Settlement Scene Making Guide

[Aliksander]

Well then I guess I'll do the eventual editing needed for sieges for my settlements.  Wicked, are you adamant about having sieges only for m2 settlements? because I intend to have rudimentary walls for exm1 and e2m0 stages of my towns and it would be nice to have sieges for them as well.

 

[wickedshot]

if it has walls and doors then its a siege regardless of what military level it is heh

for instance, custow has a rudimentary wall/gate for e2m1, so it'd be somewhat of a siege there, tho the enemies could go around the wall since it only covers part of the towns perimeter.

 

[Sorkenlol]

How do I move an object up or down before placing it? I've figured out XYZ but none of them moves it up/down.

Oops nevermind, the cursor was acting weird.

 

[jacob25]

use t to move it up and down

 

[Æon]

Update: e2m2 is almost done for a different scene code of Empto.

Spoiler: Walls

Spoiler: Tavern

Spoiler: Keep

Spoiler: Growing stuff

Spoiler: Overview

Spoiler: Stone house

Spoiler: Cart

Feedback appreciated.

 

[Liquidninja]

Looking good, and great attention to detail as always, but you asked for feedback, so here goes!

Nice use of the Goods Merchant sign (visible in the shop of the keep). The keep itself looks fairly wide, did you stretch it along the x-axis? The "look" works.

In the shot of the cart, there seems to be a pole? (Is it a pitchfork) beside the giant hay stack in the background. Might just be the distance, but looks like an extension of the building from this angle. Heh.

Like the tree-ness visible from the overview. However, I'm curious about the disparity of the vegetation - there seems to me more trees inside than outside! (As seen in the Walls picture). But that may just be a build area, so feel free to ignore me if it is .

Favorite part of the screenshots: The presence of the tree beside the dining table outside the tavern. Brilliant!

 

[Æon]

Nice use of the Goods Merchant sign (visible in the shop of the keep). The keep itself looks fairly wide, did you stretch it along the x-axis? The "look" works.

Nope, it was that wide, I just made it alot bigger than it was originally.

In the shot of the cart, there seems to be a pole? (Is it a pitchfork) beside the giant hay stack in the background. Might just be the distance, but looks like an extension of the building from this angle. Heh.

It's a pitchfork, if you look carefully you can see the straw in the overhang of the house as well as a stool with a straw hat. The farmer is taking a break in the tavern.

Like the tree-ness visible from the overview. However, I'm curious about the disparity of the vegetation - there seems to me more trees inside than outside! (As seen in the Walls picture). But that may just be a build area, so feel free to ignore me if it is .

I was thinking about that myself. See I also use trees to fill up empty spaces and what-not. If it looks that bad tell me and I'll pepper trees in the area surrounding the town.

Looking good, and great attention to detail as always, but you asked for feedback, so here goes!
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Favorite part of the screenshots: The presence of the tree beside the dining table outside the tavern. Brilliant!

Thanks.

 

[Liquidninja]

Farmers taking a break inside the inn? Unacceptable! No wonder I don't get more resources per month! My peons should be working for my profit all the time, nonstop! 

Definitely keep the trees that you have inside the fortifications! It does look quite good; though perhaps DO also pepper in a few more trees on the outside (where the giant blank spaces are).

Here's an idea: how about downsizing the trees in the fort and increasing the size on trees that are outside? (Trees outside are "untouched" and older, while the construction of the fort would result in the larger trees being cut down to make way/used for wood but the saplings would remain - for aesthetic reasons).

 

[Æon]

Here's an idea: how about downsizing the trees in the fort and increasing the size on trees that are outside? (Trees outside are "untouched" and older, while the construction of the fort would result in the larger trees being cut down to make way/used for wood but the saplings would remain - for aesthetic reasons).

Good idea. I should take advice from you more often.

 

[jacob25]

ok, i have been just playin around with some concepts, learning how to use ai mesh, at emptoor. its actually turned out better then i expected  , and i decided to post some screenies. i kind of aimed for a roman noble's settelment. this is e1m1

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

i think u can tell i am VERY proud of that cart. it took forever
enjoy the shots. criticism would be good 

 

[Liquidninja]

Nice work on the horses; my personal favorite has to be the poor animal carrying 2 huge barrels of ale Oh, the milk of human cruelty!

