Murkwood Development

[Deeza]

Unless of course it's a misty day...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, that could screw things. :yes:

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Okay, I just height-mapped the Murkwood region up to x co-ordinate 10 on the map, just where the Western edge of Jastha is located. You can see where this is by checking out this thread: All Maps (REFERENCE ONLY - No Posting) and looking for the slide that I labelled 'Landscapes: Rottmere Everglades'. All the blue-grey cells you see on that slide are now height-mapped.

As per our conversations, there are plenty of water features with streams and rivers coming down off higher ground. Plus the area surrounding Mulum (which is roughly in the centre of the Murkwood cells that you see in that slide) has been built up with a circular formation of hills. I decided that Mulum might well be the name of the village surrounding the Murkwood tree city itself.

Other parts include a pass between two sheer cliffs that leads up Northwards from the town of Rockspring on the fringes of the Talu swamps, allowing access to the circular valley.

I haven't yet decided on my strategy for Eastern Murkwood but I reckon it will be a little less hilly. Nevertheless, despite the flowing streams, I'd like it to be less of a waterlogged zone than the swamps to the South and the marshes to the North. This allows us to bring in deadly creatures that might otherwise be vulnerable in the water.

[morcroft]

The Black Marsh Live Oak



The Black Marsh Live Oak (quercus argoniana) is a long-lived spreading tree native to Argonia and prevalent across the Murkwood region. Whilst not exceptionally tall, the tree is notable for its widely spreading habit, with mature specimens being around twice as wide as they are tall. The dark evergreen foliage produces a heavy canopy, which is generally colonised by such epiphytic plants as Spanish moss. The trunk is wide but short, supporting long sturdy branches and in older specimens the contorted bole is regarded with superstition by the natives. The strength required to support the extended canopy means that the timber is of very high quality and is greatly prized, especially as extraction has proven problematic.

[Koniption]

Just, wow....I really love the effect of that tree! You did an awesome job getting the speedtree part to look good.

Black Marsh Live Oak (quercus argoniana) - yeah, I chuckled when I read that, lol

Good to know that the trunk nif collision isn't an issue, too.

Koniption

[Xae]

These look really good. I like the horizontal stretch of the branches to create the kind of tree that looks like a rainshield.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Puurrrrfect for Murkwood! And it works great with KP's trunk - excellent teamwork, folks! And you used my favourite - Spanish moss.

There's a task for those fond of literature here: keeping our trees and flora up-to-date. Quercus Argoniana definitely deserves a mention.

There's one issue for me from my own point of view and that's that I will have to be very, very careful with choosing the preset for the region generation. The Western part of Murkwood I just created has a fair amount of hilly parts.....the sort of thing that trees with wide foliage often clash with because they're more likely to clip into the ground. Nevertheless, hopefully, the preset I choose is such that it automatically places some trees on the higher ground and others, like this, on the lower ground. It might be worth me bearing that in mind once sandor is available for the region generation.

[morcroft]

I'm currently selecting seed values for the final models. I'm aiming to give you two .spt files which will actually be the same, but named differently and each with its own billboard. One will be added to the game using seed values that give a slightly narrower form that's a little higher off the ground, so you have something for the slopes. On the flatter areas you can use either form.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Cheers morcroft. That should be really useful. I think I should probably only use the trunk model on the lower-to-ground trees....I think it makes more sense that way.

[morcroft]

Definitely - and not even on all of those, either, to get more variety.