WIP and finished screenshots

[Rinpun]

Very nice. Now, onto what you need:

Image 3 -- Farm --

Pretty good, but what's with the rock wall? Spread some rocks randomly around the farm to make it look realistic.

I don't know about your chickens either--you only really need 4 or 5 to get the idea.

And how about some sheaves of picked grain? Basically a haystack or two.

Image 4 -- Starting out Area --

I'm sure you know this, but this could use the most work.

Fountain should have some kind of tile texture below it--nobody builds these things on grass. Perhaps you could switch it off for a scaled up Well?

And it could use a lot of scenery. Flowers and shrubs anyone? Bushes maybe?

(Well, Bushes and Shrubs ARE the same thing, but in the editor they are not )

Shouldn't you make a tiny VERY scaled down church to go too? Who doesn't like a tiny cathedral near the starting point? It makes for a modest little spot on the map.

A mortal, insignificant priest shapes a divine, omnipotent entity? I thought you to claim that the Almighty One created us?

So what is the relevance of this according to what he's doing? Oh, heh, you changed it to stop the flames

 

[XXXconanXXX]

I'm thinking about removing the group of soldiers or at least moving them. They're right in the middle of the town, and it does look a little odd. If I do keep them, I'll use your suggestion Mind.

A mortal, insignificant priest shapes a divine, omnipotent entity? I thought you to claim that the Almighty One created us?

I will ignore this as I fail to see what this flame has to do with the basic idea of this thread.

After you finish a certain quest you summon your god who's a powerful tank and takes almost the whole team to defeat. (basically he's a hero with high armor and high hit points but average 50 damage )

 

[Rinpun]

HAHA very funny.He's summoning an almighty being not creating one. It's the same concept as Kel'Thuzad summoning Archimonde, he didn't create him. I don't necessarily know what the story behind that one is, but I do know how he fits with the gameplay. After you finish a certain quest you summon your god who's a powerful tank and takes almost the whole team to defeat. (basically he's a hero with high armor and high hit points but average 50 damage )

However, I really don't see the intelligence behind it anyway.

An almighty God ISN'T almighty in the game?

I seriously suggest you change it into a DEMIGOD which has vast amounts of power, but isn't almighty. Even the Titans or Archimonde would more be called Demigods. Warcraft III doesn't seem to have a God--but if there is one, he created the Titans.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

I posted my last post right after you did Rinpun.

Good suggestion about the Farm, but as I said, this is a WIP so it's very bland, I just needed to get the basic ideas through.

The stone wall is there to signify where the starting area is and is a 'line' between the different scenes.

Good idea. I was thinking an altar or something but I am definately going to add a holy place where heroes can pray which I have no clue as to what it is going to do at this point.

[EDIT]Demigod, god, same difference hehe. Well yes he's going to be a demigod, and as I said I have no clue what the story is going to be behind him. I'm thinking about removing Arthas as one of the selectable heroes and make him the Demigod that spawns. (don't ask me why he's spawning for the Humans as you'll find out when the map is released)

 

[Rinpun]

*Sigh* We keep posting at the same time as each other so we're both a step behind!



Well, I will respond to what you've said.

Aight, but shouldn't it be more of a tile wall? Maybe the houses should have tiled floor underneath. But maybe not--it IS your choice.

That would be nice. Perhaps you can then either have a Prayer Skill apart of every hero, add it to just a Holy Paladin, or just have a random number to signal what happens. It would be cool to have a Dialog saying "What to Pray for?"

You could have these

Help -- Every good unit across the map (have range 99999) gets a +2 armor divine aura.

Healing -- Choose several non-hero units with low health and give them a long range healing wave.

Guidance -- Perhaps control some random ally computer units to direct them in battle better?

Might -- Either cast a basic flamestrike of sorts on the enemy or perhaps "Confuse" computer enemies and make them attack each other for 5-10 seconds.


-------------------------------------------------------

Demigod -- Half-God

God -- Almighty Being.

Therefore, they're not they same thing. Demigods are beatable, Gods are not--unless they face other Gods. Maybe you should make their armor Divine and give only Gods Chaos damage.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Here's 2 more screenshots. Didn't change much, except move the group of soldiers and spread them out. I also added a graveyard which isn't anything special, just felt like posting it.

Please, I don't need off-topic posts in this thread. I'm not saying this thread is totally about me, but I don't want posts that are way off what the discussion is about and other stuff like flaming me for things that are not even relevant to what the thread is about.

 

[Rinpun]

Your Graveyard should be surrounded by some trees and rocks. I don't see much else in the pic

 

[Cyclical]

Here are some initial thoughts

General:

*Too many 90-degree angles. If I were you I'd change it so that everything isn't laid out with flush edges that emulate the grid underneath. Keep in mind, you're building a medieval-style town, and they were very rarely laid out along neat, intersecting survey lines. Try and forget that you're looking down on it; shift your camera angle down into it and set up good shots.

*Land's awfully flat. Mix it up a little. Remember, we're talking about a world without excavation or earth-moving equipment. Granted, they do have the benefit of magic, but you don't want to overuse that excuse. Hills and dales, boyo. Hills and dales.

*Mix up your treeline a bit. Add some areas that jut out, some that recede. Put in a place where there's a bunch of stumps. Make it look like this place was cut out of the unwilling wilderness - the way Ye Olde Tyme towns were.

I won't address pic #1 since you've changed it.

