basic like

Thanks for the thought!

It is a bit basic, but it's meant to be playable, so I can't go all out on one small area and max out every limit I have!

But by the time the release of the campaign comes out, they should be a bit more intersting.

--If you were looking at the pictures from the origional post, those are very basic and not so good. Now that Im a bit better since I made those, Im actually a bit embarrassed of those! Hehe. The ones a few posts up are my main focus right now, and they look MUCH better than the ones above.