HOMM5: Seas, Skies & Winds

[Mozared]

Hello again, I'm back

Aaand, I've got 2 questions for you. Well, 1 question and 1 discussable subject rather . So, let me come to the point.

1) In the map I've been working on I've been screwing around in the "map properties tree" lately. My eye fell on 4 specific functions; Reflectivewater, Birds, Weather, and Wind. The 'Birds' funtion works. The other 3 however...

-Reflectivewater is simply a on/off function; but the water seems to reflect only in the editor, not in the game itself.

-Weather and Wind
The 'Weather' function lets me place some clouds. Once again, these work only in the editor. The wind function doesn't seem to work at all.

--> My question here; Is this normal? Can I get Reflectivewater, clouds and wind activated in-game, or is it editor-only? And how?


And my subject,
2) The map I've been working on has water. Lots of water, aka a sea . At the moment it looks like one huge.... sea with power-ups. Now I realize sea quite usually looks like... eh, sea ^^, but it's rather boring this way. Usually I personally make "areas" bordered by things like mountains for the player to play in, but in my sea this isn't really possible, one huge row of mountains would look a bit ill. Thus, movement freedom must be kept big, though not too big.

So after this nonsense story, tell me; how do -you- spice up your sea/water, keeping it balanced but making it look better then one block of water? How to dress up a sea?

Thanks in advance, hoping you help me and possibly others out,

Mozared

[alavris]

My question here; Is this normal? Can I get Reflectivewater, clouds and wind activated in-game, or is it editor-only?

I don't know if it's normal, but I have the same problem with this in my map, so you are not alone

how do -you- spice up your sea/water, keeping it balanced but making it look better then one block of water? How to dress up a sea?

Maybe good idea is to make small isles with only trees and mountains? Maybe also some volcanic islands?
.

[Najibarr]

I made a post on elrath forum http://elrath.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=503 to show how to put monsters on water. You can use the same technique (or just raise a small island where you want to put the monster, put the monster and then lower to water the island and the monster will be left on water. But this I haven't tested.)

This way you can do a flooded forest or dead trees or anything you like

Also, i normally don't use the river tiles for sea so i can use other tiles to decorate the sea floor.

[Mozared]

Maybe good idea is to make small isles with only trees and mountains? Maybe also some volcanic islands?

Thanks for the tips, things so obvious and yet you don't think of them . Time to get to work on my map again then, this should make the sea a bit less boring .

I made a post on elrath forum http://elrath.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=503 to show how to put monsters on water. You can use the same technique (or just raise a small island where you want to put the monster, put the monster and then lower to water the island and the monster will be left on water. But this I haven't tested.)

This way you can do a flooded forest or dead trees or anything you like

That... may be interesting, although I'm not sure if it'd work for my sea.

Also, i normally don't use the river tiles for sea so i can use other tiles to decorate the sea floor.

Well, I used to have dirt tiles, but it simply looked rather weird, so I'll probaly stick to full sea. Might be an idea to make shallow/deep water though.

Some other question to you Najibarr; you've figured out how to put objects on water. D'you happen to know how to place them -under-water too perhaps? . I've tried to place one of those inferno fissures underwater; it seems to look quite nice, like there's some kind of valley with moving sand underwater. The only problem is, you can't place it, it just won't appear.

Mozared

[Najibarr]

To place objects underwater you have to raise an "island" in the middle of the water like this :


then put the object on the island at the exact location you'd like to have it !
like this :


then lower the "island" and you should have this :


In game, the result is this if you have reflective water on :


This is if reflective water is off (and I edited the crater to remove the blocked tiles so you can move over it) :

[Marzhin]

Interesting tips ! Thanks, Najibarr.

[Mozared]

I didn't get step 1, could you repeat it? =P.

Na seriously, I suppose I could've figure that after the raising part, but this is like getting your food served hot with a full glass of ice-cold water right next to you; thanks .

Any more tips are still welcome, anything to spice it up

Mozared


EDIT: Something I didn't quite get; how do you remove the "blocking tiles"? I've checked the object tree, but it doesn't seem to say anything about it...

[Najibarr]

Use the method I described in my post but instead of changing the water based option, right click on blocked tiles and click on "delete all"

[Mozared]

I've tried it, but it doesn't seem to work; I can't add anything under the "shared" tab, there's just copy and paste... Might not work for objects?

Mozared

[Najibarr]

You have to create a new shared value not a tab under shared

[DeejMaster]

Regarding the appearance of your Seas, Lakes and Oceans...The way I make mine look like they have depth is really quite simple:

After you have made your body of water (not with your river tool!), you paint the edges and bottom with the Sand/Rock texture, nice and solid.

Now, switch to your Lava/Dead Land texture and paint the areas that you want to be interpreted as Deep. On my editor, I change my brush to Hard, strength 4 and fade the Dead Land texture by clicking here and there, sometimes 2-3 times in the same spot so that some ROCK still shows through. If you get too much Dead Land in a spot, no worries...You just change to Sand/Rock and lightly click in some rock.

After a while, you will be able to produce what look like Shoals, sand bars, shallows and depths. It will really look 3-D if done right.