tile map or terrain?

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Hello.

I want to make a strategy/RPG ( RPG part if we have time for it ) but id like to start with something that wont force me to rewrite the whole game in couple of months.
strategy part should have map like Shogun or something even simpler, it is not that important, and RPG being some basic 3D (like GTA2, top down view, and some day who knows…)

So what i was thinking was to make a tile map( tiles cause it would be a stragegy first, and tiles would make our ideas easier to implement ), but i dont have an idea how to make terrain look realistic due to differences in tile heights, and i really dont like sim city look, where you got predefined heights so their tiles would blend nice.

Terrain would of course be ideal for looks, but i dunno if it would be good idea to make terrain and then just split it in quads looking only at x and y.

It looks like terrain in wurm would suit us. If i remember good they had tiles with some tight tiles ( i dont know what they are for! ) so
any help or pointer would help!

#2

command and conquer used tile maps with predefined heights and so should you! If anything start off with a flat ground and get your game working before you start adding 1001 hurdles that will make it impossible for a beginner to start. You’ll get much further quicker by starting out with the bare essentials, learning the important parts first.

#3

hi! I’m planning to have such a Tiled Map for my 2D fighting game as background pic. What’s your point about having pictures tiled in plenty of “tiles” files vs. a full background pic that will be displayed “clipped” ?
For the moment I 've chosen to have the background loaded as different layers where in counter part the JAI Core will manage off the screen the tiles to display as the clipping area changes. See what JAI Core Warp Perspective can do with clipping transformed (attached picture). I don’t see any reason to make complex tiles of pictures since JAI Core does manage the tiles as a back-thread. I observe that automatic-tiling operation as the rendering becomes slower while I change the Display to a higher resolution. (let’s see about tiling in JAI) Hence, I do prefer to clip the pictures intead of making tiles. 8)

http://membres.lycos.fr/broumbroum23/clipRectTX.png