POLL on Building

Question up for discussion - please post your vote on whether you think we should build at 1/2 scale this would mean scaling everything in your areas to half their size and using less items like trees but it would mean a 32x32 area would feel like a 64x64 to players - great examples of areas to use these on would be the Dragonspine mountians, the swamplands, the elven valley etc...


We can set players to resize for areas that are already finished within the transition as they enter the area....


So post now so that no more areas get built without the decision.....

Hmm, I can make an arguement both ways for this. On the one hand, half-scaling the exterior areas will make building areas faster. We will be able to get mroe of the map done and it should make maintenance easier as well. In using less objects like trees, it will also reduce the graphical footprint and make the whole game run smoother. THe tradeoff however, the levels might look too bland unless we use some creative placement.

On the other hand, making the maps full scale will allow us to place more content and not have the maps look too crammed. This will be especially important for any events that are planned and give the world a sense of massiveness. THe tradeoff for this is the graphics might need to be turned down for a few of the areas.

SO, for me, I could go either way.

don't quote me but at half scale ... and creative building ... areas can be jsut as rich -

example I am building an elven valley - long winding river and waterfalls with a gorge and on the hilltop much like Rivendell in LOTR the elven city on a cliffside

By using the gorge and hills and plains with trees in the distance as say the wall of trees placeable which is just a flat plane, and using trees only in the city and foreground areas where walk paths are _ i can create an area that players only have to load once as opposed to 3 or 4 areas loading as you transition thru and this area can have rich detail strategically placed (placed in view of players)

Just a thought of how we are considering building at half scale, less loading times and builders will have to be creative with where they place items liek trees..

I've been looking into the scripting to see about re-scaling a player down to half size once they enter an area, but as yet haven't had too much luck. It should be possible, and might require a "work-around" but if so, having essentially double the area space to build in will result in areas/worlds that seem larger that possible. Finally players will get to experience the passing of time as they work on a quest that runs them from one "edge of the world to the other" or as close as we can approximate that.

The built-in size limitation of areas restricted to 32x32 "tiles" is still in place, but if we can be creative enough to work around those limitations we can really immerse players into their areas and make them feel like they are inside the world.

I am for the idea of building areas at half-scale to allow not necessarily for more content, but for more continuous playing. Doing areas like this, two or even up to four areas could be combined into one, allowing players on quests or even just adventuring to have a sense of awe as they roam about. Heh, players would have a very long way to run to get away from attacking monsters, not just a quick hop to the edge and *bam!* transitioned into the next area.

Yup, I'll keep on it trying to find the best way to get this done.

-Velkyn

** UPDATE **

Yes, scripting is in place to handle the re-scaling of PCs upon entering areas and setting their scale to the appropriate size. PCs that move to an exterior area will be set to half-scale and when they enter an interior area they will be set to full-plate... I mean full-scale.

Exterior Areas can continue being built at half-scale in order to increase the perceived size of the levels by the PCs.

HUZZAH!

-Velkyn