Mixing Terrains

From AgeofWiki

A normal flat piece of terrain hardly ever looks good. A map with just one terrain, or 2-3 sections with different terrains hardly looks good. What looks good is a map which mixes terrain to create a realistic and eye-appealing effect. Here are some examples of mixing terrains but its best learned by trying stuff out in the editor.

Grass Terrains

Here we will have a look at creating a nice looking grass terrain. To start we will first lay down a simple Grass A terrain. Now that definitely doesn't look that good so we will mix some terrains in there for a better effect. While mixing terrains I usually use brush sizes 1 or 2 for the terrains I am mixing. This way there is more variation and a better mixing achieved. Below are some examples of mixed terrains and with them listing the terrains I used. Remember, the best way to learn this is to try and experiment yourself inside the editor.

Above I first laid down Grass A terrain on which I added Grass B, GrassDirt25, GrassDirst50 and Forest-Oak terrain. This way try adding different terrains in the editor for similar effects or even better ones.

Snow Terrain

I showed you one example of a mixed grass terrain now let us look at one snowy one.

Above I used the SnowA terrain as the default on which I added SnowB, SnowGrass25, SnowGrass50, SnowDirt25, SnowDirt50 and from the Forest terrains I added the pine terrain (this is the grayish spots).

Sand Terrain

Let us look at the last important terrain which will probably feature in your map apart from Grass and Snow, the Dirt Terrain.

Above with SandA as the main terrain, I put in strokes of SandB, SandC and SandD. For the Sand terrain it is difficult to sometimes notice the mixing and changes but they do look good when done. After putting down and mixing all the Sand terrains, I added some EgyptianCliff terrain, ForestFloorSavanah terrain and SandDirt terrain.

That was a short look into terrain mixing and you can get really good at it by trying out different stuff in the editor, so go there now. All the above terrains would look even better with some trees in them. So next we will have a look at laying down trees and forests in a beautiful way.