I'm not sure they'd be mushroom. (sorry, had to be done) .
Seriously though, I quite like the idea of a glade but i'd probably be picky and want new trees, bushes, and a shrubbery (with a nice little path down the side) - opposed to Monster Island foliage, and I appreciate a lot of % is using existing library of assets where possible for something like foliage.
No, you were not sensing any kind of opposition to RP locations.
My point is, this is about hideouts specifically. Not general RP locations. And some of the suggestions seem more like general RP ideas, than places where a superhero would actually have his own, personal base.
I'd rather have RP instances avilable in game, as open instances, not requiring a C-store expenditure, except maybe a one-time fee that unlocks all of them.
That's all well and good. My point was mostly to illustrate the kind of thinking that goes into "Which one to make next."
Something that seems fairly niche, or doesn't really fit the idea of "hideout" to me, is less likely to be made than those that we think many, many people will have characters that can use it.
Okay, well how about this. Mad science lab. Or any kind of science lab ^_^
That's all well and good. My point was mostly to illustrate the kind of thinking that goes into "Which one to make next."
Something that seems fairly niche, or doesn't really fit the idea of "hideout" to me, is less likely to be made than those that we think many, many people will have characters that can use it.
I should also add. I'd happy spend money on a lot of these 'RP spaces' in as much as I might hideouts
Though I think that some of this is getting into more just general "RP" locations, and less, Batcave/Fortress of Solitude/Spidey Apartment type hideout. Still good ideas, but when you make suggestions, try to think of how many characters you think would actually USE said hideout as their base of operations. I am sure I can come up with a hero for every hideout mentioned, but that doesn't mean that a large number of people are likely to use that hideout.
Also, try to be more specific about what the hideout actually is. Saying "It's on a mountain top," doesn't necessarily tell me anything. What's on top of a mountain? It could be high tech lab, a chalet, a yurt?
Sorry about the general descriptions, but I was thinking of Hideouts I had see used as bases by heroes in comics, books and TV when I made my suggestions:
Railroad Caboose (as per Wild Wild West)
Garage (House/Mechanic/Gas Station)
Junkyard
Mobile RV/Tour Bus
Railroad Caboose = As stated Jim West from Wild Wild West, also Abe Lincoln, and The Ninja Turtles. Blankman's hideout was a railroad station.
Garage (House/Mechanic/Gas Station) - Ben 10, Static Shock, Kato (in the New Green Hornet Movie), and Jim from No Ordinary Family.
Junkyard - Steel, Fat Albert, Iron Giant, Goat from Megas XLR, Mr. Furious, Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats, but I think RV and Garage may cover most Junkyard heroes (well maybe not cats).
Mobile RV/Tour Bus - Young Ben 10 (RV), The Three Investigators (RV in a Junkyard), The Witchcraft Mountain Kids Tony and Tia, I also thought the Tour Bus idea could double as a hideout for Rockstar type heroes like Saphire.
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this? We've proceeded on a concept that every hideout has A) a Crime Computer, A tailor area, C) some kind of Social space, D) at least 2 doors for future expansion. E) Some amount of customization F) at least 2 other sub-types for expanded customization
So. . . In a Cemetery, where/what is your Crime Computer? Your Social Space? Your Tailor? What exactly do you customize? How do we leave room for future expansion, without letting you see that area from the existing base? (Really, that's a question for all of these outdoor only kinds of hideouts)
Again, I'm not shooting anything down, or poo-pooing RP instances. Just expressing my own confusion over such suggestions, and explaining the kind of thought process that goes into every hideout.
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this? We've proceeded on a concept that every hideout has A) a Crime Computer, A tailor area, C) some kind of Social space, D) at least 2 doors for future expansion. E) Some amount of customization F) at least 2 other sub-types for expanded customization
So. . . In a Cemetery, where/what is your Crime Computer? Your Social Space? Your Tailor? What exactly do you customize? How do we leave room for future expansion, without letting you see that area from the existing base? (Really, that's a question for all of these outdoor only kinds of hideouts)
Again, I'm not shooting anything down, or poo-pooing RP instances. Just expressing my own confusion over such suggestions, and explaining the kind of thought process that goes into every hideout.
Instead of a Cemetary how about a Masoleum. Perhaps with a Egyptian Tomb variant.
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this? We've proceeded on a concept that every hideout has A) a Crime Computer, A tailor area, C) some kind of Social space, D) at least 2 doors for future expansion. E) Some amount of customization F) at least 2 other sub-types for expanded customization
So. . . In a Cemetery, where/what is your Crime Computer? Your Social Space? Your Tailor? What exactly do you customize? How do we leave room for future expansion, without letting you see that area from the existing base? (Really, that's a question for all of these outdoor only kinds of hideouts)
Again, I'm not shooting anything down, or poo-pooing RP instances. Just expressing my own confusion over such suggestions, and explaining the kind of thought process that goes into every hideout.
Cemetary?, Umm.... I'll have a go.
# Option one:
Like with Mom's basement where you find yourself at the top of some stairs above the hideout - In Cemetary i'd have you zone into a misty graveyard (like one in Vibora Bay for example, but without visual clues to a certain location). You would not be able to move around above ground, this is just a teaser enviroment to put into context that you are going underground.
The grave itself would be open with the grave's flowers, urn, mud etc on the rear of a the disguising panel that has swung up and open to reveal the steps going down.
Option Two:
You zone in facing a mausoleum in a graveyard or just inside the entrance. The entrance is under a hidden sarcofagus that has slid aside to reveal stone stairs. The sarcofagus statue could be options of a dearly departed one lying on their back (like in Universal's 2010 film 'The Wolfman') maybe she could blink creepily like the statue in Vibora Bay.
Maybe options on the hideout settings could replace different statues ontop, husband / wife / lover / legendary-warrior memorial.
Stone stairs lead down into a crypt like the one belonging to Antonio Bandera's character and the vampire clan in 'Interview with a vampire'.
# Resesses line the carved stone walls for coffins and urns and the odd skeleton.
# The 'leave your character in the sleep pod' mechanic (if it is ever able to be worked out) could be applied to coffins.
# Different rooms?, well... its a stone crypt so just have a door or long thin stone corridor that would lead off somewhere to it.
# Crime computer I would make a crow or raven atop an urn somewhere in the hideout (conceptually that the crow flys all over MC and thus sees and knows all). It does the odd wings flutter animation and audio sfx of a 'Ka-Kaaah'crow-squawk or raven squawk.
# Social space: I'd go with a round amphitheatre akin to a small theatre, very decandant decor. perhaps a place to rend a few virgins limb-from-limb inbetween recounting age-old stories between fellow undead.
May a well-like day cell to throw traitors so they do the new shadows 'turn-to-ash' animation.
# The tailor could be an old spinster of a vampiress sitting sewing, or a fellow werewolf fixing a Harley that enquires; "hows that jacket I made ya holdin up?".
# Variations?;
# Egyptian-themed mausoleum.
# Chinese-themed mausoleum.
# Hades underworld 'realm of the dead' theme.
# Vampire Crypt like in 'Interview with a Vampire'.
# Werewolf self-imposed restraint sanctuary (see Anthony Hopkin's character's mausoleum in 'The Wolfman').
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this?
...
