[Workflow] Raising/Lowering Terrain around specific objects - Gaia vs Gena Decorators

[designleviathan]

After a few failed attempts with using the stamp modifiers I figured I'd reach out to see if there was a better workflow / technique.

Background

I have found Gaia Spawn rules leveraging the Terrain Stamp Modifiers wreaks havoc on the rest of map and is fairly unpredictable as it 'breaks' out of the image mask set for it's Spawner.

The size of the spawns rule as previewed (but also stamped) is also not correlated to the game objects instantiated size and varies.

I could be using it wrong but after enough failed attempts - It feels like the wrong way to accomplish what I'm doing so I'm reaching out.

Q1 User Story

I am trying to place several objects pseudo-randomly (specifically according to noise pattern that correlates to other rules).

Some of these objects - I'd like them to raise the terrain where they occur so I do not have to manually paint them all in. Other's I'd like to do the opposite and lower the terrain.

The raising and lowering of the terrain ideally would be at least the size of the game object.

Q2: Gaia Vs Gena Decorators?

I understand Gena has the ability with it's decorators to raise / lower terrain. While it is an obvious path - I don't want to use Gena for the brush-based placement of these objects due to the aforementioned reliance on the Gaia noise pattern placement.

Is there a way to 'place' with Gaia and still 'fire-off' the Gena Terrain Decorator?

Edited May 16, 2022 by designleviathan
context & clarity & brevity