A preview of new Xenos work!

Good to see you again!!!!

 

Hello my fine folks!

As I continue to develop the details of Xenos, my thoughts keep going back to the rocky entrance through the coastal hills from the Elysian Plains southwest of the city... Though many will choose to visit the land of Elysium by ship from the mainland of New Britannia, thus arriving at the port of Xenos, those adventuring out into wilderness and rolling hills of Elysium and returning again will enter from the south, passing through forested acres festooned with the tents of travelers unable to pay for richer housing within the city. Since the draw of Xenos is the Lottery, and the laws of the land allow fair passage to all races, assuming they behave in a civilized fashion, the tents of the people of many lands can be found here, as well as the occasional encampment of friendly elves and kobolds. This will hopefully be a place where many different tales can be found and shared, and the hopes and dreams of supplicants awaiting their chance at the Lottery of Artifice can be wistfully imparted upon those who will listen. Though I have not fully polished the encampments, here you can see my first pass at the variety of tents spread through the meadows and thickets.


This being one of the main roads leading into the city, it will eventually receive the same treatment I am giving to the other primary thoroughfares, namely the paving stones lining each edge of the cobbled pathway, as well as the upraised borders with dusty foot-trails etched along the grassy way to either side. The well-traveled road leads past the ancient caravanserai stationed near the edge of the Lagoon of Pleasures which I showcased in an earlier sub-post. This building (one of the larger "desert" style homes, actually) I have adorned with various Greco-Roman features and details, and have reserved it as a place for the more quaint travelers to barter and trade. Within will eventually be found the same types of tented merchant stalls as can be discovered along the busy docks near the town center... The idea with a caravanserai, however, is that the visiting merchants with their wagons and caravans would actually reside (at least temporarily) in one of the many different rooms available in this building, and pitch their wares in the stalls either within the inner courtyard (accessed straight through that little door you see below), or upon the second story roof balcony overlooking it from above...


Not far to the east of here several neighborhoods stretch away toward the plains and the bay, and if one were to gaze out over them from atop one of the many taller building found here, one could see the northeastern aqueducts stretching like a crooked stone snake from the taller heights into the residential areas below. Though it may be interesting to see the placeholder houses I have chosen to display, these will eventually become the domiciles of whomever has purchased those plots, and the spaces in between will be dotted with little gardens and follies decorated with bits of ancient ruins and artful statuary of my choosing, while the coasts will have steps leading into the water, and platforms here and there bedecked in flowering plants and tall sculpted junipers.

Those who enter the city from the north, however, will enjoy the finely sculpted stone docks of Xenos, and its busy port full of market stalls, garden paths, and the Grand Gate leading into the Forum of the Lottery itself! Only the dazzling city of Ardoris, who shares with Xenos the need for aqueducts, has a similar flavor and mystique, with its paved streets and many alleys. But it is the historical nature of Xenos' very foundations which entice the traveler with thoughts of the cultures that thrived here long ago, ancient even before the rise of the Obsidian Empire,...older than the catastrophe that shattered the moon itself. In the images below you can see the work I've done re-creating the docks, making way for the colorful merchant stalls near the piers, and lining the streets and walkways leading into the city center with decorative plants and statuary. Soon the barren areas you can see in front of the shore-side player housing will be similarly accoutered!



Here we begin walking inward toward the Forum itself, through the Grand Gate, beneath the statue of Boreas, and between the guardian Shedu which gaze forward toward those who seek admittance. Beyond the Grand Gate is a domed rotunda held aloft by ancient pillars and surmounted with an oculus open to the sky. It rests within the inner courtyard between the gate and Forum, and is a place where those who wait for the ceremonies meander and greet one another. Above the Grand Gate you can see the insignia of Xenos, its broken-shackled hands holding aloft the gear-work icon reminiscent of the wooden gears and cogs of the many waterwheels found within the city at various points, providing power to the aetheric generators that feed various buildings and services here and there.


