Easy tips for mapping

[El Santo Padre]

Hey there, my name is Oz,

For the basics of mapping please consult our holy bible, since here i'm going to give some tips to make the painful job of making new world a little bit easier.

The Chaos Theory

Alright, when making a map sometimes what you need to remeber is despite the fact that we can olnly create and edit pixel by pixel, natures is not measured by squares. So in order to give the wild feeling to our maps we need to let the chaos be within, and here is how to:

THE MOUNTAINS:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I think one of the greatest things about a 3D map like the one in RTW is the magic of having mountains all over the world, but as many things in life such beauties come at a high cost in the making of the map. Many times i've seen maps that basically create a "circle" of low_mountains ground_type and fill it with high mountains. The result is usually a big block in game. I must say that way is actually easy, but at the same too simple for a map. So, what to do then? Let's begin

1.- First you'll need your basic map_heights.tga. Make a new document where you will be using several layers to get the results. Here's my basic heights.tga

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2.- Now, using the color for high_mountains (you can find the guide here) we will use the "Paint Bucket" (i don't know the exact name in english, i speak spanish and my photoshop is in spanish too) to star coloring the withest pixels in our map. I've highlighted 2 more features of photoshop that should help this job, first the "tolerance"? (tolerancia in my image), set to a value of 3. This features will allow pixel with upper and lower values of white/gray that we are giving color get the "high_mountains" ground type too (speeding up the process A LOT).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

3.- We keep using the paint bucket to color all the "pikes" of our mountains, only the withest areas.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4.- Next we will need to add the low_mountains ground type too, so, using the same principle as before we keep selecting from the withest pixels to the next, so we create the lower parts of the mountains.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

5.- After some insane clicking we should have some results like this

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

6.- Now the bad things about this method. Depending on the scale of you map you may end up with some areas that turn into impassable lands (in my map those areas would be Armenia and Iran). But fear not, all you'll have to do is use some other textures to add mountain passes in those areas, a very little tiny price for saving some hours of painful mountain creation if you ask me.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[ElvenKind]

Nice tutorial

[Solon de Atenas]

In relation with my map, your heights and your groundtypes are much better. Look at this:







First, my map_heights it´s more accurate but worst for RTW engine. Your map_heights.tga is showing a more defined mountains. Can you help me about that?

Second, my groun_types are good for pass and respect the roads (very important for trade) but much worse compensated between areas. Armenia and Iran in my map are the worst. In you case you have to open the mountain passes but at least you have a much more realistic view of this area. I think that I need help in this case too.

If you can help me with the map_heights.tga, then we can contruct a better ground_types.tga as well. Otherwise, I will leave my map like this. But actually I would like armenia and Iran much more than in your map than mine. My question is, where did you get that map_height aspect?

Regard
Solon de Atenas