Snowy's Maps

[Random Ramblings] Trying a New Style! Sci-Fi Edition

Added 2025-07-15 07:00:04 +0000 UTC

Hey all - welcome back to another post - today I am going to randomly ramble about trying new styles, more specifically looking at how I am approaching sci-fi esque maps! As part of this, I have been trying to make a couple of new "alien world" nature themed maps, and decided to record it in this case! So let's get into the random rambles.

Starting with what I know - forests

Since I don't really know how to make sci-fi maps, I weirdly started out with a theme I do know very well - forests! For those that don't know...I love making forest maps for absolutely no reason and it's got to the point I do this sub-consciously! So that's how I started this map - used my usual two textures to smoothly blend in grass and moss, made a simple path, and laid out my river. :D

Adding elevation

In line with SF2e coming out, I have been told that adding elevation into my maps is very important, as well as making line of sight interesting. How did I do this? Just add in a lot of lil hills :D

For all purposes, I have left the main path open but allowed players to hide behind these hills and block enemy line of sight. With time, I will probably add more elevation to maps like this, but kept it relatively simple for now!

Smoothing out the river

Next, I wanted to tackle the river. It feels a bit messy with the brush tool, so these days I tend to smooth out my water. I do this but just using the polygon shape tool, and when I add in the cliffs, it looks and feels a lot neater than the jagged edges that the brush tool produces.

Choice of plants - weird colours

The final step was to use a range of "weirder" looking plants and a variety of colours that matched the terrain's colour scheme. In this case my favourite assets to use are from Skront's Ferns and Shrooms pack, which have many weird and wonderful mushroom shapes (can I have more Skront? :D).