Again, this courtyard, with the rotunda and its statue-adorned fountain, are still a work in progress, and will eventually be even more filled with decorative plants, pathways, and other things to please the eye,...as will the rest of this central area as a whole. And all of these details, as I design them, will spill out and inform the rest of the city, and will enrich even the outlying areas of rural estates and ruin-littered countryside. There's so much more to come!

Thank you for your patience with this process, and hopefully your excitement for these additions is well rewarded! Yours in earnest endeavor...

Scottie ^_^

 

Oh Scottie this is just fantastic. you have touched on all the comments we've had to make this scene stand apart from others, making the stonework and housing have it's own distinct flavor unlike other scenes. Thank you so much for listening and for the fantastic job you always do. I just love this scene.

 

Nicely done Scottie!!!!
I really like the stone docks and the entry from the docks. Hope there will be some period deco available for our homes so that we can provide a great background for your outstanding work. Well done hope to see the finished results in game in the near future.

 

Thanks so much! I actually have three separate lists of comments I'm trying to address with this work (stapled-together printouts right there on my desk), which include not only feedback from players, but also the additional comments and requests made during each map review in which my progress is noted... The hardest thing for me will be to limit what I'm able to do, due to the time constraints of when all of this needs to go live in R38... As with all works of art, it never really feels "finished", and instead I must resign myself to "good enough" when the time comes, and pace all my efforts accordingly along the way... Wish me luck maintaining a healthy scope for this! ^_^

 

Thanks for the comments! As you have seen, we now have a larger selection of "Classical Period" digital assets I'm using to flesh the décor of this city out... How much we can add to the store for personal purchase in-game is up to Starr and Dallas (and the like) to decide, but at least they have a significant amount to choose from! ^_^

 

Wow... I mean... WOW!!!
I have not checked in here for a few weeks and it's like Christmas all over again!!!

You have captured the spirit of Xenos and I could not be happier.

I cant wait to see the final product Scottie!!! Keep going as this is something special your creating.

-MH

 

Um...I love everything in xenos but OMG THAT VASE is fantastic...yes im on a vase kick know thanks to yall!

 

Hello again!

That holiday break made it seem like it's been forever since I last posted. Let's take a look at some recent Xenos progress, shall we?

As we enter into the central city neighborhoods from West Bay road, you can already see how my "urban renewal" project is shaping up. Though surrounded by housing lots ahead and to the right, there's still plenty of room for decorative foliage, tall junipers, and statuary to demarcate areas of interest such as this crossroads, which spills out onto the newly developed west dock-side shoreline. This city has been a port-of-call for well over two thousand years or so, since long before the Fall of the shattered moon, and remnants of the grand stone docks built in antiquity are still in heavy use, as you will note! My goal for all such areas was to conjure both the grit and the beauty of the ancient populated Greco-Roman shores of our Earth's Aegean Sea. The water we are currently using certainly helps create that illusion. As you'll notice, here and there where it seemed appropriate, I've dotted various areas with some of the new decorative pieces we've purchased and adapted for this region. I'm sure you'll see them migrate to other parts of the world as well!





I've also begun to give a bit of love to the Elysian Heights neighborhood area on the hill overlooking downtown. The Overlook Point with its grand colonnade now has a new fountain feature, and the yards bordering the nearby housing lots have been manicured a bit to show that the city builders have an eye for the fine aesthetics they believe will please the elite who choose to make their homes there. Here too the older ruins, while being cleaned up of rubble and debris, have been allowed to remain, accenting the gracefully tall trees and colorful flowering plants. Statues from several ages of Xenos' culture gaze down upon its joyful residents and visitors alike, and one can always expect to find a beautiful old rotunda or small formal garden tucked away here and there.





