After testing out the editor and messing around on one tiny map, this is my first try at a real freebuild map. It's supposed to resemble the Scottish Highlands.

The map is at a very early stage, some landscaping was roughly done as the following images display. Some details can not be seen on the pictures, tiny pieces of the texture at the hills (mostly the stones and hard grass) are invisible and the most vegetation also is hard to spot.









I'd appreciate any tipps or suggestions for the map and it's free space. So far the only resource placed is stone, the trees that are already there are for the sole purpose of detail and scenery and can not be chopped down.

Damn it! I was gonna do a Scottish themed one

Looks alright so far. Maybe try to blend the mountain textures using some sand/rough grass in flatter parts of the hills. Adds more realism imo. Looks a little cut & dry just now.

Add lots of little features. Maybe some old ruins & lots of heather. The highlands are covered with it...lol...

I understand it's still early stages though. Just a couple of small tips

EDIT: Just thought of this one. Be aware that you have to place your housing around your keep to maximise the size of the houses(as they get bigger the closer they are to your keep). You'll want to make sure you can get about 6-8 large houses round it or your town will be a mass of 2men houses which may get annoying.

Hope this helps.

feel free to steal some idea's out of my map

but looks great!

what is the map size ?
i made mine on XL, but so far never been able to really play it because of the insane lagg on XL maps. :/

A river running through one corner or through the mountains might be nice!

Thanks for the replies

This is a normal sized map, i updated the map quite a bit and worked on the small river and a bit on the mountains.



There you go, some nice little ruins, there will be more, ofcourse. And here is a picture of the current textures for the mountains:



I used a bit stone texture so far around the mountains and on the mountains. I maybe add a bigger river near the back of the second mountain, if it fits.

Currently it's only possible to place two big houses near the keep, i'll see what i can do to get more than that.

I am going to upload a very early Alpha of the map as soon as I find out how to convince the peasants to spawn. I created a small village and now they simply wont spawn on the map.

[Edit] The problem is solved, one just needs to place the granary or the stockpile in-game for the peasants to spawn (It is the granary who is supposed be spawned in-game.) I've also added a small forest and a village near the keep, the village with it's buildings prevents the 19 peasants from starving for at least 12 days. There still is some unused and free space on the map.



Here we've got the keep with the granary and the village with the stockpile.



As soon as I know how to "lock" the map so no one can edit it, I am going to upload it, please tell me how to do it!

Have a look in your pm!

Nevermind the locking, you can download my alpha version of the map here:

http://www.file-upload.net/download-4436943/SH_AR1.shmap.html

I'd place the granary right next to the wooden tower near the keep, it looks nice up there.

Have fun with my map and tell me about all the things I need to improve.

Map is online for download again.