City Planning Thread 6 - HELSTROM

[Deeza]

This is the fabled Lost City of Argonia, home of the world's last remaining Hist forest, the largest city in Black Marsh, secret fortess of the Argonian peoples and home to the shadowy An-Xileel faction and the mystical Council of the Root for which the People of the Root are named.

We know that the city is very well hidden, so it's been proposed by morcroft that we put it in its own worldspace. This is accessed via a very thick area of impenetrable jungle at the heart of Murkwood, which is accessed via a teleport barrier around it when certain conditions are met.

There are two main proposals for Helstrom:

1. A kind of mayan-style temple city with huge stone pyramids and other structures, half-sunk into the swamp.
2. A gigantic tree with the city built into its trunk and branches.

These aren't mutually exclusive. We could have an exterior city with pyramids on a series of islands, centred around the tree, which contains structures of the greatest importance. There was an idea that it is the oldest Hist tree still in existence, which dates all the way back to the mythic origin of the Hist race (which in lore terms means it's actually a god, who was around before the Creation and is only a couple of power rungs down from a full-blown Daedra Prince or one of the Nine Divines). It's also able to bend the exit of mortals into Oblivion somewhat, with the result that it's been able to store the accumulated knowledge of almost every Argonian who's ever lived, and perhaps also that of other races who met their deaths in the Marsh.

Since it's a site sacred to all Hist races, we should expect there to be a significant number of Sarpa, Naga and Paatru living here, perhaps in their own special areas.

I think that the beta is now sufficiently advanced that we can begin discussing this area seriously.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Independent of lore, my own personal preference is for a purely city consisting of Mayan-style architecture and pyramids

However, that would mean shifting Helstrom's location a little further North so I'm thinking that Gan-Jugu or Mungomog can take over my vision for that area and we could therefore employ some of such architecture actually within the tree city.

I do know that Koniption has been working on her tree model already and that we could very well use a 'mott and bailey'-style city construction around the base of the tree, resulting in part of the city being within its own worldspace and part within (wooden?) walls around the base (also in its own worldspace).

[Deeza]

That sounds good to me, although my preference would be for stone walls.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

What if the walls were basically huge roots?

[Deeza]

That would be even better, it would also be more of a surprise coming across them in the swamp, if they were disguised enough to look like just more dense undergrowth...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

You may not know this but, as part of my height-mapping, what I tend to do is to consider the co-ordinates of the region I'm developing and sculpt the landscape towards a desired shape that can then take on the features of the final settlement (or other planned location).

This makes things a lot easier to landscape and to design places with. The downside is that it tends to force your hand a bit as a settlement developer as, once you've sculpted the land, it's difficult to go back and change your mind. However, the upside is that you should have a ready-made set of cells with generated features already provided that you can then clear out as you see fit.

So I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of what I've been toying around with: my initial concept design for Helstrom in height-map form. Just ignore the rock as I use this to move quicker and more nimbly around the landscape whilst in the CS.

You can see that the opening will consist of marshlands. These areas will be covered in quicksand and I intend to place some sort of blockage or gate over the thin, walkable strip that only enables access to the city once certain conditions are met.

The city itself makes use of the natural walls of the Arnesian jungle highlands. I was thinking there might be parts that are accessible via other methods but that these doors might well also be closed shut via either magical or other means but perhaps they don't even appear until you get past a certain point in the MQ...

This leaves you with a horseshoe shape circled by mountains, a little like Helm's Deep in LOTR but with some notable differences. One of these are the medium-sized plateaus that may support other areas or districts of the city, some parts of which may even run halfway up the mountain so that you gaze out over the city via a 'mountain balcony'. A huge Mayan-style pyramid should lie at the base of the Northernmost mountain with ancient walls cutting off the Vudai marshes from inside.

The idea here is that the area is so inaccessible that it could pass unnoticed. Furthermore, Hist magic might serve to hide it still further which would be an effect easily created by adjusting the LOD and choosing not to show it until up close or, again, perhaps if certain conditions are met.

This should eventually become about 5-6 cells worth of city and perhaps divide itself into 2-3 sections such as Eastern and Western sides with the possible addition of a 'pyramid/mountain retreat' centre. That should be enough for a capital city.

I didn't want to merge this unless I got some feedback. Any thoughts?

[Deeza]

I think this looks fine. I think it would be better if the entrances didn't appear until you'd completed the MQ to a certain stage, otherwise it would seem bizarre that nobody had managed to find it up till now. But the idea of a well-hidden hideaway is a good one (makes me think of Macchu Picchu).

[Xae]

Ah, I love Machu Picchu. Ancient structures are fascinating. We never build massive colossi any more.

It looks and sounds good to me. The actual city planning will be interesting.

Is Helstrom part of the beta region?

[Deeza]

No it's not (sadly). It's not going to be quite where it's marked on the older maps, because we thought that would be much too close to Imperial settlement to be a plausible lost city. It's going to be on the border between Arnesia and Vudai Marsh.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by Xaeaix
Ah, I love Machu Picchu. Ancient structures are fascinating. We never build massive colossi any more.

It looks and sounds good to me. The actual city planning will be interesting.

Yes, I was going to go visit Machu Picchu this summer but I opted for the cheaper Thailand trip in the end. Hopefully, I can afford Machu Picchu next year and bring back some photos! Talking of which, I can upload some of the pics from my Thai trip if anyone's interested...?

I'm hoping that the city planning will maximise use of SG's shrine tileset but SG is snowed under with work. He hopes to return in time to complete his work but we're still wondering if what we want can be accomplished considering his time constraints. We'll definitely need a Mayan-style pyramid (a very important model to us!) and more variation on his initial tileset. Ideally, we'd have a whole new interior tileset for the ruins. Alternatively, one that is small but mergeable with an existing tileset can be chosen. Failing that, we may go with a retex or stick to our current tilesets.

Do you think mr_siika might fancy such a job?