Developer Blog: Soshenstar River Environment

nitocris83 · June 2017

Take a tour of the Soshenstar River Basin with the new Dev Blog by environment artist Ryan Dao!

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/10550064

diloul31 · June 2017

After all that ice, it was a very good move to go for a forest ^^

baeyorn · June 2017

Hat-tip to the audio ffolkes, as well.

More than once I think.. "what is that bird call/ roar/etc.." just outside my window.

Then I realize it's coming from the game.

well done ffolkes.. well done!!

treesclimber · June 2017

Wow that was some fast building, very nice read, very nice video.

tesfanboy · June 2017

"This was the first time in a long while where the art team had to make a completely new location"

...So you're admitting to being lazy? I know this is going to come off as rude, but really. I'm not saying you should have to make all new assets from scratch for every mod, but it's pretty lazy reusing the same exact environments (IWD and SKT anyone?) for two different mods. Not every mod has to have a brand new location to explore, so there's no need to pump out a new area with reused assets for pretty much every mod like you guys have been doing since like mod 5.

I do appreciate the hard work that clearly went into mod 12, though. I look forward to experiencing it. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not just trying to give you guys grief. I'm just a concerned fan.

dsn1118 · June 2017

I was expecting man eating plants for this map.Oh well snake people and t-rex counts as improvement too

ashryver · June 2017

tesfanboy said:
"This was the first time in a long while where the art team had to make a completely new location"

...So you're admitting to being lazy? I know this is going to come off as rude, but really. I'm not saying you should have to make all new assets from scratch for every mod, but it's pretty lazy reusing the same exact environments (IWD and SKT anyone?) for two different mods. Not every mod has to have a brand new location to explore, so there's no need to pump out a new area with reused assets for pretty much every mod like you guys have been doing since like mod 5.

I do appreciate the hard work that clearly went into mod 12, though. I look forward to experiencing it. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not just trying to give you guys grief. I'm just a concerned fan.

What I mean by new location is that Chult is not the Sword Coast. There is already a lot of art assets we have built overtime that is usable for the Sword Coast. For Chult? We didn't have anything for that continent so we built assets that should feel unique for that area. There is a difference between leveraging existing art assets(props and textures etc.) and reusing zones/environments. None of the zones from IWD were reused in SKT. All zones(Bryn,LonelyWood,Cold Run) were newly built for that mod, leveraging the same models and textures from IWD as it is the Icewind Dale region and makes sense to.

danpio1217 · June 2017

> @tesfanboy said:
> "This was the first time in a long while where the art team had to make a completely new location"
>
> ...So you're admitting to being lazy? I know this is going to come off as rude, but really. I'm not saying you should have to make all new assets from scratch for every mod, but it's pretty lazy reusing the same exact environments (IWD and SKT anyone?) for two different mods. Not every mod has to have a brand new location to explore, so there's no need to pump out a new area with reused assets for pretty much every mod like you guys have been doing since like mod 5.
>
> I do appreciate the hard work that clearly went into mod 12, though. I look forward to experiencing it. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not just trying to give you guys grief. I'm just a concerned fan.

First, every game reuses assets. Like, EVERY GAME. If you want to be critical of doing that too much, that's one thing but calling them lazy is just silly. This is a huge game with a tremendous number of assets. Nothing lazy about it. If you want to be taken seriously don't make yourself look silly.

hustin1 · June 2017

The Powrie Gardeners in my WIP Foundry (Blood Magic) are going to be really keen to add some of those carniverous plants to their garden!

tesfanboy · July 2017

danpio1217#3410 said:
> @tesfanboy said:

> "This was the first time in a long while where the art team had to make a completely new location"

>

> ...So you're admitting to being lazy? I know this is going to come off as rude, but really. I'm not saying you should have to make all new assets from scratch for every mod, but it's pretty lazy reusing the same exact environments (IWD and SKT anyone?) for two different mods. Not every mod has to have a brand new location to explore, so there's no need to pump out a new area with reused assets for pretty much every mod like you guys have been doing since like mod 5.

>

> I do appreciate the hard work that clearly went into mod 12, though. I look forward to experiencing it. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not just trying to give you guys grief. I'm just a concerned fan.

First, every game reuses assets. Like, EVERY GAME. If you want to be critical of doing that too much, that's one thing but calling them lazy is just silly. This is a huge game with a tremendous number of assets. Nothing lazy about it. If you want to be taken seriously don't make yourself look silly.

Every game reuses assets to some extent, yes. But come on, the IWD areas and SKT areas look nearly identical. Sure, they're rearranged and that takes time. It still doesn't take as much time and effort as making actual new assets. For example, Chrono Trigger doesn't have two time periods that use mostly the same assets. If it did, I'd criticize it too for the same thing. If you want to support laziness, that's fine, but (heavily) implying that I'm making myself look silly by calling the devs out on something is just dumb. Someone has to hold them accountable, and it seems like most everyone else will only lick their boots. To reiterate: I don't dislike this game, nor do I dislike the devs. I just call it like I see it.

beckylunatic · July 2017

"I just call it like I see it" usually translates as "I can't be bothered to even try to phrase things with any modicum of kindness or respect".

niadan · July 2017

I play it like I see it, and enjoy it.

Keep IT up devs!

danpio1217 · July 2017

tesfanboy said:

Every game reuses assets to some extent, yes. But come on, the IWD areas and SKT areas look nearly identical. Sure, they're rearranged and that takes time. It still doesn't take as much time and effort as making actual new assets. For example, Chrono Trigger doesn't have two time periods that use mostly the same assets. If it did, I'd criticize it too for the same thing. If you want to support laziness, that's fine, but (heavily) implying that I'm making myself look silly by calling the devs out on something is just dumb. Someone has to hold them accountable, and it seems like most everyone else will only lick their boots. To reiterate: I don't dislike this game, nor do I dislike the devs. I just call it like I see it.

The only similarity i see in those areas is there's snow on the ground. IMO assets weren't the issue with mod 10, it was the fact that you had to scour 4 maps, complete 14 dailies (i think), 4 weeklies, and spend hours upon hours farming restoration materials and voninblood, all for very little reward. Even less of a reward after RD weapons came out.

Developer Blog: Soshenstar River Environment

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