Murkwood Development

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Okay, nick! Kick ass at the gigs! =)

[Deeza]

Murkwood is definitely looking sufficiently dark and sinister. IMO there should be a fair bit more water in it, even if it's shallow. But perhaps this is just a tester cell?

I also thinking we should perhaps consider a low-lying static mist across the ground, like ST did in the Deepen Moor region.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

D efinitely. I'm not entirely sure how to implement that but I'll certainly take a look into it when it comes to finalising the region.

I'm thinking that, given the current developments with morcroft's stilltree and the Talu swamp region, Murkwood will be less watery than that region. Generally, I figured that the southern regions needed to be very shallow considering it was a delta region but region generation doesn't work well at all with stretches of land underwater so there are problems associated with region development in this sense. Consequently, a lot of Murkwood will be land-based.

Nevertheless, I'll be making sure that there are fairly large watery sections where the dead Black Gum trees will be lingering. Plus we'll have some good trees to use from neighbouring regions along the borders like Senten's swamp trees in the West, morcroft's stilltrees near the South and Koniption's mossy trees towards the North.

[Deeza]

Sounds good. Thanks for explaining.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I finally got round to checking out the Unique Landscapes: Dark Forest mod. It basically just consists of some very dark textures applied to things like the Camerons Paradise trees along with added ground textures and black/blue ferns. Some mist FX and a quite cool will-o-wisp completes the effect.

It inspired me to get started on height mapping the Western parts of Murkwood. I'm aiming for a generally higher and less watery effect although this will lead towards the opportunity for waterfalls. I think Eastern Murkwood should mostly consist of one large hill with sloped slides, kind of like an island.

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
I finally got round to checking out the Unique Landscapes: Dark Forest mod. It basically just consists of some very dark textures applied to things like the Camerons Paradise trees along with added ground textures and black/blue ferns. Some mist FX and a quite cool will-o-wisp completes the effect.

It inspired me to get started on height mapping the Western parts of Murkwood. I'm aiming for a generally higher and less watery effect although this will lead towards the opportunity for waterfalls. I think Eastern Murkwood should mostly consist of one large hill with sloped slides, kind of like an island.

Hey Ibsen,

Do you already know about this ? :

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind...rior_cells

Each different cell, and I think even different cells in the exterior worldspace, can have their own water height. You'll just need to raise the land over exposed purple "water edges" if you make the water too high, or lower the water height until those purple edges are below the landscape. Either way, you'll need to make a depression in the cell's ground first, to hold the water.

I agree Murkwood should be drier, but not too dry. I'd still like to come across the occasional pool of water.

Koniption

[Deeza]

I think a mixture of water and land would be a good idea (the area has been described as "impossible to tell if it's partially flooded land or a lake with lumps of earth floating in it"). The landscape is supposed to shift constantly, however, so it would make perfect sense for there to be temporary (ie. present during the timeline of our mod) hills and islands in some parts of it.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

@ KP - You're spot on again. Great minds think alike.

I've included some reasonably lengthy rivers on raised ground that will eventually flow into lower lakes and streams. I may go for a sort of 'basin' effect whereby the edges of Murkwood are raised fairly high with a central basin of lower ground rather like the crater of a dormant volcano. Hopefully, there'll be plenty of space to make the centre quite boggy and, by deign of the surrounding raised circle, allow travellers an enticing view of the tree city from afar placed roughly in the middle of it all.

[Deeza]

I'm really liking your basin idea. From a lore point of view, it would also look like a subtle reference to the old Anuad story that the Hist spirits came crashing down to Tamriel from the heavens...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

:yes:Ideally, the LOD would be able to show you the full span of the circle when you're up high.