22 réponses à ce sujet

[3RavensMore]

I'm a little out of it tonight, but I can't seem to get the Underdark Spider Caves to show up in the Area Wizard.
http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=7536

I've tried dia_udrkspid3.rar and dia_udspid3_1_69.rar.  Neither shows up.  Any ideas?

[3RavensMore]

Never mind; I've got it. 

[henesua]

Great taste, BTW. That tileset is amazing.

[3RavensMore]

It's stunning, I still cannot believe how immerse it is. Past and present, the amazing talent in the CC community has really endured and continues to shine. That's a high achievement for a game that's a decade old--a virtual antique by modern standards.

[gutwrench66kg]

I absolutely LOVE that tileset.. makes surface dwellers feel lost and disoriented underground

Modifié par usagreco66kg, 21 mai 2012 - 08:09 .

[3RavensMore]

I wish it had a few more tiles--pit, water, and lava--but what tileset can't you say that about? 

[UA DM]

That is an amazing tile set. If I remember right I believe that the creator said in an interview at one time that it was to be version ".25" of their Underdark tile sets. Which I think meant that it was supposed to be the first of 4 tile sets maybe.

UA DM

[NWN_baba yaga]

well yes. The whole set as it was/ is planed contains the underdark caverns ( a terrain with pits and water), a drow city building terrain and some other tunnel systems. I never had the motivation to go back to it after the v.25. It was a hard time doing the texturing and the walkmeshs alone.

[Carcerian]

I added this one to my pw about 2 months ago, and its definatly got a great underdark feel, i especially loved the way elevations in tunnels were possible, something rare in interiors..

[3RavensMore]

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

well yes. The whole set as it was/ is planed contains the underdark caverns ( a terrain with pits and water), a drow city building terrain and some other tunnel systems. I never had the motivation to go back to it after the v.25. It was a hard time doing the texturing and the walkmeshs alone.

Even as is, it's a tremendous set.  No other set, interior or exterior, comes close to the creepy immersive feeling you created.  
I'm springing the underdark carverns on my players this weekend.    Since they pretty never played NWN except the OC and my PW, only 1 of 7 have ever seen it before.  One of them has a serious case of arachnophobia.  I'm certain she'll just adore the funnelweb spiders.  *evil cackle*

[NWN_baba yaga]

thanks btw for all your very nice comments about it. After the hag creatures release i will probably add a few tiles to the cavern terrain. At least a pit variation which you can use for water too (a placeable water might do the trick there .

I realy hoped that more people (lordofworms is still the only one who altered it) would expand it on their own... so it still is up to you to mod it;)

There is a big ugly spider in my babastuff02 hak on the vault btw... She was designed for the tileset. I dont think a Pc can tumble around that nasty critter....

Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 24 mai 2012 - 06:25 .

[Leurnid]

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

thanks btw for all your very nice comments about it. After the hag creatures release i will probably add a few tiles to the cavern terrain. At least a pit variation which you can use for water too (a placeable water might do the trick there .

I realy hoped that more people (lordofworms is still the only one who altered it) would expand it on their own... so it still is up to you to mod it;)

There is a big ugly spider in my babastuff02 hak on the vault btw... She was designed for the tileset. I dont think a Pc can tumble around that nasty critter....

I imagine there is a trade off that may discourage it, but it always seemed that the placeable squares of water, muck, ice, magma, or my dream, various hued clouds. could extend a single tileset with pit terrain considerably without adding more tiles. That extra effort could then be spent making more or cleaner models, and/or tile configurations.

[UA DM]

Hi Baba Yaga,

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the next 1/4 of your 4 tile set plan was supposed to be a "fungi" forest tile set. Since no one has ever made that kinda tile set for NWN I was wondering if you could comment on what you had planned if thats what you had envisioned doing. I think there is one or two tiles in the spider caves tileset that have a bunch of mushrooms in them. It almost looked like it would be transition tiles into a cave full of giant fungi "trees". Even if you never made that tileset and had just planned on it, I think it would be quite a treat just to hear what you have envisioned.

