I'm probably the worst Mountain Builder ever but I want a big Mountain with a Cave on one Side of a Bear Enclosure. Any Tips how I can build better Mountains?
Any Tips how to build better Mountains?
- Thread starter Firestar97
- Start date
I just ran across your post here while looking for a particular thread. I am afraid I can't offer much help personally, because my landscaping always ends up looking like melted candle wax instead of proper mountains.
I don't have as much patience for long videos as I probably should, but I bookmarked this one to see if it's helpful.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zf1gMx_y5w
I don't have as much patience for long videos as I probably should, but I bookmarked this one to see if it's helpful.
Following this thread because all of my terrain is either too subtle to really look like anything or....just a smidge more, suddenly non traversable by almost any species. I really really REALLY am impressed with how natural some people make their terrain look, particularly hills and mountains.
Thanks, I'll watch it later. I've planned a big Renovation in my Zoo once I've reached a Budget of 10 Million Dollars which won't need much Time anymore. Maybe I'll try to create a better Mountain then too. It will also be great when I start keeping Dall Sheep in the same Zoo
I'd definitely like to be able to create some more interesting landscaping. Some of the pre-made zoos have interesting templates, though they sometimes make it almost too hard to build anything decent for animals, staff and guest viewing.
It would be cool, though, if you could load those zoo landscapes into franchise and challenge as well as sandbox.
There is one wildly landscaped starting zoo available on franchise--the south American tropical set up, but I haven't been able to figure out what to do with it.
One thing I'd love to figure out is how the folks in the "how to" videos make those nice evenly tilted, straight ramps. They're always talking about something else when they do it, taking for granted everyone watching knows how to do it. I know how to flatten to foundation, and to use the different terrain stamps and so on, but I've never mastered flatten to surface. It never works right for me.
It would be cool, though, if you could load those zoo landscapes into franchise and challenge as well as sandbox.
There is one wildly landscaped starting zoo available on franchise--the south American tropical set up, but I haven't been able to figure out what to do with it.
One thing I'd love to figure out is how the folks in the "how to" videos make those nice evenly tilted, straight ramps. They're always talking about something else when they do it, taking for granted everyone watching knows how to do it. I know how to flatten to foundation, and to use the different terrain stamps and so on, but I've never mastered flatten to surface. It never works right for me.
If you're wanting to create Terrain Ramps, try the Terrain Stamps. They can be rotated. I think you can also do it with a Path that you delete after. Just don't know currently how exactly it works with the Path. I'll try a few Things later and let you know about it
Ok, did the Tests now. I don't think flatten to Surface is a good Solution for it.
The best Way seems to be to use the Square shaped Terrain Stamp and rotate it. You can also use Angle Snap for it (a 15° Angle works good).
The Path Method seems to only work if you dig down into the Ground. Thought there was a Way to let the Terrain adjust to the Path while going up but probably I've just remembered it wrong
Try the jeep
There's a vidder called Mark Sheets who isn't so active anymore but he does great landscaping (plants and terrain). His 'garden rescue' series are short, have some tips and give good visuals. He has some crazy advanced ideas on terrain sculpting (using the monorail track to guide path and terrain slopes) that are too difficult for me (so far!) but folks might like to give him a try. I picked up his method of using rocks and it's improved the look of things quite a bit.
One thing he mentioned that seems to help quite a bit is: don't use the push tool to sculpt landscape. It gives you that melted look. Use the chisel tool, which results in a slightly sharper edge.
And yes, the square terrain stamp, angled to 15degrees works well to develop shallow slopes. In addition, (I didn't know this until recently), you can open the terrain tool, then hit ex to get the advanced move gizmo then use the tool - so that all your cuts/additions remain on the same axis.
And, finally, plants hide a multitude of sins.
One thing he mentioned that seems to help quite a bit is: don't use the push tool to sculpt landscape. It gives you that melted look. Use the chisel tool, which results in a slightly sharper edge.
And yes, the square terrain stamp, angled to 15degrees works well to develop shallow slopes. In addition, (I didn't know this until recently), you can open the terrain tool, then hit ex to get the advanced move gizmo then use the tool - so that all your cuts/additions remain on the same axis.
And, finally, plants hide a multitude of sins.
