Difference between tools in SC4TF

[Enzo]

Hi,
the more I'm playing with this wonderfull piece of software, the more I find it complex 
could someone explain me the fundamental difference between "universal tools", "zone tools" and "brushes tools" through i understand their descriptions in the readme. I'm not clear at all on which occasion or for what usage i should go for one or another ? if this has been already explain, if you can just point me to this, this will be very much appreciated
thanks

[edit] :re-reading my post, it may be a bit unclear ... so question is which tools should I use if I want to make a hill ? zone, universal or brush ? I guess the answer will start by "it depends " and yes this is my point it depends of what ?

[wouanagaine]

Hi Enzo

The differents tools were made along differents version of SC4TF, that is why you have not just one 'hills' tool
-the first ones to be developped were the "zone tools" which are all algorithmic modification of the zone
-then some ideas of 'modding' tools came to me from differents member, and I developed the "universal tools". you can add your own universal tool. The universal tool is a just a curve definition that is rotating and applyed to the underlying terrain. As I'm not a good Readme writer, instead of explaining everything on how to make such "universal tool" I convert most of the "zone tools" in "universal tool" to show what is possible.
-then I and JPLumbley found how SC4 in game tools works and we managed to replicate exactly the ingame tool, that are the 'brushes tools'

So to sum up they are some minor differences between the various 'hills' tools, how the modify the underlying terran, but not a big difference
take a look a the 3 hills tools, draw a hill with each of them with same radius/strength/same amount of clicks and use the one that better fit your need

[Enzo]

OK, understood. as you may know, i'm trying to build my region from scratch, and now i'm doing a hill but on a big surface, (2 large city). Actually, I find this quite hard to give a realistic touch and avoid to see the "orginal circle" of each tools. I guess a pic will speak better :



As you can see on this pic, It doesn't look very realistic and i would like to improve this. All has been done mainly with the hill zone tool, except on the left side of the pic, i've used a different technique and use the zone tool draw to setup the height i want and then smooth between different height, but 'im still not convince. I guess I have to improve my skill and i'm looking for advice 

[wouanagaine]

Take a look at Vandy Terraforming MD
You'll find very usefull information !