Have you given consideration to the applicability of a "second tier" of room/location associated with Hideouts to this question, as I mentioned here? It would answer this question and, IMO at least, provide some other benefits as I proposed...would it be possible as something to implement in the future, since it is basically, at least minimally, is just a simple room without the fancy Hideout bits (though the "camouflaged portal" to the Hideout could benefit from being unusually fancy, that is just one prop)?
Instead of a Cemetary how about a Masoleum. Perhaps with a Egyptian Tomb variant.
The Mausoleum/Crypt type thing should be fairly easy to do since we have areas in the game like that already. It could be interchangeable with maybe an Egyptian Tomb, but what would the the third one? Aztec Tomb maybe?
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this? We've proceeded on a concept that every hideout has A) a Crime Computer, A tailor area, C) some kind of Social space, D) at least 2 doors for future expansion. E) Some amount of customization F) at least 2 other sub-types for expanded customization
So. . . In a Cemetery, where/what is your Crime Computer? Your Social Space? Your Tailor? What exactly do you customize? How do we leave room for future expansion, without letting you see that area from the existing base? (Really, that's a question for all of these outdoor only kinds of hideouts)
Again, I'm not shooting anything down, or poo-pooing RP instances. Just expressing my own confusion over such suggestions, and explaining the kind of thought process that goes into every hideout.
Personally, I'd vote on making a crypt skin for the Sanctum hideout. Marble walls, sarcophagi, and maybe a graveyard space on the lower level. It actually seems like that'd be a fun hang out for some of our undead heroes.
The following is an idea for a hideout category structure to organize some of our concepts so far. Many of the concepts presented in this list have been proposed already, and some were added by me as I wrote the list. This list is by no means meant to be final (and in fact some of the hideout concepts proposed so far are not included for now while I flesh out this idea a bit more), but more an idea of what I have in mind for a hideout concept structuring.
Some reasons why I thought we needed some category-based structuring include the following:
We have been proposing (and will likely continue to propose) LOTS of ideas, and the list of concepts is becoming unwieldy.
Tumerboy has been asking us to refine our concepts a bit--making them seem more like something a wide range of hero-types would use, rather than a broad collection of RP locations and/or things a limited range of heroes is likely to use (and as such, few players a likely to purchase)
Hideout customization is heavily reliant on categories. The amount of options we get is based on the amount of hideout types (Mystic, Achemist, Druid, etc. for Sanctum, for example) we have on the same category. So the more hideout concepts we propose that are their own category, the less customization options we will get if/when these concepts are actually implemented.
I feel that by structuring hideout concepts into workable categories, we will be more likely to get them, because it would make Tumberboy's job easier (I think, since he'd be able to based new concepts off existing ideas/hideouts and cut down on work) and it would also help expand on existing categories.
Note/Disclaimer: This category structure is inevitably based on assumptions I've made that might or might not be true. For example, I've been assuming all hideouts based on the "Sanctum" category will use the same library we already have as a base, but with new options, and perhaps a few superficial cosmetic changes. But since I've only seen the hideouts we have so far (which are a single type for each of the four categories) I really don't know. Tumerboy is ultimately the final arbiter on what is the best categorization model would be, since he's doing all the work and is the one the trully knows how much work will be done per hideout and what sort of things will actually change, etc.
As such, this list (if any portion of it is used) is subject to change based on everyone's feedback (primarily Tumerboy's, but also based on what everyone thinks of this category structure and any other ideas that come up).
Domed Base/Station (similar to Moon Base layout)
- Alien World
- Artic
- Desert
- Jungle
- Underwater
Fort/Castle
- Ancient Castle (Faery Tale Style)
- Ancient Castle (Ruins)
- Asian
- Lemurian/Atlantean
- Modern Fort (Fort Knocks, West Point, etc.)
- Wooden Fort/Castle (Ancient/Tribal)
- Wooden Fort/Castle (Modern Military)
For all those responding to my Cemetery question. . . you've all responded with some form of "Mausoleum" not "Cemetery."
I agree, Mausoleum makes sense, I know how to go about that, the question is, if the original suggestion is ACTUALLY Cemetery, and NOT Mausoleum. . . how do we manage something like that? I still have trouble envisioning it.
And my question about doors for expansion on any of the outdoor locales is still in the air. Anyone want to take a stab at that?
Thanks for the feedback though guys, I really appreciate it.
Vision Storm, yes, you are correct, that is how we are trying to think of these things. To be clearer, everything has to keep the same overall structure. i.e. for the Sanctums, they will all have the entrance door at the back of the room, they will all have expansion doors off to the sides, they will all have a platform in the center, supported by pillars, and all of them will have the Tailor area, the Crime computer, etc. in the same location that they are in the Mystic Sanctum. However, any of those things can be swapped out visually. The Structure of the room (walls/floor/pillars) can be swapped for a different look/texture, they just have to remain in the same location. Hope that helps with planning things out. Thanks for organizing that.
For all those responding to my Cemetery question. . . you've all responded with some form of "Mausoleum" not "Cemetery."
I agree, Mausoleum makes sense, I know how to go about that, the question is, if the original suggestion is ACTUALLY Cemetery, and NOT Mausoleum. . . how do we manage something like that? I still have trouble envisioning it.
I see it quite simply as this; a cemetary hideout above ground, just in a cemetary's grounds won't work anyway. I mean the word hideout does somewhat imply that it is hidden. If its above ground just in the grounds of a cemetary - a cemetary that other people are going to visit deceased relatives in - well, thats not really my idea of a secure hidden hideout. No such thing as a cemetary hideout if you are not going to disappear down into a hidden stairwell under a grave or into a mausoleum. Thats my impression anyway.
And my question about doors for expansion on any of the outdoor locales is still in the air. Anyone want to take a stab at that?
Thanks for the feedback though guys, I really appreciate it.
Outside locales that are outside of a building?, that could have different rooms?. Sorry Tumerboy I don't follow, I've looked at VisionStorms list there and I'm not seeing outdoor locales that would present a problem.
We've already had apartments suggested but some alternates to the crappy apartment.
Home Apartment - Not Crappy but not the best in the world either, think an apartment for the average person would live.
College/University Apartment - Posters or schedules on the wall, decent but very basic furniture, general low purpose mess caused by teens like clothes on the floor and an unmade bed.
Military apartment - Very clean, organisation logo on the wall and the computer screen, very basic furniture, beds all neatly made, footlockers instead of wardrobes.
It would be nice if there was a lab like the kind where they gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton, you know a government or big time business funded lab. For inspirations Wolverine Origins, Spiderman (Osborn labs) have some examples. It would be kind of a clean cut lab with lots of capsules filled with wired specimens, holographic computers, lab coats, well lit environment and echo a kind of cold sinister Frankenstein atmosphere. A place for the FBI to store their aliens, lab of a mad bioengineer, Weapon X like organization lab etc.
These two are mutant/vagrant flavored hideouts I am thinking of.
One is a sewer with 2-3 of hubs that are repurposed into rooms, with a breathtaking cylindrical atrium 200ft tall or more that has light shaft coming down.
The other is a portion of the Metro Detroit Subway network that is caved in from the Day of Destroyer. You enter and exit from a service ladder. Flickering and humming lights, newspaper stand that has a paper from the day in 1992 that Destroyer razed Detroit, some ambient vermin/insect activity, occassional muffled sounds of traffic and fights coming from above. Every once in a while, you'll hear the clank of some solid piece of matter way off in the distance reverberate through the ruined tube.
