The main thing to keep in mind with the colour combination is that it should provide a transition between the lush green Ascadian Isles region and the lush orange and brown Othreleth Coast region. How it does this is pretty open; we could emphasize greens, yellows or orange shades, as long as it isn't too heavy on either extreme. If the clash between green and orange is deemed too ugly, (not too surprising, as that clash is a reason for wanting the TRV to be transitional), a solution would be to focus more on yellow:

Come to think of it, I’m….not actually sure if red dirt is possible outside of an arid climate. As the red comes from oxidized iron in the rock, which needs time and exposure. In wetter climates, the soil gets buried too often under rainwashed sediments or decayed plant material. Perhaps in a river valley, where the red rock beneath has been revealed by the river’s erosion:

Seems a rare occurence, though, and it’s not as bright of an orange. Still, maybe a few bands of orange-y rocks up the sides of our big canyons would help enhance the palette. I could see a lot of mesa-like places the further south the Thirr River goes, a good phase into the drier areas like Shipal Shin.

Ah well. Mushroom trees and weird lichens would be good, too, even the odd tree. Just not every single leafy bushy thing. I think that’s what makes me think of autumn in those earlier images.

Yeah, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of there being a good, not too arid-looking reddish or yellowish soil, but I’m having trouble finding references. Most fertile-looking reddish soils are too red to work for this region, in my opinion. If it can be made to look good, I’m certainly not against it.

As far as rocks are concerned, I really do think we should stick to the current Ascadian Isles rocks. There are already some mesa-like formations, mostly on the east bank of the Thirr.

Maybe this idea could be used for roth-roryn region. As that is using the grazeland set and could look more unique I reckon.  

I stumbled upon this concept while looking at the Deshaan thread, and I think it’s more at home either here or in the Othreleth Woods:

The corkbulb variant could perhaps work as the timsa-come-by replacer.

True, I didn’t think of the tropical variation of poor soils and surface decomposition. That would be one way to go, and in some ways could work quite well with the concept of the TRV basically being fertile when properly cared for but quickly suffering through carelessness.

What could be done to get work on this started again? I feel confident we have texture artists who could create a suitable color scheme based on pictures gathered above, Could we turn some of the Corkbulb concepts into objects claims? Asylum modeled a bunch of flora last month. Would he or she be interested in working off these?

I don’t want to be the guy who comes into this thread only to complain, but I am beginning to doubt whether this visual update is worth our time. Of course, as someone with absolutely zero modeling or texturing skills, I also do not want to sound like I am nagging other modders to do work that I am incapable of performing.  But  I have serious concerns about the long-term viability of our project if we are unable to implement these relatively modest revisions within a reasonable amount of time.

Not a college person myself, but I’m also not a modeler or texturer. I’m trying to help the region along by implementing more quests for it. If you have any interest in critiquing my ideas for those, I’d be glad for the help, Parker.

I agree with Rats on this and like what he has offered here.

Well, the whole point of this was that we didn’t want or need the huge rework – just a flora and colour scheme dye job (plus the trees...).
I dig the work there too – very nice!
 

Okay, so not that major an overhaul then. Some new paint sounds simple enough, so I’d be happy do implement those changes for the region. It’d give me to opportunity to add those cave and tomb entrances I so wanted.

Here’s some screenshots with new grass and ferns.
 

Here are the ground and rock textures with which I’ve experimented. I like the first four grassy textures, but the rest are still quite bad and I don’t really know what to do with them. For example, should the last rock texture be more saturated? darker? different hue altogether?

It’s looking great Rats, I really like new Corkbulb variant and the colors in general, I’d just darken the stones a bit.

Could you throw in the brown mushroom I made, so that we can see how it would fit in with the rest? 

Hum. Try removing the green tint in the rocks entirely, make them more a tan-orange-gray, and dull the contrast so it doesn’t pop as much.  A faint lining like sedimentary rock might work as well. Here’s some pictures with the colors and lines I’m thinking:

^ Notice the very faint lines. You probably wouldn’t have to do much more than this: less is more with textures. This might need a mesh that is more angular than rounded for the lines to not look too regular however.

^More orange than the first picture, but still muted, and the lines flow better.

^ Too bright probably, more for the example on making on curvier lines.

^ One with no yellow in it at all, also interesting lining. May look weird on the wrong mesh.