Pic #2:
The concept is great, but again, I would consider rotating it off of the 90 deg. base. That way you'll be able to see the red of the bulls-eyes, which will look much better than a bunch of nondescript bales. Action is more interesting when it appears more random.
Also, are you using those boulders as rock walls? If so, I recommend you either place an active Geomancer in your game, or scale down those rocks. It looks too much like the everyday citizenry constructs Stonehenges just to keep their sheep in.

Pic #3:
Keep this one along the 90 deg. lines; it looks good. I would advise, however, that you lower the land that the farm's on, and place it in between two hills. The land's often best in low areas, and while most people don't actively know that, they're used to seeing it and will think it strange if it's different. To add interest, you could also noise the field a little (just this once ).

Pic #4:
I like this very much - it has a great sleepy little town feel to it. I would recommend that you make the area around the fountain either stone or dirt. After all, a fountain was often a very sociable place in a Medieval town. The constant feet walking around it would certainly kill the grass. You could also make it stone - cobbled, of course, to keep the feeling. Tile would feel too "big city". Also, raise up that area. Make it on a hill. Often the governance of a town was built on a hill, from which everything could be seen. No need to deviate. A path would be good too.

Pic #5:
Much better than the previous formation. However, I would concur with Mind's advice - that you limit yourself to one Captain to a company. And perhaps a few Knights to guard the flanks? That, of course, depends on whether you want Knights to be there at all. Priests in the back is definitely the way to go.

Pic #6:
The perfect place for a Cathedral doodad if ever I've seen one. Seriously. Put it off to the right. It will look superb. And pathing-wise, if the Heroes respawn in there, be certain they don't get hemmed in by graves. That would be obnoxious.

Jeez, hope I didn't go overboard. If it felt like I'm tearing it to pieces, I'm not. It's certainly a good start; room to improve, but a good start. Well done.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

That's exactly what I'm looking for.

The practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works.

Thank you for all your comments. I will be using them. I'm thinking about changing the scene to more of a 'Castle' where there lots of Peasants living inside of guard walls.

 

[adjl]

ever fix the issue of the camera sticking to unit height?

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Here a few more. I have rebuilt the Human fortress with your suggestions. As I said before, these are very early WIPs so I haven't added pretty things like flowers and environmental things, I'm just trying to get the basic structure of the fortress down. I tried getting as much as possible in the screenshots but sacrificed detail, so tell me if you can see everything alright.

*Yawn* time for bed *sleepy face*, been up for waaay to long.

 

[Rinpun]

Whoo, very nice yet again! But still....

~Picture 1~

Why is the Priest kind of perched in front of the little village and next to the farm? Is he begging for food while summoning or something?? Maybe you should put him closer to the Graveyard.

~Picture 2~

You need a Church below that Graveyard

~Picture 3~

So the walls are big and the towers are tiny? Hmmmmm....

I too, am going to bed. I just upgraded my Halo Wraith at www.wc3sear.ch.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Thank you all very much for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated, and I WILL b using your suggestions, without you, my fortresses would look pretty bad.

So please don't stop, as even if only one person comments on it and how it could be better, I still appreciate it. So don't think I don't care, because I really love your feedback.

I will be showing more soon, as I'm working on a Night Elf fortress right now.

 

[Cyclical]

Hehehe, I think a few more smiley faces would've gotten your point across better

There's nothing I can say that Rinpun didn't: Priest is odd, Church for graveyard, Make towers bigger. Oh. And more houses. The ones that are there look great; now put down twice as many.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Does this look even to you? they are constantly moving around and using their different animations, so I couldn't tell. I placed them on a spot that wasn't terrained, so they are just on a non-terrained spot. I placed the Abominations in the back because they are huge, the peeps behind them wouldn't be able to see.

I'm using these formations just for a small cutscene in the beginning of the map, to explain the basic story.

 

[Rinpun]

What are the things behind the Ghouls?

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Burning Archers. They're hidden archers and can only be accessed through WE Unlimited. I use them in my spawns and I have a hero based off that model, I might overdo it but they are just so darn cute Same with my precious little Abominations.

Just look at those cute Abominations, doesn't it just make you wanna get in the game and hug them?

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Picture 3

The buildings are isolated by themselves. May I suggest?

-A few flowers or weeds around the edges of buildings
-A dirt circle around the buildings (notice, the grass goes underneath
-Maybe connect the buildings with dirt as well, like paths

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Thank you Ryoko, that's a good idea. Yea I need to add more city buildings, and maybe make thema little more proper. They do look weird right now, since they're by themselves and I don't have many doodads around them.

Here's 2 more pictures of a Human Encampment which is used as a quest to raze the Undead Encampment nearby. I decided to use the Human formation for this Encampment. Tell me what you think of it, and what I should add. To me, it still doesn't look right but I can't seem to find what to add. This encampement is on a portion of the map that I haven't populated yet, so the only thing there is an arch of trees with an encampement . I might spread the trees out later, to fit into the rest of the map. Tell me if I overused the canopy trees, because I was trying for foresty look. I might do what Iron_Ian did with his The Tale of Archon series, as that's where most of my terraining inspiration came from. I like how he carressed the Orc and Undead encampment in a corner o the map so perfectly.

I'm still trying to find a way to make it feel like it's tucked away in the forst, since I can't use any of the sides or corners of the map as that's where the fortresses lay and it would be directly where the spawns go through.

 

[Suicide_Note]

for your abomination problem, why not file 2 rows down the sides? indstead of in the back.