SP - World Map Smaller makes bigger? Size and Models randomized variations.

Users who are viewing this thread

I had the idea for this suggestion thanks to @Klopkr in @Brandon's suggestion to make the world feel more alive
I think they could really easily make the game world feel bigger by just shrinking all the game models on the map by maybe 50 to 75% and make movement for everything slower across the board. It should take an in game month to cross the map.

And that got me thinking on a few things to not only make the world feel BIGGER, but also make everything feel slightly more unique for very little cost.

If the size of every model in the world map, Towns, Villages, Castles, Characters and Trees, are shrunk 25% to 50% and maximum zoom in is increased, ( I won't go much into move speed here, but it could receive a slight adaptation due to the size) the map would indeed feel much MUCH bigger, which would give a better illusion of distances.

But by just doing that, trees would start to seem too far apart, so they'd need to be increased in number. Yet just increasing trees in number would make it much more apparent that there really aren't that many tree models in the game, yet that can be fixed with small randomization that can also be applied to settlements. And that would not really have barely any computation cost to save because it could all be based of a single randomized seed string applied to the whole map.

Randomized model stats:
  • Tree sizes
  • Model spin
  • Texture hue, saturation and shade variation
With a single seed applying those changes to the whole map, you could have 2 different campaign game saves with the world map looking slightly different where if you just changed that seed value in the save file, they would look exactly the same.

With just 3 tree models, you could have an entire forest where not two trees will look exactly the same. They will have different sizes, different shades of green, different shades of brown and be even if they get the exact size and color, the models would be facing in different directions which would still give the illusion of being very different trees.

The same logic can be applied somewhat to towns and villages.
If in the future TaleWorlds adds a mechanic where a village, castle or town size/number of houses around increases or decreases according to its population/hearth, the houses models, hue and certain size variation could be also be chosen randomly from a list decided by that same random seed string.
This means that every town, village and castle would have a different number of houses around based on its population and every house would look slightly different even if there are only a few models for the game to choose from for almost no processing cost at all.

This would give a much big sense of uniqueness to the world and also make the game world feel much vaster and distances much farther away than it currently is.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Edit]I'd just like to add some information to corroborate a need of such resizing and increase in maximum zoom in distance.

Currently, there are certain places around the map where trees and castles/towns can be the same size if not even higher than some mountains, so this wouldn't even imbalance the ratio of size from the models to the map, instead, it would make it more realistic.
sCfil.jpg

Even if we consider each tree to be on average 100 meters tall in the image above, that small mountain already have a snowcap.
The snow line is much higher near the equator (about 4572 meters), for example, than it is near the poles (sea level or 0 meters in altitude), but even if we consider that we are somewhat near the poles, that can be anywhere between 0 to 4500 meters, and Saneopa in the image is nowhere near the north-most part of the map. It's actually closer to the middle of the currently accessible map.

Even the tallest mountain I could find in the game, I believe could be considered at most 10 to 20 trees tall, which again if we consider the tallest tree model to be around 100 meters, would mean a 1000 to 2000 meter tall mountain, which in terms of mountains, is not really all THAT big compared to some that can go all the way to 8000 meters tall mountains. The eight-thousanders.
kLsOe.jpg


If just the model sizes for the characters, trees, villages, towns and castles is shrunk by half, increasing the amount of trees on the map to account for it, even if map movement speed is not messed the least to not mess up with the economy currently, the tallest mountain would already be about 2000 to 4000 meter tall, which is a quite respectable mountain size.

If they are reduced to a quarter of the size, the tallest mountain will be anywhere between 4000 meters to being an eight-thousander, which is indeed one of the tallest mountain sizes in the real world with only 14 mountains above 8000 meters in the real world.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

deGoucan Scrolls Index
 
Last edited:
Yeah I thought this was a really awesome idea as well. I am no programmer but it seems like it would be a simple thing to make the world feel bigger and more realistic. Thanks idea @Klopkr and thanks for fleshing it out with details @GG Cannon!
 
Yeah I thought this was a really awesome idea as well. I am no programmer but it seems like it would be a simple thing to make the world feel bigger and more realistic. Thanks idea @Klopkr and thanks for fleshing it out with details @GG Cannon!
Thanks to your reply I remembered to add a bit more information and a few images to this thread. Just edited them in, so thanks a LOT @Brandon ?
 
Yeah I really like where you've went with this. Over time they could add more scenery for the map.
 
Smaller models and slower map speed certainly create a more vast campaign map. From memory I think it was 1257 total conversion mod where this worked quite effectively. They had a map speed adjustment in options to suit players tastes. I like the idea but I'd suggest it would work better as a separate mod. I'm good with it but I suspect there'd be a lot of players wouldn't like it, and the devs won't be making any structural changes, for now at least. Always worth raising the idea, though. :smile:
 
Back
Top Bottom