Map 2 Detailing Area 9 [Swiftoak Woodwarrior] Discussion

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:09 pm

MMkay, I just uploaded the screenshots.
http://img8.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=mgescreenshot2.jpg

As well, I put a blog up, I just need a blog admin to come in, go through it, make changes, and put it up!

[it's kind of big so if you feel like you need to cut it down, go for it...]

As well, it might need it's own news entry on the frontpage to direct people to it. Necrom IS kind of important here

Hemitheon · Post by **Hemitheon** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:16 pm

Ten of our finest concubines for SO

I can already see the headline: Necrom Approaches Completion!

Andres Indoril · Post by **Andres Indoril** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:01 pm

Those screenshots are beautiful. Really. It does seem that the only thing this city needs further is detail

Hail Necrom! Hail Swifty! Hail the clan of Woodwarriors! Hail Morrowind! Hail etc, etc!

Aeven · Post by **Aeven** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:12 pm

Really awesome! If able, try phal's experimental water shader (requires a card with Shader Model 3.0 abilities), the visuals are much better and watery.

When will you upload this file? Also, did I see a Redoran hut in the distance? o_O

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:28 pm

That's a velothi tomb entrance. I don't remember why it was so big, but someobody told me that the ancestral tombs around Necrom should have bigger entrances o_0

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:31 pm

thats going blog

do you want to do it or should i?

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:36 pm

Lady Nerevar wrote:thats going blog do you want to do it or should i?

I don't know how to post, just save draft

So you can do it unless you tell me how to lol.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:43 pm

saving the draft and posting is very similar. right of the title box there is a dropdown menu that says "publish" or "draft," just leave it on publish and click save.

edit
just looked over your draft, looks good, but move the screenshots (with the exception of the 1st one) to the "extended body" section so that they dont crows up the front page.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:49 pm

I did that. My dropdown box only says draft. I don't think I have the actual privilidges of publishing.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:17 pm

i changed the user properties, hopefully it works.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:35 pm

Nope, still says draft. It's okay you can do it I guess.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:37 pm

This is the most hyped blog entry in TR now.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:27 pm

heh. well, i published it. ill check settings again tomorrow if you want

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:38 pm

That would be nice Lady N

Do you think this warrants it's own entry on the front page/news? I mean it is pretty big stuff

Leave it up to you guys though.

Lud · Post by **Lud** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:13 pm

The screenies look nice but I'm not too sure about those towers stacked on top of the temple; to me, their colour doesn't fit with the rest and they look kinda tacked-on.

Aeven · Post by **Aeven** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:25 pm

I much preferred what you added to the tower before. Also, please centre whatever you add on it properly, or it'll look wonky.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:00 pm

Lud wrote:The screenies look nice but I'm not too sure about those towers stacked on top of the temple; to me, their colour doesn't fit with the rest and they look kinda tacked-on.

That's because the domes have yet to be retextured. It should look less odd that way, I know what you mean though because that's what I was thinking myself.

But I'll take them off if you guys want. No biggie. I kind of wanted it higher than everything else though which was why I added them.

Post by **Haplo** » Wed May 13, 2009 7:32 pm

It'll have been a month tomorrow, and you said in your other claim you wanted to finish ?this one? in a month, one month ago. Is this done?

Post by **Swiftoak** » Thu May 14, 2009 3:38 am

*sigh*

I'm sorry I put this on a timetable, it was foolish of me.

I have made substantial progress on the Temple. Not enough to say 'finished', but getting closer and closer. New screencaps on the weekend.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Sat May 16, 2009 8:55 pm

Mmkay guys.

I won't lie now but there's not much reallyholding this from being finished, save for the temple.

More specifically for the past couple of weeks I've been pretty stumped as to what I should put for the Temple garden without making it look too cheezy or overdone, yet still be awesome and lore-friendly.

So to make this quicker, I'm going to put it out to you guys for some ideas. I'll take some of the best suggestions and combime them.

All that needs to be done really is that red area. I just don't know what to do with it...

Ideas?

[img]http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7336/whatnownec.jpg[/img]

Hemitheon · Post by **Hemitheon** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:02 pm

uh, graves?

There are several Necrom pieces devoted to the cemetery. Those pylon-shaped thingies are tombstones, there's the special sarcophagus thingy for Nerevar which can be made to hide the saint image, there's mastabas, there's platforms of the Tribune. Plus trees and flowers. I've always imagined something like Rath Dinen or a Dunmer version of the cemetery in Cyrodiil City. Something glorious and elvish.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Sat May 16, 2009 9:17 pm

One thing that half-crossed my mind when I saw your most recent screens on the blog was the idea of bringing the mountain range over the back nearer in, so that in a Minas Tirith-esque style, it would almost become part of the further parts of the city... or something.

But either way, it might provide a potential entrance for catacombs and stuff, and could go into that little passage at the back of the Temple there?

Anyway, dunno, just some brief thoughts.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Sat May 16, 2009 10:24 pm

i'd like something kind of organized, some pathways surrounded by a flowers and trees. maybe some ancient structures or monuments, indications of necrom's long history.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Sun May 17, 2009 1:55 am

To be honest I would love to place some saint statues around the place because that's what I originally had in mind.

But seeing as we don't even have any decent meshes for statues, I'm a little lost...

And at this point I really don't want to go back and do landscape edits because I spent so much time getting the static placement right that even minor changes will probably drive me bonkers.

Chin Music · Post by **Chin Music** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:45 am

That whole "back area" that goes behind the Temple walls looks odd to me. Too small and secluded to really hold anything of interest, yet has to be filled somehow anyway.

While it obviously isn't my call my reaction would be to just do away with the whole "raised area" the Temple rests on and use all that space it was using to surround the Temple with gardens. Or to at least moved the raised area back to the rear wall and use the space it creates in front of the Temple, instead of just having this weird "back alley".