Thanks, will take a Look at it laterThere's a vidder called Mark Sheets who isn't so active anymore but he does great landscaping (plants and terrain). His 'garden rescue' series are short, have some tips and give good visuals. He has some crazy advanced ideas on terrain sculpting (using the monorail track to guide path and terrain slopes) that are too difficult for me (so far!) but folks might like to give him a try. I picked up his method of using rocks and it's improved the look of things quite a bit.
One thing he mentioned that seems to help quite a bit is: don't use the push tool to sculpt landscape. It gives you that melted look. Use the chisel tool, which results in a slightly sharper edge.
And yes, the square terrain stamp, angled to 15degrees works well to develop shallow slopes. In addition, (I didn't know this until recently), you can open the terrain tool, then hit ex to get the advanced move gizmo then use the tool - so that all your cuts/additions remain on the same axis.
And, finally, plants hide a multitude of sins.
Another thing that works well for terrain ramps is to build a transport ride track with "tunneling on". When tunneling is on for a track above ground, it actually raises terrain. You can use this to build very nice, gradual slopes with curves even.
The downside is it can take a bit of effort to get a track to where you are planning to build the path if the area around it is already very crowded, seeing as you need to put a station down somewhere to start the track. You end up deleting the station and track when you're done though, so it's just a temporary inconvenience.
The downside is it can take a bit of effort to get a track to where you are planning to build the path if the area around it is already very crowded, seeing as you need to put a station down somewhere to start the track. You end up deleting the station and track when you're done though, so it's just a temporary inconvenience.
Oh, that's a nice option to try as well.
Don't like the rides in general but for building/terrain scaping, something to try in certain situations.
That's what it looked like he was doing, but I can't find any setting to tilt them--only the green circle for horizontal rotation. I can't even figure out how to rotate the terrain stamp horizontally when it's not quite aligned with the grid, so the hole I dig for a fountain is at the wrong angle to the plaza or path >.<
There are a lot of cool tricks I see people doing with the terrain stamp tool in videos. One guy was playing around with creating a water bridge going over a path by creating floating terrain cubes, digging into them to create a place for water, putting the water in, then deleting the dirt and leaving the water floating in the air! Then you can build a habitat going up to the water and use the glass walls and roof pieces to make it look like it's being held in by glass above the path.
Last edited:
Hi -
Okay, to get the ability to rotate the terrain tool on all axis:
Open the terrain tool.
If you press 'z', you get the horizontal rotate only
Instead of pressing 'z', press 'x' and you should see the 3 axis gizmo
Just any other piece, you should now be able to rotate on all axis, set the degree of rotation and so on.
I've heard the functionality of the keys x and z are switched depending on the language/region you play the game in.
Not sure of the veracity of this claim, but it's been a reply to my own posts on other forums where I show this a few different times, so I imagine it's probably true.
Not sure of the veracity of this claim, but it's been a reply to my own posts on other forums where I show this a few different times, so I imagine it's probably true.
Z can be Y instead
I got it to work for making a ramp. Thanks!
Actually, I am having more trouble with the horizontal rotation. When I rotate it horizontally to align the grid perfectly along a path or grid, it distorts the shape of the square or circle I am trying to cut, rather than aligning the edge of the grill properly. It makes it really hard to cut moats along path borders and so on if the tool isn't default lined up with the grid the path is on.
No matter what I do, I can't get a nice, crisp trench dug parallel to certain paths. The trench keeps slowly veering off, and it's driving me mad.
Actually, I am having more trouble with the horizontal rotation. When I rotate it horizontally to align the grid perfectly along a path or grid, it distorts the shape of the square or circle I am trying to cut, rather than aligning the edge of the grill properly. It makes it really hard to cut moats along path borders and so on if the tool isn't default lined up with the grid the path is on.
No matter what I do, I can't get a nice, crisp trench dug parallel to certain paths. The trench keeps slowly veering off, and it's driving me mad.
Absolutely understand what you mean. I really hope they can fix it someday. Especially annoying if you think ,,ok this isn't that bad, I'll just cover the Edge with Rocks later" and then for some Reason the Edge of the next Part of the Moat is way further inwards
Ahh, yes, that's what it was. Thank you for correcting my inaccurate recollection.
Glad you got it to work.
That wierd offset between terrain and paths that makes things look jagged that you're talking about is annoying as all getout. Personally, I just cover it up with rockwork and/or foliage. It's amazing what unsightly things good rockwork and foliage can cover up.