Terraining - Rivers and Lakes

Tutorial By XXXconanXXX

Ryoko wanted a basic rivers tutorial using a different method. Here it is, I'll revise it later tonight since I am EXTREMELY bored today.

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Making Rivers and Lakes

Introduction:

Rivers and lakes are made with a method that might seem over-complicated at first, but it makes editing and redoing lakes and rivers much simpler and much faster. This method involves 'sinking' the entire map, then raising the level, and setting your pools of water. Since we're doing such a drastic change to the map, this method is best done at the beginning. I will be using a 32x32 map for this example.

Recognizing your tools:

First and foremost, we need to know which tools we will be using. In the picture below, I have circled the tools we will be using.

(Image)
From left-to-right top-to-bottom, the buttons are: Water, Raise, Lower, and Plateau.

Getting Started:

We start out by going under Advanced and UNCHECKING "Enforce Water Height Limits".

Now, grab your Water button (See above picture) and grab a relatively large brush circle or squre (Whichever you prefer) and start drawing water until the whole map is underwater.

(Image)

Leveling your map:

We now need to put the map to the way it was, with solid land.

Grab your "Increase One" tool and begin to level the terrain out. This is where we start crafting our rivers and lakes.

Creating the pools of water:

Now, grab the "Lower" tool with a relatively large brush, and begin lowering the land enough until you see the water. The lower you lower the land, the deeper and thicker the water becomes.

(Image)

Redoing your water:

You can redo the water by grabbing the Plataeu tool (So there won't be any bumps from the Lower tool) and pick a solid, flat peice of land on your map. Hold the mouse button down, and begin moving it around the map. The water will dissapear and the map will be level again.

Tips of the Trade

~We can change the tinting of the water by doing to Scenario>Map Options and looking for the "Use Tinting Water Color". Hit "Set Color" and pick a color. When you hit ok in the Scenario window, you can see the water change colors. Set this to a color you desire.

~We can also make the water very shallow. Grab a small brushed lowering tool and lower the land in a circle. Keep doing this until the water appears, but it should be very shallow. If you want it flat, grab the Pltaeu tool and pick a spot in the water that's the level you want. Plateau that area and it will be flat.

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