Also you mentioned that LordofWorms added to the spider caves tileset. Was that version ever released to the public?

Thanks

UA DM

[Carcerian]

Mushroom forests are a must, some tall as a stone giant
Plus the Mycons who evolve to mimic their surroundings...



Other things that would make an underdark tileset awesome...



Crystal Forest, glowing crystal stalagmite, stalactites and pillars.



Drow Cities, built into the pillars, lit by onmious glowing lights with districts for Thralls, and slums...







Waterfalls entering from cave walls or ceilings, flowing into rivers of water, slime, lava or sewer,  flowing into cave walls or subterranean lakes with whirlpools.



A grand Cavern area, with high ceilings, and gapaing chasams featuring dangerous ledges and hazerdous crossings, for drow vaults and other racial homelands..









A Duergar Fortress Stronghold...






Living Caves/Deepspawn...



A Deep-Gnome City



Dead (or just resting?) Terrasque bones/body... (or other colossals/gargantuans)



The story of a certian somone in the belly of a whale comes to mind...

Modifié par Carcerian, 25 mai 2012 - 03:28 .

[NWN_baba yaga]

UA DM:
The mushroom tiles were planed as a transition into the great cavern terrain. And to add some different color to the whole scenery. A fungi-forest like terrain were only planed as a few features/ groups for the great caverns and their raise/lower function. so exactly for these missing parts... some strange corner tiles from the corridors were meant as transitions into the thick webbed spike like formations for driders/ spiders for breeding. Etc.

Low did a "more natural cavelike" retexture for his arbor falls PW. And as i recall added some transitions into the great caverns?

Carcerian:
Some of these images are burnt into my mind for ever....thanks:D Dont know how long I "studied" these while listening to bg2´s underdark track for getting ISPIRATION... But lovely for sure and helped me alot. That red/green lit water shot is something i have done for the generic caveset and is walkable. Having a raise/lower function is realy a musthave.

[3RavensMore]

Just an update note. After 2 1/2 day NWN/PnP party, every one of my 7 players had nothing but heaps of praise for your Spider Caves. I don't know how many said a derivative of "this is NWN?" The complained when they'd cleared out all the levels. I spent five months on a vast, elaborate, and highly decorated tower/crypt, and they enjoyed the Spider Cave areas that I spent 2 days building more. At the risk of repeating myself...fabulous work with this set.

[NWN_baba yaga]

that goes down like sugar:) . What else to say... i already did some new tiles for the caves...

[UA DM]

Baba Yaga,

A couple more quick questions... when you wrote about a great cave and a raise lower feature did you envision a tile set like the bioware underdark which had no roof but one could build tiers or teraces with the raise lower feature? Or did you mean something like the great cave in the spider cave tile set which I beleive is at least two tiles high?

My underdark expirence is limited to the "D series" from AD&D a long time ago. When I think of a great cavern I think about the gigantic cavern at the end of the D3 module with the Drow city and the various little merchant strongholds are amongst these giant forests of fungi. Actually one of the pics that were posted by Carcerian is an image of what the players would have seen when the entered the Vault of Drow.

Anyway one more question about the fungi forest tiles. Would these be a 1x1 tile with a giant toadstool on it kinda like bioware had in their tileset? Or is this a group 2x2, 3x3 or larger of a whole bunch of differant fungi (some taller than the player and some smaller) such that it would block movement and be like the player was walking around inside another ecosystem? I always thought that a "fungi forest" would provide a differant look to the cave setting.

Sadly if I only new how to make models I would have built a fungi forest tiles.  I just haven't found anything that provides a sense of emersion.

UA DM

Modifié par UA DM, 30 mai 2012 - 02:01 .

[Drewskie]

My underdark expirence is limited to the "D series" from AD&D a long time ago. When I think of a great cavern I think about the gigantic cavern at the end of the D3 module with the Drow city and the various little merchant strongholds are amongst these giant forests of fungi. Actually one of the pics that were posted by Carcerian is an image of what the players would have seen when the entered the Vault of Drow.

