Terrain Workshop: The 4x4x4 Formula

I had a bit of an epiphany the other morning on the drive to work.  Terrain Workshop: Trees 10 and Terrain Workshop: Trees 11 both feature similar starting points. They each have four base pieces and four arch pieces.  The number of leaves -- and other assorted pieces -- is where they differ.  But, that leads us to the design I built the night before that fateful drive to work.

It starts with four Log Bricks, which then lead to four 1x3x2 Curved

 Top Arches, topped by four Plant Leaves 4x3.  That's twelve

pieces which is 2 Hits.  In 6P scale it would be 12' tall, with

a 5' thick trunk, covering roughly 20 feet from side to side.

This design follows the four (trunk) by four (branches) by four

formula (leaves) of the build in TW: Trees 11.  My epiphany

was the thought that you might be able to plug any number

of parts into that formula to make a decent looking tree.

Let's try it and see.

Four 2x2 Plates, four Inverted 75 deg Slope 2x1x3, and four Round Plates w/3 Leaves.

Four 2x2 Round Plates, four Continuous Bow Arch 1x5x4, and four 6x5 Swordleaves.

Six different parts, two different trees, one design formula.  What's really necessary for this to work is that the combination of the first two pieces gets you above the Height Minimum for Cover -- which is 3 Bricks.  Since it's made of twelve pieces total it will always be 2 Hits to destroy.  And if you build it the right way, it should be Cover until it's destroyed.  You should also be able to use fairly common pieces to generate terrain with this formula.

You don't have to limit yourself to trees, either.  This is a science fiction game after all.  Four 2x1x2 65 deg. Slope, four 2x1x1.3 Curved Slope w/Recessed Stud, and four Plant Leaves 4x3.  I see this as a piece of sandstone with coral fronds growing off it.  I probably should have used a different base color though.

Going back to trees-- and common pieces -- four 3x1 33 deg. Slopes, four

2x2 Bricks, and four 1x6 Plates looks like somewhat of a Cubist nightmare

but it is still viable as tree-shaped Cover made out of fairly common parts.

And, and, and(!) to tie this into an existing table-setting to show this technique can work in multiple ways, let's build something for Alien Planet.  Although that may be cheating a bit because Alien Planet has a pretty open design space.  Anyway.  Four 2x2 Wedges by four 1x1x5 Brick w/Open Stud by Curved Plant Stem w/2 Thorns & 2 Swirls.

To recap; four base pieces, four middle pieces, and four top pieces gets you --

 as long as it's above the Height Minimum -- a 2 Hit piece of Cover.  I hope this

helps people with future terrain designs for MFZ: Rapid Attack.  Flickr Page.