This chapter will discuss the formation and sculpting of mountains and hills. This sounds quite simple to do, but ones tendency is to make funky looking humps that soar to the upper limits of the editor...trust me. Hills should be gently sloped and with random sides and varied gradients with just a little cliff texture to give them some character. Mountains vary, but for the most part they are broad based, higher than hills and usually contain crags, cliffs, ravines, valleys and passes. The techniques can vary from person to person as well as the shapes. A map maker living in Mexico would probably tend to make mountains that he or she is used to seeing while a map maker living in Germany would make something similar to that climate. When I make a map for a particular area I try to find pictures of the region and see what the terrain features are like.

I decided to create my mountainous regions in the area of the river shoreline in the upper right and lower left corners (North up). Using the frame work and the angle lock will allow me to keep the mountain fairly similar in size so to keep the map as fair (for the players) and symmetrical as possible. See Screenshot 63. Notice that I used a triangle shape for the bases, I did this to make the best use of area for this size map and still have some reasonable looking mountains. I have set the parameters so that the mountain bases will "fit" the map and still allow room for the players to build a decent size base. Keep in mind that Generals has some extremely large structures and that they can be built anywhere that is relatively flat.

After setting up the parameters for the brush drag the tool, raising the area directly underneath it up to the desired height. The base height does not have to be very large as we still have to form the mountains. As in all things, moderation is best. Using the Angle lock keeps the mountain bases uniform for all four areas. Having completed this process we are now ready to mold our mountains to suit.

Enabling the View impassable areas option and using the mound tool, wash or scrub back and forth where you want peaks to appear. Not to much! Keep in mind that we want steep as well as sloping sides. so mix them up. We also don't want the peaks to reach the upper limits and flatten out. Use side to side, up and down, as well as circular motions to raise the terrain. Looking at Screenshot 64 you can see that the mountains now look pretty good. We can also see the impassable areas, which will determine where our cliffs can be placed. Some of these areas can be smoothed out to suit us and other areas can be raised or even painted (using the impassable texture brush) to make them impassable.

I want to place bunkers on the cliff regions of the mountains so I will need a way for the infantry to access them. I also want the bunkers to be found reasonably early in the game. The easiest way to get this information to a player that hasn't read the map documentation (shame on you...you know who you are) or for some reason the documentation is missing, is to put down a path leading to the defendable structure. Paths usually lead to something and being a curious lot most of will want to see "what's over here". Paths and roads will float above the ground in areas that are not smooth and linear to the surrounding terrain. Sculpting a relatively smooth area with just the smoothing tool and sculpting brushes can be difficult, however, when a smooth transition is needed from one height to another the ramp tool is indispensable. Selecting the tool from the toolbar, then setting up the parameters, drag the ramp from the mountain height to the valley floor, or visa versa, and then click on the place ramp button Screenshot 65. We now have a nice ramp almost ready for our path. There are still impassable areas that will inhibit the infantry from accessing the area. These are smoothed out with the smoothing tool (Screenshot 66). Now the path can be lain down easily and the infantry will gain access to the bunker areas.

After completing this process we are ready to paint the cliff texture on the impassable areas and blend them in to the surrounding textures. Select a tile brush and then select the texture from the option box. Paint the textures onto the red, or impassable areas. Paint the areas outside the map boundry that are in the immediate vicinity of the boundary, this will give the players something to look at besides a wasteland. The Northern and Eastern areas are not viewable "ingame' while the Western and Southern are. Screenshot 67, and Screenshot 68 will give you an idea of what to expect when painting and blending. Repeat this process for the other mountain areas.

This brings us to the next step, the placement of structures and roads. This will be discussed in Part 4.

« part 2 | part 4 here »