Outside locales that are outside of a building?, that could have different rooms?. Sorry Tumerboy I don't follow, I've looked at VisionStorms list there and I'm not seeing outdoor locales that would present a problem.
Examples please.
I'm saying that the current concept of hideouts (as implemented) include doors that may be used in the future for expansion of the hideout. It's easy enough on an interior to add a door, that you can't go through, or see through. However, if you're in a totally open environment (Cemetery, forest, Q Realm), where you can see far outside your hideout from within, how do we create "doors" that will leave room for future expansion, but not let you see the area that will be used in the future? Or do we have to let you see every where, and if/when we do get to expansions, those areas just pop into existence? I guess that could work, but it seems funky to me.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
I'm saying that the current concept of hideouts (as implemented) include doors that may be used in the future for expansion of the hideout. It's easy enough on an interior to add a door, that you can't go through, or see through. However, if you're in a totally open environment (Cemetery, forest, Q Realm), where you can see far outside your hideout from within, how do we create "doors" that will leave room for future expansion, but not let you see the area that will be used in the future? Or do we have to let you see every where, and if/when we do get to expansions, those areas just pop into existence? I guess that could work, but it seems funky to me.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
Just a thought in regard to a graveyard (not that I'm advocating a graveyard hideout, but it's just something that popped into my head) -- what if the "doors" that lead to other "rooms" were special graves? And those extra rooms were actually underground? Or, following your mausoleum theme, the rooms be above ground buildings in the graveyard? This idea could be ported to all sorts of outdoor areas. Just because the hideout itself is an outdoor area doesn't mean there can't be structures you can enter to access different features.
I don't know if this is possible, but you could have floating portal like doors on some outdoor evironments that display the next room when opened.
If not, I have a few ideas for your cemetary example:
The crime computer could be a decorative grave marker with a statue on it. Possibly an angel spotlighted by a light from above or a gargoyle with a circle of darkness at its base.
The tailor should be an open grave (or graves) with clothing on corpses in the caskets.
The social area a ritual summoning circle or just a walk path with stone benches and rocks as chairs.
The two doors could be on masoleums. The entry door of course would be the cemetary gate.
I don't know if this is possible, but you could have floating portal like doors on some outdoor evironments that display the next room when opened.
This^
...is something about was about to suggest, paricularly for "Dimensional" hideouts, though, they could also work for outdoors hideouts as well. In the case of a "Stonehenge" type of outdoors hideout in particular, the portals could be placed in between some of the standing stones--giving it a floaty mystical feel, like you could walk through an energy portal in the middle of nowhere and pop up someplace else.
In the case of "Dimensional" hideouts this would not even require suspension of disbelieve, since portals are practically a given when it comes to dimensional travel. Outdoors "hideouts" might be a bit more trick unless they're mystically themed, though.
...
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
I imagine a dimensional hideout in a couple different ways.
There are the "maelstrom of energy" types, where all the natural surfaces are flame, magical vortices, ice crystals, clouds, radiant dark energy, etc. These could be an enclosed area with irregular contours, with slightly twisty passages to "rooms" or for each hideout feature. A room where weapons float along the walls, or are embedded in the material itself, for the tailor. A room with a large display for the crime computer, and another with a conference table of some kind.
These dimensional hideouts focus on motion and a sense of dynamic chaos.
Another view of a dimensional hideout is more of an isolated, simplified location. A small study or office with no walls, just the appearance of empty space all around, or surrounded with roiling fog, or dense jungle, or any number of other impenetrable and unlikely surroundings. A gap in the fog leads to another space, where a crime computer, or a tailor is present along with other daily conveniences; bookcases, wardrobes, a sink, etc. The point of this hideout is its incredible convenience to the owner, who created or shaped the space just for themself.
I'm saying that the current concept of hideouts (as implemented) include doors that may be used in the future for expansion of the hideout. It's easy enough on an interior to add a door, that you can't go through, or see through. However, if you're in a totally open environment (Cemetery, forest, Q Realm), where you can see far outside your hideout from within, how do we create "doors" that will leave room for future expansion, but not let you see the area that will be used in the future? Or do we have to let you see every where, and if/when we do get to expansions, those areas just pop into existence? I guess that could work, but it seems funky to me.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
At least with my whole generic pocket dimension idea. You have the island floating in the whatever, and you have the entrence portal, or floaty cool crystal thing or whatever you want to make it look like. And then you have two other portals. If you expand, you make two seperate islands that are completely invisible to the first one, so when hopping from "room" to "room" they are all still self-contained little units of visibility, allowing you to expand.
The Floating islands would still behave as rooms and you would not be able to see any island from any other island. The portals would be the replacement for doors, they'd just be an interactable that zips you to the next island.
Another view of a dimensional hideout is more of an isolated, simplified location. A small study or office with no walls, just the appearance of empty space all around, or surrounded with roiling fog, or dense jungle, or any number of other impenetrable and unlikely surroundings. A gap in the fog leads to another space, where a crime computer, or a tailor is present along with other daily conveniences; bookcases, wardrobes, a sink, etc. The point of this hideout is its incredible convenience to the owner, who created or shaped the space just for themself.
Heheh, this is some interesting imagery. I imagine a wall-less office surrounded by fog, and some wooden doors the kind you would find on any building, but standing unsupported by anything in--just the door frame standing on the ground, with no walls on the side.
EDIT: On the topic of "Outdoors" hideouts. How would these work and how will these be grouped together if they were to be implemented? Would they all be part of the general category "Outdoors", or would the category change by theme? Looking at outdoors ideas so far, a cematery wouldn't have much in common with a glade, for example. But if we were to get outdoors hideouts I'm guessing it would be better they were all in the same category for the sake of convinience (and to have more customization options, etc.). How many variations of the theme "graveyard" could we get if it was its own category?
Would a category layout like this work?:
Outdoors:
- Cemetery/Graveyard
- Dense Forest
- Glade
- Mountain Top
- Stone Circle
- Swamp (like Dagobah in ESB when Luke goes to train with Yoda :rolleyes:)
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
Ahh right, well even those have possibilities. Outside in a forest / glade / swamp your're going to have things like fallen trees, bushes and overgrowths of vines that make doorways. Think about that hidden area on Dagobah in ESB where Luke has that Vader premonition encounter, it was kind of there but hidden, a doorway out of vines and plantgrowth that led somewhere else.
A giant redwood hollowed out trunk could be on the edge of the main room and walking into the hollowed-out trunk takes you to another room, or perhaps its diving into a natural pool / pond / swamp and its the diving in that zones you, a swimming down through and up into another area. All you'd need to do is put it on the edge of the glade/woodland/swamp.
Something stonehengey?, well, think about the henge, the circular main room of stones. Oooh look!, that big stone obelisk over there has got a rune inscribed on it and the surface is shimmering like a warbly event horizon!, I wonder what would happen if I touched it or tried to walk through the stone obelisk.... (A stone obelisk that even not need to be on the edge of, or either side of the room, it could be in the middle for example).
*tries to do it*
*BAMPF ! - "Hey !, what the... ?, where the hell am i ?. Ooh!, cool !, another room !"
In short, I'd go about this thinking less about doorways in the traditional sense and more along the lines of "how could a portal to another room work within this catagory?, what human size+ object could be thematic to the catagory, serve as an entrance/exit and yet blend to be naturalistic in setting".
