(Terrain Change) Make the map more epic!

[Schremba]

Hello,
with this suggestion I am intending to change DotA's terrain to refresh the map and an overall improvement in the ambience. Most parts are only cosmetic, but some of the things I suggest affect gameplay in terms of pathability, trees or vision. Therefore this belongs in the „Others“-Subforum.

(May, 23th) Latest Change:

• Overhauled Layout
• Overhauled and tweaked the suggestion
• Added more fixes to the list of Terrain flaws
• Updated to DotA 6.72b status
• Added new testmap

Lets get started: In this suggestion I am trying to improve the game's ambience by adding a river on the Sentinel's side. It originates at both of the waterfalls near Sentinel's bottom and top lane and flows around the Sentinel's base, it basically adds some kind of moat. Afterwards, the river heads through the canyons around the Sentinel secret shop and finally merges with the river in the middle of the map on two spots.

Notes:

• The bridge models I used are ingame, so no MSI here.
• Informations about impacts on gameplay can also be found in this suggestion.

If you like what you just read, I got some screenshots for you. There you go:

• X
• Picture 1
• Picture 2
• Picture 3
• Picture 4
• Picture 5
• Picture 6
• Picture 7
• Picture 8

This suggestion also includes to fix some terrain flaws that are present in the current version of DotA

• X
• Flaw 1
• Flaw 2
• Flaw 3
• Flaw 4
• Flaw 5
• Flaw 6

Found between Scourge's westernmost creep camp and the ramp down the river to the right of it. The two cliff types collide with each other!



Solution:



Hid the cliff type collision by moving it to the ramp.

Found around the upper rune spot (turned camera angel). Cliff types collide and the terrain somehow looks strange.



Solution:



Hid the cliff type collision by moving it to the ramp and gave terrain the correct color.

Found at Sentinel's bottom lane, the ramp leading to the second tower. There are colliding cliff types and there is a hole in the map.



Solution:



Replaced the grass cliff with a dirt cliff and changed the ramp to remove the hole.

Found at middle lane ramp on sentinel side. This was bugging me since i saw it the first time!



Solution:



Obviously, I fixed the strange water edges.

Found between Scourge's Secret Shop and ancient creep camp. A hole in the map and an unclean added hill.



Solution:



Removed the hill and slightly changed the terrain to fix the hole.

Found near Scourge's outer bottom lane tower. There is a hole in the map and the ramp looks strange. Additionally, there is an invisble block that prevents walking over it.



Solution:



Slightly adjusted the terrain to fix the hole, cliff and the invisible block. More about the invisible block in the gameplay part below.

I think this is the most important part for the majority of you. How does these changes affect gameplay?

In the section below I point out all changes I noticed while creating the map that have an impact on gameplay. I compare the suggestion to the current DotA version. The upper picture shows the current terrain and pathing situation, the lower picture shows the suggested terrain and pathing situation. Orange areas are unwalkable in the suggestion, but walkable in the current version, areas highlighted in lightblue work the other way round: They are walkable, but are unpassable in the current DotA version.

• X
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9

• 1: Removed the pond because it isn't reachable under normal circumstances.
• 2: Removed some walkable area to create a waterfall. It shouldn't affect gameplay too much.
• 3: Granted access to the small area. This might not be necessarry, but I think it looked better and maybe grants a nice hook spot in rare cases.
• 4: Fixing the ramp flaw slightly reduced a walkable area. This shouldn't affect gameplay too much.

• 1&5: Added trees to improve the overall look. I doubt that they are abusable with Tangos or QB.
• 2: Slightly modified the size of the unwalkable area to keep access to the dead end path above.
• 3: Reduced walkable space for visual reasons. Shouldn't change anything gameplay wise.
• 4: Slightly expanded the dead end area.

• 1: The size of the path got decreased.
• 2: The biggest gameplay issue in the whole suggestion: The area between the bridges is unwalkable. This is because I wasn't able to find a better looking solution. While this may have big impacts on gameplay, I think it could also open some tactics or strategies.
• 3: Expanded the high ground. This slightly changes the pathability on both sides of the cliffs.
• 4: The deep water makes the area slightly more unwalkable. However, this shouldn't affect gameplay.

• 1&2: The fences slightly reduce the walkable area. #2 should be completely negligible, #1 shouldn't change it too much to make it matter.
• 3&5: The patch got slightly smaller, however, only areas that are usually not walked are affected.
• 4: Due to the river the path got smaller.
• 6&7: The fences make heroes walk a larger arc when chasing/escaping.

• 1: Added an unwalkable area because of the river.
• 2&4: The path is smaller now because of the size of the bridge.
• 3: Slightly replaced the tree for visual reasons Shouldn't matter, though.
• 5: An unwakable area caused by the river expansion. It shouldn't affect gameplay too much.

• 1: Those three trees got removed of the river. I doubt they play a big role in most of the games.
• 2: This bunch of trees also had to go. Since there are so many I doubt this way could be used as an escape route with Tangos/QB. So I think it doesn't matter if the reason you can't pass is caused by cliffs rather than trees.
• 3: This spot got flooded and is therefore unwalkable. It is unreachable by normal causes and therefore I don't think it will cause much impacts on gameplay gameplay.
• 4: I added this tree to preven enemies on the Secret Shop side from seeing a hero farming Ancient Creeps.
• 5: I kept those trees, on the one hand, for visual reasons, on the other hand I kept five of them to prevent hard impacts on gameplay. This way Furion can still summon a full amount of Treants when farming Ancient Creeps.

