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More Moondial Madness!!!

Discussion in 'Developer Work and Blog posts' started by Scottie, Apr 21, 2017.

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  1. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    OK!!! After having the chance to consider and discuss the feedback, I was able to talk with Starr and Richard, and the decision was made to scale the constellation placards down by 15% further! After testing this by going into the game, hitting "V" a few times to go into first-person mode, and trying to read the runes at the new scale, it seems it's still possible to make out the words, which is really all we were trying to maintain... This is the "normal" way they'll be seen with the character near them for size comparison...
    [​IMG]

    ...And here are two images of them up close and in first person... Thanks so much for the input, everyone... You should see those changes in the next build Monday morning! I think that the shrinking of the constellation size has helped make these symbols less "overbearing" than they were before.... More of a delicate statement, if you will... ^_^
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    As I move forward with the new Moondial versions, allow me to show you the current state of the Craftable version (left) and the Ornate version (right)... The Craftable version is essentially complete, as far as the model goes, but I'm in the middle of changing out all of its materials so that it will eventually look like it's made of all sorts of variants, instead of just gold and silver... For instance, the constellation placards will look like they're wooden cutouts covered in copper trim to strengthen the edge and provide more punch to the inner symbol visual...(as compared to the darker wood "background")... But now you can finally see the beginning of my ideas for the visual style of the Ornate Moondial, with its magical aetheric projections, and its glowing mechanical bits forming a new base...
    [​IMG]

    I'm hoping to get Justin to help me apply the cool shimmery effect he was ably to create for the constellation overlay in the sky-dome itself (when you use either the astrolabe or any moondial), since that will help create an understanding that it's the same magic/aetheric tech that's allowing you to see it... It is this Ornate Moondial design that will be used for the various sizes I discussed earlier, from the small table-top version to place on a desk in your player-house, to the gigantic ones that fill a Village Lot or Keep Lot size, which will look something like this (though perhaps with a few more "glowy-bits" as part of the rest of the materials too... I kind of like the idea of some dimly-illuminant designs on the upper and under-sides of the solar ring, and possibly on some of moons themselves)!
    [​IMG]

    As I mentioned earlier, I haven't had the chance to scale them perfectly yet, but this gives you a good idea of how impressive they might feel when placed on your property or in the village square of a player-owned town! As opposed to the chaotic look of the Darkstarr Moondial, the orderly and upright graceful arcs that pass through the center of each moon help one's eye determine their alignment between the glowing sector borders. It will be possible to walk beneath them to view the coolness from inside the aetheric, projected constellation image, and see up-close the location of the moons as they follow their glowing orbital paths through the sectors of the sky, clearly delineated by the longitudinal lines of the heavenly sphere...
    [​IMG]

    I took a stroll up onto the balcony ledge of a nearby building to take a gander at what it might look like from a small distance, resting at some town center... I really think this will make for an impressive sight when viewed by those living within viewing distance, seen from some high castle balcony, or glanced at when visiting adjacent, multi-story pubs and shops...especially at night when the glowing projections will shine the brightest!
    [​IMG]

    As these get closer to being done,...I'll share some final images a bit later on!

    Hopefully you're enjoying the progress!

    Scottie ^_^
     
  2. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Very cool..

    Now what I'd love to see (in addition to all this) is an functioning moondial app for my computer desktop and/or tablet. ;) Just because that would be awesome. :)
     
  3. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Heh! That WOULD be cool (albeit far down the road, no doubt...^_^)....

    Scottie ^_^
     
  4. Lord Andernut

    Lord Andernut Avatar

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    Would radiating virtue symbols on a horizontal plane look better on the regular moondials? So they stick out instead of sit vertical?

    I feel as if spokes would be less distracting. Or if the external ring were wider they might even fit on the ring, or at least the bulk of it on the ring.
     
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  5. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    LOL, I didn't even realize the glyphs had text on them. :oops: :)
     
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  6. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    That could have been an option, but it was concluded that horizontal symbols large enough to recognize/read would increase the total width of the deco object too much, and therefore endanger the current placement of these decos due to available room. The width of the object as a whole needs to remain relatively the same... It was a tough call,...and we know its look won't please everyone,...but it was a handful of compromises in every imaginable direction of look, size, style, readability, poly-count, and functionality...

    Scottie ^_^
     
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  7. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Yep,....and that's the thin line I had to walk while designing this addition... Not "too" big,...and not "too" small, for all the various reasons mentioned earlier...
     
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  8. Emso Boydon

    Emso Boydon Legend of the Hearth

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    Dear Scottie,

    it has been too long, painter of eyes, opponent of self-sacrfice.