Ps: Hope this didn't come across as condecending, that isn't my intent... not trying to say this is easy, but appreciate that as a creative you can be so engrossed in a project as to 'not see the wood for the trees' - (if you'll excuse the woodland pun). Being a fellow creative-sort myself I love brainstorming on this kinda-thing.
I'm unsure about engine restrictions, but if you can specify gravity to change depending on where the user is located, or if gravity can be different in different regions of a level, you could do it Psychonauts style and have the other areas be at funny angles to the main area. This works better for the maelstrom-style dimensional hideouts. http://getlives.com/images/misc/psychonauts-milkman.jpg has a good screenshot of this sort of thing.
Ahh right, well even those have possibilities. Outside in a forest / glade / swamp your're going to have things like fallen trees, bushes and overgrowths of vines that make doorways. Think about that hidden area on Dagobah in ESB where Luke has that Vader premonition encounter, it was kind of there but hidden, a doorway out of vines and plantgrowth that led somewhere else.
..snipped...
Awesome... had to include "Swamp" in the "Outdoors" category ideas I had listed above. Looks like "Outdoors" might be a workable category after all
I'm saying that the current concept of hideouts (as implemented) include doors that may be used in the future for expansion of the hideout. It's easy enough on an interior to add a door, that you can't go through, or see through. However, if you're in a totally open environment (Cemetery, forest, Q Realm), where you can see far outside your hideout from within, how do we create "doors" that will leave room for future expansion, but not let you see the area that will be used in the future? Or do we have to let you see every where, and if/when we do get to expansions, those areas just pop into existence? I guess that could work, but it seems funky to me.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
I have a solution for some of this actually. I'm going to lay out an entire example idea here (and while it is my personal highest priority choice... this is still just an example) -
There is a forest with a clearing in the center, and in the clearing sits an old temple with a small stream running by it. Over the stream lies an old but solid wooden bridge and leading on from the bridge is a path which splits in two or three directions. One direction is the exit*, the other one or two are paths created for future expansion of the hideout.
The 'future' paths simply show a forested trail going off into the (rather foggy) distance. To reinforce "you can't go here yet" you could even drop a half-felled tree over each if you felt it really necessary.
If you wanted to get a little crazy, you could even add an exit 'door' to the invisible ceiling, so that a flying hero could literally fly out of their hideout. Admittedly unnecessary, but might be a fun touch.
*I'm thinking you mark this one by a window box effect with a city skyline in the distance. This has the added advantage of being ambiguous in location, since as long as you aren't showing specifically recognizable buildings, you could be anywhere from Millenium City to Tokyo to Johannesburg.
====
A quick explanation of the temple itself:
It does not need to be a big structure that needs to accomodate a full 10 people comfortably - it's a sub-section of a hideout, so you could think of it in terms of "Everyone meet under the stairs" in the mystic hideout - you can fit 10 people more than likely, but it's going to be cramped. That's OK though, since there's the outdoor space to be used as well.
I figure the Crime Computer could be either an animated swirling cloud of ofuda, and the tailor could be a dummy covered in old armor or something of that nature.
I just wanted to clarify that the whole hideout doesn't need an interior as big as a full size hideout and then outdoor space on top of that. It probably would need to be a bit bigger than the current, but I don't think that much bigger really. (Vertical would be the biggest direction really.)
Course that said I'm not an expert >.> I'm just laying out ideas that maybe sorta could possibly theoretically get me what I want someday. (What can I say? I'm a one-track squirrel.)
Totally a supergroup base. >.> I mean, have you seen how big those things are on the inside? (And you'll need several of them really, you can't just put the princess in the first one, that'd be mad!)
Ok, fair enough. . . we could do portals. But up to this point, I have tried to make sure all hideout parts are contiguous to each other, and that no porting/clicking on doors was necessary.
Are you all ok with the fact that you might get a loading screen between different sections of your own hideout?
And yes. . . outdoor could probably be it's own category, but will take some serious thinking/planning on my part before we were to begin (NOT PROMISING WE WILL!)
Thanks yall.
ETA: Oh, and Psychonauts gravity control would be sick. . .but I don't have that magic in my deck.
Okay, so working with my previous suggestion, The Circle:
I envision an outdoor area that has been capped and surrounded, by thick trees and canopy, stonework and arches, or even just steep hills or small crevasses in the earth. Some small open air, but not enough to move through, mechanically.
Doors for such a thing could be natural, such as branches and foliage that has grown into a kind of barrier (thick enough or shadowy enough to not show what's behind), or for stonework, perhaps a rollaway slab gate.
For the "cemetery" like version, the Graven Hollow, it wouldn't be a functioning cemetery. It would be more like a forgotten cemetery, something old that has fallen into disrepair, that a "dark" hero has co-opted into a private area. Given the above features of trees and/or stonework that provides walls, barriers, and a roof of sorts. What was once a small cemetery ages ago becomes a place of ritual and shadowy secrets for an anti-hero type.
One thing I'd find nifty, though it might not be practical given Cryptic's physics engine, is a space station. You'd need a method of creating radial gravity, and any ability to look outside would have to show a rotating sky, but it would certainly be impressive.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
Places change over time, so changing a map later on is not necessarily a bad effect.
An example including a forest would be a clearing for the current hideout with a path towards the exit point.
Around it are trees and more trees and various stuff of the natury sort.
Once an expansion comes you add a path and another clearing = the trees to there were felled and the roots removed and the same with the path. This makes sense.
If you have something Stonehengy, later on you could add a "little henge" off to the side for an expansion and connect them via a path on the ground. The mini-henge was "constructed" during the patch or however the player wants to go with it in game.
With Superheroes (and in RL too), buildings are not necessarily all static things. Just as we can change them with the options and give our hideout a makeover in a much smaller timespan than would make sense for most heroes, adding expansions later on does not stretch our disbelief any more then that I'd say.
Nightclub! For the heroes that own a club when not fighting the forces or whatever they're fighting.
Pocket Dimension! An out door hideout. A garden with a luxury gazebo perhaps? Or maybe a jungle shack is more to your liking. Maybe a mystical forest with a tree house. A scenic hideout floating in an otherwise empty dimension.
Dojo! I want a dojo like Redsnake... Please.
I'd also appreciate if Cryptic would lower the prices on hideouts, or offer discount packages since it seems there are to be an additional two packages to unlock for each hideout so far...
I was thinking that the Moonbase could easily be an underwater base with a change of outdoor scenery to something underwater. Fits the Lemuria style anyway, right?
I was thinking that the Moonbase could easily be an underwater base with a change of outdoor scenery to something underwater. Fits the Lemuria style anyway, right?
Unfortunetely, Tumberboy has stated several times already that the way he constructed the Moon Base the terrain outside could not be changed (except perhaps the night sky, or by adding more objects outside and such, but the landscape itself would always look the way it does now). So we're stuck with the Moon Base being "the Moon". Future concepts for that hideout category will include different variations of the domed station itself.
That being said, I'm in the group that likes how the idea of the Moon Base's domed structure with the environment showing outside turned out, and I would like to see an alternate domed base/station, perhaps called a "Biodome" where the environment outside could be changed. Perhaps we could get something like...
Biodome:
- Artic
- Jungle
- Desert
- Underwater (Lemurian)
- Underwater (Science Research station)
- etc.
