the big "tree-castle"

[hook]

forked from this thread

well the problem is that it wouldn\'t look like a normal tree ...large as a castle ...shaped as a hill, maybe a bit like a castle ...with braches reaching the ground, that would be the walls of this tree-castle ...branches thick with colourful leaves, so there would be ornaments with golden, silver and crystal leaves of different colours all over the place, sometimes forming pictures of a peaceful union between all the races, sometimes only older pictures from the past concerning the history of separate races ...maybe even different floors in it ...imagine having this tree in the middle of a great forest, but still to be seen from the near-bye mountain

the rooms with the race-history \"frescos\" would be meant as guest-rooms for people of those races, the \"peaceful union\" room(s) would be meant for meetings. of course you could walk freely all over the place, even sleep in any of the guest-rooms you like the most, it\'s just that ever race would probably like sleeping in the room that\'s the closest to them and their ways ...so every of those guest-rooms would have a few race-specific features, to make it more at home for the race sleeping/living in it (ex. stone floor and furniture in the dwarvern rooms)

...this would be a very big project to undertake ...so i\'d be glad of any help i can get ...because this\'ll take me years to complete!!! ...even with help

so now that i explained my idea/dream about it, i\'d love to have some people on the team, since making this a one-person project would be an illusion

[Fish]

I don?t have the artistic ability of a three-year-old with the crayon but maybe I can help out with some ideas for your tree castle.  I am interested in some of the non player characters so this is my first idea.

A crotchety old lady sells spells.  But won?t sell them to you unless you perform tasks she asks you to, a quest if you like.  She?ll only sell you one spell and only you can use it when you buy it.  The key is to make the spells worth the pain.

Rain of ticks.  This spell causes a rain of bloodthirsty ticks to fall on a victim.  If there happens to be somebody right next to the victim they become victims two.  I.e. this is an area affect spell.  The victim will be unable to regenerate hit points naturally and will slowly lose hit points until they remove all of their clothing to remove the ticks.  In the case of animals with fur they must byte all the ticks off which can take some time.  None of this can be done in battle.  Rock creatures are completely unaffected by the spell.  If the victim is basically naked anyway it still takes a little time to remove them.

Fly on the wall.  The spell produces a little fly that is able to hear and see anything around it.  The spellcaster?s screen is put into fly mode.  They are able to hear all conversations that a character has within a 5 m radius of the fly.  Even private conversations.  However the fly must land on something other than the floor.  Otherwise all you can hear is a buzzing noise.  The spell duration can be extended if the fly lands on something dead or a piece of dung.

Repel small enchanted things.  Like the spell says if it smaller than your thumb it will be destroyed within 10 m of you.

Brain bore.  This spell creates a nasty looking worm that will bore into a recipient?s head.  It allows a recipient to continue to battle 10 rounds after they are dead.  During that 10 rounds they can no longer be cured.  They can be resurrected though.  The brain bore will kill the recipient within 20 minutes anyways if they don?t get a cure disease.

Army ants.  This spell produces a wave of ants that do considerable damage.  They move in a wave in front of the spellcaster and all around and out.  It is highly recommended that the spellcaster have repel small enchanted things handy or the Army ants will come back and do some pretty heavy damage to the spellcaster.  The advantage of the spell is it does a lot of damage over time.  Once again rock type monsters are unaffected. Flying things don?t care either. Flame spells can wipe them out.

Killer bee.  Summons a large bee.  A kind of standard pet spell with a bee.  If ordered to sting somebody it dies but does a lot of damage.

Lunar moth.  Like a fly spell only you are riding the back of a moth.

While this is all I can come up with now.  I?ll try to come up with a different character next time.

[hook]

well, these are all nice ideas, but they don\'t quite fit in the \"tree-castle\" idea ...well, except maybe that spell-lady. i\'d like the \"tree-castle\" to be the very most relaxing and comforting place all over PS

be sure to post your ideas to a different thread (create one), some are really good

[Fish]

So you?re suggesting that the entire a tree Castle just be a cozy place.  What about the area around it?  Or the area under it in the root system?

I don?t know if merely cozy is good enough.  It?s going to have to have something resembling a game element or you?re not going to get too many people to go to this place.  Just because the actual character likes the place does not necessarily mean the person behind the character wants to go there.  I believe it?s going to have to be the source of something to entice players to go there.  I?m not trying to upset anybody but, if you think about it, if the concept does not include the entire area around it at probably will be dead before it starts.  If you go back to the thread about trees and shrubs and things you?ll find a really cool basis for new areas.

Some ways to spice up an otherwise dull area.

Cool NPCs that you only find in the Castle or around it.

Interesting spells.

Cool quests that you only find their.

Bizarre adjacent areas.  Tied into the quests.

I believe without a more holistic approach to building this section it won?t go very far.  After all in role-playing game have to have something to role-play about.  Otherwise you may as well role-play on a bulletin board.

However having a really cozy place in the middle of all this sounds pretty good.

Idea for adjacent zone.

A completely blank cavern.  This cavern has no crystal light, no plant life no animal life, just a bunch of ill tempered monsters that don?t particularly like light.  Since the development team has said they plan on allowing guilds to build structures, buildings can be built in the zone.  The rest of the zone properties are prepared by quests.  The quest to find the place.  The quest to clear the path to the place.  The quest to light the great crystal.  The quest to plant the place.  The quest to keep the neighboring zones at bay.  A key factor in making the place work is rapidly prototyping the quests so that building a onetime quest is not a daunting task.

