Chaos Wasteland

[ResidentV]

Hey! Would just like to showcase my current work for some input.

I'll update over the next few days as I finish up this area but I would appreciate suggestions because I'm having a hard time filling in all the space.

Basically it's sort-of based on the Chaos starting area in Warhammer Online, Norsca-ish, but not exactly as the game has a different style. I'm doing it for a race-war style map I'm doing which incorporates RPG elements.

This is just work in progress obviously; What we have here is the "Barbarian" starting area. (Nothing in my game is actually Warhammer based, it just borrows a lot!... from Warhammer, D&D and other fantasy settings I like :>)

First Picture

Starting area, the castle behind is actually there its not a border or anything - ill show it once I fill it up. Circles of power indicate where you can place buildings (cant just build anywhere) - It's still a rather early build. The castle itself is more "abandoned" like, not properly maintained and very snowy!

Second Picture

Wasteland leading up to the main area, up in the mountains. Will host a small camp by the big skeleton (hence the fire pit)... kinda stuck as to how it should look due to the lack of trees in a waste.

Feedback and suggestions gladly appreciated!


EDIT: Heres a recent update showcasing the main progress on the northern area

Update

And here is another update - showcasing my current WIP - the beholder caves. These are found within a separate area to the mainland in the "Underdark" cave complex. (Like I said my map is mixed from different settings) - This isn't really the final look, more like placeholders til i find something more suitable, I'm probably just going to use a reskin of the root spell, the forgotten one and the blizzard creep with a red hue (kinda like the one im using right now o.0) - the cliffs are from the old starcraft project but they dont really fit... I think rocks with roots over them will look cooler.

Show

Credit for SuPa-'s beholder! - the whole reason why I want to include beholders and illithid in my map >... now just to find a suitable illithid model! faceless ones have tentacle arms


and heres an example of the roots edit:

Could use a standard looking cliff doodad with those and eyes.. or fleshy cliffs - donno... anyways hope you like!

EDIT: Might keep it this way... looks disgustingly nice... need to fix the terrain art though.

 

[WindowsVistaSucks]

Hmm the terrain looks super unrealistic. Or it just does not feel right. Nothing has to be realistic to look good. You need more detail in your terrain. When you create terrain you should take as long as you must to make it look good.

As important game-play is in any game. Great terrain helps to give massive amounts of bonus points.

A good use of tree's. And props. This will equal to lovely executed terrain. But so is high variation.

 

[ResidentV]

Can you elaborate as to what makes it feel unrealistic/not right?


cheers!

 

[WindowsVistaSucks]

[-] Hight Variation
It looks like you just randomly increased the hight value to make the ground not seem flat.

[-] Unrealistic feel
Some props make no sense to be here and there. Like in the second picture of that fire coming out of that grate.

The grass seems to be put placed poorly.

[-] Lack of detail
Sometimes simple is good. But... That's not always true.

 

[ResidentV]

Erm, the hight is based on the mountain around, its not random. There's a pattern for the whole area. the grass is random ^^ it's a big pile of grass in 1 doodad, I still need to use a smaller model so I can make it more sparse
Props... Again nothing is random, each pile of stuff is based on the corresponding build plot - e.g furs and armor are next to where players have a crafter build plot. Fire pit in second pic is not random, again just wip of a camp in that location.

The whole area is wep, I mentioned that... I'm not sure if you read the op because... Well you kinda gave feedback on the stuff I asked for help on

 

[sonofjay]

The terrain for me looks pretty nice so far, its a bit empty but as you said its still a WiP, on teh first pic, you put a grass on the cobblestone, thats a no no, Adjust the tower since it looks weird on that position, the second pic, you can just add some more enviro doodads there, maybe some good looking trees and such

 

[WindowsVistaSucks]

Oh and forgot to mention. Good use of fog will always come back to pat you on the back. Fog can sometimes transform ugly terrains. Into somewhat good ones... Or tolerable.

 

[ResidentV]

The terrain for me looks pretty nice so far, its a bit empty but as you said its still a WiP, on teh first pic, you put a grass on the cobblestone, thats a no no, Adjust the tower since it looks weird on that position, the second pic, you can just add some more enviro doodads there, maybe some good looking trees and such

Thanks! emptiness shall be filled indeed =)
I think i'll remove the tower doodad alltogether and just use it as a building for the sake of play-ability. Grass atm is a large model, once I start using the smaller model ill spread it more eve n across the map.

Second area needs to maintain tree-less to give the waste feeling, but ill add more rocks n stuff once I set the camp by the bone... more pics soon!

ty for input.