While the Moon Base itself could be setup like this...
Moon Base:
- Retro Tech (what we have now)
- 60's Mod*
- Space Agency*
- Alien Base
- Military Installation
- Biological Research Facility (dome at the moon, with plants growing inside and stuff)
- Moon Clinic (medical facility in the Moon)
* These have been confirmed by Tumerboy, the rest are ideas I came up with
For all those responding to my Cemetery question. . . you've all responded with some form of "Mausoleum" not "Cemetery."
I agree, Mausoleum makes sense, I know how to go about that, the question is, if the original suggestion is ACTUALLY Cemetery, and NOT Mausoleum. . . how do we manage something like that? I still have trouble envisioning it.
And my question about doors for expansion on any of the outdoor locales is still in the air. Anyone want to take a stab at that?
Thanks for the feedback though guys, I really appreciate it.
QUOTE]
Just a thought, instead of doors in outdoor places could you uses tree's or bushes to block view of a certain area so that you could expand latter? in some instances maybe a cliff like structure or waterfall?
Just a thought, instead of doors in outdoor places could you uses tree's or bushes to block view of a certain area so that you could expand latter? in some instances maybe a cliff like structure or waterfall?
Only problem with that is, the people that can fly or super jump could easily see over the trees and bushes to the area they're not supposed to see. Plus it would it would just as odd that all of a sudden all the trees and bushes vanished as it would if a new area just magically appeared when they do expand.
Only problem with that is, the people that can fly or super jump could easily see over the trees and bushes to the area they're not supposed to see. Plus it would it would just as odd that all of a sudden all the trees and bushes vanished as it would if a new area just magically appeared when they do expand.
DISCLAIMER: If some of the things I suggested were on the list...err...sorry!
Oh! And everything Bolded and Underlined is my TL;DR section!
Hotel:
Crappy Motel style
Luxurious Ritz-Carlton (Google if you don't know what the Ritz is) Beach Resort style, like that Mii Resort Sports game on the Wii! (I think that's the name) (I've always wanted an area like that place with like theLoch Ness Monster scaring away tourists or something :eek:)
Not sure how you could do that, unless you had the main lobby and then an elevator/stairs to get to your room. (Crappy Motel w/ creaky stairs, Ritz w/ high-class elevator, Beach Resort with either/or, I guess) Although, people would complain if this hideout was bigger than the others, so IDK.
Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! Do kind of like the Moon Base where there are two open levels and just put a wall with a door on the top level for the character's room.
Oh, and how about a Bird's Nest? Did I hear a Wind Powerset or was that the breeze?! Probably the breeze. *grumble grumble* (Wait, I'm inside. /frown)
HEAVEN?!?!?!
The Underworld? (For mah Anubis toon, pu-lease?) (or maybe Cemetery, but only if it accompanies a melting into liquid/void melt tunneling reskin, along with a Tunneling review!)
Oh, and a LAZARTAG ARENA!!!! Imma fire mah lazar...
How about a Wind Powerset? (Oh, wait, that's irrelevant...)
How about a Digital-World or something of the like?
Giant fruit caves (James and the Giant Peach anyone? That book is LEGIT!)
Woohooo, unrealistic ideas! /o\
Anyways I super-support (because any hideout would be a good hideout, but the ones I liked would be the best hideouts): All the Apartment ideas (especially the dorm since I used to have a sorority sister telepathy toon, but deleted her. It could be a perfect character revival! ) All of the Biome Dome ideas, especially underwater. Castles Temples Gym Mansion (Although, Penthouse would satisfy) The Office (I really want to CEO one, though) Floating Islands!
Oh, and @ the Space Station suggestion: I would think that would be the Moon Base, no? Unless you're talking about like a scientist station or something, but that would be redundant, IMO. EDIT: Never mind, read the post for it, Moon Base w/o landscape. *points to VisionStorm's post on the 15th page*
There are my suggestions/reinforcement of suggestions/Wind Powerset. :O Did I mention my favorite color is green?
Comments
A glade?, for you and nine others?....
I'm not sure they'd be mushroom.
Seriously though, I quite like the idea of a glade but i'd probably be picky and want new trees, bushes, and a shrubbery (with a nice little path down the side) - opposed to Monster Island foliage, and I appreciate a lot of % is using existing library of assets where possible for something like foliage.
I'd rather have RP instances avilable in game, as open instances, not requiring a C-store expenditure, except maybe a one-time fee that unlocks all of them.
Okay, well how about this. Mad science lab. Or any kind of science lab ^_^
I should also add. I'd happy spend money on a lot of these 'RP spaces' in as much as I might hideouts
Sorry about the general descriptions, but I was thinking of Hideouts I had see used as bases by heroes in comics, books and TV when I made my suggestions:
Railroad Caboose = As stated Jim West from Wild Wild West, also Abe Lincoln, and The Ninja Turtles. Blankman's hideout was a railroad station.
Garage (House/Mechanic/Gas Station) - Ben 10, Static Shock, Kato (in the New Green Hornet Movie), and Jim from No Ordinary Family.
Junkyard - Steel, Fat Albert, Iron Giant, Goat from Megas XLR, Mr. Furious, Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats, but I think RV and Garage may cover most Junkyard heroes (well maybe not cats).
Mobile RV/Tour Bus - Young Ben 10 (RV), The Three Investigators (RV in a Junkyard), The Witchcraft Mountain Kids Tony and Tia, I also thought the Tour Bus idea could double as a hideout for Rockstar type heroes like Saphire.
Sorry to single you out Tigre, but this is a good example of the kind of thing I think is more appropriate for a general RP location, than a hideout.
Now that you guys have seen how hideouts work, how do we apply the hideout structure to a location like this? We've proceeded on a concept that every hideout has A) a Crime Computer,
So. . . In a Cemetery, where/what is your Crime Computer? Your Social Space? Your Tailor? What exactly do you customize? How do we leave room for future expansion, without letting you see that area from the existing base? (Really, that's a question for all of these outdoor only kinds of hideouts)
Again, I'm not shooting anything down, or poo-pooing RP instances. Just expressing my own confusion over such suggestions, and explaining the kind of thought process that goes into every hideout.
Instead of a Cemetary how about a Masoleum. Perhaps with a Egyptian Tomb variant.
Cemetary?, Umm.... I'll have a go.
# Option one:
Like with Mom's basement where you find yourself at the top of some stairs above the hideout - In Cemetary i'd have you zone into a misty graveyard (like one in Vibora Bay for example, but without visual clues to a certain location). You would not be able to move around above ground, this is just a teaser enviroment to put into context that you are going underground.
The grave itself would be open with the grave's flowers, urn, mud etc on the rear of a the disguising panel that has swung up and open to reveal the steps going down.
Option Two:
You zone in facing a mausoleum in a graveyard or just inside the entrance. The entrance is under a hidden sarcofagus that has slid aside to reveal stone stairs. The sarcofagus statue could be options of a dearly departed one lying on their back (like in Universal's 2010 film 'The Wolfman') maybe she could blink creepily like the statue in Vibora Bay.
Maybe options on the hideout settings could replace different statues ontop, husband / wife / lover / legendary-warrior memorial.
Stone stairs lead down into a crypt like the one belonging to Antonio Bandera's character and the vampire clan in 'Interview with a vampire'.
