Making Mountains (Realistic or Simple)

[Bigtiger]

I made this map for a demonstration purpose, and was wondering if a mountainous map should or shouldn't look more or less realistic in 0 A.D. This design has building limitations as its very mountainous, but in a mountainous region I imagine this would be true. 

Before continuing to expand the map which is in a medium size. I would like to know if pursuing a map design like this has any use before going to a large/giant size map.

Spoiler

 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

While it looks super cool I wonder about gameplay on maps with realistic size mountains. 

[LordGood]

It'd probably play like a Stronghold game, especially neat since you have to pick what buildings you can build in that limited space.

[Sundiata]

I really like these kind of natural looking maps. My concern is that the bottlenecks are a little too bottlenecky.. It seems impossible to manoeuvre siege equipment around, and the single access point to each CC-area makes an assault nearly impossible against a decent player. Perhaps increase the CC area size, add secondary access points and broaden the access routes enough for siege-equipment?

[elexis]

We don't have any of these huge mountain maps (besides that one skirmish 3v3 map scythetwirler made in a19 committed in a21), because prior to sanderd17's patch the maximum height was 8 times lower.

About mapsizes, it's a big performance issue if we go beyond normal or large. Medium maps are good for 2-3 players if all of the terrain is accessible, but Normal mapsizes are usually golden middle.

I would like to see some more realistic mountains, but as wowgetoffyourcellphone correctly mentioned, it is important to keep it playable.

About this specific screenshot, I would make more area passable. Also notice place actor trees (trees that cant be gathered from) if they are inaccessible (otherwise units will try to reach it).

Also goats, right?

[Bigtiger]

Thank you, for all these great tips.

11 minutes ago, elexis said:

About this specific screenshot, I would make more area passable. Also notice place actor trees (trees that cant be gathered from) if they are inaccessible (otherwise units will try to reach it).

Wasn't aware of the actor trees, gives me a great idea for a map! 

 

20 minutes ago, Sundiata said:

My concern is that the bottlenecks are a little too bottlenecky.. It seems impossible to manoeuvre siege equipment around, and the single access point to each CC-area makes an assault nearly impossible against a decent player.

This was a concern, and the test I did confirmed the bottleneck issue, but with all CC-area the siege ram was able to access.

 

35 minutes ago, LordGood said:

It'd probably play like a Stronghold game, especially neat since you have to pick what buildings you can build in that limited space.

I should aim for the stronghold gameplay, but like the others said with less bottleneck problems and more access points.

[Bigtiger]

25 minutes ago, elexis said:

Also goats, right?

Haha no goats. 

[Nescio]

Is it possible to make the mountain slopes less steep, covered with vegetation, and walkable, but not buildable? That would make the map more realistic and playable.

Also, I don't like those two solid land bridges. Perhaps you could replace them with half a dozen shallow spots in the water were the river can be crossed? A few rocks or stepping stones would look better, I think.

To make it even more realistic, water should stream downwards; the river should have cataracts etc and one end should be visibly higher than the other. I guess that's currently not yet possible though.

[Lion.Kanzen]

@Skhorn any other advice?

[wackyserious]

Plateaus with multiple levels of stiff cliffs are also nice (Much like SC1 and WC3 gameplay)

[Bigtiger]

Wackyserious I was just making something similar. The stiff cliffs are nice look, and I like how you place the forest with those textures. I'm working at getting better at placements.

Spoiler

 

[wackyserious]

Grass field terrains under grass terrain category in Atlas are also good (This is the terrain set used in the Alpine Mountains skirmish map)

Terrains under Biome Mediterranean category are also nice.

[Skhorn]

Gorgeous. And as @Sundiata and others mentioned, the trouble might be bottlenecks. 

My only advice is: 
More immersion, means more details which means more objects = LAG = not suitable to play it.

Less immersion but still gorgeous: Play with the placement of objects and textures as @wackyserious did, google locations or travel to a farm or mountains and see how they look like and try to print that perception in your map. (Sounds stupid, but it's mostly how i try to make maps).

For more references check this:

And this megathread which contains a lot of screenshots 

Both links might be useful if you want more ideas of what you can accomplish

Keep going!