As you perhaps know there are many different types of rivers in the real world. Rivers vary because there are many factors that influence them such as their age, the amount of sediment they carry, the climate, their flowing speed and the angle of the river bed. In the first part of a series of tutorials o­n advanced river design, Lord Ako shows us how to create "Braided Rivers"...

Submitted by Lord_Ako

Braided rivers form because the water they carry holds so much sediment that the river is forced to split in small streams that constantly change their path. This happens because their bedding keeps filling up with all that sediment.

A braided river contains a network of smaller channels separated by small islands called braid bars. The number and location of the channels and braid bars may change quickly in a braided system.

The following conditions promote the formation of braided channels:

• Erodible banks
• Abundant supply of sediment
• Rapid and frequent variations in stream discharge.

If you would like to read more geological information about braided rivers then this PDF Document is a great place to start. Note that you need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader to view this document.

Well enough talking, let's get started!

Creating Braided Rivers

Note: Although the examples here are taken from the original Stronghold, it is possible to create a similar effect in Stronghold Crusader although it will look very different due to the sand terrain.

Braided rivers are best placed o­n large open spaces in maps, preferably gently sloping plateau's. If you want you can also place a believable source of (melt) water and sediment like a glacier or some mountains.

Start by creating a large open space of equal or sloping height that has plenty of room for a river, like this for instance:

Now select the Lower Land tool from the Edit Height menu, I recommend using a medium brush size, the fourth o­ne for instance.

The next step is to create a "river bed" by creating a depression in your landscape, like this:

It doesn't matter if you don't get it right the first time, just use Raise Land and/or Equalize from the Edit Height menu to start over. You will probably use the Equalize tool anyway, to make it look good, especially o­n a sloping plateau.

Try to come up with an interesting shape for your river, use some twists for instance so it looks like the river is following the natural land terrain. We will now add the actual river - select the River tool from the Edit Water menu (I recommend using the smallest brush size).

Inside the river bedding make small winding rivers that cross each other regularly, like this:

Finally, select Dirt from the Edit Land menu and add dirt (and some shrubs, trees and rocks as well for instance if you like) to the river bedding. Finished! The end result should be something along these lines:

Here is a composite of minimaps displaying all four stages:

The river used in this tutorial is taken from my map "The Ice Age" which is available for download o­n this website.

See also: Map Making - Rivers (introduction)