Looking for Advice on Terrain Techniques
JulianDracos
Mapmaker
I ran across this map yesterday:
I like this style of map and am actually working on a map that is of a similar style. I have two questions.
- Is Erdan Worlds the best style to use for a map like this? Any other suggestions or combinations of styles that you think would work for making maps in this style? Erdan doesn't have snow mountains and the trees are not the same.
- I really like how the green terrains are blended together. I find that in CC3, using edge fade only does so much to mix everything together. Do any of you have suggestions for blending terrains together? Should I use multiple sheets? What about blend, transparency, blurs, etc? I want to improve in my ability in the terrain aspect instead of relying too much on symbols.
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If Erdan Worlds won't let you do what you want with the mapping, it's probably best to look around for something that will. 13th Age might be somewhat closer to that example map whose style you want to replicate, for instance as a first suggestion. You're never going to get exact matches for everything, of course (unless the source map's in a style PF already has available that is!), so you need to decide what's most important to preserve, and then work around that.
In terms of the Sheet Effects, like Edge Fade and Edge Fade Inner, or others that may help blend adjacent textures, adjusting the size and strength beyond the presets is always worth trying out. Experimentation is key though, as has been said before re Sheet Effects generally, and trying to advise you "blind" like this isn't really practical. You just need to play around with ideas and see what you think looks good. If you run into specific snags, someone here may well be able to assist.
You might also want to try varying the edges of adjacent terrains, so they're not always simple linear features - not saying to use fractals here, just add some extra curves and variations by-hand (like a weak "jigsaw piece" join, perhaps), nothing very finely-detailed. With a strong enough Effect, you'll not see much of the original shape, and it may help break-up the linear junction a bit more.
The blending in this sample map looks like it could work by adding rounded patches of one of the greens over the top of the other, with a strong Edge Fade Inner Effect on the patches Sheet, for instance.
It seems as though when I use the drawing tools, I cannot trace. But when I use the terrain tools, that is in option. Would it be better to create some terrain tools if I am trying to trace the interior of land then? I was also thinking of trying something to improve the curves. Currently, I just try to click a lot and then use the fractal command. It helps a little.
Yes, the Trace command only works with Drawing Tools (the formal name for what you're calling "terrain tools"; your "drawing tools" are, slightly confusingly, known as Draw Tools - these are the simple lines and shapes), so you need to create a new Drawing Tool if you want to use the command, and the Drawing Tool currently doesn't exist.
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