Woodland Scenery for AoS

I was terraining my AoS when I've come to realize that I suck at it. I can't seem to make it look beautiful, it looks like a pretty dull forest. I need some people here who can help me with the terrain, probably some advice or show me your version of my terrain. This is the layout, 160x160.



The green little things are trees, I haven't really put any on the middle section, just the outskirts. The blue boxes are the human base, whilst the purple are the bandit base.

Legend:The circles are for the hero selection, the two smaller boxes are the expansions.
The lines are the lanes, but I forgot to add the lanes for the two expansions xD

I need some advice, I'm terrible with terrain

Well first of all, lots n lots of practice works well. I started out terrible, and now the only thing that can stop me is time and the doodad limit (which as long as Pitzer keeps up his good work i dont have to worry about that XD)

Now about the map, i figure those black lines are the path the units will run, i recomend more.. however you may have a purpose

problem with only 2 lines is, for the most part the heroes will be able to mass kill units near end level, meaning if there are 2 heroes on both lanes there is going to be a bit of ownage latter in the game.


some things that are good for taking up room:

rivers, if done well are a Very nice addition to the map
somewhat off the map shops, with a -not- so obvious trail is always nice (Most AoS have this)

Hills - if you are used to WEU and know how to use raise/lower you can make nice hills and curves

Terrain Creeping- nature dosent stop off like a wall, if you are trying to do things realistic have some trees creep out a bit more, sparse them out adding a fade effect (when going from a desert state to a plains state you dont see a line where one "theme of nature starts" and the other ends, they fade togther

enviroment doodads- stick with a similar set, dont use outland plant with the flower doodad... it just dosent work..

Grass- often the small 5kb grasses you can find on this site can make wonders in your terrain if placed right

Tileset- dont have one tileset for a long peroid of time, dont have square tilesets ether
So if you are doing a forest like area use clumped grass with normal grass and maybe the dirt grass tileset togther adding a nice effect that isnt bland

Bland terraining only works in certain games, and this is usauly not the case in an AoS


-Organize the Players Base, plan where the buildings are going to go make sure they ether make sense or are convenient for the player, usally a person will deal with a building set up if its conveniet like in DOTA.. the little shop area, then some buildings not much of a city or camp but its convenient and players like that

Often putting any blocking doodads in the players base would lead to frustration (like trying to runaway or make it to a certain point quickly) bases again should be oraganized and somewhat if not totally convenient

(how often do you find a tree inside an AoS base?) (for me that would be almost never, and the ones i do see it in have planned the base out well enough its not a omg... i ran into the tree again.. lol)







---about your little "drawing" i think a legend would be nice, like what are the circles? and the way your drawing looks you have a lot of white left, you should try to fill it up with things like you could have a shop in the center with a few creep areas

maybe if you wanted a game of king of the hill, a third pathway for units to travel later in the game, terrain can play a huge part in your game so i recomend thinking about what you going to have in it before you start your terrain.

Because if you finish your terrain and then get a brilliant idea, it will be hard to fix some room with out readjusting the "fade" effect (that is if you actualy want things to blend; its not a requirment and often people do not try to fade things)

Actually I this is just a layout, and I forgot to add the two other lanes from the expansions xD, I am updating first post with all info I need.

I might browse for grass though, thanks for that idea xD.

Still need advice :O

I would help however i already have a line of terraining i have, finish a map for Kraken, and then do one for one of my friends. So i could help however.. i recomend you continue to look for help as when i decided to terrain is random and i cannot give you a time when i could possibily finish the others and start yours.

Oh no it's ok, I'm satisfied with the looks. It's a real natural beauty of perfection :D, but still crap compared to terrains the pros do. It was my first time exceeding over 8192 doodads xD

haha, that is crack man. The first time i exceeded the limit, was like wow... i wont do this often.. Now i have all my maps hacked and exceeding the limits sometimes even to some ungodly numbers i'd rather not share, due to the fact that i might crash the server in the imensity of the number XD.

Just make trees bigger and place less -.-
I actally have a 2-lane AoS map terrain made right now. It basically fits what you wantt except it has a big kewl waterfall in the middle and its TINY. 64x128 I believe. Ask me if you want screenshots.
Edit: Share! Share!

First rule of thumb with terrain is to use the random height generator at the start of a new map. It will make the flat terrain "bumpy". It is less time consuming to flatten land than it is to get that variation of height (low hills).