I've read through the g&d series as well and must say this work is reminiscent of the "Descent into the Depths of the Earth" transition after being introduced to the tentacle rod wielding drow at the end of G. Those are my favorite works of eg Gygax and must say this comes closest to bringing them to life. I never have been able to get ahold of a copy of "Queen of the Demon Web Pits", though, which concludes the series.

[NWN_baba yaga]

UADM:
The raise lower is for the caves terrain so with a roof and for the fungiforest tiles im not sure exactly what they will be alike. But your ideas sounds good to me and i try to create something like you described. A different ecosystem then within.

[Rolo Kipp]

 <wishing he had a...>

You can find a wonderful bit of inspiration for fungus cave ecosystems in Miyazaki's masterpiece Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds. I truly love the imagery:








(notice Nausicaa for scale in the lower left corner ;-)

<...squirrelfox>

Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 01 juin 2012 - 04:18 .

[NWN_baba yaga]

thanks rolo:) and i think there is some weird connection between the look of "underwater areas" and strange places in the underdark....

[UA DM]

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

UADM:
The raise lower is for the caves terrain so with a roof and for the fungiforest tiles im not sure exactly what they will be alike. But your ideas sounds good to me and i try to create something like you described. A different ecosystem then within.

Hi Baba Yaga,

Here is the description that led me to the fungi forest idea.  Its from the module "The Vault of Drow".  This is describing the "fungi forest" environment deep beneath the earth.

"As the party proceeds down the road they will observe that the countryside beyond the gorge is filled with abnormally large lichens, large and small crystalline growths, and fungi of all sizes, shapes, and description.  There are shelf fungi, morels, branching types, puffballs, horsetails, and more conventional mushrooms as well.  Various sorts of yeasts, smuts, rusts, blights, and molds of huge size grow upon some of the toadstools and strange fungi.  These growing things all thrive upon the radiation of the "stars" and "moon" above (talking about minerals imedded in the cavern roof some several thousand feet at the center of the cavern dome), or the fertilizers spread about them by slaves and servants of the inhabitants of the Vault, the Dark Elves,.  The huge growths form regular forests and brakes which the Drow use for all manner of things.....

So I was thinking that this describes a differant eco system under the earth.  Its differant from the caves and tunnels.  By adding 6-8 tiles of "fungi forest" to your tile set you will in effect be creating a new eco system.  So instead of players just seeing caves they will come into this new environment.  There are a number of monstes native to the fungi forest ecosystem that are allready included in NWN some of these include giant spiders, gray ooze, ochre jelly, umberhulk, bullette, troglodyte, trolls, bugbears.  Other creatures which could reside in this setting could be shriekers, violet fungi, shambling mounds, yellow mold patches, and the list goes on.  I don't think any of these other creatures are in NWN but I think some people have made custom models.

So how to make this....  would the easiest option just be to make 1x1 tiles with various groupings of fungi forest on them?  This maybe easier and less time consuming than using some type of terrain tile.  Not sure how pathfinding works but I think each tile is 30 feet x 30 feet.  So for example could you make tiles with the following configuration (X = no walk - ie mushroom and other fungi and O = walk).

Example 1 (Straight "corridor" Tile)

XOX
XOX
XOX

Example 2 (Turn "corridor" Tile)

XXX
XOO
XOX

Example 3 (No Walk Tile - All full of fungi)

XXX
XXX
XXX

Just an idea.  But this way with 6-8 of these differant 1x1 tiles then level designers could lay out "forests" with pathways ("Corridors"). through them.  Making a couple of groups would also add a little more flexability for designers.  For example you could have a 2x2 group that included a pool of water in the middle (could be walk or no walk) but this would make a "watering hole" for creatures living in the fungi forest to come drink.  Some other ideas for individual tiles would be a sinkhole located in the forest.  This could be used as an area transition to a cave complex below the forest.  Just think a designer could make a script or something that would make a carrion crawler emerge from the sinkhole if the adventurers stay to long.... 

Anyway the prospect of seeing this developed after 10 years of NWN is very exciting.  I have more ideas.  Let me know if you need anymore inspiration. 

Thanks for considering this.

UA DM