D&D mod: tjedge1-Mystara

[Arghis]

last think i hav to say, it's for th LM forest, which have no more distingo from casual forest.

Look for Alfheim for example

Oh, understand that i'm not criticizing for the pleasure, just that i think that for esthetic or practical rason, we can still made some slight adjustment.

All that said, i'm really enjoyed by this graphics flavour

 

[Arghis]

Tonight will be the night of Norwold part of the map ! haaahahahaaaaaa

 

[Arghis]

damn ! i should have remember that editing post with img is tricky

 

[Arghis]

...

 

[tjedge1]

I do see many of the problems there. The roads would look like bridges or something over those small areas of forest. Another way I thought of making the marsh and forest different is by using the original marsh terrain. But it is too bright for my taste. I'm not very good at graphix and every attempt I made at my own terrain was looking more like a nightmare realm.
The only real difference in the LM Forest and the Forest is that the LM is more green.
How bout those LM Hills? Did you like those?
As far as the broken lands go, I wish I could make the base broader to look more barren, and a little more like spires of rock.
My biggest goal was to create a large variety of terrain like what is in D&D.
CtP2 had a much better selection for terrain, but I hate to mod that game.

EDIT: I love the work on your maps. I can't wait to see Norwald.

 

[Arghis]

LM hills are very beautiful, but i still do not see where to use them ! i'll have some ideas, like terrain around Wendar or other place like this, but i'm not sure for now.

i think we could use airfield and radar tower space for representing really special places, like dead magic point, or dead trees. i saw here and there pieces of graphic which could be easily used for this (after reading mrtn tutorial, i better se how to modify - cut / paste - some tiles)

As for broken lands, for now it suffices. we could see later how to adjust them. i'm sure we have to use chasm gfx somewhere. i still have to figure how and where (Sind desert or dry {dried ?} river west of Glantri probably for now)

D&D terrain are really well described. i'm reading CM1 for more details on Norwold and, obviously, Civ editor cannot easily recreate the subtlety of such a landscape.

i've also beginning putting irrigation here and there. it's easy to change and does give us a good idea of what it will really looks like. More, the gfx with minor houses added are really beautiful ! a very good idea.

i prepare u SC for norwold and isle of dawn part 1 for tonight

 

[Arghis]

Well here is the north part of Norwold. As explained in CM1, there is really a few place to live here. Sadly, i lack space to better make the north edge.
Frosthaven should not be a real prob, cause it's in the north part of Icereach mountain (not on this screen shot)

As u can see i've put back classical civ mountain (mountain.pcx), so i can obtain some differences for Ice reach range (and also because i think it feel better this way).
Strangely, the fact that i've kept your (snoopy ?) mountain forest.pcx contribute to reinforce the snow side of this place. With some correction, we'll have a beautiful frozen north mountain range !

i've put a bit of tundra here and there, but Norwold is mainly a forested area; with swamps and lakes / rivers everywhere.
There should be more volcanoes i think, but i just found 2.

Other than that, i also use Dawn of the emperor map, but it's not very accurate.

 

[tjedge1]

It looks good. I agree about the Mountians. I went with Rhye's before because I didn't think they made good Broken Lands. Now that Womak's is in place as Broken Lands I do like the new view better with the original mountains. My problem with the firaxis mounts is that sometimes they look too low. But they'll do. Can't have everything.
As far as the Chasm. I would love to use it, but I don't know how to really implement it. I thought the hills would be good for places in the wild like West of Norwald, where the ground is hilly and wooded.

This map is coming along nicely. Don't worry about perfect accuracy. Your job is superb and as a world map, not much regional detail is possible (IE:Alfhiem) I don't think I'll put in the smaller more insugnificant civs on this map. Some I will just sub in their larger racial counterparts (IE:Five Shires in Brun will not be in this map, but the High Shire in Davania will.)

I was thinking after making this mod and scenarios that maybe I would do a most popular civs with everybody's favorite civs together. That is far off. I'm working on units again and have a long list to make.

 

[Arghis]

here is the south part of Norwold, with Wendar and Denagoth.

 

[tjedge1]

Very nice. I was wondering if you think we should go with the original marsh or the current one there?

 

[Arghis]

and here is the north part of the isle of dawn (in front of thyatis).

in fact, i found this task really interesting, that's why i take time detail the areas. and it's also a good way to learn more on Mystara (by the way, my PC these time is a glantrian magi, fond of legend, history, and geography. lol ! i'm sure i will suprized my DM during our next games.)

i fully agree on the fact that, as we made a global map, we'll have to sacrifice some minority. But with a good list of units, minorities will be represented, and coherency will be maintained.

