One problem I have with maps is that everything is a large square tile. It makes curved roads and cliffs look terrible. It's difficult to make a change without impacting a huge amount of the engine, though. Thus, I propose that we allow the square tiles to be subdivided into triangles as per the picture below (which illustrates the issue with the square tiles and how triangles help):
To prevent this change from messing with too much of the engine (path finder, object placement, etc), it should
apply only to surfaces and heights. The surfaces is obvious enough: we can create paths that are not straight and don't look like crap (as the above image illustrates). In the map editor, when you zoom in enough, the editor should subdivide the tiles into triangles, which can be "painted" in the same manner as we currently select the square tiles. It may also be ideal to implement a "show grid" option, which would show a grid overlay with the triangles when zoomed in sufficiently.
This, of course, requires a change to the map format.
The effects are similar for changing the heights. We raise or lower the height of a triangle instead of a whole tile. Objects placed on the tile will be placed at the height of the lowest triangle (to prevent floating objects). This allows us to create rivers, islands, etc that don't have horridly jagged edges.
I believe this change will make the maps look more realistic for dedicated map makers. If the map editor is further tweaked to automatically paint with triangles based on the brush size, it may be easy to make maps with smooth edges without a large amount of editing. This change is purely for aesthetic reasons and does not impact gameplay.
