Player Town Designs

All templates are going to be a copy in some way, shape or form of something else. I took the paxlair designed and made some suggested changes that could suit another type of town (and it is still being worked out). The idea for templates is that you start off from a similar start place and you go off of that to recommend what changes you would like. So if you submit your template and it is accepted as a template then it will be a starting point for other people as well.

PaxLair did a lot of sacrifice to make sure their first template was versatile enough to be used in different ways for other people. They had specific scenes in mind too. The templates they wound up with - were not those specific scenes. Either you are going to use an existing template as a starting point and make alterations you want based off of that - or you submit a template that gets made and will henceforth be used as a starting point for others. Either way the templates will have some degree of "copying" regardless of what you do. The best bet you have of your "specific scene" being made into a template within the game is to make it re-usable for all and to scale with the 1km x 1km map size while also being scalable from holdfast to metropolis.

The important points are to know what the changes youd want within the template will be, and the important elements to bring within your template.

 

And we are well aware of all of that. As said, we have specifics, which we deem and hope will be acceptable. But don't try to force us into a copy of Paxlair. Even Winfield has agreed with me on this one.

 

My town will be inland...just want snow and lakes/waterfalls/bridges...

 

I am not trying to force you into a copy of it. I am merely saying when i look at the contours of your setup, I see a LOT of those contours in the template variant that i made. And the suggestion, was that you or someone else could work off that variation to possibly make further variations to make it suitable for you. I am not telling anyone what to do or what to use, I am merely trying to be helpful when I see designs that are very similar which could potentially be leveraged.

 

(bows respectfully) Then kindly sit back and allow us to make our behind-the-scenes variations from the template which *we* came up with. If there are any similarities, then so be it - but know that our design was being created at the same time as Paxlair's. That does not mean we do not have a different "take" on it.

I shall not discuss this with with you further.

 

I will have an inland town - Not only will it be inland, its so inland its in the crater of a volcanoe **least I hope so!!**

That is about as *in land* as you can get...

And then I have my underground town... So I have one "in land" and one "under land"

Spoiler

 

Do you have a design that you could share? I like that Kazyn is using PaxLair as a starting point, but also would like to see things that are completely and utterly different. Trying to get all angles of thinking together for the devs to mull over.

 

It sounds to me from what I have read so far over the past few weeks is that what the devs really want is just a height map with plot locations on it to use for templates and nothing more. A height map would be biome and water level independent (and fairly easy to make for those familiar with them).

 

My friends, I am planning to visit Portalarium on Wednesday, April 15th, as part of working with Devs on the PaxLair PoT Test. I am blessed that they allow me to visit and I am only 2 hours away -- and I always promise to sit in a corner and be nice ... well, I do bug them about fishing every 35 seconds (*smiles*).

I am going to print out and take all the images in this thread. This is a very valuable thread (originally intended to just be the images, but some discussion helps). I will use these to perhaps help them quickly see what ideas exist for town designs and potential templates, and get their reaction. I do not expect the Devs to make decisions on anything or make many comments yet. I may learn more about their concepts and ideas though. I will share all that I can.

Please remember, the PaxLair PoT test is just that: a test of the first PoT designed to learn how the PoT process will work for devs, owners, and community. It is a test to learn and share ideas. So official guidelines are not set yet that I have seen about how to make templates, submit them, or re-use them. We still speculate, and that is because the PoT test has not finished yet. We should continue to offer ideas, scene and template designs, and what our desires are.

I will certainly do all I can to help our great community of players and developers. Please keep the scene ideas coming, so I may print them out Tuesday night. Thanks!

 

I am gonna delet my thread as this seem to have gotten more traction, but if you are or know a POT owner and have a Simple layout idea please post your picture with the town size, and biome you are looking at.

From what I see almost everyone wants a Coastal, and only a FEW want inland ones :-(

 

So this image is a rough of the topology map that I'd like to use. Its not blended, just shapes at this point.

Its a landlocked high mountain valley with some canyon characteristics, mostly in a snowy mountain biome.