# Resesses line the carved stone walls for coffins and urns and the odd skeleton.
# The 'leave your character in the sleep pod' mechanic (if it is ever able to be worked out) could be applied to coffins.
# Different rooms?, well... its a stone crypt so just have a door or long thin stone corridor that would lead off somewhere to it.
# Crime computer I would make a crow or raven atop an urn somewhere in the hideout (conceptually that the crow flys all over MC and thus sees and knows all). It does the odd wings flutter animation and audio sfx of a 'Ka-Kaaah' crow-squawk or raven squawk.
# Social space: I'd go with a round amphitheatre akin to a small theatre, very decandant decor. perhaps a place to rend a few virgins limb-from-limb inbetween recounting age-old stories between fellow undead.
May a well-like day cell to throw traitors so they do the new shadows 'turn-to-ash' animation.
# The tailor could be an old spinster of a vampiress sitting sewing, or a fellow werewolf fixing a Harley that enquires; "hows that jacket I made ya holdin up?".
# Variations?;
# Egyptian-themed mausoleum.
# Chinese-themed mausoleum.
# Hades underworld 'realm of the dead' theme.
# Vampire Crypt like in 'Interview with a Vampire'.
# Werewolf self-imposed restraint sanctuary (see Anthony Hopkin's character's mausoleum in 'The Wolfman').
Have you given consideration to the applicability of a "second tier" of room/location associated with Hideouts to this question, as I mentioned here? It would answer this question and, IMO at least, provide some other benefits as I proposed...would it be possible as something to implement in the future, since it is basically, at least minimally, is just a simple room without the fancy Hideout bits (though the "camouflaged portal" to the Hideout could benefit from being unusually fancy, that is just one prop)?
The Mausoleum/Crypt type thing should be fairly easy to do since we have areas in the game like that already. It could be interchangeable with maybe an Egyptian Tomb, but what would the the third one? Aztec Tomb maybe?
Personally, I'd vote on making a crypt skin for the Sanctum hideout. Marble walls, sarcophagi, and maybe a graveyard space on the lower level. It actually seems like that'd be a fun hang out for some of our undead heroes.
Some reasons why I thought we needed some category-based structuring include the following:
Note/Disclaimer: This category structure is inevitably based on assumptions I've made that might or might not be true. For example, I've been assuming all hideouts based on the "Sanctum" category will use the same library we already have as a base, but with new options, and perhaps a few superficial cosmetic changes. But since I've only seen the hideouts we have so far (which are a single type for each of the four categories) I really don't know. Tumerboy is ultimately the final arbiter on what is the best categorization model would be, since he's doing all the work and is the one the trully knows how much work will be done per hideout and what sort of things will actually change, etc.
As such, this list (if any portion of it is used) is subject to change based on everyone's feedback (primarily Tumerboy's, but also based on what everyone thinks of this category structure and any other ideas that come up).
Hideout Concept List, by Category:
Crypt
- Egyptian
- Mausoleum
- Pristine (Clean/Nice)
- Skulls & Bones (Capuchin Crypt) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_Crypt
- Unkept (rottin corpses, scattered bones, etc.)
- Vampire
Dimensional
- Asgard
- Digital Zone (Flowing Code, Tron-style, etc.)
- Elemental (Fire, Ice, Electric, etc.)
- Floating Islands
- Q Realm
Domed Base/Station (similar to Moon Base layout)
- Alien World
- Artic
- Desert
- Jungle
- Underwater
Fort/Castle
- Ancient Castle (Faery Tale Style)
- Ancient Castle (Ruins)
- Asian
- Lemurian/Atlantean
- Modern Fort (Fort Knocks, West Point, etc.)
- Wooden Fort/Castle (Ancient/Tribal)
- Wooden Fort/Castle (Modern Military)
Luxury Home
- Manor/Villa
- Mansion (Clean/Nice)
- Mansion (Haunted)
- Penthouse
Temple
- Church
- Egyptian
- Greek/Roman (Pristine)
- Greek/Roman (Ruins)
- Mesoamerican (Aztec, Mayan, etc.)
- Monastery (Asian/Martial Arts)
- Monastery (Asian/Meditative)
- Monastery (European)
- Underwater (Atlantean)
- Underwater (Lemurian)
Science Lab/Clinic
- Asylum
- Biology Lab
- Chemistry Lab
- Medical Clinic/Hospital
- Physics Lab
- Tech-Lab (Futuristic)
- Tech-Lab (Mad Science)
- Tech-Lab (Modern/Messy)
- Tech-Lab (Modern/Neat)
Store
- Comic Shop
- Weapons Store
- Tech Store
- Clothing Store
I agree, Mausoleum makes sense, I know how to go about that, the question is, if the original suggestion is ACTUALLY Cemetery, and NOT Mausoleum. . . how do we manage something like that? I still have trouble envisioning it.
And my question about doors for expansion on any of the outdoor locales is still in the air. Anyone want to take a stab at that?
Thanks for the feedback though guys, I really appreciate it.
Vision Storm, yes, you are correct, that is how we are trying to think of these things. To be clearer, everything has to keep the same overall structure. i.e. for the Sanctums, they will all have the entrance door at the back of the room, they will all have expansion doors off to the sides, they will all have a platform in the center, supported by pillars, and all of them will have the Tailor area, the Crime computer, etc. in the same location that they are in the Mystic Sanctum. However, any of those things can be swapped out visually. The Structure of the room (walls/floor/pillars) can be swapped for a different look/texture, they just have to remain in the same location. Hope that helps with planning things out. Thanks for organizing that.
I see it quite simply as this; a cemetary hideout above ground, just in a cemetary's grounds won't work anyway. I mean the word hideout does somewhat imply that it is hidden. If its above ground just in the grounds of a cemetary - a cemetary that other people are going to visit deceased relatives in - well, thats not really my idea of a secure hidden hideout. No such thing as a cemetary hideout if you are not going to disappear down into a hidden stairwell under a grave or into a mausoleum. Thats my impression anyway.
Outside locales that are outside of a building?, that could have different rooms?. Sorry Tumerboy I don't follow, I've looked at VisionStorms list there and I'm not seeing outdoor locales that would present a problem.
Examples please.
Home Apartment - Not Crappy but not the best in the world either, think an apartment for the average person would live.
College/University Apartment - Posters or schedules on the wall, decent but very basic furniture, general low purpose mess caused by teens like clothes on the floor and an unmade bed.
Military apartment - Very clean, organisation logo on the wall and the computer screen, very basic furniture, beds all neatly made, footlockers instead of wardrobes.
It would be nice if there was a lab like the kind where they gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton, you know a government or big time business funded lab. For inspirations Wolverine Origins, Spiderman (Osborn labs) have some examples. It would be kind of a clean cut lab with lots of capsules filled with wired specimens, holographic computers, lab coats, well lit environment and echo a kind of cold sinister Frankenstein atmosphere. A place for the FBI to store their aliens, lab of a mad bioengineer, Weapon X like organization lab etc.
One is a sewer with 2-3 of hubs that are repurposed into rooms, with a breathtaking cylindrical atrium 200ft tall or more that has light shaft coming down.
The other is a portion of the Metro Detroit Subway network that is caved in from the Day of Destroyer. You enter and exit from a service ladder. Flickering and humming lights, newspaper stand that has a paper from the day in 1992 that Destroyer razed Detroit, some ambient vermin/insect activity, occassional muffled sounds of traffic and fights coming from above. Every once in a while, you'll hear the clank of some solid piece of matter way off in the distance reverberate through the ruined tube.
