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Custom Stairs

Hello, everyone I was working on the terrain for Forgotten City And I came across a challenge.

I need to make stairs in several of the buildings but I’m not sure how I want them to look so I figured I’ll ask everyone’s opinions.


From left to right

Stair Case 1. This one looks really nice with only one minor defect in image. The problem is players will not be able to wall up or down it and they will have to be warped to the other side.

Stair Case 2. This is the unedited version, Players can easly walk up or down it but the square terrain leaves a nasty mark.

Stair Case 3. This is the basic cover up method with a sprite. It hides the ugly part of the terrain but uses up one sprite (there limited). Another bad part is the unit will end up walking under the sprite.

Stair Case 4. This uses 5 sprites, omg, for the railing. It doesn’t cover anything up but it makes the railing look really cool and more like stairs than a ramp.

Vote on your Favorite Two ideas. Thanks for your time.

I don't like the warp idea. It seems unprofessional plus it will use up either units or locations, depending on how fancy you get. The second one or the third one is what I will have to say, probably the second if you have the sprites. If you have A LOT of sprites left you can go with the fourth but I don't think you'll be using that one. Lot's of trees in that map

You should combine 4 with 3 that would be cool. maybe not with the one you shown, but i'm sure there is a sprite out there that would fit!

The only other doodad sprite that i thought would fit it at all was the second rock sprite, witch kinda made it look like a archway over the stairs.

Im afraid of using to many sprites though. If i use those they will be the last i add. But hey i put this thread here for your imput

CheeZe that would require six sprites for every sprite in the map, and he's already got a whole bunch of trees and bushes and stuff from other maps. If he uses too many sprites units wont be able to attack (bullets use sprites) or do any other stuff.

how about using one of the signs? those can block the change in terrain (though it might look too low )

The sign looks really lame. I looked at every doodad sprite right next to the terrain.

I say go for a combination of 1 and 4. I don't mind warping, and I think you should make it look as much like a staircase as possible. Take off the bottom sprite on number 4, because you don't really need it. Maybe you should make a railing on the other side, too. I mean, that's 8 sprites per staircase but how many are you going to have, anyway? Not more than like 12 in the whole map, right? That's only 96 sprites out of a possible 255, which isn't so bad.

Numbers 4 and 3...Only ones that look good enough to be like a stair way...Other wise go with 2 or 3 2 doesn't require any sprites but leaves ugly square crap there and 3 only uses 1 sprite....so i vote 2 or 3

96 / 255 is very bad considering i have already use alot. (the max is not 255). Can't be that low can it?

I was also thinking for a warp i would warp you to another section of the map inwitch i would have a copy of the stairs. For that situation the sprites would double. If i had to guess how many stairs there would be i would say 7 max.

If i warp from one part of the map to another then 1 would work really well for going up but going down I would need to do something else when you go down the stairs.

I always thought it was 255 because you can only place 255 doodads. I assumed that it was because of the sprite limit, as there should be no such limit on terrain. I could be wrong, though. Oh, it has be higher because units would still need to be able to attack. Blizzard made it 255 in StarEdit so you couldn't fill the map with sprited doodads and prevent marines from firing. Pretty smart. And restrictive.

4 is the bets but combinding 3 and 4 that be good.

i dont know why but i didn't like stair 4... i dont know. I like 3 the best, who cares if you are walking under the sprites, still looks cooler than other staircases

Skipping all the above posts, I say Stiarway 3.
Try using some other sprite so that it looks like you're suposed to walk under it though, though.

Yeah i think thats what SI told me when i asked him about the sprite max (or was it yoshi).

Anyways wait till i bring up the vision problem lol. I think i'll just ignore it, because it kinda adds a element of surrpize. As long as i can tell there is a stair there then im fine.



Like This One?
Thats the best i think i can do. Unless you think of a Unit sprite that will work better.

Do #3 and make your unit walk under a cool unit, just for style

I'd say #2, maybe you could place 2 sprites on the sides to cover up the ugly square-ness. Something matallic!

Do #2.
You can eliminate the square stuff easily.
Just go through the terrain palette and look for a aquare that is sort of half grey/black so that it looks normal and not square.
If done it in my map with cliffs, it dosent look perfect but the normal gamer wont notice.

I just considered the vision problems, and with that in mind I'm begining to like the Warp Idea better. In the other ones, you could still turn around when you see what's in there. However, with the warp, by the time you climb to the top and see "OH TONS OF ZERGLINGS!" you're warped in and getting mauled. Combine with #4 if you only have 7 staircases. The actual sprite limit is at least 1000, and I'm guessing you aren't going to have lot's of units fighting. The only time I ever ran out of sprites was in a map maxed with 1650 units all fighting.

Like the one mentioned in the quoted post, yes.
Wait, where are these stairways?
If they're in a reeaally fancy house, a cheesy museum, or some kinda amusement park or something, then that arch would be perfect.

I think that the max is near 1024.

Find me a tile and submitt the example then if it so easy it shouldn't take long.

EzDayou: All the buildings are intened to be abbandoned (or mostly abbaondoned). Although a house may have been extravagent it would likely have cobwebs now.

SaLaCiouS(U): The problem with the first one is that if your going down you might not even be able to tell there is a stair way there, (i havn't tested yet however) But ither way i don't expect them to be able to see that much, so i will have to do something to make it more ovious.

If the whole city is abanoned then use some plant sprites to cover up the square ness of the second stair, you could just say it was overgrown!

I want to stay away from the plant idea. It is a good idea but to justify it i would need to put plants all over the buildings or it would look out of place.

Even if you couldn't place any sprites or anything, I'd still go with #2, anyway the square-ness is really a minor problem.