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Someone's Guide to Terraforming: 2) Basic Techniques ("Repetitions" and "Flow")

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kette442's Avatar kette442
Level 28 : Expert Mountaineer
27
Hello again,

In this part I wanna talk about the hidden repetitions that often happen while you build and something i call "Flow" that somehow has to be kept throughout a terrain, but thats for later.

For the beginning I built this little terra with some Variation to it.

a) Repetition

Someone's Guide to Terraforming: 2) Basic Techniques ("Repetitions" and "Flow")

There are several areas where the repetitions I mentioned earlier exist.
Something I like to call "Front Repetition" (highlighted in blue in the next pic) are in essence areas where the front of several following height steps has the same width or form. Here all these blocks have 3 blocks width.

Someone's Guide to Terraforming: 2) Basic Techniques ("Repetitions" and "Flow")

This can be easily fixed with using some more variation to this front and which should not be a huge problem most times. Sometimes the Front Repetition does not affect the terra at all but once is keeps repeating for more than 2 or 3 times it will definitelly be an area to be improved.

Another hidden repetition I would like to mention here is something I call "Line repetition". It does not mean that several height lines are the same like before but depicts areas where on several height lines a block ends at the same point (look at the next picture, red wool)

Someone's Guide to Terraforming: 2) Basic Techniques ("Repetitions" and "Flow")

It is as easy to fix as the frontline repetition but if you do not notice these 2 it will have an impact on the whole terra without you noticing it. The same thing that applies to the frontline does apply here too. You can have these repetition 2 - 3 times if there is no other way.
So with these little things fixed the terrain now looks like this.



b)"Flow"

This thing I call "Flow" all the time touches how to set the frontline and some more striking features of the terrain. In essence you have to keep the "Flow" of your terrain and not break it for it to look more formidable. I extended this little terrain I built a bit and will now highlight the 2 main flows that run through it.



The right one is a bit of a better example since you need to keep looking at this flow direction as strictly as looking at repetitions. The perfect one should have some light curves and swings in it. If a flow is complettely straight then you should think about changing it. The general direction can still be the same. (Left flow now a bit less straight in the next pic)

Now if you only keep on going with 1 or 2 flows then it still does not help since then there is again some kind of repetition throughout the whole terrain. You can build up some breakpoints where a flow can begin or end. (breakpoints in black wool)



The technique I use the most to make these breakpoints are flattening out . Flattening out ends a flow by stretching out the frontline so far that it does not matter if it is there or not and then disappears. (Left 2 flows)
The breakpoint on the right that starts a new flow is in the end exactly the same, only that it does not flatten out a main flow direction but a secondary one. These secondary ones are about corners. (dark green in the next pic)



I call these ones secondary ones because they can appear and disappear more easily and their effect is not as huge as the main ones. But for creating a new flow line it is easier to build up a secondary one and then either flattening them out like I did here or amplify them until they become a frontline and thus a main flow.

Now for the end product without all these wool markers I used looks like this and can be used as a base for a bigger plains area in the end.



Exceptions:

Sometimes though there is either just not enough space to establish a flow or it just wouldnt fit. For my example I take some of the terra I built for DurinsBuilders Buildingteam on NG.



Here at the very steep part of the mountain it just wouldnt fit to establish a dominant flow. There are some little ones but they are very wide and most of the space is just following a similar shape. If you have to build like this at one of your mountains then try to pay extra attention to the repetitions. If you do not have any main flow that catches the focus then people will naturally look more on everything else and thus they will notice repetitions more easily.
(Switch to RP of the server now cause it involves a building)



Here the really steep part fits better because the building kinda start at the very top of the mountain here at a very similar height. With a flow established you would either have to make many breakpoints near the top or flatten it out very hard. Thus sometimes the decision to not use one is even recommended.


I hope this helped and that all my weird terms do not confuse you. If you want to talk about terraforming or have questions just ask and I will try to answer.

Link to the next part

Im also part of the DurinsBuilders Building Team and as expected focusing on smoothing all the terra there xD
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1 Update Logs

Update #1 : by kette442 05/28/2016 8:02:13 pmMay 28th, 2016

Added the Exceptions to show that the things i introduce are not always a musthave or even the best thing to do xD

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