Guess whos been helping ;)

[llamaranger]

It's me!

though not really in a super fun way, as I now have almost* all the resources, I thought I had better take a look around. This served two purposes, firstly to take some pretty pictures we might want to use for promotion, secondly as a sort of beta test.

From the top (places I visited in order):

Long Harrow Lagoon

Awesome. one thing to add, the scum ground texture may have been a little over used, and some areas could do with a little bit of vertex shading.



Pholmolo Village

Looks really cool, but suffers from severe lag my framerate dropped to about 15fps on arrival. This is bad. I think I'm probably to blame though, those reedhuts were some of the first models I ever did, and as such they aren't very elegant (polycount wise). I'd say cut it down to 1-2 reedhuts in pholmolo, then fill in the gaps with the mudhuts. in fact, I'll try this soon and see if it makes a difference.

Outside of pholomol was awesome btw, when I walked out I was like:

THIS IS BLACK MARSH YEEEEEEHHHHH!!!!!





Seafalls

This also suffured a little from lag, it might just be too cluttered for an open town. Maybe remove a few of the cluttering roots, and definitely get rid of the harrada roots, its lore-breaking for them to be found outside the planes of oblivion methinks.

(no pics)

Sloughpoint

Nice simple town, had a good marshy feel. I'm missing the rootworm texture atm though

Rockguard

Another good solid town, I liked the curvy bridge. One thing I might add though, perhaps swap the mania pillar in the middle for a custom mesh, or retexture, because those pillars are particularly identifyable, people will see them and instantly recognise it as a SI resource.

Tenmar Wall

I'll start with the inside. It was really nice, a bit laggy in places though, maybe tone down the ambient lighting a bit, I was expecting it to be grottier. I'd suggest getting rid of some of the interior type items, like some of the random bottles, and maybe the minotaur head... maybe.

Outside was cool and ran smoothly, however, you can't walk straight up the steps, which means that NPCs wont be able to get up the steps, obviously this needs to be fixed.



Stormhold

Really nice, very well built and with some interesting upper levels and such. Only thing that must be mentioned is the palm trees, palm trees absolutely do not belong in stormhold. Sorry, I thought the Mania trees were a bit bright as well, but the palm trees were just wrong. Save em for further south.


Thats pretty much all I have to say beta test wise, I realise all this is still WIP, but stuff like framerate needs to be adressed early, otherwise we're just gonna keep adding stuff and its going to get laggier before we do anything about it.

I also know it sucks to be criticised, even if I'm trying to do it constructively, but please don't be offended, I am trying to help point out things that would improve it.


And to end on a lighter note:

Soulrest



Enjoy

*IG: part 3 broke halfway through, I tried it again several times, but no luck. I am only missing textures for Koniptons architecture and clutter, and the rootworm texs, would it be possible to get hold of those?

x

Edd

[Koniption]

Whooot-age! Those screenies are cool!

Thank you a lot for the report on the various areas, llamaranger, tis appreciated.
Btw, I sent you a PM.

Koniption

[Senten]

Nice progress guys,you are better and better.

`Senten

[sHAdowgAme]

WOW. I can't wait to play this.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hey, I'm gone for a couple of days and llamaranger takes control!

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Just FYI: KP is handling the FPS issues by undertaking an audit of the assets. However, points that you raised such as the reed huts are under review. Whilst KP deals with the mesh issues, I'm looking at filesize and I'm not sure that having three separate reedhuts with different colours is warranted in terms of our filesize. Moreover, the floor texture for the insides is unnecessarily huge. Consequently, we'll need to cut a little but I'd like to work with you on what gets kept so we can have them looking as good as we can.

Some very useful comments. I'll take those onboard. I've been meaning to sort out the stairs near Tenmar for a while. It just took me a while to set up the rocks and I liked the way it looked so I got lazy.... hrug:. The minotaur head etc. was an initial attempt to characterise the town which eventually led to me creating the 'city planning' claims in the claims section. That's what needs to be done.

I liked the palm trees in Stormhold..... lap:....they match up with the Jungle so I figured they worked in the city but I think I get your point....do you think it looks too tropical? I could switch to Weeping Willows, I guess....and maybe Hala trees. These are all classified as 'jungle trees' in my preset for the region. Of course, there's no stopping us planting non-regional varieties in cities.

Soulrest - A breath of fresh air! :banana:

Great Kothringi architecture! Nice use of the rocks. However, I may need to switch / retexture some rocks as I haven't entirely decided on the general look for the region....but I'll try to ensure it doesn't interfere with your general designs. Anyway, I'll try to get back to you and work with you on it.....thanks, llamaranger!

