Team Adraax:Official City Design Contest

[Under the moon]

Klyros or any other race would not attack any race city on a large scale. That does not mean flying beasts would not.

[ThomPhoenix]

Are pterosaurs or megaras frequently used during battles?

[Zweitholou]

@Nikodemus
You're right. I was confused, so now I've changed it.


I hope that we can all agree that this is the final. If the main road is somewhat straighter than it was, remember that the quickest way between two point is a straight line. We need to begin the underground map and more extensive concept art. As Nikodemus pointed out, we only have a month left. Also, if someone is good at textures, then I suppose they might could begin on textures if textures are considered part of the 2D contribution.

@ThomPhoenix

In the middle ages it was common to use attack towers to ride up against the walls of a besieged city. The technology in Yliakum is at least at that level, looking at the Winch. So perhaps attacking Klyros would carry a tower with them to glide over or onto the city walls?

Spikes keep the siege tower from latching on to the wall, and archers remove any gliders.

Maybe a silly question by someone who is not following this very much, but why would Klyros attack a Klyros city, in a peaceful world such as Yliakum?

I agree with Baldur, but I'm not sure if the Devs do. If it is not used against attacking Klyros, then, as Under the Moon mentioned, it may be used against flying beasts. Some Carkarasses have been spotted in the level, and also, if tame pterosaurs and megaras exist, then I suppose they would have wild counterparts. ie. dogs and wolves, pigs and boars, etc.

[Baldur]

As promised, a Klyros Watchtower I tried out a similar style to Inca's and did this from scratch in Photoshop. That's why it took so long


Anywho, an idea for a design of a watchtower, incorporating Klyros architecture with Ylian craftmanship. I added the Vigesimi alarm-ramp along with the spikes which could be useful for keeping flying units at a fair distance. The lower section consists of metal to keep the stone-floor up. The top consists of metal. The roof consists of the traditional scales. The windows are small to support ranging units.

If the entrance's 2,5x1 metres the tower's height would be around 15 metres.

Edit: The image seemed to had seemed to have gone somewhere so I relinked it

[Nikodemus]

Zweitholou,
Yes, it looks much better, thx for understanding.
Now, when it looks close to perfect I almost feel bad pointing out little detail :]

I have been wondering, on 3D design and what will happen when you walk by the main road... The more faces you see at once, the lower the FPS.
If the road was to be straight, you will see all the buildings from one gate to another, that's not good. So i propose to curve the road.

Thats the only reason for it to be curved and quite a good one!
You probably don't feel like redrawing it, so i can just warp it like i was doing before if you allow me.

As for textures, they are part of 3d mesh. You can't make mesh without textures and texturs without a mesh if you want both to look good in conjuction.
The phase is called 2d... but i really see no reason to not make screens of meshes, which may come into phase 3d unchanged.
I have already did that with corridor. Yes, you should answer "No" when i asked "can you believe it?" ;P
the same way as 3d artists have something to do in this phase, you will be same as needed in 3d phase as you are now :)

Spikes

are nice, but i would forget about them.
The minimum faces needed for a single spike is 3 + it won't look too well. How many spikes do you except on a 1m³? From your image - a lot. The effect will be very similiar like wth the grass foliage (I'd rather save the faces to make the city walls interior better)
You can use two sided planes for spikes too... but for satisfying effect you still need lots of faces over the walls.

Klyros or any other race would not attack any race city on a large scale. That does not mean flying beasts would not. ;)

I'm with UtM on that one.
Maybe they fought in the past, but it is long long over. Now Yliakum has one geverment and one military, which answers before that goverment. Yliakum people don't fight themselves since very long, if they ever fought to a degree that they attacked fully fortified city.

I think pterosaurs and megaras are definetly used in battle, to bombard enemy and being out of its reach at the same time. 


Great tower!
Damn! I think they would build the bottom as wide as the first balcony and of stone. I think they would use stone from their fine quarries, rather than buy so much metal from somewhere else. That would be really a lot of iron, if count all towers, maybe even more than the Laanx temple itself!

[Zweitholou]

This is a very rough beginning for the underground map. I just thought I would go ahead and get it started. I feel that there are too many corridors. I drew it with a tracing sheet, starting by adding a stairwell to each building or public stairwells in the landing platforms. Then I drew openings for water to rise up through and connected the stairwells to the openings, and the openings to each other.

@Baldur
I think the tower is terrific!  I really like the design. Unfortunately, I must agree with Nikodemus that stone should be used as that is the primary resource and the amount of iron needed would be tremendous. The spikes are well placed too.

@Nikodemus
I am glad to have your criticism as long as it is precise and constructive, which this was.  Without such criticism, I can't correct it.
I had not forgotten why you curved it. I was simply taking your approach of realism. Realisticly, roads covering long distances would be as straight as possible, because it is more efficient. However, from the perspective of a game developer, the road should be curved to avoid reducing FPS. I am fine if you warp if it only affects the immediate surroundings. Otherwise, I might redraw (I'm a perfectionist).

I thought the sketch looked fishy... 
I agree that not so many spikes are needed. Perhaps spikes could be placed like in Baldur's tower. I meant the wall sketch as a demonstration that spikes would only be located towards the top of the wall.

[Nikodemus]

From contest description: there are no tunnels in landing Platforms quarter.
As a side note now i can see also a reason why the wall beetwen it and lower quarter is far from being round or straight. - the caves are formed this way underground.

I was thinking that when we start modelling we will be just checking off buildings on the map, once placed, so if the map was as much precise as possible, it would be good i gues.

After warping, it looks much or less like this:

[Zweitholou]

The "tunnels" in landing platform are actually piping to supply community wells. And I agree that we ca use cave shape to explain city shape.

I will redraw the road.  Not that you did not warp it well, only warping makes building shapes less precise.   

[Jeraphon]

Please note a measurement change:

The map size should not be 3000m^2, but rather 1km^2 (or 1,000,000m^2.)

We apologize for the inconvenience.

[Baldur]

@Nikodemus & Zweitholou:
I'll change the design to meet the feedback

Edit: As I see it, texturing is not included in the 2D phase so no hazzle. Just keep on doing what you're doing

[Baldur]

My oh my a double post :|

[Nikodemus]

Please note a measurement change:

The map size should not be 3000m^2, but rather 1km^2 (or 1,000,000m^2.)

I think it was clear from the beginning that city won't be 3km²
Also, if the main road is 1km long and there are roughtly 15 buildings along its side, this is 66m for each avarage. I think they will be half of that at most. So the city will be like 0,5km²?

Btw, Jeraphon, use this: button ;P

Zweitholou, if you want to redraw, you may find it usefull ( before you did main road like that, coz you were worried about sharp angles while it looks better with sub roads ;) Not that they are wrong! (my previous drawing would fit one)

[Jeraphon]

That's a maximum size...it can be smaller if need be.

[Baldur]

The top and lower sections could be of cobalt. It'd be easier developing on the design and I don't have to change the material's textures that much, as well as cobalt being a resistant stone material. If cobalt is ever introduced. Otherwise we could have similar materials like marble or granite(?)

Update

[Zweitholou]

Here are the corrected maps:



@Baldur
Looks great!