How can I make this better?

This is the terrain for a map that I have been working on how does it look? I think it is a bit bland so what can I do to spruce it up?

Tile variations; doodad variations; rocks and different kinds of trees; height variations; make the terrain follow the doodads; way more doodads, and so on.

Yes, way more tile variation. More doodads like rocks and even just bushes. Make the terrain like a real terrain with heavily walked areas have thinner grass. Stuff like that.

a big part of terraining is knowing what fits with the enviroment
when i think of ashenvale tileset
i dont expect to see blue felhunters in the area
you have to think as to what would actually be in the terrain
id also suggest like everyone said
use more doodads that is what is making it so bland :/
good start though

Just so everyone knows the fellhunters are a placeholder they are replaced with units from my creep re spawn system

also How can i get more terrain options like the thinner grass? I dont see it anywhere ^.^

Sorry for asking such noob questions just please flog me and get it over with 0.o

I think you should make more "different" doodads and more creeps and creep camps maybe.

You should variate the tiles a bit more,
because now you have split up the terrain in grass and dirt.
If you mix those a bit and trough and maby some other tiles it could look a lot better.


And like the others said some extra doodads can hurt

If it was me... I would make custom trees with a pathing map of say large pathing blocker both I would set their height minimum and height maximum larger - say nearly twice as high I would set them in my "lines". Consider them the older trees of the forest.

I would then go back to the object editor, reduce the pathing to tree wall, then I would go back in an plop in "normal" sized trees in and around the giant trees placing them thick around the tall trees, and then ploping a few farther away.

Then I would return to the editor, reset the giant tree pathing to pathing blocker/both/large.

That will provide you with your pathing blocking without having to plot a lot of pathing blockers give more natural "space" between the trees.

Beneath the tight cluster of boundry trees I would place dark green grass, leaves, vines something that gives the feeling of shadow under growth.

Let me tell you what I usually use as a tile set (customized).

I start off with ashenvale for "natural areas" that gives me the bare cliff and the grassy cliff.

Then I use the (from left to right) Ashenvale dirt and rough dirt. Dalarian ruins gray marble Sunken ruins rought dirt (which looks like cobble stones) One of the stone tiles (usualy the whitish one from ashenvale) Then my grasses The light clumpy grass, the dark clumpy grass (I do not recall what sets) followed by grassy dirt ((ashen vale) lastly I use sunken ruins sand.

How you have them lined up determines how they blend. The drk gray marble will not show a boarder for anything to its right, it will have a boarder for anything to its left. Sand being the last will be on top of everything else. Grassy dirt becomes a great "blending" for the two grass types.

With that in mind. I would lay in my base texture in grassy areas the lighter grass, on top of that to the extreme outside of my dense woods I would use the grassy dirt (which sits "on top" of the other grasses) Then inside of that I would lay in my dark grass - the boarder between the light and the drk will blend together nicely.

This also works well with home made cliffs - raise up a hill, then use the plateau tool to flatten one end to the lowest level. along that bank" lay in stone, on the top of the hill use one of the thick grasses - if there is trees use the dark, if open use the light - where the stone meets the ground lay in a boarder of your grassy dirt then blend in your other grass.

Merging between dirt and grass use the grassy dirt, extends "lines" (not straight) of dirt into the grassy dirt area and a touch of grassy dirt into the dirt - this will make a smoother switch from the grassy area to the diry area.

Sand is great because you can add "dirt" to sidewalks and stuff.

I like to use the grey texture with sand and grassy dirt - it can either look like an old half buried pathway, or it can look like bed rock that is being exposed blend in with the terrain with sand or grassy dirt.

If you have a "top" and a bottom use the clumping grass at the top - it 'hangs over' rock and stuff.

At your starting point use a thicker barrier of trees - use the giant ones you made earlier, fill them in. If you make your giant trees ramps of pathing blockers (type selection in object editor, they can not be destroyed. Using the pathing blocker both large prevents fly overs and walk throughs to the area.

I like to refrain from using the cliff making tools as much as possible. but when I do use them I use the single level laying a base then go back and lay the top dragging out that level here and there at the edge - so you end up with some straight falls and some areas which are stepped.

Then I raise the terrian a bit, platue the cliff making a slope below, which acts like a debris feild that one sees with mesa's. I also like to place rocks - I like the look of Rock Chunks - their flatness and variety is great for stacking - so I make a copy of that and make it into a ramp or pathing blocker (so in game no line of health shows up and it can not be attacked) stair stepping them up the slope of the debris feild, tossing in "weeds" and grass (use your imagination)

On slopes most doodads need to be lowered or raised. Hold control key and use page up and page down on a selected doodad. If you drag the doodad it will come back to the surface.

If I use a cliff tile for my water's edge I like to use the custom rock chunks around the edge hiding the cliff and blending the texture of the bed of the water *usually sand with rock here and there* My rock chunks I have two set sizes - normal easy plop size which is slightly larger than the normal set and gargantuan size which I can select, plop and hit enter and modify its size to meet my needs. On cliffs I do not need to worry too much about pathing - elsewhere I use a larger pathing size ploping all of my rocks then modifying the pathing in object editor.

Well that is all me - you do what you want.

Mind I did not judge what you did - you know what you want it to look like and feel like. If this works for you then it is perfectly fine.