So keep the idea for the NPC that I came up with and ask for more.  You need to breathe life into this.

[hook]

i completely agree that for the \"tree-castle\" idea to work we would need a whole system of how it would work and NPCs are very importaint in this part. i would just like it to be a more light place, that\'s why i sais that most of your ideas (except that spell-lady) don\'t fit in (IMO!) ...but, yes, we do need to make a whole concept of the thing, but i\'d like it to be more a relaxing place then dark, so even the quests should be (again IMO!) more cheerful ...like searching for a rare plant to make some potions, maybe hunting but not too much...

[zinder]

I have thougt of some different designs  for a tree-castle. Which would you prefer?

- A big hollow tree with air roots for its big branches. Inside people have build housings and rooms. (maybe grown from the wood).

-A collection of big trees grown together. People build the rooms in the wood of those trees.

- A big tree mined, human build caves, in the wood of the tree.

[hook]

Originally posted by zinder
I have thougt of some different designs  for a tree-castle. Which would you prefer?

- A big hollow tree with air roots for its big branches. Inside people have build housings and rooms. (maybe grown from the wood).

-A collection of big trees grown together. People build the rooms in the wood of those trees.

- A big tree mined, human build caves, in the wood of the tree.

well, i was thinking more in the way that the tree just grew this way ...without any \"human\" intereference, and that the brancehs that separated the rooms would be mostly full of leaves

[Caldazar]

...dont let this idead die out!

Perhaps there could be living some sort of \"tree-creature\", like an ent.. Or perhaps two different kinds of creatures, ents and...goblins?
The two races fight a war, and the player can choose side, and will be rewarded for the quests that he/she does for that race, but on the other hand, the oter race will hate him/her, and attack him/her on sight?

[Skain]

wouldnt that deplete the idea that its a peacefull area though?

I was under the impression that maybe around the area there could be monsters and beasts but not in the tree itself. And even those around the tree were nt aggressive. One monster, (I cant seem to find the model i was working on) I was thinking of was something along the lines of a quantum weather butterfly like off the discworld. 1-2 metres long and able to have elemental skills.

[Caldazar]

hmm... you are right, I forgot about that.. was just brainstorming. Right now I dont think that you need to come up with what monsters there are, more how it was built, and how it looks. You have alotof ideas, put something together!

[Skain]

Im sketching ideas as im typing this, as you guys talk im making notes and little sketches. when i have a full idea of what it will be like i will draw some detailed concept art, we will present our ideas to the dev team, maybe join them and start work on the main thing. (im trying to learn blender with pressure from hook, its not like any model program ive used before)
keep brainstorming its good for the project

[hook]

Originally posted by Skain
Im sketching ideas as im typing this, as you guys talk im making notes and little sketches. when i have a full idea of what it will be like i will draw some detailed concept art, we will present our ideas to the dev team, maybe join them and start work on the main thing.

glad to hear it, i\'m not very good at sketches

(im trying to learn blender with pressure from hook, its not like any model program ive used before)

and how do you like it? are you using only the \"official\" manual or did you search for those community-besed too?
i don\'t have time to play with blender until tomorow ...then i\'ll install the new version and try to learn it some more

Caldazaar, the ent vs. goblin idea isn\'t bad ...if we use ents as (hidden) guardians of the \"tree-castle\" and goblins as the mischevious creatures they are, there could be some orcs, goblins et simili trying to attack the \"tree-castle\" and the ents guarding it ...this would enable us to have some quests like \"help Enhuuun defend the southern border from the ravaging orcs\". but we would have to take into accout that \"normal\" forest creatures like wolves for example wouldn\'t attack the \"tree-castle\" and would either not enter its borders or completely peacefully walk its grounds without attacking each other (e.g. a wolf meets a deer and leaves it alone while on that territory). Skain\'s butterfly would make a perfect scout on the ent/\"tree-castle\" side

that\'s it from me for today ...i\'ll have more time for ideas tomorrow, when i finish the exam on roman law :]

[Caldazar]

Great idea hook!
But, who created this castle? Perhaps some Ancient of Ents, a demi-god. He could be the leader of the ents. Together with [enter gods name here] he created and formed the entire tree?

[hook]

Originally posted by Caldazar
Great idea hook!
But, who created this castle? Perhaps some Ancient of Ents, a demi-god. He could be the leader of the ents. Together with [enter gods name here] he created and formed the entire tree?

i would go for these two explanations, but i\'m open for suggestions
1) the \"tree-castle\" is \"just\" a tree that grew this big on its own and the cause why ents guard it, why it\'s attacked by goblins and orcs and why does it bring peace to all (non-mischevious) creatures that walk, fly, swim or crawl over or under it\'s roots is unknown ...either lost or not yet comprehendable
2) the \"tree-castle\" is a very old ent maybe even an ent-father and powerfull which other ents guard bacause it\'s their father. he brings peace to all (again the same root story) because of its great power and wisdom
...this would also make a future for an ent-mother idea (probably a beautiful birch tree located somewhere completely else)

the gods idea seems a bit cliche to me. and my favourite here would be the ent-father idea ...seems very magical and calming to me :]

[Caldazar]

hmmm.. perhaps the ent-father is an ancient earth-spirit? That would explain how he \"gave life\" to the other ents..