Skullport Discussion

[indio]

Some of you may recall the series of SP screens I posted a few years back, and I wanted to discuss with the players, as you will be the ones for whom this is built, just how to proceed.

I had a sick day today and spent the entire time in the toolset. I've modified my desk so that I can stand up and work instead of sitting in a chair, and while it's more tiring, it's infinitely better on my legs and back (10 hours behind a desk is simply unhealthy).

Heero has some ideas for rebuilding, and I wanted to begin this thread with this image of SP:



I guess it's fair to say this is how people see it.

I've rebuilt the first section of the city today, and wanted to show some screens of it and get some feedback, especially from Heero, to see if this version of the build is more preferable than the original version I did 3 years ago.

Bear in mind several important factors:

1. It's not done (no decoration, no lighting)
2. I'm a little scratchy
3. I'm quite open to either handing the areas over to Heero for reworking/redesigning, or a complete rebuild

I've attempted to design this new build on the artwork above. What I'm looking for is some idea as to how to proceed. Do I scrub this version and go back to my original, do I hand it over to Heero (who is keen, and from what I gather, very good), or do I carry on. Enough said.

[Swift]

Embedded images arent working, but following their image URLs brings them up.

I dont recall the originals, but that looks awesome

[Heero]

Yes!

I did a few POCs of this a while back. The main trouble with the city is the damn catwalks and multiple levels. I messed around with YATT height maps for a bit with raised platforms corresponding to the edges of the wooden bridge placeables which then connected to the raised portions of the city. This takes an insane amount of planning and much trial and error in the toolset, ESPECIALLY for the port and tradeway areas which are described as simply being buildings stacked atop one another. However, the Heart - which to my understanding is much more 'natural' with buildings built into the rock and pillars - would be MUCH easier to make look nice with stacked placeables built into raised terrain and having walkable, wooden bridges running between.

All that being said, I like the look of the area in these screen shots MUCH better than whatever build of the mod I was looking at in the past. I wouldnt even think youd need to bother with the the second 'layer' of housing and catwalks here; so long as you have room for the places of interest you wish to add, youd be golden. For the cavern walls you can use those cliff placeables stretched really high. The height change in the city look really good too - it gives it a sense of being built upwards.

Anyway, I didnt mean to make you scrap your work. Now everyone is going to add 'jerk' to the growing list of adjectives to describe me (along with n00b, creepy, annoying, animal....hmmm...what others were there?). I can offer my help, if you like, but there is a list of thing I have promised that I need to finish before I start on anything (that Ive been slacking in building - and, no, Im not speaking of the drow city).

[indio]

Haha! Not at all...you didn't make me scrap it...truth is, since I learned how to use YATT (and yes, it is a pain in the bum), building exteriors has been a lot more pleasureable than attempting to use the terrain tools. Once I'd started on it, I remembered how much fun it was to build, so nothing has been wasted.

All good then. I will continue with this new build. Thanks.

[CloudDancing]

All the interiors I made for Faeryl are in the FTP folder along with all of Faeyrls work.

[Castano]

I recently received a PM about some cool looking platform placeables with houses on them, e.g. piers with buildings etc. that wold be VERY useful.

Please rally to get these into the alfa haks.

Keep in mind nwn2 has only one walkable layer, no matter the height, so no walking under bridges. that said you can put walkable platforms on top of rows of houses and try and replicate the look

[indio]

I've fought innumerable battles with walkmesh over the years, so you're advice is well taken. I will canvas for the haks. Better go and look for it

[paazin]

I recently received a PM about some cool looking platform placeables with houses on them, e.g. piers with buildings etc. that wold be VERY useful.

Please rally to get these into the alfa haks.

Keep in mind nwn2 has only one walkable layer, no matter the height, so no walking under bridges. that said you can put walkable platforms on top of rows of houses and try and replicate the look

What's good for this are little "tunnels" and "passageways" that maybe take you to an interior area or just insta-warp you over.

[indio]

Aye to that, paazin.

The original skullport walkways used small floating magical orbs at the end of each RWS bridge section that were typically aligned above placed buildings below. Click on the placeable and it would transport you across the gap to the next walkway, to allow the ground level mesh to continue without interruption.

Multi level walkmesh is problematic mainly for players though. It makes point and click navigation more difficult, and sometimes you click on the 2nd tier walkmesh instead of the ground, or more annoyingly, you can get your desired click location to become available without using WASD to wriggle into proper position...hard to describe, easy enough to know the feeling in game.

That said, I love building in multi layers...and will be attempting to do so again on this build.