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i looked in the tutorials, but there weren't any tutorials on how to do things on terrain. i was wondering, how do you create waterfalls and winding stairs and such?

I wouldn't really ask for waterfalls cuz people will keep sayin' stuff about god killin' kittens but I'll tell ya. You need to match the terrain with the rocks and stuff then you add a sprite called like eld_fire.something. I forgot the name of it but it looks like a yellow beam. That's a waterfall but I haven't really made anything else about terrain like dams and other things.

There are no tutorials because if you pick up SCMD2 or Starforge it's blatently obvious how to make them.

That and no one has gotten off their lazy butt to make a tutorial. Maybe the terrain team wants to do this?

What terrain team?

It's about time anyway.

for the winding staircase, all that i did was match up to staircases heading in different directions.

i attempted, notice i said attempted, to create winding stairs, im able to walk on it and such but it looks really nasty. can anyone give me some pointers or tips on how to make it look better please? this is my first time ever making any fancy terrain, lol. oh yeah, what are sprites?

Here is the map.
[attachmentid=6634]

I will admit it's kinda blocky, but don't give up! Ice terrain is pretty hard to work with. I suggest trying to find some way to stack the walls on to one another, then worry about the stairs.

Ok i tried to make winding stairs again, this time with twilight tileset, it looks much better than my ice tileset one, but i did add missile turrets over the blocky areas to cover up the blocky areas. its still not perfect so can u guys give me some pointers or tips on how to make it better and clearer please?

Here is the map:
[attachmentid=6701]

Here is a picture if u don't want to download it:
[attachmentid=6702]

ADDITION:
Oh yeah! can someone please tell me what sprites are and how to use them please? i never do fancy terrain so im no good at it. any help would be very helpful.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but sprites are the part of doodads that have a visual effect (instead of a terrain effect). IE. it's the part of the tree that you can hide behind, rather than the "stump" which blocks land travel and gives the "cover" bonus.

how do u make waterfalls then? everyone says stuff about sprites and killing cats so i am just totally confused! can someone please tell me some sort of tutorial or something like that please?

Most extended terrain looks as "good" as it does because the flaws are covered up in sprites. Sprites are as MidnightGladius said Basically they are used to cover up anything underneath them. Waterfalls for instance would look really blocky if they were just terrain, but someone came up with a plan to cover up most of the blockiness, (or at least draw attention away from it) by using a bright bullet sprite. But a map can only have 255 sprites in it, without glitching other parts of the game up. I haven't really looked at the tutorial section, so I can't point you out in a direction, but I don't think they have any terraining tutorials anyway.

oh i get it now, ok thanks rantent u really cleared up what midnight gladius said. so where would i find this bright bullet sprite?

ADDITION:
ok i get it now lol! nevermind i get sprites now i just found out with starforge, ok thanks guys

Its eldfire under bullet sprites in starforge.

http://www.staredit.net/index.php?showtopic=10679
Look for the 'What are sprites?' section.

ok i got the eld_fire sprite but what do i use for the bottom of the waterfall? i used a hallucination sprite which looked really good, but it dissapears. can someone please tell me how to make the bottom of the waterfall please?

It is a create hallucinated unit and remove it trigger. Not a sprite.

Oh! I see now! So would I need create a trigger thats something like this:

Trigger

Description:

Waterfall

Players:

¤ Computor Player

Conditions:

¤ Always

Actions:

¤ Create "1" "Unit" at "Location" for "Computor Player" Apply "Properties (Hallucinated)"

¤ Kill "All" "Unit" for "Computor Player" at "Location"

¤ Preserve Trigger

Is this correct?

"Unit" - any unit
"Location" - any location

I would put some sort of wait trigger, so it doesn't just constantly create and kill the unit. I personally think it looks better, well I guess thats only if you use hyper triggers. Thats it though!

how long would i have to set the wait trigger with hypers so it would create and kill on a consistent basis and won't create like 100 and crash SC? does it even matter? do i even need hypers?

ok nevermind, i figured it out. thanks guys.

ADDITION:
ok i tried to create a waterfall. this is my first time at making a waterfall so please don't flame me for at least trying. i didn't create a cliff for the waterfall, too lazy lol.

Here is the top:
[attachmentid=6763]

Here is the bottom:
[attachmentid=6764]

<Insert Non-constructive Flaming.>

[constructive criticism]Try making it so that it looks three dimensional, isofar as StarCraft can go. It looks like a really rocky river, and does not have any depth.[/constructive]

It's all with custom 1x1 terrain too isom. It's a mixture and creativity that creates these beautiful terrain projects. Also alot of people place sprites too inhance there terrain. Over all there wont be any tutorials for making water falls, you just got to experiment really.

P.S Don't make a water fall, every time you do god kills a kitten.

my first real piece of terrain was a waterfall:

[attachmentid=6798]

i was already semi comfortable with the tileset indexed, and i spent about 2 weeks looking at other waterfalls just to get ideas and tips. so get comfortable with the tileset stuff and look in the hall of fame, read every single topic in terrain (dont reply to ooold ones), and look in the hall of fame and that should get you more comfortable with terraining and yull be able to make a good waterfall prolly...

yeah, im not very good cuz i can never find the right tile in the tileset index. hmm, so your saying i need to mix the 1x1 tiles and the ISOM, ok thanks guys, especially for not making non-constructive comments im going to keep practicing until i make an awesome looking waterfall.