October Entry: temple transformation

[RobA]

The Cellar ....

Wow nice work! I think you still need to keep scale in consideration (like with the giant stools ) In this level, the floor grate in the center is about 12' square, and the slots look big enough to loose a leg in! As well the escape tunnel is over 15' wide. Because of the scale of those, it makes the room look like the cellar of a much smaller building, and the coffins look too small (though they are correct by the grid scale!)

-Rob A>

[Gamerprinter]

Actually I was anxious to get as far as I did, but it was after midnight (and I've doing this after midnight thing for about a week straight - its wearing me out!) and I was starting to loose my senses.

I will narrow up that escape tunnel and rescale the grate so a rat couldn't pass by the slots (don't want any injured monks falling into the grate).

Strange, but I did try to get the stone sarcophagi properly scaled. Apparently that's the only thing properly scaled.

OK, now its about an hour's worth of corrections. I already fixed the grid lines climbing up the walls... so much to do, so little time...

Expect these corrections and the ground plan tonight!

Keep up the comments guys - its the only way to maintain quality control!

[ravells]

This is an enormous amount of work. Well done! I was going to mention the floating grid, but you've picked that up already. The texture of the surrounding rock looks a bit odd to my eye, it looks like a repeat texture of some garden gravel and doesn't give that feeling of solid rock. Maybe just a dark grey with some noise and some 'veins' running through it? Not sure. The grass texture at the bottom looks a bit big as well.

I'm not sure I understand the topography. Are the crypt and the bottom rooms on the same level. If so, then I guess the building must be built of some sort of step or slope so that the crypt is underground but the bottom rooms are overground?

Excellent work all round, love the tiling in the bottom rooms and the stonework in the crypt.

Ravs

[Gamerprinter]

Ravs, although the cathedral could actually be on flat ground, there seems to an illusion of a slight drop in elevation from front to back. Since the Apse and Vestries elevation is approx 5 feet higher than the Entry Hall, and the Entry Hall is approx 4 feet above the ground level.

In intend to create a slope in the floor under the Apse from the open archways towards the foundation walls leading into the crypt - I didn't create that yet. (Probably just place a gradual fade to dark gray semi-transparent layer.)

Notice stairs leading down into the Crypt area under the Inner Sanctum. Actually the ceilings in this crypt are pretty low, maybe alittle over 6 feet.

And time investment in this "challenge", when I'm done, I'd say I'll have 30 hours into it. If I was less adept at Xara Xtreme, it might be twice that.

Although I am certainly proud of my work thus far (errors withstanding) I'm not trying to blow the competition out. My goal is to challenge myself.

I have never put this much work into a commercial map...

[ravells]

Well it looks fantastic!

Ravs

[Gamerprinter]

Cellar level is now complete!

I rescaled the grate in the center of the crypt floor, I narrowed the escape tunnel by placing support side walls - so it doesn't cave in. I placed the slope and placed elevation labels to indicate sub level topography and to justify the spacing beneath the Inner Sanctum.

You'll notice the spiral staircases in back of the Inner Sanctum reach down to this level, while the front two spiral staircases only go up to the gallery.

I changed the earth fill to a more neutral tone and rescaled the grass outside.

I placed furniture in the infirmary and some storage containers in the main cellar entrance area.

Oh and I added support pilings beneath the entry hall on north and south side, since (in my version) these were an afterthought, so the foundations were originally built for the inner sanctum area only. Thus additional supports were required to support the added foundation.

That's it for now. Supper, an hour of relaxation then back to the grindstone and to create the Monastery ground plan.

Comments welcome!

WIP so far...

[Gamerprinter]

I found a couple more issues with the cellar - the stairs were above the grid, the slope was too dark inside the under apse area, stuck some furniture in the storm cellar (which incidentally is where the monks are being held). I altered the ground took look less repeated (though still doing it... sigh), and found a better grass fill.

For the ground plan, I spent most of my time finishing the roof of the monastery, as well as rendering a correct by sun angle 3D shadow of the cathedral, which I traced as a transparent polyline in Xara for the map.

The ground plan may be too large I haven't decided yet. The building with the courtyard is the monastic residence dormitory. The black rectangles are locations and sizes for: kitchen, workshop, stables, and dining hall. I want to add a small potters kiln and potter shop. I thinking of adding a winery, but that might be too much.

WIP: - now I'm goin' to bed!

[Gamerprinter]

Note: the ground plan is barely started. The ground looks too flat, I need to give changes to the lawn, no lawn is perfect. I want to place a garden somewhere. The cloisterhouse isn't even created and it will have an attached enclosed "garden" courtyard with fountain and statues, colonade as well.

So, Ravs, don't be disappointed - got a long way to go!

Hmmm... noticed a patch of grass in the middle of the crypt all of a sudden, need to fix that... er!

[Gamerprinter]

I removed that erroneous grass patch in the crypt of the cellar - so that's finished.

I'm thinking about shrinking the ground plan area to about 2/3rds to one half its current perimeter size. I don't want so much open grassy lawns. I'll bring the other structures in closer to the cathedral.

And I do have to remember to create the exit for the escape tunnel.

That's it for now... I hope to finish this project tonight!

WIP of cellar improvement...

[ravells]

Looks superb, the stairs down to the crypt from the storage area makes sense now, and I love the new rock and grass textures. Looking brilliant!

Ravs