Dungeon Design Strategy

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by Xaeaix
...an ancient creature (never described in-game with the word "ancient") that lives in the swamp...

Or perhaps a 'Hist-memory'...? However, maybe we're leaning too much on the Hist lore there so I kind of like the idea of some kind of primordial creature that only continues to exist through the protective influence of the Hist....I guess we could create a child WS of how it actually used to be if this were to develop into a questline. It would work in the same way as the cities do. Click on a door but instead of going through the door, you are transported to the creature's reality and the landscape alters around you....

[Deeza]

That would be pure awesomeness.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by Deeza
That would be pure awesomeness.

=)

I directed B2M to this section of the discussion which has now strayed off-topic from the original discussion on Dungeons. Could anyone else who wishes to comment on this matter please direct any further comments here: BWRS0103 "Glenbridge" (Claimed) just for easy reference?

Returning to the 'Dungeons' issue, I had considered working with the SI crystals to create something like the now-quite-famous crystal caves beneath Mexico: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...tals-cave/ . This should be relatively easy to do but I'm not sure how it would end up looking....I'd just have to experiment....

[Koniption]

Making crystal caves sounds fun. You could have natural crystal bridges, crystal obstacles, crystal lights, etc, etc. It'd be nice to have various crystal caves that offer the mineral and rock ingredient alternative. Not all ingredients for things come from plants, after all. I can totally see finding things like sulfur (is an explosives ingredient...I think), formations of salt rocks (to get salt from), atc.

I looked at this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral

And here for the minerals/rocks that had more practical uses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_minerals

And here for a comprehensive list of minerals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals_(complete)

But doing decorative crystals is also a good idea. If you go with the idea, I'd suggest including one or more "harvestable" mineral types in the caves, too. In some caves you could get sulfur and something else, and in the other cave, you could get salt and something else.

Koniption

[DoZeNt]

there can be some caves like in The Lost Spires...

They look very nice!

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks for the input from both of you. I might even be able to get liquidgraph (the original creator of Lost Spires) partially involved somehow if we choose to go for LS2. His story is kind of a blend of the Cthulhu mythos and Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', both of which have jungle settings....so it would be easy to develop a storyline for me just by looking back at those books and considering BM lore....but the idea is open to anyone interested in developing this.

Yes, the crystal caves would be cool. A pity we're all busy on other stuff right now or else it would be something I'd try experimenting with.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I'm wondering whether to go ahead fully with the Lost Spires stuff and have the Spire ruins themselves or just stick with the Primeval Hollow cave set. The Primeval set would perfectly meet our needs for mossy, wet jungle-like dungeons but the Spires are better for introducing an LS-inspired storyline. The Primeval set only comes to about 30Mb (including meshes and textures) but then we'll need some of the clutter models to give it the best possible look.

I'm wary of overloading the filesize again. I think I may just stick with the Primeval sets and merely allude to the Lost Spires in-game through the storylines. I've checked out the layout of 'Primeval Hollow' and it's a picture-book description of how to make a great dungeon. As mentioned earlier, Koniption may be able to make this a little more spidery when we focus on dungeons a little more. Any opinions?

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
I'm wondering whether to go ahead fully with the Lost Spires stuff and have the Spire ruins themselves or just stick with the Primeval Hollow cave set.

I know you want to do the Lost Spires stuff, but I think it should be saved for an optional addon. Until then, I think you should refer to its storyline just a tiny bit in Dialogue, if you really need to. I hope I'm not dashing your dreams or anything, heh.

I'm wary of overloading the filesize again. [...] As mentioned earlier, Koniption may be able to make this a little more spidery when we focus on dungeons a little more. Any opinions?

Yeah, we have to be careful or what future assets we add. Pick assets/future models that will give us the most out of them. Stuff with multipurpose uses are a good thing.

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks for confirming what I was thinking, Koniption. My personal affiliations with Lost Spires were clouding my judgement, methinks. Still, I think the 'Primeval Hollow' cave set would be a really good choice for the mod.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Edolsian has agreed to allow us to integrate his dungeons for use as secondary dungeons i.e. those not directly related to quests but merely there to provide extra challenge in our landscapes. I need to check this with him but I think he's okay with us slightly modifying the layouts to make them fit with our overall gameplan of how dungeons in the Black Marshes might look. In such cases, the tilesets might reflect the Lost Spires 'Primeval Hollow' design which are much more marsh-like, the creatures would, of course, match our own and there would be subtle additions to add to the sense of 'Argonicity' (to coin a phrase).

The idea is that this would speed up development and allow us to concentrate on the more fun stuff without sacrificing quality or resorting to tired vanilla formulas. Here is the link to the dungeons in question: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/Vi...g&id=13225 .

All those in favour, say 'Aye'! All those not in favour, say 'Nay'!