Map and Terrain

[Greendogo]

Before any exterior work can begin, we need to collect several art assets (it has its own thread) and plan a design and layout of the island before we get started. So we'll do that here.

If you are interested in helping to design the island or a smaller section of the island, please feel free to submit your designs. Drawings done both by hand and on the computer are fine, so long as you can get your ideas across. Labels and a description would be helpful!

I think we'll be able to tell when we have a general layout that works for us, and then we can work out any revisions to it. This needs to be combined with working out the cell dimensions of the island.

Once we have something that works, we can open up the source plugin file and setup the regions and wilderness areas. From there we can get the islands shape lifted to above the ocean to give the idea of the islands outline. Then once we figure out where the town, dungeon and crypt areas go (or whatever we've decided to make by that point) we can start handing out exterior cells to interested parties.

[Greendogo]

I'll start with what I posted in the other thread:
Here's my take on the Island, you can zoom in to see more detail (right-click and open in a new window/tab and use ctrl+ to zoom):

There's the town up north, the crypt and graveyard are in the swamp to the west, the dungeon is in the forest through the mountain pass to the south and the central area is a shrine of some sort. The town has several regular docks and a lighthouse to the north-east corner of the bay. This version is drawn at a more detailed level than would be in our plugin, as we don't want to create something so large that we'd never finish it in time.

Someone on the other thread pointed out that the mountains would be too huge to put on what is supposed to be a tiny island, so just take the picture with a grain of salt and interpret it creatively

[hircine]

I like it, the mountains depicted could just be rocky hills, rather than proper big mountains. Difficult/Not possible to climb for the Player.

I really don't like the look of the swarms of Cliff racers on the water.

[leobloom]

I think the number of houses is too high. At the moment there are about 20, and they would all require individual detailing and npc creation (~2 per house). That is more work than we need to do to create a showcase (albeit a fun-to-play one).
The lighthouse is good because it will allow the player to reach a very high point and demonstrate the seamless LOD the engine will have. The rocks that block of the village from the rest of the island should probably go though.

Before we consider designing any quests it would be good to know how this will play in terms of lore. Is this an island off Tamriel? Are the people there aware of Morrowind? Or are we making this completely independent in which case it will be necessary to create a small backstory for the island.

[hircine]

IMO, it should be completely separate, nothing related to Tamriel. We don't have to go too far in-depth, just enough to showcase all the working features of the game Engine.

Edit: Also, we probably will have to, as all names etc related to Morrowind are copyrighted etc. so it would be easier from a legal standpoint, just to come up with our own stuff.

[Greendogo]

I opened a new thread for story writing, go ahead and throw your ideas in there.

The number of houses I drew does not actually represent how many houses I expect there to be. We'll make the village fit the island we create.

Also, those trees in the "swamp" were supposed to look like mature and immature willow trees, which I guess I sort of failed at drawing in under 32 pixels a piece. That area doesn't even need to be a swamp, if we decided. Remember, we have permission to use Vurt's trees, so we can be pretty sure we aren't going to be "stuck with suck".

[Tarius]

I like the layout alot. Strikes me as having nothing to do with MW. This should be an ingeneral showcase to show that you can use this for stuff that has nothing to do with MW.

As for house number etc, I highly suggest that all the basic stuff be completed first. You put the barebones of what is needed for a good look at things and then you flesh it out.

[ElderTroll]

@Tarius

Couldn't agree more about the design, release early and often.