I looked at elements of Brightbone pass, so I know the elevations are possible to construct. The terraced areas may not be exactly in location.

I do have questions about walls for terracing or the city center. Is picking up the Owl's head walled city area feasible for a POT?

Are placing thermal vents (like in the Necropolis cave areas) around the pond/lake area viable to keep it liquid water and then the stream become iced the further it gets away...

 

This should fit for a Hamlet. I just took one of the examples Portalarium lists for a Hamlet and changed 5 of the village plots into 20 Row lots:



NOTE: I don't plan on purchasing a POT. I just got curious and wondered what could be done.
In my head, I picture this as a non coastal location (preferably Mountain biome) with outer stone walls like Solania has. This is actually the 7th version (and my favorite).

 

This is the first time I have tried to get a picture in. I hope it works. I know that the graph paper is bad, but I think the design is decent/efficient/organized. This is for a cross roads.

 

Looks like my map drawing of a U3 dungeon !

 

@Jade
+1 to the graph paper! I know anything I ever do makes its start with paper and pencil.

I am super stoked to see all these designs rolling in.

I think this is an accurate statement and I hope this thread or a new one evolves into that.

If you look closely at Winfield's design on this basis, a lot of things were taken into consideration:
a)if you look at the two raised areas ("Stonehill" and "Darkridge"), this map can be easily converted into a PvP capture the flag map.
b)Many of the areas can be divided easily to make smaller towns. i.e. fishing lake, just the center for a more compact theme, the Dark Forest and Isle of Spirits together,etc.

We have to be able to see these designs without the biome in them. I think a lot of people are getting hung on the biome and need to look past it. On Winfield's design try to imagine the Dark Forest and Isle of Sprits as a frozen Tundra(Brightbone Pass) where a keep sits on a snowy bluff overlooking a frozen lake to what was once an island but is now a military outpost as the first line of defense,etc. You might be able to tell it is that section from PaxLair but most won't. I had no idea that Solania was a Kingsport clone until they told us.

With all that being said, Id still like to see all the designs people are working on and continue to collect them here. In the meantime, Winfield can go to Port and try to "fish" out some more details on design specifics. And then we will reconvene with a new thread and possibly a Gchat to see how to tackle a couple more design of some topography maps to submit to Portalarium???

 

So no one laughed me off the planet for my graph paper I read a post that said most people were looking for waterfront towns. I have a second one that is inland so I shall take a chance at my being scoffed at and post it to. Each square is 5 ft and it is for a crossroads size town. Thank you all for being so kind!

 

I have been waiting for more pictures from other people. None can be worse than my pen and pencil drawings Ok last one. It is similar, but I believe there are no mistakes (there are in the other ones). I think I have followed all the rules. If they are unable to put me on water the single town lot is easily converted on the main map for 2 villiage plots. I welcome any thoughts/criticisms/mistakes anyone may have. And people more maps/pictures please!!!

 

Here is my current working template for the Hamlet of Wych Elm. I made sure, based on the info supplied from the PaxLair designers, that every smaller lot was able to fit into a space large enough to accommodate a City Lot. The idea will be the top of the map with the Town Square will be on the flattened top of a forest hill, with a few plots in the forest at the base of the hill.

 

Here's mine. I've revised it a couple of times, but I hesitate to spend much more time until we know how much customization we will have. Right now, it's a fairly small community: just two plots and a cemetery. I'm hoping they can be placed in a quiet bayou with lots of spanish moss hanging from the trees....oh, and ample fishing.

Ranger's Repose:

 

Root your plan has on it 12 City Lots with houses in them, a Hamlet cannot hold 12 city lots? but you count works out? So once again if YOUR template is chose then all Hamlets would have to place houses in the spaces you chose?

Does anyone see my conumdrum?

Why would you jam 4 village lots on top of each other? because the fit in a city lot space

And why wen need to get a posting of all the designs by biome and take a general vote among POT owners so we have a consensus on what we accept as basic templates?