[llamaranger]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Just FYI: KP is handling the FPS issues by undertaking an audit of the assets. However, points that you raised such as the reed huts are under review. Whilst KP deals with the mesh issues, I'm looking at filesize and I'm not sure that having three separate reedhuts with different colours is warranted in terms of our filesize. Moreover, the floor texture for the insides is unnecessarily huge. Consequently, we'll need to cut a little but I'd like to work with you on what gets kept so we can have them looking as good as we can.

Konipton pm'ed me about this.

Thus far I've managed to cut the polycount in half on almost almost all my exterior hut models, and with addition of vertex shading, actually made them look better as well. This has meant a reduction in filesize in most cases, I'm going to sort out textures as well and texture size, as the normal maps are still being a bit... odd.

I've also reduced the polycount on the majority of soulrest models interior and exteriors.

However, I'm sad to say that the Kothringi Docks model is going to have to scrapped, I was far to careless when I made it and reducing the polycount is causing serious mesh deformities.

The same is also true of the ShamanFlameHut, which has such a ridiculously high poly count that I can't even load it into Blender without it crashing. I know it has one use in Pholmolo, and after looking as it in Nifskope, I am entirely convinced that this model is largely responsible for the slow down in that area. I sadly suggest it be replaced and then removed from the archives.

Also, Ibsen, could you send me the textures for the rootworm+caves and koniptons turtle huts? Part 3 of the download still refuses to download completely, though I have the others.

I liked the palm trees in Stormhold..... ....they match up with the Jungle so I figured they worked in the city but I think I get your point....do you think it looks too tropical? I could switch to Weeping Willows, I guess....and maybe Hala trees. These are all classified as 'jungle trees' in my preset for the region. Of course, there's no stopping us planting non-regional varieties in cities.

I had another look at stormhold and it just happened to be raining ingame, which totally changed the feel of the place, I think my outrage at the tropical-ness was largely down to the weather, which can obviously be changed later.

Also should I start a new thread in the Claims section for Soulrest development?

x

edd

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I have to say that the Kothringi docks weren't really convincing me at the time so this is okay. A damn pity about the Flame hut though. Hopefully, it should just be a case of replacing it with a more appropriate model.

So do you think that the weather for Stormhold should indeed be more 'stormy'? And that would seem okay? How do you see it exactly?

Yes, a claims thread would be good. That way we'll be able to keep track of developments clearly.

I'm uploading Part 3 of the archive again now. Here's the link: Black Marsh Resources: Latest bsa :check:

[llamaranger]

'True to its name, it was forever raining in Stormhold. The water soaked the very stone itself, seeping into cracks and mortar, so even the interior of the Mages Guild was damp, musty. The Guild itself was composed of nothing but Argonians of a majestic variety, tall and crowned with scaled hoods, horns, spikes, and frills. Their skin were jewelry, male and female alike, flashing blues, greens, reds, orange, and sparkling black.

'Welcome to Stormhold,' the mystic in charge of teleportation, a ruby-colored female Argonian called Seven-Stars greeted each person as he or she arrived. 'I have not been told why you seek it, but the Vaults of Gemin are to the south. If you are lucky, but a few hours away. An infinite distance if your luck is not with you.'

Stormhold was a city of enormous size, set on stilts with covered bridges linking block to block. Beneath it all a black swamp surged and hissed, constantly fed by the rain, flowing southward.

A few miles in any direction, the rain would reduce to a mere mist, but never less than that. It was green, but a pale green, from constant sunless days. The air was heavy, and though some of the swamp flowers had sweet perfumes to lure, it was hard to avoid the pervasive smell of decay.

Whatever lurked in the slow-moving waters between the mud, perhaps it was best not to imagine. '

thats no definitive lore, but it gives a pretty good idea of the weather i think.

If you're wondering what happened to the stilts, TGW and Ku decided that it would be better to have it built on top of the Aeylid ruins, which acted like stilts to keep it sliding into the marsh, so the underground bits of Stormhold need to be really dark, dank and overgrown etc.

x

EDIT: another thing about Tenmar Wall both the interior doors take you out of the same exterior door. The framerate actually isnt so bad in there, but I can imagine it getting worse once NPCs are introduced.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

BOTH interior doors? There are two? ?(

I'll be getting the weather sorted for Stormhold shortly. :check:

[llamaranger]

one at the top and one at the bottom/middle. When you enter you come out at the bottom/middle one, but if you walk up to the top there is another... which takes you out at the same entrance...

The d/l link worked btw, I now have all the resources... yay!