• 1&2: The bridge causes a slightly bigger path.
• 3&4: The river slightly reduces the size of the path. #4 shouldn't matter much, however, #3 can affect escaping in some cases because it requires a wider arc to walk around.

• 1: To fix the hole in the cliff it was required to change the ramp. This causes a delay in revealing the fog of war when running up the ramp.
• 2: I removed the invisible block that prevented moving down the ramp directly. I dount that block is intended, however if it is, than this can easily fixed by adding some doodads (e.g. a rock to the lightblue highlighted area).

• 1: To remove the hole in the map I slightly changed the cliff. This causes the removal of three trees. However, these trees are unreachable under normal circumstances, therefore it won't affect Tangos or prevent escapes with QB. There are also still enough trees around to ensure five Treants when casting Force of Nature.
• 2: Removing the trees freed some space to walk. But since this this area is completly surroundded by a lot of other trees it is unlikely that there are impacts on gameplay in any way.

These terrain changes won't cause problems for DTM users. Images can be found below, however, since I have a new PC and I don't have DTM any longer, these pictures are slightly outdated:

• X
• Beach Theme
• Barrens Theme
• Hell Theme
• Highlands Theme
• Snow Theme
• City Theme

I think such a big change wouldn't hurt DotA too much, especially because the terrain itsself was untouched for a very long time (not counting small ramp or cliff changes). It could really bring some fresh air into the game. The gameplay changes this suggestion brings along would be unfamiliar at first, but I bet they could be accepted, like every change.
Implenting this wouldn't be too hard, since the terrain can just be copi'n'pasted. Since I only used present doodads, this also applies to them. They can just be copied and added to the current map.
Please note that the waterfalls, just like the current ones, won't get colored when typing -water x x x unlike IceFrog fixes this little bug.


Thanks to:

• 0verp0wer_br, for having the basic idea for all this back in the DotA-Allstars forum.
• baet0, for granting free DotA Terrain. I edited my map from his.
• Infrisios, for granting me access to the waterfall model used in DotA.

Final notes:

Additionally to the old test map, I added a new one. I updated it to the DotA 6.72b version. Since it is only an edited map, there might be some irregularities, however, these are not intended. You can use the dummy unit to test out pathings and vision. Unlike the old test map, this one isn't completly self made, but adding the river and creating this suggestion was still a lot of work. Therefore I would appreciate explanations if you dislike some things.
Thanks for taking your time and reading this.

[doomsheep]

nice. really nice.

[Gazar-]

Great job; I just do not like that stone bridge, it looks ugly.

[Schremba]

nice. really nice.

Yey, doomsheep likes one of my suggestions. =)

Great job; I just do not like that stone bridge, it looks ugly.

Believe me, I tried all possible bridge models, they all looked worse... This is the best looking option. If you can try to make a better one, I add it here with opened arms and your permission.

[KenpachiSlardar]

awesome

more eye candy ftw

[Baldoro]

I'd like to see some new terrains of DotA .
T-up on Your changes.

[HELLRAISER]

Total support! Added you at my support list!

[Gazar-]

LogBridgeSmall0 - Warcraft 3 Models

Here is an alternate model for the stone bridge, since you asked me.

[Nerevarie]

i just hate the bridges but otherwise ok!

[Schremba]

Here is an alternate model for the stone bridge, since you asked me.

I only checked ingame models. Also there is a problem, too, with this bridge. To fit perfectly, I need to stretch it, making it look really strange.

[gnaLor]

why dont you use the same nice wooden bridges instead of the stonebridge?
anyway big t-up.
Btw I think DotA could need a terrain rework (grafical). There are many better looking maps imo made by some rly good terrainers out there which would surely put all their skills into making a new godlike terrain for the by far most played wc3 map.

[qlq]

Since it actually is a terrain improvement, T-up from me.

[Schremba]

why dont you use the same nice wooden bridges instead of the stonebridge?
anyway big t-up.
Btw I think DotA could need a terrain rework (grafical). There are many better looking maps imo made by some rly good terrainers out there which would surely put all their skills into making a new godlike terrain for the by far most played wc3 map.

That was the first thing I tried, but it looked really ugly, because the logs are so damn long and thin... If i turn it around 90 degrees there is another problem... The Bridge is getting 2D...

[NoThlnG]

T-Up for fix. T-Down for stone bridge. Wooden bridge is quite ok but no stone bridge.

[kitchen]

Wow that's really nice. GJ, musta taken a while.

[genehmster]

some of your "fixes" look ugly (namely for flaw 1 and 2), the rest looks great ! ....except the stone bride. If no better solution is found, you could as well just make it a normal terrain. Then we´d have 2 rivers, but who cares.

[gnaLor]

you could use the earthbridge or how its called which nearly looks like normal terrain.

[Schremba]

Total support! Added you at my support list!

Ty

some of your "fixes" look ugly (namely for flaw 1 and 2), the rest looks great !

Why does it look ugly?

Right now I'm searching a solution for the hated Stonebridge...
Ty for your support.

[Jotain]

If you find better bridge than that stone then T-up from me, <3 it

[Schremba]

Images are broken. I use Bridge 3.