I'm saying that the current concept of hideouts (as implemented) include doors that may be used in the future for expansion of the hideout. It's easy enough on an interior to add a door, that you can't go through, or see through. However, if you're in a totally open environment (Cemetery, forest, Q Realm), where you can see far outside your hideout from within, how do we create "doors" that will leave room for future expansion, but not let you see the area that will be used in the future? Or do we have to let you see every where, and if/when we do get to expansions, those areas just pop into existence? I guess that could work, but it seems funky to me.
I didn't seen anything in what Vision Storm listed either, but there have been previous suggestions of things like, A Forest, A Glade, Something Stonehengey, Mountain Top, etc.
I guess many of the "Dimensional" hideouts would also have this problem.
Just a thought in regard to a graveyard (not that I'm advocating a graveyard hideout, but it's just something that popped into my head) -- what if the "doors" that lead to other "rooms" were special graves? And those extra rooms were actually underground? Or, following your mausoleum theme, the rooms be above ground buildings in the graveyard? This idea could be ported to all sorts of outdoor areas. Just because the hideout itself is an outdoor area doesn't mean there can't be structures you can enter to access different features.
Like I said, just a thought.
If not, I have a few ideas for your cemetary example:
The crime computer could be a decorative grave marker with a statue on it. Possibly an angel spotlighted by a light from above or a gargoyle with a circle of darkness at its base.
The tailor should be an open grave (or graves) with clothing on corpses in the caskets.
The social area a ritual summoning circle or just a walk path with stone benches and rocks as chairs.
The two doors could be on masoleums. The entry door of course would be the cemetary gate.
This^
...is something about was about to suggest, paricularly for "Dimensional" hideouts, though, they could also work for outdoors hideouts as well. In the case of a "Stonehenge" type of outdoors hideout in particular, the portals could be placed in between some of the standing stones--giving it a floaty mystical feel, like you could walk through an energy portal in the middle of nowhere and pop up someplace else.
In the case of "Dimensional" hideouts this would not even require suspension of disbelieve, since portals are practically a given when it comes to dimensional travel. Outdoors "hideouts" might be a bit more trick unless they're mystically themed, though.
I imagine a dimensional hideout in a couple different ways.
There are the "maelstrom of energy" types, where all the natural surfaces are flame, magical vortices, ice crystals, clouds, radiant dark energy, etc. These could be an enclosed area with irregular contours, with slightly twisty passages to "rooms" or for each hideout feature. A room where weapons float along the walls, or are embedded in the material itself, for the tailor. A room with a large display for the crime computer, and another with a conference table of some kind.
These dimensional hideouts focus on motion and a sense of dynamic chaos.
Another view of a dimensional hideout is more of an isolated, simplified location. A small study or office with no walls, just the appearance of empty space all around, or surrounded with roiling fog, or dense jungle, or any number of other impenetrable and unlikely surroundings. A gap in the fog leads to another space, where a crime computer, or a tailor is present along with other daily conveniences; bookcases, wardrobes, a sink, etc. The point of this hideout is its incredible convenience to the owner, who created or shaped the space just for themself.
At least with my whole generic pocket dimension idea. You have the island floating in the whatever, and you have the entrence portal, or floaty cool crystal thing or whatever you want to make it look like. And then you have two other portals. If you expand, you make two seperate islands that are completely invisible to the first one, so when hopping from "room" to "room" they are all still self-contained little units of visibility, allowing you to expand.
The Floating islands would still behave as rooms and you would not be able to see any island from any other island. The portals would be the replacement for doors, they'd just be an interactable that zips you to the next island.
Heheh, this is some interesting imagery. I imagine a wall-less office surrounded by fog, and some wooden doors the kind you would find on any building, but standing unsupported by anything in--just the door frame standing on the ground, with no walls on the side.
EDIT: On the topic of "Outdoors" hideouts. How would these work and how will these be grouped together if they were to be implemented? Would they all be part of the general category "Outdoors", or would the category change by theme? Looking at outdoors ideas so far, a cematery wouldn't have much in common with a glade, for example. But if we were to get outdoors hideouts I'm guessing it would be better they were all in the same category for the sake of convinience (and to have more customization options, etc.). How many variations of the theme "graveyard" could we get if it was its own category?
Would a category layout like this work?:
Outdoors:
- Cemetery/Graveyard
- Dense Forest
- Glade
- Mountain Top
- Stone Circle
- Swamp (like Dagobah in ESB when Luke goes to train with Yoda :rolleyes:)
Ahh right, well even those have possibilities. Outside in a forest / glade / swamp your're going to have things like fallen trees, bushes and overgrowths of vines that make doorways. Think about that hidden area on Dagobah in ESB where Luke has that Vader premonition encounter, it was kind of there but hidden, a doorway out of vines and plantgrowth that led somewhere else.
A giant redwood hollowed out trunk could be on the edge of the main room and walking into the hollowed-out trunk takes you to another room, or perhaps its diving into a natural pool / pond / swamp and its the diving in that zones you, a swimming down through and up into another area. All you'd need to do is put it on the edge of the glade/woodland/swamp.
Something stonehengey?, well, think about the henge, the circular main room of stones. Oooh look!, that big stone obelisk over there has got a rune inscribed on it and the surface is shimmering like a warbly event horizon!, I wonder what would happen if I touched it or tried to walk through the stone obelisk....
(A stone obelisk that even not need to be on the edge of, or either side of the room, it could be in the middle for example).
*tries to do it*
*BAMPF ! - "Hey !, what the... ?, where the hell am i ?. Ooh!, cool !, another room !"
In short, I'd go about this thinking less about doorways in the traditional sense and more along the lines of "how could a portal to another room work within this catagory?, what human size+ object could be thematic to the catagory, serve as an entrance/exit and yet blend to be naturalistic in setting".
Ps: Hope this didn't come across as condecending, that isn't my intent... not trying to say this is easy, but appreciate that as a creative you can be so engrossed in a project as to 'not see the wood for the trees' - (if you'll excuse the woodland pun). Being a fellow creative-sort myself I love brainstorming on this kinda-thing.
http://getlives.com/images/misc/psychonauts-milkman.jpg has a good screenshot of this sort of thing.
Awesome... had to include "Swamp" in the "Outdoors" category ideas I had listed above. Looks like "Outdoors" might be a workable category after all
I have a solution for some of this actually. I'm going to lay out an entire example idea here (and while it is my personal highest priority choice... this is still just an example) -
There is a forest with a clearing in the center, and in the clearing sits an old temple with a small stream running by it. Over the stream lies an old but solid wooden bridge and leading on from the bridge is a path which splits in two or three directions. One direction is the exit*, the other one or two are paths created for future expansion of the hideout.
The 'future' paths simply show a forested trail going off into the (rather foggy) distance. To reinforce "you can't go here yet" you could even drop a half-felled tree over each if you felt it really necessary.
If you wanted to get a little crazy, you could even add an exit 'door' to the invisible ceiling, so that a flying hero could literally fly out of their hideout. Admittedly unnecessary, but might be a fun touch.
*I'm thinking you mark this one by a window box effect with a city skyline in the distance. This has the added advantage of being ambiguous in location, since as long as you aren't showing specifically recognizable buildings, you could be anywhere from Millenium City to Tokyo to Johannesburg.
