Well, 1.5 added a new Lighting Regions tool that lets you paint areas of different lighting color/intensity. The only problem is that it doesn't let you reposition the lights for each different region, only change the colors. (The regions are painted from the Terrain layer, then the settings of each are changed in the lighting window. The effects are only visible in-game.)
You could also do it the old fashioned way: set up regions and use triggers to manually change the lighting scheme as the player moves around the map. I believe I read that 1.5 also added a trigger to set the lighting individually for each player, though I haven't actually looked.
The best way would probably be to change the cliff type you're using to something that better matches the texture.
Decorating Blizzard cliffs is a very difficult and doodad-intensive thing to do on any sort of large scale. (Personally, I try to avoid using them whenever possible - I usually use steep slopes with a cliffy texture, then paint off the pathing over it.)
First off I'll start with saying that I really like the border around the grass outside of the mine. It makes it feel like the grass is a part of the world. Though it could use some touching up in a lot of places - make it a bit thicker with a more gradual transition into the greener grass. Also, be sure to vary it a bit - don't use the same border everywhere, sometimes the grass should just slowly fade directly into dirt without turning yellow first.
For the mine, I think it would probably look better if it was primarily dirt with rock accents, rather than the other way around.
In general, your textures look very uniform - use a low-strength noise brush to add some variation with other textures - splash some yellow grass or dirt into your green fields, add some rock or grass patches to your dirt, use some rock texture to age your concrete or crack your dirt, etc.
Too many areas are perfectly flat - in nature you almost never see perfectly level ground, there's always at least some subtle height variation. A quick pass with a large low-intensity soft round height brush will make it look less artificial. This is largely up to artistic vision though, it's something you have to experiment with yourself to see what looks good. Be sure to think about what's going on in the world where you do it. Frequently-used paths will generally be slightly sunken into the ground for example - and will be worn smooth.
For your cliff borders, the main advice I have is to not make them perfectly straight, and to blend in some dirt or rock textures around the base. Ideally, add a bit of a slope leading up to the cliff too. And make sure the texture on top matches the landscape around it. Once you have it looking decent, scatter a few rocks, trees or bushes around the bottom.
In the end, the main thing you need is just experience. Terraining is an art, just like painting or playing an instrument - it's a skill developed over years of practice. We can give you tips and pointers but, really, you just need to spend time working with the tools to learn what looks good. Looking at other people's terrains is a good place to start (look at the real world too) - find things you like, examine the details, and try to make something similar. Find things you don't like and figure out why you don't like them, and how you would make them better.
Well this is gonna be a blow to my confidence with the editor, but how do you remove the terrain object in the middle? I can't seem to do so since the editor got updated I have no idea where anything is!
Terrain Objects are under the Terrain palette - see attached image.
Once you select the Terrain Object brush you can just click on the floor window and hit delete.
Nice to see you was testing in game, although map is very imbalanced right now :)
I don't think anyone can beat that?
Agreed on the current balance situation. Gave it a few tries to see if I could. Ended up 0-7 overall. :D
There are a lot of pretty damned good terrainers around who participate in the WTEs, so don't be surprised if someone cooks up something more impressive than mine before the end of the week.
It's a bit of a hacky solution, and may not hold out over long game sessions, but there is a simple fix for the cave smoke.
Basically, you have to use the cave's actor events to "pause" the animation before the smoke has a chance to show up. "Pause" in this case, being "set the animation speed as low as the editor will let you".
In case you're new to the data aspects: that's under Events+ in the actors tab. Right click to add a new Event, and set it to look like my attached image.
The only real way to make a "perfect" ramp using terrain height is with a small brush and the grid turned on. Manually tweak each vertex until it's as smooth as you want to spend the time to make it.
Personally I usually use a large soft square brush and click a few times with the edge to make a ramp, then flatten the area on top. Not as smooth as you can make it with the first method, but much faster and simpler.
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I used some trees from WoW for this one, because the default SC2 trees are horrible for making forest-centric maps.
EDIT: And a nighttime shot, to mix things up a bit.
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@Deadzergling: Go
Well, 1.5 added a new Lighting Regions tool that lets you paint areas of different lighting color/intensity. The only problem is that it doesn't let you reposition the lights for each different region, only change the colors. (The regions are painted from the Terrain layer, then the settings of each are changed in the lighting window. The effects are only visible in-game.)
You could also do it the old fashioned way: set up regions and use triggers to manually change the lighting scheme as the player moves around the map. I believe I read that 1.5 also added a trigger to set the lighting individually for each player, though I haven't actually looked.
