Fantasy Friday XXXVIII - Final Human NPC Towns

[GPS51]

Here's an idea. How about running a contest and open it up to 1 or 2 man teams for new small NPC towns where there must be a excellent story lines and excellent drawings/modelings of the town. That way all you guys would have to do is implement it. It might work better to run it once the game is released and the editor is firing on all cylinders for the community.

[Swift sword]

Great Fantasy Friday today. Really nice screenshots. This is, honestly, probably my favorite one thus far, interestingly enough. Really delved into the history a bit more with a side-helping of cool screens.

[teejai]

I love the screenshots and the cities look fantastic, cannot wait to see more. I do have one issue/question though with what you are saying about DLC Alex. I love more content that is fantastic but the DLC you are referring to is it going to cost $$ every download or is it going to be regular updates that is included and then large expansions that cost the $$. If this has been answered somewhere else I apologize but it just happened to be that you mentioned it here and thought I'd ask. I'm personally not a very big fan of the micro transaction stores, I feel if you pay a monthly fee you are pretty much paying for everything (excluding expansions).

[Alex Walz]

Originally Posted by GPS51

Here's an idea. How about running a contest and open it up to 1 or 2 man teams for new small NPC towns where there must be a excellent story lines and excellent drawings/modelings of the town. That way all you guys would have to do is implement it. It might work better to run it once the game is released and the editor is firing on all cylinders for the community.

Could be something worth looking into. I'm just a little hesitant with putting something into the game that hasn't been designed by a trained mapper. There's a couple precautions our mappers always keep in mind as we need to place a higher priority on gameplay value than aesthetics. This means we need to make sure walls are kept at the right height to be able to connect with siege towers, alleys are big enough so that units won't get stuck, and that local storylines coincide with our game's great storyline. You can make truly epic strongholds with stacked buildings and massive towers, but the engine needs to be able to see it as a playable map and not just a piece of eyecandy.

Originally Posted by teejai

I love the screenshots and the cities look fantastic, cannot wait to see more. I do have one issue/question though with what you are saying about DLC Alex. I love more content that is fantastic but the DLC you are referring to is it going to cost $$ every download or is it going to be regular updates that is included and then large expansions that cost the $$. If this has been answered somewhere else I apologize but it just happened to be that you mentioned it here and thought I'd ask. I'm personally not a very big fan of the micro transaction stores, I feel if you pay a monthly fee you are pretty much paying for everything (excluding expansions).

First off, we've always been against monthly fees. You can buy the game and play online for ten years without paying a penny more.

Therefore, most DLC will have a small price, but everything will be very affordable. Nothing's set in stone, but a quest pack with a dozen new quests and some new environments will probably cost around $5 USD with full expansions, which will introduce a new playable race, costing between $10-15 USD. You can also choose to purchase DLC with in-game Influence points gained from PvP battles, quest rewards, skirmishes, etc. Influence will take a while to build up, but we want everyone to be able to play the full version irregardless of their financial situation.

[Henry Martin]

Originally Posted by Alex Walz

Could be something worth looking into. I'm just a little hesitant with putting something into the game that hasn't been designed by a trained mapper. There's a couple precautions our mappers always keep in mind as we need to place a higher priority on gameplay value than aesthetics. This means we need to make sure walls are kept at the right height to be able to connect with siege towers, alleys are big enough so that units won't get stuck, and that local storylines coincide with our game's great storyline. You can make truly epic strongholds with stacked buildings and massive towers, but the engine needs to be able to see it as a playable map and not just a piece of eyecandy.

Well said. Anyone planning on making maps period, should take what Alex is saying into account.

[Doug Bonds]

Originally Posted by GPS51

Here's an idea. How about running a contest and open it up to 1 or 2 man teams for new small NPC towns where there must be a excellent story lines and excellent drawings/modelings of the town. That way all you guys would have to do is implement it. It might work better to run it once the game is released and the editor is firing on all cylinders for the community.

While this is a great idea, I would be just as cautious as Alex for the same reasons he posted and 1 other thing. Currently there is a 2 man team doing these that are just having too much fun to give it up.

I know that Alex is too modest to give you guys the info, so I'm gonna sqeal on him a little. Alex created the concepts for Westerdale, Durian Foss and Galehock. I had an absolute blast bringing his concepts to playable maps!!!!

He is also responsible for the back story concepts for these towns and the best part is that I am currently working on creating maps for several of his Elf concepts and I have to say, that you guys are gonna be blown away with them!!

[GPS51]

Hmm in that case how about a Fantasy Saturday this week???You can just post what you have for the elven NPCs :P

[Raulaun]

Fantasy Saturday with phase 3 announcement would be great aswell

[Gruber12]

So we get to burn these towns down as well do we

[sumo0]

i gotta say. cant wait for this game to be released.