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- Mar 10, 2003
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Seeing there's a few people getting interested in mapping and Since I have been approached with this question I thought I'd put this together. I hope that somone finds this useful
Forming a landscape. The fun stuff.
When you first open the landscape editor you'll be confronted with a large light blue square. This is your work area. In the top menu bar click on the "Edit Landscape" button (next to the camera). This will open two dialog boxes.In the "brush properties" one, check the "Use Patterns" check box to open the brush selection menu. In the drop down menu, choose a brush with soft edges as such:
For this example, I'm going to create a landscape with several plateaus. So in the "Brush Properties" box set "Radius" almost as large as it will go and the "Strength" down to about 20%. Now in a sweeping notion form the out side of the shape you want that landscape to be. If you don't like what you've done Ctrl-z will undo it (Ctrl-Y to re-do).
And now fill it in up to the heights desired. To get a better view open the "Lighting Properties" dialog box under "View" in the menu bar to change the time of day and the shadows.
In the "Edit Landscape" dialog box choose "Smooth to Height" and level off the areas where the plateaus are to be.
Now we need to connect them with paths. Choose Ramp/Spline in the "Edit Landscape" dialog box. Set the brush radius to something smaller now and start at one level and bring the brush to the next level in a sweeping motion. Keep doing this until you have a smooth transition between the levels. You might want to reduce the strength also.
Let's go to the other side now to make a beach, still using the Ramp/Spline tool. As well a a path down to it.
Now, that is kinda bland and without character. So let's build some mountains now. Change your brush to one with more zagged edges and select Raise/Lower again and build up some mountains.
What's left to do now is to smooth out all of the beach areas and anywhere there are heavy shadows or black voids. You can change the time of day to see where the shadows are cast and how it will look overall. Then finally, use the lower tool to eliminate that light blue surrounding the landscape.
Now before you go any further, Open the "Objects" tool (the button with the house on it) Create a new Greek town and place a town center. This will create a .bwe file for that landscape. Now go File >> Save As in the top menu bar, name the map and save it.
Forming a landscape. The fun stuff.
When you first open the landscape editor you'll be confronted with a large light blue square. This is your work area. In the top menu bar click on the "Edit Landscape" button (next to the camera). This will open two dialog boxes.In the "brush properties" one, check the "Use Patterns" check box to open the brush selection menu. In the drop down menu, choose a brush with soft edges as such:

For this example, I'm going to create a landscape with several plateaus. So in the "Brush Properties" box set "Radius" almost as large as it will go and the "Strength" down to about 20%. Now in a sweeping notion form the out side of the shape you want that landscape to be. If you don't like what you've done Ctrl-z will undo it (Ctrl-Y to re-do).

And now fill it in up to the heights desired. To get a better view open the "Lighting Properties" dialog box under "View" in the menu bar to change the time of day and the shadows.

In the "Edit Landscape" dialog box choose "Smooth to Height" and level off the areas where the plateaus are to be.

Now we need to connect them with paths. Choose Ramp/Spline in the "Edit Landscape" dialog box. Set the brush radius to something smaller now and start at one level and bring the brush to the next level in a sweeping motion. Keep doing this until you have a smooth transition between the levels. You might want to reduce the strength also.

Let's go to the other side now to make a beach, still using the Ramp/Spline tool. As well a a path down to it.

Now, that is kinda bland and without character. So let's build some mountains now. Change your brush to one with more zagged edges and select Raise/Lower again and build up some mountains.

What's left to do now is to smooth out all of the beach areas and anywhere there are heavy shadows or black voids. You can change the time of day to see where the shadows are cast and how it will look overall. Then finally, use the lower tool to eliminate that light blue surrounding the landscape.

Now before you go any further, Open the "Objects" tool (the button with the house on it) Create a new Greek town and place a town center. This will create a .bwe file for that landscape. Now go File >> Save As in the top menu bar, name the map and save it.