Basic Terrain Tutorial
By Warbringer87
Needed Tools:
· World Editor
· Patience
Introduction:
WorldEdit has a very powerful Terrain Editor and it is one of the most important tools in making a map of any kind. To make a good map, you need to have some sort of basic outline, drawing it on a piece of paper is good, or if you'd rather have it on your computer, you can draw it in MSpaint or some other program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. No matter how you choose to do it, always prepare your map out to some extent before starting it. As you read this tutorial, all things written in red will be TFT only. Now time to start this tutorial!
Creating a New Map:
When you create a new map, you’ll see a window appear, titles “Create New Map.” This is where you choose all the basic terrain features your map will have, but note all of these can be edited at any point when you are actually working on the map.
Map Size:
This defines how big your map will be overall. It can be any combination, but the smallest dimension available is 64, and the largest is 192, or 256.
Playable Area:
This is the one field you cannot change in the “Create a Map” window. However, this tells you what area of the map is actually playable. As the overall map size gets larger, so does the playable map area. Note that this value can be changed after the map is made.
Size Description:
This is just a way to label the map size; it is displayed when playing a map in-game.
- 64x64 & 96x96 is considered TINY
- 128x128 is considered SMALL
- 160x160 is considered MEDIUM
- 192x192 is considered LARGE
- 224x224 is considered HUGE
- 256x256 is considered EPIC
Tileset:
This is of course the most important decision in making maps. You have a choice of eighteen different tilesets to choose from. This can also be changed at any time during the actual construction of a map.
This section also has the Initial Tile section. This sets the default tile in the map you make. Then this can be edited by selecting and painting different tiles onto the ground.
Initial Cliff Level:
This selects the starting cliff height for your map, from a level of 0 to 14.
This section also has the Initial Water Level section. This gives you the option of covering the whole map with ground, shallow water, or deep water. The default setting is ground. It also has another sub-section, an option called Random Height Field. This is much like a global “Noise” terrain modifier. It makes variations in terrain height on your map.
The Tools Available:
On the left side of the WorldEditor there are three boxes. From the top, there is the Minimap, the Previewer, and the Brush List. The Minimap is just a small graphical representation of your map that displays units, doodads, and terrain. It also displays regions. The Previewer allows you to look at the currently selected Doodads, Item, Unit, or Terrain Tile. The Brush list contains all the objects and terrain tools you will need to make your map. We'll start off with terrain.
Textures:
These are all the different types of tiles your map currently has, you can change most of these by modifying the tileset. The option to do so is in the Advanced menu. Refer to the Advanced World Editor tutorial for more help on modifying tilesets. Also, there are some tiles that structures cannot be built on, but units may cross freely. These tiles have "(unbuildable)" next to their names. No matter what tileset you made your map in, it will always have the Blight, Boundary, and Remove Boundary Tiles.
- Blight: Creates the terrain tile that Undead require to build their structures and regenerate their lost health.
- Boundary: Adds black areas to your map. Units and Structures may not be placed in this area, and units cannot move in these areas (not even Air units)
- Remove Boundry: This remove any of the black areas you add to your map. This does NOT remove the map's preset boundary (the black area around a map). That would require editing the Map's Size and Camera Bounds (discussed later).
Cliffs:
All tilesets have two types of Cliffs. Unlike Tiles, these cannot be swapped around for other cliff types without the use of 3rd party programs. There are eight different cliff manipulation brushes. The brush size can be changed by holding Control and pressing either 1,2,3,4 or 5. 1 is the smallest brush size, and five is the largest. You can also toggle between round and square brushes by pressing Control+6. They are the same for all cliff types.
- Decrease Two: This decreases the cliff level by two. So if it were 8, after the brush was applied it would be 6.
- Decrease One: This decreases the cliff level by one.
- Same Level: This is used to create
- Increase One: Increases the cliff level by one.
- Increase Two: Increases the cliff level by two.
- Deep Water: This creates deep water at the area you clicked. Deep water is two cliff levels down from the surface. Ground units (which are not amphibious or floating) may not cross deep water without the aid of transports. Some spells, such as Submerge (Naga Spell) can only be used in Deep Water.
- Shallow Water: This creates a 1 cliff level deep water area. Ground units may walk freely in this area, but most player built structures cannot be placed in shallow water.
- Ramp: This is quite confusing to many people. So I will go a bit more into detail here. First off, this can only be used to create a bridge between two cliff levels that are only ONE cliff level apart. Meaning, you can make a ramp between a Cliff with a height of 8 and a cliff with a height of nine, but not between cliffs with height of 3 and 11. To make a ramp, select the ramp brush from the Brush list, and bring it over the area you want to make a cliff, like is shown below. Next, Drag the brush along side the edge of the cliff.
You will see you drag the brush, a ramp is created between the two cliff levels. You should end up with something like is shown below.
Height:
This last section the the Terrain tools in the Brush list allow you to manipulate the height of the terrain without using cliffs. It allows you to make rounded hills and valleys, and make completely flat or natural looking terrain.
- Raise: This raises the ground, making it look like a hill.
- Lower: This lowers the ground, making it look like a valley, or a crater.
- Plateau:This creates a smooth area of the height you clicked on.
- Noise: This create many variations in your terrain, causing random spikes and holes to appear in your terrain. Best used with the Smooth brush.
- Smooth: This smoothes down your terrain to make it flat. It is best used in conjunction with Noise, to help make it more natural looking.
The Objects:
Every tileset has its own set of doodads and Neutral Hostile units, or creeps. All tilesets have access to all Night Elf, Human, Orc and Undead units and structures as well. Every basic map needs the basics: Gold Mines, and trees. However, there are dozens of other doodads and Creeps that give your map more of a natural feel to it. Most people find locating Gold Mines and Trees frustrating, so here are some directions.