Heading back down to the area of the Forum of the Lottery again, you'll note a few improvements here as well! The somewhat barren area beyond the main gate has now been fully fleshed out with winding pathways, a variety of flora, and various objects of art. These paths lead directly into the central part of the downtown district and through the Forum's seating area itself, which has seen a few additions as well to help drive home the opulent and festive nature of the proceedings held there, and for which hopeful visitors have traveled so far to see.



The hour is late, and it's time for me to journey home for the night, so I'll leave you with this last evening's image of night-time as it settles over the west road leading down from the Heights and toward the Elysian Plains. There will be, perhaps one more set of these previews before the final details are done, and the whole scene is ready to go into the update! Hopefully you will be pleased when this city transforms before your very eyes!


Farewell for now,...and good night, my friends!

Scottie ^_^

 

Scottie, This is just amazing and so lovely. I can't wait to actually walk my avatar through it. Thank you so much for all the hard work you do.

 

Please do something for us outskirts dwellers as well. It's nice to have a great atmosphere in the city centre but I hope the surroundings will get a taste of it as well. Or remove that damned hill so I can at least see the nice buildings you are designing! ;-)

 

Although the outskirts of the city will contain more crumbling ruins and pastoral scenes as it blends into the rolling hills of the Elysian Plains, it will get my loving touch too, I promise... ^_^ With the exception of the higher craggy outcroppings where the aqueducts need to emerge from, and the higher areas of land where the housing lots exist, my goal is to remove the "deeper-looking" forested edge and as many of the higher areas as I can (because I can't move housing lots in any way) to make it seem as if the distant plains can be seen from miles around... At worst it will look like Xenos exists down in a more verdant, forested "bowl" where the plains end and meet the coast.... Which hill is the one you'd like me to try to remove?

 

OmnomnomnomnomneedMOAR!

 

Great update, @Scottie!

Would love to see you extend this concept of crumbling ruins out into the bay and along the outskirts and coastlines, with once magnificent structures or statues of yore lying half-buried for us to explore, like we see in the concept art: Oracle head in the swamps, giant faces carved into the sides of mountains, huge bones along the shore, etc. And perhaps a few Easter eggs or two

 

Great idea. Any chance of completely submerging a couple of assets in spots as well (since you can see down to the bottom)..... broken statues, steps, old ring of stones, etc?

 

Looking great Scottie

I of course am looking forward to your modifications of the outskirts as I have the second to last home on the seaside road (no one has ever told me the name of the dirt road in front of my home). It will be interesting to see how you portray the ebb and flow of the inhabitants of Xenos over a two thousand year period. The building and decay of many civilizations shown through ruins left behind is a daunting task that I think you have started to present in a wonderful kaleidoscope of color and texture

I do not have a hill in front of my home but I do have a tree and large boulder there ( maybe a nice park)

I am looking forward to the release date hope it is very soon

Again very nice job

 

WOW! that looks great. Makes me feel like Im looking at an ancient Greek city.

 

No idea if it has a name but it's the big one in the south with the keep lot in the centre. My neighbours and myself are living behind it, at the South border. For those who are still looking, there's still a free city lot last time I checked.

 

Ah, yes... That one.... Unfortunately, since I'm not allowed to move or alter the housing lots in any way (including elevation changes) there's nothing I can really do about that particular hill other than decorate it nicely for the sake of those who must see it out of their front door... Of the images you see in that last post above, the sixth, seventh, and eighth images actually depict that very hill, and the decorations I've added to its sides to improve its look for you guys; a nice circular set of arches and ancient wall, adorned with statues looking out over those southern back-lots, and near the east end of the road, a little rotunda with a fountain surrounded by beautiful trees... Additionally, where there was a hill behind you I've flattened it out so you can have a lovely view of the Elysian Plains stretching off far in the distance where I intend to give an indication of the distant Rumor Peaks... Hopefully this can make up a bit for the immovable hill! Heh!

Scottie ^_^

 

I'm sure it will Scottie, thanks for caring. . You're doing an amazing job.
Looking forward to my garden view!