My suggestion would be to just fill the area with flora, with some sort of small path running through as it seems like the only practical purpose the area is fit to fill is access to that tower over there.

Here's an extremely crude example of what I meant before. I don't know how possible this is or if anyone even wants it like that, but maybe you can see what I mean.
[url=http://img29.imageshack.us/my.php?image=neco.jpg][img]http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4752/neco.th.jpg[/img][/url]

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:47 am

In the interests of getting this finished, I wouldn't be keen on making layout changes at this point. I would like to see:

- Several entrances to the catacombs (including one at the end of that 'alley' to give it a use.
- Some little paths with plenty of plants.

Something like the gardens in Mournhold but a little more sombre?

gro-Dhal · Post by **gro-Dhal** » Sun May 17, 2009 10:16 am

Yeah i'd like to see gardens rather than a graveyeard. Somewhere for contemplation during the day, and shady deals at night.

Hemitheon · Post by **Hemitheon** » Sun May 17, 2009 3:48 pm

You all do realize that this city is covered with more than 30 planters right? More gardens? The whole city is gonna be flooded with gardens. And that's not including interior gardens.

Question:

What about the cemetery and monastery west of the city? Are you planning on incorporating them? Both are lore. And both should be spooky.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:38 am

Hemitheon wrote:You all do realize that this city is covered with more than 30 planters right? More gardens? The whole city is gonna be flooded with gardens. And that's not including interior gardens.

Which is why I'm having doubts. If I wanted to flood the place with gardens I would have done so and sent this off by now

And yes cemeteries sound good. That was part of the original plan. It's just how to not make it look cheezy in the current setup that concerns me...

Post by **Haplo** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:08 pm

Hey Swiftoak, I know I'm running an older version of Necrom than you, but just a heads up. In the screenshot provided, I have a crate selected that appears to be pretty random; it's outside the walls. Also, right next to it there's a rogue texture square of what looks like a road. I don't know if you've fixed these two things yet, but I hope you can tell where they are in my screenshot (just west of the tower in the southeastern corner of cell (42,-11).

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8427/oopsskh.jpg

Post by **Swiftoak** » Thu May 28, 2009 12:40 am

Yeah I fixed that in the current version

It appeared to have been stuff left from the old Necrom. Thanks for pointing that out though! I'll definitely comb the other cells because I'm sure I did a sloppy job when I deleted the old city.

Post by **Haplo** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:10 am

Awesome. Do you think you could upload WIP file?

Post by **Swiftoak** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:04 am

I promise I will this weekend dude. I'm just going through a bunch of end of the year stuff (graduating highschool this year!) so it's been a big challenge juggling everything at this crucial point of life, but I promise there will be smooth sailing afterwards.

I also have another blog update concerning just the temple next week so stay tuned...

Post by **Haplo** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 3:17 am

Excellent, that's good news. We're closing in on that looming horizon for Map 3

Post by **Swiftoak** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:17 pm

I decided to move the entire temple quarter to the rear wall as per Chin's suggestion (see his pucture).

Do you think that would be better than it is now? I got rid of the little back alley thingy allowing more room for gardens and cemeteries.

Yeti · Post by **Yeti** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:07 am

I think it sounds better.

Post by **Haplo** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:06 am

Swiftoak Woodwarrior wrote:more room for gardens

Eh... not so much. Try to fill in the area with cemeteries first.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:09 am

Mmkay. Regardless, here's the latest file.

Hemitheon · Post by **Hemitheon** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:48 am

Architecture:The city is coming along well. The only thing I want to point out is the temple itself. To put it bluntly, it's starting to border on over-the-top. It's just too much. Right now, instead of adding more, think about cutting off. The three "TR_ex_nec_tomb_02" spires just aren't working well enough. My suggestion would be to cut them all down to just one per tower, maximize size to 2 and lower them into their respective towers. Also, that one balcony on the entrance to the temple with a planter piece as its floor is too much.

Other than those, that main road in front of the temple is freakin gorgeous.

Flora: One glance through and I knew instantly that you had used one tree mesh twice. You still have TR_Flora_treeoak_FZ1b, so maybe replace one TR_Flora_treeoak_FZ1a.

Be careful with Flora_grass_06 it loves to bleed into other meshes.

Flora can be a good way to distinguish social strata. Cheap grasses are used in the lower class areas-low maintenance, cost effective deco. In the Manor District entrance, you have lots of lovely plants but turn the corner and suddenly it's grasses again. I'm sure Indoril Manor would complain as to why they pay the same taxes as other manors, but get a view equal to that in the poor quarter. My suggestion here would be continue creating ornate bouquets throughout the manor district, perhaps even incorporating House colors into the designs. Red plants in front of/near Redoran Manor, blue plants in front of Dres Manor, White/Gray plants for Indoril.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:44 am

I actually don't mind some of the over-decoration on the Temple, but then I can't remember much of the earlier versions. Oh, except the Anti-Gravity Flame Stick! coming out of the top of the Temple. That should go.

My main other comment would be that the 'really green' grass texture looks good only in the Temple garden bit. As just general 'grass' it looks way too green and clashes horribly with the white walls. Certainly in the Old City, and 100% definitely in the Foreign Quarter, anyway. The Manor District just about pulls it off maybe.

One other slight doubt is maybe the random slum-pile should go? It adds yet another (largely unnecessary) cell to this already 7/8 cell behemoth, and seems a tad randomly placed. But I dunno.

Oh yeah and the statue of the Saints in the Old City playing one of those schoolgirl hand-clap games should go, too.

Anyway, this has to be one of the superest cities I've ever seen! Great work, Swiftoak!