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@Deadzergling: Go
The best way would probably be to change the cliff type you're using to something that better matches the texture.
Decorating Blizzard cliffs is a very difficult and doodad-intensive thing to do on any sort of large scale. (Personally, I try to avoid using them whenever possible - I usually use steep slopes with a cliffy texture, then paint off the pathing over it.)
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@nimbusqwe: Go
I imagine any solution to your problem would likely be data-related. You'd probably have better luck asking in the Data forum.
That said, I wouldn't be overly surprised if Blizzard screwed -1 level fighting even more than it already was, with no easy user workaround.
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@Deadzergling: Go (I hope you like reading :) )
First off I'll start with saying that I really like the border around the grass outside of the mine. It makes it feel like the grass is a part of the world. Though it could use some touching up in a lot of places - make it a bit thicker with a more gradual transition into the greener grass. Also, be sure to vary it a bit - don't use the same border everywhere, sometimes the grass should just slowly fade directly into dirt without turning yellow first.
For the mine, I think it would probably look better if it was primarily dirt with rock accents, rather than the other way around.
In general, your textures look very uniform - use a low-strength noise brush to add some variation with other textures - splash some yellow grass or dirt into your green fields, add some rock or grass patches to your dirt, use some rock texture to age your concrete or crack your dirt, etc.
Too many areas are perfectly flat - in nature you almost never see perfectly level ground, there's always at least some subtle height variation. A quick pass with a large low-intensity soft round height brush will make it look less artificial. This is largely up to artistic vision though, it's something you have to experiment with yourself to see what looks good. Be sure to think about what's going on in the world where you do it. Frequently-used paths will generally be slightly sunken into the ground for example - and will be worn smooth.
For your cliff borders, the main advice I have is to not make them perfectly straight, and to blend in some dirt or rock textures around the base. Ideally, add a bit of a slope leading up to the cliff too. And make sure the texture on top matches the landscape around it. Once you have it looking decent, scatter a few rocks, trees or bushes around the bottom.
In the end, the main thing you need is just experience. Terraining is an art, just like painting or playing an instrument - it's a skill developed over years of practice. We can give you tips and pointers but, really, you just need to spend time working with the tools to learn what looks good. Looking at other people's terrains is a good place to start (look at the real world too) - find things you like, examine the details, and try to make something similar. Find things you don't like and figure out why you don't like them, and how you would make them better.
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@DrSuperEvil: Go
Technically mine's hovering over the lava. Though I didn't use doodads - just space platform cliffs and really low lava.
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Terrain Objects are under the Terrain palette - see attached image.
Once you select the Terrain Object brush you can just click on the floor window and hit delete.
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Agreed on the current balance situation. Gave it a few tries to see if I could. Ended up 0-7 overall. :D
There are a lot of pretty damned good terrainers around who participate in the WTEs, so don't be surprised if someone cooks up something more impressive than mine before the end of the week.
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Has several effects that aren't really visible in the screenshots (mainly electrical arcs and exploding lava in the background).
Uses lighting regions to give the two sides a bit more diversity.
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I made this back during the beta (can't even load the map into current versions of the editor).
Not really a submission so much as a "here's something for people to think about."
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That's a good question.
Just spent about an hour playing with it in both the data editor and the doodad properties window.
Short version: at this point I have no idea what it does.
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@Nicholas68: Go
It's a bit of a hacky solution, and may not hold out over long game sessions, but there is a simple fix for the cave smoke.
Basically, you have to use the cave's actor events to "pause" the animation before the smoke has a chance to show up. "Pause" in this case, being "set the animation speed as low as the editor will let you".
In case you're new to the data aspects: that's under Events+ in the actors tab. Right click to add a new Event, and set it to look like my attached image.
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@Nicholas68: Go
Nope, cliffs can't be modified in anything smaller than a 2x2 grid.
The best way to cover up waterfall transitions is with doodads. Rocks and such, in whatever style fits your map.
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The only real way to make a "perfect" ramp using terrain height is with a small brush and the grid turned on. Manually tweak each vertex until it's as smooth as you want to spend the time to make it.
Personally I usually use a large soft square brush and click a few times with the edge to make a ramp, then flatten the area on top. Not as smooth as you can make it with the first method, but much faster and simpler.
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@CheddarChee5e: Go
Just keep at it.
After a few weeks you'll notice a pretty substantial improvement in the look and feel of your maps.