Have you ever wanted to raise the ocean to max height? Have you ever wanted to your troops to keep off the grass? Have you ever wanted to freeze foam? Have you ever wanted water o­n the top edge of a cliff without waterfalls (like the edge of the map)? In this stunning article we'll show you how to turn the map editor in to a printing press using o­nly 1,000 stones...

Submitted by Koen Francois, Aubergine. Based o­n original ideas by Lord Yoshi and Silvani.

Warning: This trick creates irreversable terrain features o­n your map. Always make backup copies of your maps (save under different name) before attempting to use this trick and make regular backups while editing maps that do use the trick.

The basic principle is very simple - we're going to throw over 1,000 stones at the map editor to break it and get it all confused...

So, start by placing 1,000 stones somewhere o­n your map. For reference, our brush sizes guide has this picture:

When you have placed 1,000 small stones o­n your map, very strange things start to happen...

You will eventually notice that stones start to disappear after you place them - instead they have just "printed" whatever they were placed o­n directly o­n to the map! What's more, you will be able to place stones just about anywhere o­n your map.

If you want to bypass the long process of placing 1,000 stones o­n your map, KoenFrancois has kindly provided us with two template maps:

• Stronghold - 1,000 Stones Printing Press
• Stronghold Crusader - 1,000 Stones Printing Press

Get any terrain at any land height!

Let's take this innocent looking seaside...

Before taking the picture we placed (large - but could be any size) stones over parts of the sand and sea. But where are they? Well, they are still there but we can't see them - they have taken o­n the appearance of the land they were placed o­n.

Now let's see what happens when we raise the terrain to max height:

In the places where our stones were placed, the beach and sea terrain have been retained, even o­n max height land! Normal sea, which did not have any stones placed o­n it, has remained at Hades (lower than min height). Normal sand, o­n which no stones were placed, has been replaced with normal max height terrain.

Note: The green grass around some of the cliff edges is caused by sand o­n the lower level (click here for more information).

With this trick we can get any type of terrain at any height.

Let's try the opposite - we've placed stones o­n max height terrain and then lowered some of it to min height:

As you can see, we've now got the visual appearance of max height terrain at min height.

No matter what height the land is to start with, or what is placed o­n it, when a rock is added it is printed o­n to the map. Here's another sample where we have placed stones o­n min-height grass to lock it's appearence then raised it to mid-plain level:

And here is another example where we have raised some marshland to max height level:

The possibilities are endless!

Keep off the grass!

Now, as with all extreme map editor tricks there is a price to pay - nothing can go o­n this land! You can't build anything o­n it and troops and workers cannot stand o­n it.

In some cases this can be useful - you can create "Exclusion Zones" - places where o­nly the terrain can exist.and neither human or computer player can venture.

Animal House

One weird thing is that these exclusion zones can contain animals! If you place a rock o­n top of an animal then raise and lower the land then that patch of land forms an invisible cage for the animal.

Although troops and workers cannot walk o­n that land, if they get too close the animal can still tear shreads out of them!

And likewise, your troops can fight back - melee troops need to be close enough to the animal to strike it and ranged troops can attack from a distance.

If you make the exclusion zone big enough, melee troops will not be able to attack the animal unless it comes to the edge of the invisible cage.

Freezing Water

If you place a rock over a place in the sea where waves are present, the waves will freeze.

If you place rocks o­n foam, then the foam will freeze. This is great for making icebergs and snow capped mountains...

If you place rocks o­n a river, then raise the terrain so that river is at the top of a cliff, you will not get a waterfall!

This is really useful for water at the edge of a map - usually you get that really annoying waterfall flowing in the wrong direction over the cliffs at the edge of your map - now you can stop that from happening making mountain rivers and waterfalls look more realistic!

Stay tuned for more tutorials based o­n this trick...