Map bounds has always been a pain for me. For forest type scenes I make a custom set of trees which I make into "ramps" (one of the three choices) or pathing blockers. I increase their scaling a lot - then I use a large pathing blocker pathing for them. At the boarder of the map where it gets dark I place the tallest undestructable trees along the edge. Then I go back and modify the size limits laying in a second row of middle high trees which can not be harvested. I replace the pathing with the default tree size, then using the regular variety of tree I clump them together around at the meeting edge of the tallest and middle trees to fill in the gaps.

Then I place harvestable trees in front of my boarder trees - return the pathing size of the boundary trees to large pathing blocker (both works rather well, prevents fly overs as well).

Blending is key here. you need to present a few of your boundary trees forward into the playing area surrounding them with "normal" trees.

An alternative to using a thick cluster of tree wall to provide a "wall" is to increase the pathing map of the tree wall - you get more distance while still having your path blocked. To make it to where it takes longer for your harvesting units to harvest trees increase the destructable's hit points. If hit points are normally 50 then increase to 100 or 200 hit points. The tree lasts longer and the harvesting units will still get as much wood from the same area of trees even though there are less trees.

For tall trees pathing blocker both as a pathing works best. You can try to find the right fly over height and adjust each flying unit to be able to fly over (max height) if you want to.

Rocks, boulder, rock chunks - use those to define areas. Raise the terrain into a hill, cover the hill with rock and rock chunks (modify the chunks to an undestructable type) plop them then take care to lower then into the ground so they do not stick out this way and that. Under the rocks use a rock terrain texture.

Contrary to popular belief you can use outland plants with ashenvale plants - however you need to modify scale and the custom coloring to make them blend better - then you need to use care on how to place them together.

Taking say river rushes and enabling the height to range from say 5 to normal, then when you plop one select it hit enter and lower its z it has the same diamter but is lower to the ground. plop a few of those overlapping slightly, then plop in the uncustomized scale in a few places. add a tall shrub or too,

conversly using a customized 'green" river rush with a wider y and x and a low z ploping an outland flower in the center and lowering the flower a little makes for a large alien plant.

Water:

Using your 2 deep water tool, with a light colored or sand or dirt texture - what ever contrasts with what you already have, draw out your river course a little bit wider than your planned river. In advanced turn off "enforce water height limits" Deselect the terrain texture and select the same level tool - pull the surrounding lande back over the water area.

Now select the 'apply height' lower tool, hit "P" to show pathing, and lower a tiny square until water shows - it will turn blue before the water is clearly seen. IF your maps over all height map is set high enough at the start (I always make cliff height 3 on a new map) you should be able to lower water further until it turns pink. Just go one click into pink. To control the pathing in water while having a nice looking river, plateau out the pink area, to have shallower water plateau out the blue area. Pull the platue out to almost the edge of the textured terrain which defines where water was placed. Smooth and lower the banks a little.

Fill in with with doodads, select rock terrain and mix that with whatever the texture of your river bed is. I usually use custom tiles, adding Sunken Ruins sand to the last point. Sand will then cover any nearby tile, blending any other texture with it. Pull the sand up the banks a bit, blend in a bit of grass.

Rock texture, dark (gray) and white marble will blend in nicely under sand - you can't have the two marbles touching since they will show a curb, but having alternating grey and white under your sand in short lines with the 'flow' of the river will add interest to the riverbed. top off with the lowest rocks (customize with pathing set as None, scale down a bit) and you can add walkable rocks. Your best bet is to plop them in an empty space, getting a collection of small rocks. select all and copy and paste. You may need to use 'Cntrl' page down to lower them a little to 'bury' them in the sand. If you are smart you will cluster them randomly, making two or three short clusters that fit in the river, alternating your cluster pastes making it look like the river has diversity and that you placed each rock individually when in fact you did a lot of copy and paste.

Toss in logs, rock chunks, regular rocks, lily pads, river rush (looks like dead grass - which customized color you can make shades of greens) Cat-tails that you have customized the size greater and where you have made them taller. Fish here and there, etc.

There is more you can do, it is basically up to your imagination and what you do with your customized versions od models. Size changes and color variations are a big part, how low you sink them into the ground is another part - you can make the same doodad look differnt by just how much is above ground level and seen.