My Terrain (Mine!)

[homunculus]

and, if you are taking any more suggestions, don't we already have a very similar stone slab in core/images/scenery?

i understand something like a ziggurat might be unsuitable, but just to counter the interpretation of some tunnel being expected under the slab, maybe put the slab on top of some stones under the two ends or under the four corners? or would it look too much like a dwelling, then?

[doofus-01]

This is probably not quite what you had in mind for stonehenge, but I didn't want to make it too obscuring and smaller dolmens would remind me too much of Spinal Tap. It might be an idea better saved for a different castle wall.

[thespaceinvader]

I'd go for taller, bigger blocks, and covering each side of the hex, as part of the wall. Otherwise it gets a little confusing, and difficult to tell the keep from the rest of the castle when it's not in the centre.

[doofus-01]

Well, that would turn it into something completely different.

[thespaceinvader]

Yep

[doofus-01]

Alright then, let's forget about that.

This is the start of a marble castle. Maybe it could be darkened and adorned to be merman or undead, but for now it is just pale marble.

I have to check out for a while, not sure when I'll be back. But I'll pick this up when I return.

marble-shot.png (315.49 KiB) Viewed 4525 times

[Atz]

I don't think the marble castle fits with the surrounding terrain very well, probably because it's an unusual colour and the edges are really straight and quite sharp. I'm not sure how you can fix that without loosing the shiny smooth look, though (which I assume is what you were going for?).

It might actually work better submerged in water, where it wouldn't be cutting across other terrain. I know you mentioned adorning it for merfolk, and that might be a good way to go.

[em3]

The other issue is that the walls don't cast any visible shadow on surrounding terrain...

[Sangel]

I don't think the marble castle fits with the surrounding terrain very well, probably because it's an unusual colour and the edges are really straight and quite sharp. I'm not sure how you can fix that without loosing the shiny smooth look, though (which I assume is what you were going for?).

It might actually work better submerged in water, where it wouldn't be cutting across other terrain. I know you mentioned adorning it for merfolk, and that might be a good way to go.

I agree that the current colour scheme looks out of place in the surrounding terrain. I think the design would also work quite well as an undead/crypt style of castle; you darken the stonework, add some gargoyles squatting atop the pillars, maybe some iron spikes to the top of the walls. If someone can dig up the cemetery terrain, that would work as an alternate interior terrain.

I do like the basic design and texture. Very well executed.

The other issue is that the walls don't cast any visible shadow on surrounding terrain...

As indicated by the artist, this is only the "start" of the marble castle. Shadows are usually the last thing to be added, once the design itself is finalized.

[doofus-01]

Further progress, it has keeps. The tile pattern was my first attempt at a pattern from scratch, it may show. The repeating pattern can probably be broken up with alternates, but for now there is just one tile.

I don't think the marble castle fits with the surrounding terrain very well, probably because it's an unusual colour and the edges are really straight and quite sharp. I'm not sure how you can fix that without loosing the shiny smooth look, though (which I assume is what you were going for?).

Yeah, I was going for a clean look. Google images supports my thought that clean "marble buildings" can stand out of their surroundings a bit. I forgot to put them in the screenshot, but the clean cobbles go with it better.

add some gargoyles squatting atop the pillars

The wings would probably be recognizable from the side, the left/right handedness that would give the pillars would probably be OK... Another idea would be to make a ruined version of the one in this post. Broken pillars, dirtier colour. At least some of the lichs are supposed to be ancient, it might be a nice alternative to broken castles.

It might actually work better submerged in water

Or submerged parts might be a good way to avoid using the dirt bank. Not sure, I'd need to figure that out first.

[Reepurr]

Nice keep!

Maybe you could dull down the contrast a bit? I know it's a marble castle but my subconscious keeps saying "mythril".

[Eleazar]

* Also be aware of multi-castle tiling. Unless there's a reason to do something else (which i would like to hear about), new castles should more or less mesh with regular human castle and especially the encampment.
Keeps don't have to mesh.

Do you mean I should avoid sharp cuts, for example on the right side of the -bl images, so that the -bl and -br images of two different castle types can join without an abrupt glitchy junction?

Exactly.

* Castle shadows: castle shadows tend to cause problems. I'd like to see them more in the 20-30% opacity range (like your desert castle) rather than 45% (like the human castle). Softer edges like the Elvish castle are preferred, and try to avoid cutting off shadows sharply at the chop points, since this causes glitches in mutli-part castles.

One problem I see with not using hard-edged cuts is that the shadows add when they overlap. At least one of the older castles has this problem (elf maybe?).

Then it wasn't done right. If you first cut your shadows sharply and move to different layers/files, and then apply the same blur to all shadow layers, they will fit together seamlessly when reassembled. I use that trick on the lit cave.

But generally an area of a little darker shadow is less of a problem than an area with a razor sharp edge.

What are the chances the shadows could be in a separate layer and image. Then there could just be one generic shadow for everything. Or maybe two - one with "tower" shadows, one without.

Off the top of my head it doesn't sound hard to make shadows a different layer, but a single generic shadow wouldn't work well-- some castles have towers of different sizes-- the encampment doesn't have any.

[ancestral]

Definitely less saturation on the marble, please.

[Frogger5]

Nice keep!

Maybe you could dull down the contrast a bit? I know it's a marble castle but my subconscious keeps saying "mythril".

Contrast is a good thing, contrast is your friend. Remember, in real life these would be big structures, so they need lots of depth and 3Dness.

[doofus-01]

Now there are keep/castle transitions. Some dimensions may still need fixing, but the underlying structure is mostly done.

Whether a clean marble castle is actually wanted or not, I intend to use this as a base for other things. As long as the shapes are not too complicated, the balls can be replaced with other things. They would be easier to modify, if some UMC creator wanted to do that for a custom terrain.

marble-shot2b.png (87.09 KiB) Viewed 3827 times

Off the top of my head it doesn't sound hard to make shadows a different layer, but a single generic shadow wouldn't work well-- some castles have towers of different sizes-- the encampment doesn't have any.

OK. If a generic shadow doesn't sound useful, there is probably no reason to put shadows in a separate .png.