I think you're well on your way to capturing the roman-esque style with the first shot, the trees lined neatly up to the house is quite evocative. As for criticism? It seems that in the 7th picture, you can see straight to the bandit camp. On the whole, it seems that the entire terrain is very flat (fine) but just make sure you have some sort of obstruction/or rationale for the guards to be able to see the lurking bandits, but not take action to kill them.

I'm not sure if scattering trees here and there would be a good idea (probably not, as it might mess up the impression that the trees make on you when you first ride up to the settlment); but do make sure you have some sort of idea for filling up space! (Completely open plains result in seeing the texture tiles; and that's not a good thing).

By the way: Arrows in a basket = WIN.

Edit: Never told you, but for Esgaroth: I really liked the deep underwater chasm; I once fell in and got quite scared: (it was never ending and I couldn't see anything); when I hit the bottom, I actually received 16 damage hehe.

 

[jacob25]

thanks, im just takin this one slow. and the worst part about the horse with the ale is that they are attached with chains! 

i think i might make a thick forest and but the bandits in the middle of in the corner 


edit- i got the idea for arrows in a basket from Folthrik

 

[Liquidninja]

To change the color, after you select "Ground Color Paint" at the bottom of the Edit Mode windows, theres 3 sliders that are defaulted to 255, change those to achieve the desired color.

When I select Ground Color Paint, it gives me the following 3 sliders:

Radius:
Hardness:
Weight:

And the tool does absolutely nothing! What's going on? Can anyone help me? (I am definitely not on texture paint).

I really really really need this to work for my new settlement idea. So any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mortus]

There must be another 3 RGB sliders at the bottom of the window. Here is a screenshot:

Spoiler

 

[Liquidninja]

@ Mortus: Thanks for the screenshot; that really clears it up.

My edit bar is so long that apparently I'm missing the bottom 250pixels of the menu....

....this must also mean that I'm missing out on a bunch of other functions in the different edit tabs too  Yikes.

 

[jacob25]

liquid. i finished the new bandit camp. ill post screens tomorrow. but its like a clearing in a massive forest. the entrance to the path has a pile of skulls under a tree with the weapons of defeated foes. its tight. when u lure any enemy to the settelment, its tight comin out of the forest with a calavry force at full gallop 

 

[Liquidninja]

Oh man. A chokepoint? I can't wait to see the screenshots tomororw; I'll be checking out this thread for sure, hehe. I'm excited about hte use of skulls  Very creative idea (but what can you expect any less from someone who engineered an entire fortress over water?) 

 

[Liquidninja]

This is unbearable; I give up.

Spoiler

I set my resolution to highest (so most things can show up) and changed display to the smallest setting available. Now more of the menu is visible.

In fact, I JUST found out as a result of the downsizing that there is actually a randomize button for object placement with regards to both scale AND rotation. That would've made life so much easier! Ha!

But as you can see, even with auto-hide on for the task bar. It's ridiculous. I can get access to the first slider.

Looks like this settlement idea is going to the trash - considering I can't get the color tints.

Edit: Why did they make a NON resizable menu that is well over 800 pixels long?! Why the heck are all the sliders at the bottom, with that big useless space in the middle? Gah, if anyone can let me know how I can get to the other 2 sliders, it would pretty much be fantastic (you can't tab into them I've tried).

 

[Aliksander]

Yeah I have the same problem with not being able to get to the bottom of the menu bars.  Can someone give us a clue on how to get it?

 

[wickedshot]

that is weird

one idea i have, does just Tab work to select different bars and such?  maybe you can work in the dark so to speak, by Tab-ing through the scroll bars and then using the +/- keys or something to alter them after theyre selected


oh, and has anyone tested the settlements without scene files to see if creating new ones by saving the scene after editing removes the weird "cant edit beyond a certain area" error?