Vista - atm I'm leaving weather effects out so I can add them via a global system later.

Edit:

Heres 2 pictures with better views and some little changes... havent been home all day o.0 maybe these though can give a better idea of the area.

Pictures

Note, not all circles are place yet, doodads will mostly indicate a nearby related build plot.
EDIT: Note 2: Keep in mind that this is already places high up on a mountain, hence why peaks all average out at a certain height (above cannot be done!).... once I finish the actual cliff lines it will
give a much much much better understanding of the whole atmosphere being "way up there in the mountains" kind of feeling.

annnnnd... an old area I made for an older... never finished project of mine >.>.... really like this though and its far more finished than the others (I was planning to add a lot more walls to it to make it look like a city built in stone... I started at the gates with the stairs and.... ). This was done in half scale though and the new ones are in double scale! (from normal WC model scale)... Gonna borrow a lot from this area for my Dwarf underground city >.> I did use blizzard cliffs here, but uhh they fit in underground areas nicely imo, if the right one is used.... will look for an alternative for the new map though.

 

[ResidentV]

More progress, coastline.... atm stone terrain (the pinkish one) is a placeholder til I make a darker version skin :>

show

and yes it is meant to have a slight unrealistic feel to it >.> it is CHAOS after all.

 

[wowhunter]

Oh and forgot to mention. Good use of fog will always come back to pat you on the back. Fog can sometimes transform ugly terrains. Into somewhat good ones... Or tolerable.

Fog does transform terrains and make them extremely good usually... although a major problem is lag. You know what I am talking about if you have ever played Gaias ORPG. If the game is small, fog should be fine, but if its big then its straight up annoying more than it is good for the terrain.

They do look really good! Although the grass in the first picture/remake of it seems a bit unrealistic to me. Also it seems kind of random being right next to cobble stone and snow. Correct me if i am wrong you would think the grass would be dead or nonexistant in the kind of environment it is in?

 

[ResidentV]

Yep! I've just been too lazy to upload the small grass files, thats the larger patch. I'm still gonna have small sparse out grassy bits because... I like grass.
But the large ones will go

thanks!

 

[Lordkoon]

Isn't your chaos meant to be like something we would feel rather than just see chaotically spreaded doodads, some of which not fitting with the others. Use snowy rocks for a snowy mountain. Your grass seems to grow at both dirts and snow. I'd suggest adding some rocks with the grass orbiting mostly around them. And...erm you have a bear skin on the dirty ground. It is really not realistic.

The dwarf city is nice.

Wowhunter you are not right about the fog. Objects such as mists, and area of effect enviroments like outland winds, blizzards, green/red/blue fogs cause lag.
And the fog can be changed via trigger at any time so there is no way it will get annoying if properly used. For example a greenish fog for forest must change if you enter a cavern area.

 

[WindowsVistaSucks]

I usually recommend not using the red/blue/green fogs. Or the heavy outland fogs. They just look horrible. Try to find custom made ones!

 

[ResidentV]

I removed the grass! eesh ... I'll redo it with the small grass patch and stick only to the bright-dirt areas and sparsely, will upload a pic tomorrow.

As for the Chaos waste... well, anyone who played Warhammer Online would know the feel Norsca had, it was just starting to spread the "demonic influence"

The rocks are staying black, I'm just waiting to retexture the rock-terrain to a more suitable greyish black tone to go with the rocks. Once its done it will all blend nicely.

Heres some updates

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note - i havent run a shadow map in a while

Heres an overall view of the barbarian starting area - I removed the grass, tomorrow ill use a smaller grass doodad to spread around the rocks to make it more natural, probably darken the rock terrain texture too.

And here is some wip of the opposite side of the mountain, hosting a small town (6-9 houses) for the bigger human faction. This place is meant to have a bit of a "viking" feel to it but with an imperial touch, like the "last outpost" in the north. they will have high docks on the coastline eventually and the borders of the wall where its jagged or looks incomplete is where ill place towers or build up the mountain cliffs on to cover up. obviously very early stage of work

edit:1 show

Progress on the town... Not sure about the stairs yet (Looking at it now I might use the horizontal walls to cover the side o.0 makes more sense) ... Started the docks. obviously not done yet

And semi-birdeye to get the idea of how the area looks!

edit 2: show

Village progress, nearly finished.

outside forest... area serves as a small cover for units to creep by the fort, fun use of line of sight blockers still wip, gonna add small patches of grass here and some stuff and other stuff.

 

[ResidentV]

updated the main post :O... some beholder caves now too...
nolonger a chaos wasteland topic!