Gold Mines:
These are structures belonging to the Neutral Passive Player. From the brush list, click on Units, then Neutral passive, then on Melee, then on Buildings. Gold Mine is the first structure on the list that follows.
Trees:
From the Brush list, click on Doodads, then on Trees/Destructables. Each tileset has a different looking tree, but they all work the same way. Some tilesets, like Ashenvale have a regular tree, and a Canopy tree, but they can both be harvested from like any other tree. Also, every type of tree also has a dead version of it. Not incredibly useful, but it does make your terrain look a bit nicer, like any other doodad.
Bridges:
Besides being able to place bushes, mushrooms, rocks, benches and birds, you can also place Bridges. Many people have trouble with bridges because they can't seem to be able to align the bridge with the ground. All bridges are found in the "Bridges/Ramps" under "Doodads: in the Brush list. So this will be explained in detail.
First, place your bridge and select it. (to select an object, you must be in that objects "layer." in order to switch to the Doodad layer, press "D" or go to the Layer menu at the top of the World Editor and select "Doodad.")
Next, hold down Control (If this doesn't work for you, try holding down Shift instead of Control) and press the Page Up key on your keyboard to raise the bridge. Alternatively, you can use the Pg Dn key to lower a bridge. Keep doing this until the bridge is perfectly aligned with the ground, like this.
Basic Hotkeys:
This is just a list of the most basic hotkeys you will need.
Layer Hotkeys:
There are five different layers in the World Editor. Switching to any of these layers allows you to select, edit, delete, and add objects associated with that layer. (i.e. the Doodad layer allows you select, move, or delete doodads, but you need to switch to the unit layer to do the same for units.)
- T: Brings up the Terrain Palette and switches to the Terrain Layer.
- D: Brings up the Doodad Palette and switches to the Doodad Layer.
- U: Brings up the Unit Palette and switches to the Unit Layer.
- R: Brings up the Region Palette and switches to the Region Layer.
- M: Brings up the Camera Palette and switches to the Camera Layer.
Map Viewing:
There are many many hotkeys associated with how you see the map in the World Editor. Here are a few basic ones.
- G: This allows you to toggle between the three different sizes of grids or remove them. As you press G more, the Grids will have smaller and smaller squares. There are three sizes in total.
- C: This switches the current view to the Game Camera. This means that you can only zoom out and zoom in just as you would in the game. You can exit the Game Camera view by pressing the C key again.
- W: This hides/shows the water on the map. It affects both deep and shallow water.
- X: This changes the view to Letterbox mode. Letterbox mode is how everything is displayed during a Cinematic sequence in a map. Good for viewing exactly how your cinematic will look.
Map Properties:
The final steps in making a regular melee map are usually naming it and giving it a description. You can find these fields by looking under the scenario menu along the top of the World Editor.
Name:
The name of your map.
Suggested Players:
You should type in what sort of matches are good on your map. (i.e. Is it good for 2v2, or Free For All?)
Description:
Type in what your map is about!
Author:
Your name goes here. Some people also put in their email address if the map made for distribution across Battle.net or on a website.
Expansion Required:
This tells you if your map requires the Frozen Throne expansion or not. It also provides you with a list of reasons as to why your map requires the Frozen Throne expansion or not.
Map Options:
This gives you ten different options for your map. You can do a multitude of things here, but many of these are expansion-only. Sorry folks.
- Hide minimap in Preview Screens: This hides/shows the minimap preview when playing the map. If it is unchecked, then it replaces it with a picture of a question mark and causes your map to be non-melee.
- Masked Areas are partially visible: This allows for areas masked by Black Mask to be partially visible. If it is unchecked, causes your map to be non-melee.
- Show water waves on cliff shores: This toggles waves on cliffs. If it is checked, then waves will periodically crash into your cliff shores.
- Show water waves on rolling shores: This toggles waves on ramps between water and land (which are called rolling shores). If it is checked, then waves will periodically crash into your shores.
- Use Item Classification System:
- Use Terrain Fog: This gives your entire map a default fog. There are three types of fog, and you can edit how they appear in the Map options window as well.
- Use Global Weather: This gives the entire map a Weather Effect. You can choose anything from Rain, to Rays of Moonlight.
- Custom Sound Environment: This gives your map a specific group of ambient sounds. You can choose between four Sound Environments.
- Custom Light Environment: All the tilesets have an individual type of Light and Dark settings. You can give your map the Light Environment of any tileset here.
- Use Water Tinting: This allows you to change the color of all the water on your map. This affects both deep and shallow water.
Map Size and Camera Bounds:
This allows you to change the size of your map, and the playable map area as well. Use the arrows at each of the four sides to resize your map. You can choose what to resize by checking or unchecking the two boxes below the minimap. Note that the maps full size must be a multiple of 32 in both dimensions. You can also check both boxes to increase/decrease the overall map dimensions while still keeping the proportion between plyable map area and overall map size.
Modify Camera Bounds:
If you wish to increase or decrease the playable area of your map, check this box and resize the camera bounds using the eight directional arrows.
Modify Map Bounds:
If you wish to increase the size of the entire map, check this box and resize the camera bounds using the eight directional arrows.
Map Loading Screen:
If you are making a campaign or a non-melee map, then you may want to use another loading screen. The loading screen is the background you see when a map is loading, after a game has started. Here you can designate a custom loading screen from the game, or you can import your own. You can also give your map a Loading Title, Subtitle, and Description.
Map Preferences:
Here you can choose a Sky and a time of day for your map.
