Beta Landscaping Claims

[Deeza]

What exactly are you not sure about for Ukateki or Monago-Oag?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

What to make of them, whether they would be settlements, dungeons or some other type of location such as shrines and so on.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I did a little bit more work on the Vudai Marshes landscaping today. It seems that these are the first screenshots I've done with my new PC and without the graphical glitches that have plagued me previously...so they're looking pretty sweet...and the manoeuvrability is very fluent now, meaning that such things as the animation of the marsh poppies are much quicker when their petals retract as you walk by. Download these and run them through a slideshow for best effect.

Here's a rundown:

1. A normal daytime shot featuring the fireroot plant and one of the new ferns...with the SI mushrooms in the background.
   
2. These are the Tillandsia Bulbosa, a plant we have had in our collection for some time but was reserved for use in this region. It attaches itself to (and lives off) some of the huge mossy trees in the swampy areas.
   
3. My first set-up of TheFilthySpaniard's quicksand mod. I need to speak to KP and TFS about activating this as the quicksand didn't quite work as hoped but I'm sure it's just a small thing. Eventually, if you jump into this, it will suck you down...along with any hapless creatures that happen to be chasing you.
   
4. A shot of the mossy tree canopy whilst in the watery areas. With Dementia trees combined, it helps to create a more animated effect as the trees here are normal nif models.
   
5. The higher ground looks more like plains and is less dense than much of the Black Marsh we have seen so far. It's when you descend into the swamps that it gets more threatening and dangerous.
   
6. I adapted a few tree models from SI to create the effect of dead swamp trees.
   
7. When night falls, the marsh poppies have a vibrant glow.
   
8. More glowing marsh poppies and the giant Spore trees framed by moonlight. Koniption and I are hoping that some of these spore trees can adopt a particle animation (probably made by Vacuity) that involves them emitting hazardous spores at infrequent intervals that travel down to ground level and can poison the unwary traveller. The little suckers on the main 'head' of the tree will release the spores.
   
9. Another SI adaptation of a dead, mossy tree.
   
10. An area of uplands bathed in sunlight. The final version of this region will, as usual, include full weather effects and swampwater.
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[Deeza]

Those screens are looking great. We just need some appropriate weather effects and we're good to go...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Remember, of course, that I have DarkRider working on the monsoon weather effect. I last spoke with him at the start of the new year. I might check up on him soon as he said he was still keen on the idea.

[Koniption]

And no graphical glitches at all! These screens are now unblemished eye-candy.



KP

[Deeza]

@ Ibsen:

Ukateki is down as another Paatru village. I think we should do something different with this one. How about having it laid out in a spiral on the way down, with a shrine at the bottom?

Monagoag is a tribal argonian village, judging from the 'oag' suffix.

The nearby locations of Ossasoit and Bosojul were changed to Hist shrines, if you remember our previous conversation.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Okay, I'm happy with all of that. It gives us some more fun work to do on settlements then. And seeing as we're on the subject, I set up this thread: New Beta Locations .

Take particular note of what I mention about Utateki's location being close to the proposed location for Fort Swampmoth. This is particularly pertinent since I recently received a reply from SilentResident, the modder behind the UniqueForts mod, to say that he was fine with us using the interiors work on his Forts. We could then set up Swampmoth in the exterior world...and it wouldn't fit well with having a reclusive Paatru village on its doorstep. I guess we could just stretch them both a little further apart from one another though....and I had Swampmoth marked as being just inside the Vudai Marshes and close to the Jungle / Blackwood borderline.

I'd like to see what you mean by a 'spiralling' construction. Would you be able to lay it out in a rough way within the CS and take a screenshot (nothing flash, just to illustrate your point)?

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Deeza
@ Ibsen:

Ukateki is down as another Paatru village. I think we should do something different with this one. How about having it laid out in a spiral on the way down, with a shrine at the bottom?[snip...]

I like the "spiraling downwards" city idea, actually. Maybe the city is built onto the inner edges of a giant, steep, ancient sinkhole..and the platforms and buildings spiral downwards? Conceivably, you can even have water far towards the bottom of the sinkhole, too.

Blackmarsh is awefully wet, so sinkholes are very likely, I think.

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

True, we can adjust the height map accordingly...although as the flora, rocks and trees are already placed they will need to be adjusted too...and the water height can be adjusted but it will have to be done in blocks as dictated by the cells.