Staredit Network

This is my meager attempt to stop all the newbs, noobs, choobs and morons from flooding this once beautiful forum with repeditive questions and unintelligable banter.

---

[center]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Tools
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/center]

-X-tra Editor-

Used mainly for isometric tile placement, but is also uselful for placing basic doodads.

-SCMDraft 2-

Also useful for isom. But moreso for square and sprite placement.

http://www.staredit.net/index.php?download=1525]-StarForge-[/URL]

My person choice for terrain making, it has a good master palette, sprite layout and interface. However it's isom leaves something to be desired. I'm using StarForge in this tutorial by the by.

---

[center]Now onto answering those nooby questions! [/center]

---

[center]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
How do I use / What's the palette?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/center]

1. Download Starforge.
2. Open Starforge.
3. Locate the layer dropdown menu.

The red area is where you wanna be, click terrain.
4. Click on the red area that says "palette"

(The yellow area is how to switch between isom and rectagular tiles.)
5. You're done! The new window that pops up is a index of every tile on the current tileset. Scroll through it to find the wimsical blending pieces known as tiles.

[center]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
OMFG HoW Does mE makens the STACKED High dirt Lolerz111!1
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/center]

1. Open a new document in your favorite isom making program. Make a cliff next to or on water.
2. Save it and re-open it in starforge.
3. Match up the tiles under water with ones from the palette.
4. This THIS thread for more info.

[center]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Blending; The Imperfect Art.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/center]

Not everyone thinks of blending right, so heres a quick rundown.
Blending is the art of taking a blocky terrain piece and making it look smooth or isom. OR taking one isom catagory somewhere it shouldn't be, such as temple to Jungle.

Example.
To blend al you have to do is open your blocky piece in Starforge or SCM and go into the master palette. From there go to the area with the type of terrain surrounding the blockiness, 8 times out of ten it'll be there. The other 2 times it's part of a doodad, which brings me to my final section (for now.)

[center]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Doodads and Sprites
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/center]

Doodads - The solid pieces of terrain mixed with a sprite. They cannot be walked through and rarely over.

Sprites - The non-solid pieces that can be walked completely under. Very uselful for covering crap.

To acces doodads in Starforge open the custom brush palette.



Just click the red area, then the other red area. Load the doodad brushes and you're all set.

To acces sprites go into the sprite layer. Click the button above the side GUI and voila.



Note the area outlined in red.

---

That's the end for now, if I discover more noobish question I'll add a nice guide for it. Good luck to all beginning terrainists. Oh and one more thing, DON'T DO JUNGLE.

I would like to add that using starforge as a sprite placement would be ideal based on the fact that all sprites that crash starcraft are in seperate folders.

you might want to run a quick spell check on that because you are making it into a tutorial. you should show some scm draft features too.

I used starforge mainly because of the brush feature, if it didn't have it I'd use SCMdraft and the tut would feature that prominantly.

Not the best example, since ruins doesn't really work with bridge tiles.

You should just refer to WoodenFire's Collection.

I don't think that something wood would do is suffiecient for someone to start at, much too much time involved.

add in the blending place that its good to look through the entire pallette to find the perfect piece for a blend thats giving you trouble, thats what all good terrainers do...

and yay, my cliff tut... once again proving:


and i think this should be pinned once it gets an efficient ammount of information on it, and mabey a bit less insulting to noobs, but i dont know the noobism ways very much...

It's not ment insultingly, just ... Hazingly.

your tutorial glytcher did help me. maybe i have to reread it because when i do doubles i always get the blockines in the editor. maybe i just need to reread it.

AHH 800TH POST GO CRAZY

ive found some new things since i made that, i should update it, but i dont really like my way with words and im usually lazy and usually busy too so i might not for a while. but i hope i will be able to soon...

just show me sometime and i can write something for you.

I can think the expression on syphons face when this doesn't get pinned. Haha, it probably won't, it's not really that "professional" (eg. the thread title, some subtitles)

Who ever said I wanted it pinned? And I'm going away for the weekend Ill make a rewrite on monday.

---

At least I didn't call it the "Hitch Hikers guide to terraining"

now that woulda been original...

Ok my first version was an astounding faliar, I rushed through the tut and it doesn't make much sense. Im going to write a better one. With less insults and bad jokes. But still some. And I WILL name it the hitch hiker guide to terraining.