Prototyping
I like to start my mapping process by painting on the features I would like to have in my map, I then start to sculpt the height map to match what I have painted.
Exporting to World Machine
Then I export the heightmap to world machine and run it through an erosion
I was happy with level of detail
I moved on to trying to generate texture masks with world machine too
I also used the normals generation from jip's post about it
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/785/about-decals-generating-a-map-wide-normal-texture
This is the result of the above generation some parts I am happy with other bits need more work
The Hard Decision
It was at this point that I decided to start over as I felt I could do better, I have still learnt from this prototype and I can expand my world machine generator from this start.
Starting Over
I'll skip the prototyping part, this is the height map I was happy to proceed with
my final model in world machine
Outputs from World Machine
These are the outputs from world machine
Decals and erosion
Textures
these textures are 90% where I want them I will finalise them by hand
Final Textures and decals
Aeon Base
For the aeon base I looked through the campaign maps and took screen shots of layouts I liked
this layout is what i chose to work from
my aeon base centred around an ancient seraphim structure
Markers and AI
resource and spawn points (mex placement credit to ftxcommando)
AI markers
nav ui
Conclusion
During this process I have learnt a lot about how to use world machine and the workflows surrounding it, I will defiantly be using some of the techniques I have learnt going forward, I would say the moral of this story is don't be afraid to start over with your work and learn from what you didn't like.
I'll leave you with some final screen shots from the map
Good luck and have fun out there commanders max out.