    Will the keep size onr be filling up the whole lot, so that the central structure could (potentially) include a staircase and "globe" viewing platform? Or is it intended to fit next to a city size house on a keep lot?

    I remain to you, your friend and admirer.

    p.s. could you please make Lum feel that it is time for #4652, please?
     
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  9. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Reminds me that at one point there was many a time I had considered trying to model a sort of 'walk though' Orrey with a platform around the ring level (or just below.. the floor would have slits for the arms that hold the planets to move through. Similar to the one in Ultima VII only actually being able to walk around in it. But he large ornate version looks like could be put to similar purpose.
     
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  10. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

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    OMG.. that's sick!

    WOW, somewhere beyond awesome.
    :)
     
  11. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Hello there!

    Excellent question! Based on what Starr told me, the initial test of both the Keep and Village Lot-sized ones will most likely fill a large portion of the lot itself (width-wise), leaving the remainder of the length of the lot for additional decoration... We'll then look at them critically and gauge to what extent (if any) they'll need to be sized down to work nicely for most folks... I don't believe there's any plans for walkable interior structures like stairs or anything, but I'll throw that past our management to see if that's something they'd like to either add or specifically avoid based on tech specifications (and available space for an avatar's collision capsule)...

    Scottie ^_^
     
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  12. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Yes!!! Of course, the real trick will be to make sure all the invisible collision shapes are as well-conceived as possible... Having the moon-supporting explanation be "magical" (or as least some non-physical "aetheric" explanation) for the Ornate versions will allow the area beneath to at least encourage movement all over the place underneath, while not having to worry about moving collision shapes interfering with where players want to walk...

    You'll notice a space, between the Sundered Moon and the rest of the moons, where another moon once sailed...(the one that crashed into the Sundered Moon, shattering it)... If there is any decision to let the player get that close to the planetary sphere, that might be a good spot to have an observation platform, like Wahooka suggested, assuming that, even at the largest scale, a person could fit up into that area.... Before that happens I may need to do a little more work on Bob's original texture for the sphere upon which Novia rests, to make sure it's as "accurate" as it can be (considering the rest of the land-masses haven't been fully designed yet)...

    You'll also notice that the artistic flourishes passing through each moon (in a more orderly fashion for the Ornate version) don't actually extend as far down from the bottom of the moons as they do on the other versions... This is me planning to allow folks to have as much unimpeded head-room as possible when playing around under the large Ornate versions... I may have to shorten them further still if that ends up not being enough for the Village size... It'll be a fun experiment!

    Scottie ^_^
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2017
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  13. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

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    When I got mine it was because I was under the impression that they'd be useful in crafting... any idea when we'll see that?
     
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  14. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

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    Also, perhaps in agriculture.
     
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  15. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    To be honest, If I heard about using the Moondials for the purpose of crafting or other such systems in some way, I don't recall... It's certainly possible that there could eventually be attributed to some recipes the qualities of adding benefits (or even creating drawbacks) depending on crafting or growing something "when the alignment of the heavenly bodies is right",...or something of that nature... I could imagine that the Moondials could certainly be used as tools to help determine recipe timing... I'm not sure how else they'd be helpful, and I'm not really at the center of designing and implementing recipes... Do you recall where you good folks got that impression from? Was it something mentioned by Richard at some point that you can point towards? It would be interesting to see what he said, if so... Interconnections like these often add a bit of extra "spice" to in-game activities, when possible...

    Scottie ^_^
     
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  16. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

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    Wish I could nail it down @Scottie seems like something I heard in a hangout.. crafting during certain cycles would somehow affect your work. I wanna say Richard or Starr..

    I can't imagine something so complex would not have quite a few interesting intersections. Just as devotionals have buffs which relate to their virtue it'd seem crafting during a cycle would trigger the RNG gods to give you a % chance at applying benefits associated with that cycle.

    Edit: soo many hangouts... soo few notes taken
     
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  17. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    It was first brought up quite some time ago that it's hard to say when.. except it's been a long time. It's one of those things that gets mentioned once or thrice and we don't hear about again for many months but people remember in the back of their minds and wonder out loud every now and then. :)
     
  18. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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  19. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    And some mentions may be a little more recent. :)
     
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  20. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Excellent find Alley Oop! This will be a great thing to remind them of, especially as we get closer to final... Once the game is "final", then I'm betting we can start further massaging existing systems to expand their functionality while polishing existing rough edges.... That kind of stuff... Hooking up celestial-position dependencies could be a part of that, perhaps! (of course,...I'm talking out of my butt just a tad bit, because I'm not sure where this was meant to fit into the schedule... "Pie in the sky" and all that....)

    Scottie ^_^
     
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