Johannes wrote:Beherith wrote:5 minutes? Talk is cheap.
http://www.springfiles.com/images/735/P ... height.jpg
That's basically 6 different hill shapes recurring plus the big hill, their placement doesn't seem to be too exactly thought out. Maybe I exaggarated, and couldn't make something similar that fast but either way I prefer spending an hour or 2 to properly think and detail the layout through :D
Here are a few reasons why making Painted desert with a new awesome texture is better than making something new from scratch that is similar.
1)Painted desert has some historical value,We enjoy things with a history behind them,with some depth.
That's why you see fenchises go on an on because people get attached to these things somewhat and feel more connected to them than to some new lore/story/idea.
2)painted desert has a nice simple proven concept.
Overcomplicated heightmaps tend to fail,especially with Spring's pathing.
Overcomplicated unfocused heightmaps also get lost when you look at them.
You have to have just a few thing or even just one feature that stand out and are easy to remember and focus on otherwise it takes much longer to get used to a map visually.
Excellent example is avikko,check it out if you don't remember it.
3)it's much less time consuming to tweak a heightmap a bit than to create a new concept and redraw everything from scratch.
The bottom line is gameplay and visual quality.
Painted desert provides the first but fails miserably at the second.
I am not sure what program Beherith is using but if he got the template over with I dont think it would take a lot of time to just lay it on an existing heightmap.
Of course time is time is time but i think many people inclduing me would be interested in playing Painted desert so maybe its worth his time which is why i offered the idea.