My Terrain (Mine!)

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doofus-01
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My Terrain (Mine!)

Post by doofus-01 »

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Rather than litter the thread with screenshots, I'm just going to put the most recent here. No, I'm going to litter the thread after all.
3 villages
3 villages
orcshot16.png (385.5 KiB) Viewed 21471 times

For maps that are supposed to be at high latitudes, all the snow and ice tiles get boring. Snow forest tiles are nice for seasonal variations, but they are not so good for all occasions. So, I'm going to try to make different terrains tiles that could be used for snow and tundra.

First is snow drifts:
----------------image removed---------------------
(And if this is really undesired, you can nuke the thread, instead of moving it to Workshop. I'll get the point.)
Last edited by doofus-01 on April 27th, 2011, 1:09 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Turuk
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Turuk »

doofus-01 wrote:(And if this is really undesired, you can nuke the thread, instead of moving it to Workshop. I'll get the point.)
Works for me, variation is never a bad thing, especially in terrain. As to the quality of your piece, I will leave that to one of the art developers to give you some direction on, but if you are intending it for mainline there is no reason why it cannot be in Art Contributions (as long as you do not draw plain white lumps and go here, snow drifts.) :P
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Boucman
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Boucman »

that's a good start, and I really like the idea,

probably used as a variation of the snow terrain rather than a new terrain

that being said, you have a real problem of scale. Your snow stacks look higher than mountain..

another interesting terrain variation would be a winter road, with the wheel tracks and horse hoofs...
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zookeeper
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by zookeeper »

I think the general idea is ok, but quality-wise it's not quite there yet. I'd also stick with the smaller drifts only, the bigger ones wouldn't really work well.

I can't offer very detailed advice as to how to improve the small ones except that I suppose they could blend in with the base snow a bit better and maybe be just a little bit less conspicuous somehow. It should remain clear that they're just a little visual variation instead of there actually being something special about the tile.
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doofus-01
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by doofus-01 »

Right, I didn't mean for them to go in as is, I just wanted to see if the idea was a waste of time. The big one is four hexes. I'll go with the smaller one and a road variation. Thanks.
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Sangel »

Great idea! :)

I agree with the comments on scale - it's a little jarring seeing snowdrifts as tall as mountains. I do love what you're doing with complementary colours (the adding of yellow tones in the lee of the snowdrift), but I think you might be pushing it a little too far; desaturating the yellows a little more could help.
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musketaquid
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by musketaquid »

doofus-01 wrote:For maps that are supposed to be at high latitudes, all the snow and ice tiles get boring
Variations of snow tiles are a good idea, but what looks odd to me in the shot you posted, is the castle. Isn't it a summer residence in Siberia? Don't we need snow variations of the castles too?
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Sgt. Groovy
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Sgt. Groovy »

It's a good start, but you should be very careful with any other hues than blues, eps. yellow.

Also, use plenty of reference, snow makes lots of interesting shapes, like this:

Image

And yes, snowy castles are definitely needed for this, snow stacked under the walls, icicles on the rims of the tower roofs, etc. And if you really get adventurous, an "Ice Queen" castle made entirely of ice would totally rock, but be bewarned that making a new castle from scratch is lot of work.
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by woodmouse »

I love it, but I agree to everything said upper.
And the ice castle... I could try making that, if no one minds?
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by thespaceinvader »

You're welcome to give it a shot, but remember that until explicitly stated otherwise (which this is not) you should keep your work in the Art Workshop. If it turns out good enough, we'll move it back in here.
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doofus-01
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by doofus-01 »

These are smaller and probably won't make players think it is a different terrain. The big one especially needs to be blended in better, but you get the idea.

An ice castle would be cool, not sure I'm man enough for that though. We'll see, I have to get past these drifts first.
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musketaquid
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by musketaquid »

The small drifts with the stone is the way to go, i think. The half moon is too big, and from the two cracked lines, only the lower one makes sense to me.
So, small drifts with shorter blow aways and placed a bit more sporadic (i'm not sure, if some barrier like stones are necessary), and lower lines, wich could be more cracked in some ways, would make good variations.
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doofus-01
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by doofus-01 »

OK. I'll go with the little ones and space them further apart. I do kind of like the idea of multi-hex features though, maybe it would work if it wasn't such a regular shape?
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Skizzaltix »

Possibly--If you feel like it, do give it a shot. I like the idea, too :)
Actually, I think one of the main problems with the big one here is that it's facing in a different direction from the others...
For the crack there, maybe if you had a shadow behind the upper one? Not sure.
Anyway, great work! :D
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Re: Cold terrain

Post by Jozrael »

I think it's important that these terrains not be 'spammed'. As you can see in your shot, multiple hexes of the same drift create visual 'patterns', which are bad. I forget the name for this. If you look at the other hexes (with very small details, btw) they're carefully constructed so that if placed next to each other, they don't emphasize specific points. With drifts, that's fairly impossible, no matter how small you make them, so I think they should be more 'highlights' than fills.

Of course, this is directed to the map designer, not the artist :p
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