How did the Ojaveda hills form?

[zanzibar]

The Ojaveda hills have a very unnatural topography.  Sometimes it seems like hills, in other places there are ridges, and in other places there are full-blown pits for lack of a better place.

How did they form?

[Kiirani]

Three gods got together and made a world in a stalagtite.

Or, if you prefer, a bunch of devs made a dark and strange place to torture enki\'s whenever they die and want to be in hydlaa.

[zanzibar]

Ok.  There\'s no real reason for it.  But what justification is there?  They seem really unnatural.  What I\'m getting at is - what were the devs thinking?  What was their plan?

[LigH]

From the point of a 3D engine programmer:

It is not wise to create a very detailed and ridged surface, because in the far distance, the details get reduced (to save calculation powers), and the \"Level of Detail\" changes would pop around remarkably with too many details.

Also, it is wise to reduce the lines of sight - the less one can see, the less it must be calculated, the faster it renders.

Furthermore, from the point of a game developer:

A player should not see the whole place at once. He needs time to learn the topology. He shall be afraid to get lost, until he can afford to explore. Therefore, it was a good idea to make the road like a deep valey, hard to climb except for a few places.

Finally, from the point of a citizen:

At some places, dirt rinsed from the ceiling of the hollow stalag, being dragged around by some wind inside, probably. This way, hills formed over thousands of years - steeper here, flatter there. Maybe even a river streamed through the hills once (and probably created the first hole in the Jade Gate of Korogan - the hollow stalag portal), but now everything is dry there.

I hope that this is a good explanation for everyone who would like to accept it, at least partially. I don\'t like to make such efforts for people who love to query and deny everything...

__

A word to the developers:

There must be different heightfield maps to a) display the hills, b) calculate the walking height. Sometimes I walk up into thin air, sometimes I walk down through the ground. I investigated the zip file and found 4 distinct heightmap images, and they differed slightly.

[zanzibar]

Now THOSE are some hills I would like to see in the game.

[Draklar]

At first you had me confused, thinking you talk about some hills in the actual Ojaveda... Which was odd.

But anyway, was there enough time since Talad and Laanx found the stalactite for natural ways to form the landscape?

[Avarus]

The hills just are huge turtles who put their heads into the sand. That\'s a good explaination for the continualy changing landscape (that\'s why I get lost all the time...)

[Nikodemus]

Originally posted by Draklar
But anyway, was there enough time since Talad and Laanx found the stalactite for natural ways to form the landscape?

As far as i remember, Laanx and Talad found a place and started forming Yliakum cave. We don\'t know how much time it took them to crush the rock, create dirt and make somehink to grow on it. I\'d say they needed a lot time to do it. Obviously they were using spells, what if they used spells which made the time pass faster and watch what is happening?
Then the races started arriving, they set new callendar and we have year 750 now.

So, since the first days of Yliakum being formed, it could flew enough time that the rivers been one of the biggest factor in the process of creating the landcape.
But the fact is, we know so little, it is incredibly hard to be ceratian of anythink. Like: is it possible that clouds form and it is raining? Or no rain? We can only gues, nothing more in my opinion.

[Draklar]

Eh, in the end that doesn\'t answer my question, as it\'s purely assumption. Landscape just as well could be formed in a non-natural ways, like with magic used by Talad and Laanx.

[Nikodemus]

Of course it could be and if so, it should have big impact on the landscape, but all the weather enviroment and water should have its importance too.
I was wondering before how the landscape could have been formed, mainly because if i were to create 3D one for PS i would be happy to know this. Randomly generated landscape dont draw smile on my face

[Draklar]

The thing about natural shaping of landscape is that it\'s different in Yliakum than in real life. Could mountains in the former be formed as a natural effect?
If we assume those exist, then I think they were created by the gods. And if one thing was created by those, why not the other?

[Nikodemus]

Yea, I don\'t expect mountains. Maybe only half mountains at the outer edges of each level - relicts of not crushed rock, that high as each level is. (I imagine it as 1-5km high. Yay 8*1~5 give quite a height.) It must not be a vertical wall.
But otherwise i expect only low long hills created by the water.

[Xordan]

Talad said: \"Let there be hills!\"
And there were hills.


Straight from the Bible.

[Keyaz]

leaving korogan pass and turning left is that other stalagmite, and behind it a huge crater... well simply enough explained, this was man made.

yep, one man made it.

just one!

who?

UtM\'s Arnigus.... ayup... he sat down there

[Pestilence]

hmm how could mountains exist? Well one way would ofcourse water on two sides eroding things and at one place less making that place higher becuase it eroded less, but on the other side we aren\'t sure if Yliakum was as stable as it is right now so perhaps the planes shifted and the \"ground\" got compressed and earth was pressed upwards.

Other explanation could ofcourse be a magicwar. With the ruins a story like this could fit nicely