What do u mean by popular civ (from your new mod idea) ?

 

[Arghis]

and south part of isle of dawn.

it's a bit empty, i'll have to read a bit more on this area, but anyway, all the world is not colonized, at leats by men

 

[Arghis]

Originally posted by tjedge1
Very nice. I was wondering if you think we should go with the original marsh or the current one there?

oh, i think we can keep this one (the new), it's nice and visible. also it's less repetitive.

 

[tjedge1]

Originally posted by Arghis
What do u mean by popular civ (from your new mod idea) ?

Yeah, it was just an idea that jumped in my head today. If this mod is popular enough after it's release. There are about 40 something civs on the various scenarios. Since you can only have max 31, I figured that after a while after many people play it and the scenarios that maybe I would start a thread and let people vote for their favorite civs from most to least and then pick the top 31 and make an Most-Favorite Civs mod. It was just a thought and of course play it on the most picked map as well.

Originally posted by Arghis
by the way, my PC these time is a glantrian magi, fond of legend, history, and geography. lol ! i'm sure i will suprized my DM during our next games.)

Cool, I haven't had a PC in some time since I do all the DM work these days. I just got a new set of players, but they want to play on Krynn. I can't get through to them that there are no Dragons on Krynn and that just doesn't make since to me. Who ever heard of a Dungeons & Dragons world where all the dragons are dead? My last player was a Cleric. I always liked to lead and heal.

 

[Arghis]

aarrgghh ! iwant a terrain tile for barren land !

so i tried this ! i take some gfx from civ2 and merge them over x_victory.pcx, so i can quickly see the result without disturbing everuthing.

look by yourselves. (that's just a first try)

the idea is to have some kind of overlay for rare terrain, without having to make a complete LM tile (which i'm not sure for now that i'll can do, cause it's more tricky obviously)

With this overlay, u could use a classic LM terrain (let's say LM desert here), so u can modify the production value ... and put just over this tile (either we use x_victory.pcx or we use x_airfields and detect.PCX. we can even manage to modify craters.pcx, that seems easy but there is a bit more work). So the illusion will be near perfect

on this tile i've put a skull, a giant (fish ?) skeleton and some rocks. i lack something which look like a "ripped earth"

 

[Arghis]

well, i've put more rocks, and use airfield pcx

 

[tjedge1]

That would be excellent land for the "Burning Lands." Could just call them Wasteland or Barren Land, if only I could alter the graphix for the LM Desert myself. That is nice there, anyway you would be able to mod it into the LM Desert Terrain? Then it would just be a terrain and not a bonus resource.
I already have 60 resources.

EDIT: Ok that sounds cool, but I was hoping to use the Airfield for some type of teleportation device, like Baldur's Gate.

 

[Arghis]

well, for this one i merged four gfx mars gfx (from a civ2 mod i found somewhere today)

well its a bit too squarry / rectangular on the edge (i'm tired ... ... well things like 90° ), i will smooth this later.

i think it's better for barren land. no ?

ok perhaps u don't see well, i should make other SC tommorrow. There is one barren tile over a hill, two over desert, one over grassland, with or without roads / rivers.

With some work i could manage something follow your LM Mountain (womok).

As for color style (snoopy / rhye) i've absolutely no idea how they do (i've read a post once, and it was complicated so ... ). perhaps if this please u we can ask them to adapt the tile.

Are u considering us using many craters, cause i could easily mod craters.pcx ?
If not what do u think of using radar tower / airfield for replacment ?

well enough for today (i've advanced on Sind desert and Hule)

 

[tjedge1]

I was thinking of using the former Victory Point location as a sort of "Waygate." If it's the one I remember. Looks like a stone gate or doorway. The gate would be able to "Airlift untis around to other gates.
The Radar tower I thought would be good for some kind of altar for worshiping Immortals. They can bless nearby units and have the smae eefect as Radar Towers.

About those graphix, I like them much better. We'll have to see if Rhye is willing to take up the task of making them LM Desert. That is his Desert terrain. I would prefer it as the LM Desert. THe current LM Desert (Burning Lands) looks the same as Desert and I would prefer some variation there. As I said would could call them Barren Lands instead.

 

[Arghis]

i was wanting to know how it will be.

so here is the great waste with barren added (in fact one gfx for broken / barren and one for badlands)

i've even merged barren with craters, not bad (but the editor don't like those 2 gfx together, it erase all craters with airfield when u erase just one, funny isn't it, ... so i will have to merge them with graphic editor)