The Making of Verdantis Mines

Hey folks, today I'll be sharing a sneak peak at the updated Verdantis Mines. The new look for the mines is inspired by the Waitomo Glowworm caves in new Zealand, The ancient city of Petra in Jordan, Pompeii, and The Bridge of Khazad Dum from The Lord of the Rings.

In this map, a group of elves have uncovered a hidden city while mining for ore. The Elves have taken the opportunity to loot the artifacts and precious ores that were left behind when the city was flooded with magma in a natural disaster. Their disruption has awoken the undead, who they now fight for control of the city.

Feel free to leave feedback, but keep in mind this is still a work in progress. You can expect a few updates to lighting and atmosphere, more rubble, an Elven camp, and more evidence of mining and looting. I'll make further updates to the post as the map comes closer to completion. Enjoy!

The Ancient City Ruins


The Market Ruins



The Bridge to The Citadel



The Ramparts



The Keep



Chris Wolf
Level Designer

 

Niiiiiice..

 

Looks like fun, great job.

 

AWESOME!!! When can I get those for my Obsidian house (and basement) ceilings?

 

Wow this is fantastic so far. I am looking forward to seeing it. Also is there a way to change up the cobblestones, we always have the same coloring on the walls and ground, well a lot. That is one thing that makes scenes in the game look too similar. We can tell that the same assets are being used and for me I'd like to see notice-able differences to the scenes made. Making use of the assets that we already have but disguise them if possible to not be able to tell them apart. Right away when I see a new scene that is using same old same old asset look then I am a bit sad for this happening. Sorry I'm not trying to take away form your wonderful work, just providing how I feel. I know you said it is not done yet, so I am premature I'm sure

 

I remember trying to make glow worms about 3 years ago.. never could get them quite right.. my gosh those are huge!

 

Sea-Wolf has just earned the achievement [We Need to Go Deeper]

 

Great work @Sea-Wolf , look forward to seeing how it progresses.

 

The dungeon assets we use aren't really compatible with other textures, because the bricks are accentuated by the mesh. This is something that drives me nuts. We've talked about the possibility of going through each asset and either removing the brick meshes or putting them in a different material layer, but because the dungeon kit is so extensive, we just don't have time to do it. It would cost us to many man hours.

In this scene you will find several new assets that work with the dungeon set, including copper roofs, and crenelations, which allows us to leverage the assets in a new way.

 

oh thank you for explaining. I really wondered if we could change up their color and textures. I really know nothing and wish for less restrictions for you over time so you can have even more fun creating our world.

 

Wow, cool!

 

I love the glowworms and the dripping lava streams. I want to go in there with half a dozen friends and many torches to investigate all that architecture and find out where things are lurking in those caverns.

Great to get a look at all this, @Sea-Wolf . Thank you!

 

We surely do have quite a few very skilled Level-Designers here.

Now what Port needs is some additional skilled quest-writer & programmer to fill all theese zones with more life (quest, sidequest, daily quest?, hidden stuff, mob variation, better basic loot variation on crates, sacks, chests & mobs, items/materials and so on that only drop in that zone, etc.) to give em more of an purpose other than just to look different.

Basically making scenes somewhat unique to give players a reason to visit and do things in other scenes.
And basic loottables need an huge improvement also, there is currently no real reason to look into the millions of crates,, sacks & barrels etc., it's always the same you find in them.

Exploring a zone currently is still lackluster, sure the looks of all the new zones are impressive... but i don't play games just for the looks

 

I updated the OP with brighter versions of the screenshots

 

Ah, now I can see them a bit better, thanks DS!

As an avid miner in-game, I'm really excited to see all these mine scene unclonings. Spicing things up with new looks and especially the cool vertical depth aspects that make these areas seem bigger... all helps to remove the monotonous feeling of running around in a small circle to collect ore.

Don't get me wrong, I think there should still be small / narrow tunnel areas in all mines, but they should be just that... tunnels between huge rooms and opened cavernous areas. I think a balanced mixture of the two will give you the feeling that you are truly "underground" or inside of a mountain.

Oh, and the traps and "city" areas with mobs to fight to get to the good ore is also something that I enjoy too.

Great job so far here @Sea-Wolf !

 

REALLY hope they fix the brightness slider so that it does something this release, it's quite frustrating at night-time at whatever the default is.

 

Very nice job! Can't wait to explore the new Verdantis mines! I really like the idea of an uncovered hidden city.

 

Its not a problem at all. Colors actually can be changed, and they often are, but when in dungeons and other dark places, lighting contributes more to the final look of the texture than its diffuse (built in color) does. The color changes are likely to go unnoticed.

This has got me thinking about the possibility of adding a directional layer of ash or growth on top of the current texture though. It might go well with the volcanic theme of the map. Ill try it out.

 

The scene is close to being finished, and I have a few more screenshots to share. Its probably worth mentioning that I turned on most of the lanterns in the scene to help illuminate it for these screenshots, however in-game, only a handful of lanterns will be lit.

The Old Mine



The Elf Camp



The Ancient City



The Ancient City (as seen from the bridge)



The Trench



The Citadel



Chris Wolf
Level Designer

 

Will this mine have ore in it?