- 01Read height/water
- 02Preview earthworks
- 03Apply terrain changes
- 04Check buildings and access
Cut-and-fill terrain
Changing elevation alters buildable land, water and routes; excavated space and raised ground serve different purposes.
The player's decision
Flatten a hill to save a bridge or preserve it against floods?
Original scenario
Original: filling a route between plateaus improves hauling but blocks irrigation unless a channel remains.
Start with this prototype
Build 6×6 terrain with three elevations, fixed water level and two buildings. Connect access within an earthwork budget; show flooded cells and invalid placements. Undo, without live fluid simulation.
Change one variable
Vary fill cost to compare bridging with terrain alteration.
What to observe in a playtest
Update affected cells and restore reachability on undo.
Take the full design card
Includes rules, scope, tuning questions and sources for further planning. It does not create a project automatically.
Original analysis · version 1
Common pitfall
Stale path data after terrain edits creates visually connected but unusable routes.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Timberborn
Developer copy describes canals, tunnels and hydraulic structures reshaping waterways.
- Cities: Skylines II
Official features list shift, level, soften and slope terrain tools alongside pedestrian paths.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Build 6×6 terrain with three elevations, fixed water level and two buildings. Connect access within an earthwork budget; show flooded cells and invalid placements. Undo, without live fluid simulation.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.