Editor: Planting Plants
by Sleepy Settler

Planting An important rule in gardening when planting, is to plant in uneven numbers, so for a natural look plant 3, 5, or 7 of the same variety of plant/tree close together for a more natural look. Interspersed with a little nettle/bright grass and you have a very nice arrangement.

Under plant trees with a little grass/ mushroom and bark but as Auratus says don't overdo the bark. A little bit of bright grass/mint will do a lot for softening the harshness of it.

Sometimes less is more so instead of putting a ton of Fly Agaric under a tree (because lets face it, we love the stuff and want to use it all the time), one or two well positioned 'fly's' look far more effective.

This has been mentioned before in other threads but I'll mention it here again...rivers do not run uphill and look a lot better when they are slightly lower than the rest of the terrain. This said, we are 'talking settlers' here and we should not take it all too seriously. Take for instance Auratus's 'All Wrong and Ugly' - a classic map where our normal design ideas have been turned inside out and upside down! Sunken mountains, uphill rivers, straight beaches all apply to this map but it works because it is all in context and this was Auratus's intention when he designed it.
So break the rules by all means but try and be consistant....

Experiment a lot with combinations of plants/flowers and trees to see what works and what doesnt but remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder so what you may think looks good, someone else may not and vice versa.

So many design features are at our disposal within the S4 editor. We don't have to be satisfied with a plain green field to do battle on and the majority of SP players like a bit of eye candy! Battling in an environment that is beautiful is far more memorable than a flat green field with no decorations so make the most of what you can use and make your map one that will remain in ppl's memories and in return they will come back for more.