Mapmaking: Dealing with plateaus

[JoeyB98]

I've been having trouble lately deciding how plateaus should be dealt with in Civ. In the pre-made maps, most notably with the Earth Map's Tibet, each tile is a hill surrounded mostly by mountains, as such:

However, this creates a problem: units attacking each other always have the 25%terrain deficit, which, as they are at the same altitude, is illogical. In addition, the plateaus are always very food-poor, due to the fact that they consist solely of hills and mountains. I've been experimenting with leveling out the insides and leaving hills only at the entrances, so you get the logical hill going into but not "within" the plateau itself:

However, this doesn't look very "plateau-y" at all. Does anyone have a solution which allows for both gameplay and aesthetics?

 

[euskingc]

Create a new terrain type and it's appropriate graphic? It's a shame in a way that they did away with altitude (a la alpha centauri).

 

[JoeyB98]

I was thinking about that; a tile of mountain height but as flat as plains, but I wouldn't know how to go about that.

 

[euskingc]

Hmm.. that's one thing I haven't gotten around to yet, but there must be a tutorial on the forum somewhere for creating new terrain types...

If I can make a suggestion... not QUITE as tall as a mountain =)
from the Tibetan plateau the Himalayas still look pretty awe-inspiring...
if you're an ocd perfectionist like many in these parts... maybe compare the respective altitudes of the mountains and the plateau?

 

[The_J]

Problem is not new terrain, but the height level.
Because it's hardcoded in the Civ part of the game engine that there are 4 height levels:
water, normal ground, hills, peaks.
If you want to have another height level, you'll have to sacrifice one of the existing ones.
Look at Dune Wars, there they have that, or directly ask Deliverator what he can tell you about that.

 

[Flying Pig]

Surely you could make it graphically so that it's coded as the same height as hills (without the penalty) but represented as flat?