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This doesn't look otherworldly. Help me out, would you?

Nathaniel3W

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I need to make a level that looks forboding, inhospitable, dangerous, otherworldly. It shouldn't be too barren and lifeless, but I wasn't looking for anything too verdant either. I was kind of thinking something along the lines of Shadow of Mordor. In my story structure, this is the start of act 2 where the player has crossed the threshold and everything is different and there's no going back. Therefore the world has to be totally different from the world they came from, but it has to invite exploration rather than evoke a paralyzing fear.

I started off with this, which I thought was a good place to start:

HS_Shadowland_02.jpg


I figured that landscape base looked pretty inhospitable and otherworldly, but also really boring and monochromatic. It needed something more, and I don't think I've improved on it. This is what we have now, and I think it just looks like a boring, dry, colorless African savanna.

HS_Shadowland_03.jpg


My first draft was going to be a lot more forboding...

HS_Shadowland_01.jpg


...but I quickly decided that was too dramatic for the start of the second act. Lava levels are something you should only see later in the game.

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong template. Maybe I should be going for more of a Warcraft's Silverpine Forest:

latest


Can any of you give me some suggestions? What should I do to make this level more interesting and colorful, without making it too playful and verdant?
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'll suggest looking at early maps of the Kenshi game, it has a neat desert.

Some of that Mad Max could work in your favour maybe, where a good part of the desert is a former sea bed, with dead corals and what not.

As for other influences, I'll see if I can dig up some of the desert descriptions in Black Company.
 

Egosphere

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Just off the top of my head, a couple of decent barren environments that look inhospitable but still pretty interesting to explore:

void04.gif


latest


(maybe just replace the water with dirt or sand of a darker texture )
 

vlzvl

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I think an easy way to make your level otherwordly is to play with weird sky colors.
Weird sky colors makes you feeling unsafe, no matter the environment's elements i.e. trees or hills.
In addition vast, desert-like, inhabitable areas and/or dead trees would enhance the weirdness for me.
Exploring such places is the least you could do :)
 

Nathaniel3W

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vlzvl thanks, yeah, I started thinking that too after taking a look at some more WoW zones. One of the things they do that really affects the mood of each zone is playing with the sky and fog colors. I'm thinking purple is a good color for an otherworldly daytime sky.

I'll increase the density of dead trees and see how that looks. I'll also increase their random tilt and see how that looks.

Thanks for the advice.
 

Nathaniel3W

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I had to get some help with the pictures Bocian posted with right-click "Search Google for this image." Ah yes, Ash Lake from Dark Souls. Surprising how much character they put in there when the whole map is basically a narrow strip of beach. The unnatural glowing ceiling and the blue fog really make it feel magical.
 

laclongquan

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Make a freaking swamp the size of a whole map.

Some patch of it you use sickly color like purple to signal poison status.

Some patch of it you use bright color to signal hypnotize/illusion/high. enemy's illusion spell double effect and yours halved (because environmental effect)

Some patch of it you have normal color just to fuck with players.

Spread across the swamp is some clump of water vegetation with (predetermined at each original loading of map) chance of spawning enemy or traps. So this 33x:62y clump may have trap in one run, but nothing in the next, and bunch of ambushers enemy in the after that.

How about that?
 

AdolfSatan

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I think going overboard with the weird colours will give it too much of a fantastic vibe to make it feel menacing.

This is what first comes to mind when I think inhospitable and otherworldly.

A frozen tundra set in a perpetual twilight. Add some unexplained ruins, some crude shanties that seems recently abandoned, and you're set.
 

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