Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Storm of Zehir



Working on Asberdies again after the new addition of the Overland Map to NWN2. This is a lot more intricate than I'd have suspected. Basically this kind of gives you an overview of the area Asberdies takes place in. While it's not even near complete I was asked about how far I was with regards to getting my hands dirty so to speak and this is the beginnings of what I've started with as an overland map.

The area is the area North of Silverymoon with the Moonwoods to the North and the Nether Mountains to the East. Obviously the trees you see in the middle are going to have the foliage cover you see in the Storm of Zehir expansion when going to the forests but you can at least get a good glimpse of the skeleton I have started with and the base texturing I'm laying down.

Here's a closer look at the base texturing...



This is supposed to be taking place in the autumn as you can see by some of my past posts on this, but I won't necessarily be able to do that on the overland map mostly because the placables Obsidian made for the overland map are summer time placables, so I'm going to have to pull off a half assed mix of summer/autumn type texuring.

This is the texturing around Silverymoon and I may still change it, but it's looking overall to be workable. We'll have to see though, it's just a start and I may change my mind.

So far though I think I like it.

Another part I'm very pleased with though...



One of the places I started with was the Nether Mountains since that's one of the locations you'd be going to is the Tomb of Dekan Thar. And I admit that's coming out really well. Silverymoon pass is looking very nice, as is the upper reaches of the Nether Mountains that you'll be going to.

This is the place you'll be going to in order to find another of the Asberdies stones. And you'll come up against Yetis and other assorted snow creatures, assuming I can find them. Thankfully there's now Wights in the game so I can do the Tomb of Dekan Thar properly.

Previously I thought I'd have to do some major cheating on it.

Well that should do it for an update.

10 comments:

Lariam said...

Good to have you back. Also, nice post/thoughts in the SoZ forum with regard to SoZ taking some (more) steps in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

Looks great, I recognized immediately from the first pic the region it shows.

I've been experimenting with making an overland map myself, and thus far it SEEMS that you could probably use the basic tree models scaled down for forests. I think that in large part OEI used the simplified placeables because:

1.) Their overland maps are HUGE.

2.) Their overland map has so much stuff going on constantly that it might slow down otherwise.

SO, what I mean to say is that I encourage you to looking into that option, since it might help you with making that fall-ish look you want.

Good luck with your mod!

Wyrin said...

like dwarvendervish, i knew the area immediately from looking at the first screenshot. looking good.

and glad to see the project back underway

Anonymous said...

Fantastic to see that you are still working on this! TiT was among the first mods that I played for NWN2 and I still replay it. Its that good.

Tauschitz

Lariam said...

Which reminds me: do you know if Tragedy in Tragidor has suffered from the bugs (I'm thinking mainly of the "OnEnter-bug") introduced by SoZ? The next patch should fix that problem, though...

Phoenixus said...

Well I don't believe so Lariam, but honestly I haven't checked. It's entirely possible bugs are affecting it but I haven't seen so from the comments.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

The map looks good already!

I have not started to use the SoZ map system yet, but I do intend to. And reference you wanting the "map" to match the season ... I am not sure if that is really required. After all, it is supposed to be a "map" really. :)

It all depends how critival you want to be reflecting the current season, but I would say that the "map" area does not have to reflect the seasons of the actual area maps. I know I won't be, but that's me. ;)

Lance.

Lariam said...

Thanks. If I try Tragedy in Tragidor before the release of 1.22 I'll let you know how it plays.

Phoenixus said...

Well Lance...

I just took DwarvenDervish's advice and began trying "shrunken" Fall Trees last night.

I have to say it's working spectacularly. It appears I will be able to make a fully autumnized map. I also finished Silverymoon Pass, which is the pass through the Nether Mountains and that looks really good too.

So far no current sticking points, though I keep reaching my texture limit on the palette. Lol I really need 7 textures... not just 6. But I'll make it work somehow.

PS: Thanks Larium

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Now you got me .... ;)

Just hearing your enthusiasm about the results makes me wonder now. LOL!

Maybe I will play around with some maps then ... depends on the time and season. ;)

Lance.