====
A quick explanation of the temple itself:
It does not need to be a big structure that needs to accomodate a full 10 people comfortably - it's a sub-section of a hideout, so you could think of it in terms of "Everyone meet under the stairs" in the mystic hideout - you can fit 10 people more than likely, but it's going to be cramped. That's OK though, since there's the outdoor space to be used as well.
I figure the Crime Computer could be either an animated swirling cloud of ofuda, and the tailor could be a dummy covered in old armor or something of that nature.
I just wanted to clarify that the whole hideout doesn't need an interior as big as a full size hideout and then outdoor space on top of that. It probably would need to be a bit bigger than the current, but I don't think that much bigger really. (Vertical would be the biggest direction really.)
Course that said I'm not an expert >.> I'm just laying out ideas that maybe sorta could possibly theoretically get me what I want someday. (What can I say? I'm a one-track squirrel.)
mario's castle completely 8-bit
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/26xZEIeCSp8/0.jpg
Totally a supergroup base. >.> I mean, have you seen how big those things are on the inside? (And you'll need several of them really, you can't just put the princess in the first one, that'd be mad!)
Are you all ok with the fact that you might get a loading screen between different sections of your own hideout?
And yes. . . outdoor could probably be it's own category, but will take some serious thinking/planning on my part before we were to begin (NOT PROMISING WE WILL!)
Thanks yall.
ETA: Oh, and Psychonauts gravity control would be sick. . .but I don't have that magic in my deck.
Ok with me personally.
Maybe suggest Concept Art Department's hideout concept art loads, alternates, advertises and inspires.
I envision an outdoor area that has been capped and surrounded, by thick trees and canopy, stonework and arches, or even just steep hills or small crevasses in the earth. Some small open air, but not enough to move through, mechanically.
Doors for such a thing could be natural, such as branches and foliage that has grown into a kind of barrier (thick enough or shadowy enough to not show what's behind), or for stonework, perhaps a rollaway slab gate.
For the "cemetery" like version, the Graven Hollow, it wouldn't be a functioning cemetery. It would be more like a forgotten cemetery, something old that has fallen into disrepair, that a "dark" hero has co-opted into a private area. Given the above features of trees and/or stonework that provides walls, barriers, and a roof of sorts. What was once a small cemetery ages ago becomes a place of ritual and shadowy secrets for an anti-hero type.
Places change over time, so changing a map later on is not necessarily a bad effect.
An example including a forest would be a clearing for the current hideout with a path towards the exit point.
Around it are trees and more trees and various stuff of the natury sort.
Once an expansion comes you add a path and another clearing = the trees to there were felled and the roots removed and the same with the path. This makes sense.
If you have something Stonehengy, later on you could add a "little henge" off to the side for an expansion and connect them via a path on the ground. The mini-henge was "constructed" during the patch or however the player wants to go with it in game.
With Superheroes (and in RL too), buildings are not necessarily all static things. Just as we can change them with the options and give our hideout a makeover in a much smaller timespan than would make sense for most heroes, adding expansions later on does not stretch our disbelief any more then that I'd say.
Pocket Dimension! An out door hideout. A garden with a luxury gazebo perhaps? Or maybe a jungle shack is more to your liking. Maybe a mystical forest with a tree house. A scenic hideout floating in an otherwise empty dimension.
Dojo! I want a dojo like Redsnake... Please.
I'd also appreciate if Cryptic would lower the prices on hideouts, or offer discount packages since it seems there are to be an additional two packages to unlock for each hideout so far...
Salloon Style like the Belle Steel's
Goth Club Style, similar to the vampire club look from Vibora Bay
River Boat like the River Boat from Vibora Bay
Unfortunetely, Tumberboy has stated several times already that the way he constructed the Moon Base the terrain outside could not be changed (except perhaps the night sky, or by adding more objects outside and such, but the landscape itself would always look the way it does now). So we're stuck with the Moon Base being "the Moon". Future concepts for that hideout category will include different variations of the domed station itself.
That being said, I'm in the group that likes how the idea of the Moon Base's domed structure with the environment showing outside turned out, and I would like to see an alternate domed base/station, perhaps called a "Biodome" where the environment outside could be changed. Perhaps we could get something like...
Biodome:
- Artic
- Jungle
- Desert
- Underwater (Lemurian)
- Underwater (Science Research station)
- etc.
While the Moon Base itself could be setup like this...
Moon Base:
- Retro Tech (what we have now)
- 60's Mod*
- Space Agency*
- Alien Base
- Military Installation
- Biological Research Facility (dome at the moon, with plants growing inside and stuff)
- Moon Clinic (medical facility in the Moon)
* These have been confirmed by Tumerboy, the rest are ideas I came up with
I personally think that having to wait on a loading screen to get to parts of your hideout would put a damper on the experience.
Only problem with that is, the people that can fly or super jump could easily see over the trees and bushes to the area they're not supposed to see. Plus it would it would just as odd that all of a sudden all the trees and bushes vanished as it would if a new area just magically appeared when they do expand.
quit making sense lol!!!
Oh! And everything Bolded and Underlined is my TL;DR section!
Hotel:
Crappy Motel style
Luxurious Ritz-Carlton (Google if you don't know what the Ritz is)
Beach Resort style, like that Mii Resort Sports game on the Wii! (I think that's the name) (I've always wanted an area like that place with like the Loch Ness Monster scaring away tourists or something :eek:)
Not sure how you could do that, unless you had the main lobby and then an elevator/stairs to get to your room. (Crappy Motel w/ creaky stairs, Ritz w/ high-class elevator, Beach Resort with either/or, I guess) Although, people would complain if this hideout was bigger than the others, so IDK.
Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! Do kind of like the Moon Base where there are two open levels and just put a wall with a door on the top level for the character's room.
Oh, and how about a Bird's Nest? Did I hear a Wind Powerset or was that the breeze?! Probably the breeze. *grumble grumble* (Wait, I'm inside. /frown)
HEAVEN?!?!?!
The Underworld? (For mah Anubis toon, pu-lease?) (or maybe Cemetery, but only if it accompanies a melting into liquid/void melt tunneling reskin, along with a Tunneling review!)
Oh, and a LAZARTAG ARENA!!!! Imma fire mah lazar...
How about a Wind Powerset? (Oh, wait, that's irrelevant...)
How about a Digital-World or something of the like?
Giant fruit caves (James and the Giant Peach anyone? That book is LEGIT!)
Woohooo, unrealistic ideas! /o\
Anyways I super-support (because any hideout would be a good hideout, but the ones I liked would be the best hideouts):
All the Apartment ideas (especially the dorm since I used to have a sorority sister telepathy toon, but deleted her. It could be a perfect character revival!
All of the Biome Dome ideas, especially underwater.
Castles
Temples
Gym
Mansion (Although, Penthouse would satisfy)
The Office (I really want to CEO one, though)
Floating Islands!
Oh, and @ the Space Station suggestion: I would think that would be the Moon Base, no? Unless you're talking about like a scientist station or something, but that would be redundant, IMO. EDIT: Never mind, read the post for it, Moon Base w/o landscape. *points to VisionStorm's post on the 15th page*
There are my suggestions/reinforcement of suggestions/Wind Powerset. :O Did I mention my favorite color is green?
Goodbye!