kamaliiciousMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
This took about 90 minutes to make, it started as bare ground (the swamp medium map, which has no details and uses the stock sky). Other than plot required details, npcs, and sound, it's about done. It helps that natural environments do not require the same positioning precision as a creature made environment.
OP: I currently have 80+ hours into mine. That covers: (roughly) 30% of the dialogue, the main quest areas of the map fully fleshed out, the optional areas of the map are 50% done, and I still have to do a couple play throughs to polish everything up and make sure the encounters are balanced for different class/levels.
But then again its my first UGC and I want to make sure everything is just right.
Removing the Grey Mask NW-DJ56XFK6G My first installment in the Rise of Shadovar Campaign.
<Sarcasm> Hah! You still have 5 pips of detail left! And you lined stuff up! </sarcasm>
I'm sure you remember in Foundry beta when they cut the budget by about 80%, 5000->1500 details and changed details to not all cost 1 each. This map is about 40% of it's original size and a lot of map details had to get cut out. (Someone here still claimed my map making skills suck after playing the quest this is in, so there's that...)
Well, most of the lined up stuff was done on purpose, to hide the outside of the maps. I use smaller maps so I can cram in more details in a smaller area, but this means the player can see the boundaries of the maps (i.e all 4 sides surrounded by hills).
So with some clever placement of lots of tree and depthfades, I made it look like parts of the map went into an endless forest, despite there being a mountain right there.
And those 5 pips...those are my emergency allowance, in case something just comes up, lol.
Well, most of the lined up stuff was done on purpose, to hide the outside of the maps. I use smaller maps so I can cram in more details in a smaller area, but this means the player can see the boundaries of the maps (i.e all 4 sides surrounded by hills).
So with some clever placement of lots of tree and depthfades, I made it look like parts of the map went into an endless forest, despite there being a mountain right there.
And those 5 pips...those are my emergency allowance, in case something just comes up, lol.
I played your Foundry quests, if only the budget was set to the beta limit, you could do some really great things and not be so confined.
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kamaliiciousMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 0Arc User
I've been working on mine for nearly a week now and it's nowhere close to being done.
As you get more experience with the Foundry and with mapping in general, that part of it will go faster. There's a learning curve in terms of design and knowing what assets are available. Writing the dialogs and stuff doesn't get faster, it tends to get slower as you try more complicated things.
As long as you are enjoying yourself, which is the most important part.
It depends on various factors, a simple combat dungeon can be knocked out in 30 minutes,
From a personal point of view mapmaking isn't one of my skills, however I've spent 80% of my time on the campaign in research and writing. One of the features the devs have mentioned that I'm looking forwards too is sharing for map and character designs so I can get some of these excellent mappers to design maps for me.
But yeah, how long you need to spend is however long you spend until you're ready to release your mission.
I think my comments were taken the wrong way. I'm not saying it's bad to create large maps with lots of detail, all I'm saying is that a lot of players want story first everything else second. I'm also saying that if the map is a dungeon with a lot of extraneous passages or an outdoor zone where you have to run for five minutes to get to the quest objective that you will get bad reviews. The quests we want to make aren't always what the players want to play. I had to revamp my own quest, and honestly, I'm glad I did. The map is a lot smaller now but it takes longer to complete and it's not as monotonous.
I'd say at least 80% of players, myself included wouldn't care if you just take a premade area and have the game generate details as long as it has a good story and pacing. Overall your reviews are going to be lower for a bad story vs a quickly made map.
Once Cryptic allows us to place chests and stuff (if they ever do) it will be worth it to have side passages (notice in official content all the side passages have some type of reward if they're not part of the objectives).
Look how popular WoW was and the details were sparse compared to other games and the buildings, etc were duplicated ad nauseam.
I work better when I go back and add the details after publishing. If I spent too much time on detail I'd never publish because I'm a perfectionist. If a blade of grass is an inch off the ground it drives me mad (and that happens a lot with the grass clusters).
Also someone said that there is a quest limit on details, for instance you can have 1500 details on a single map and up to 10 maps but you can't have 10 maps at 1500 details. I think the detail limit is somewhere around 4500 or 5000 for the total quest. So if you're heavy on details forget doing more than 3 maps.
Try my quest Tucker's Kobolds, now with an all new map and encounters! Version 2.0.2 (5/11/2013)
NW-DGW8GFH6 @EB2013
Comments
But then again its my first UGC and I want to make sure everything is just right.
NW-DJ56XFK6G
My first installment in the Rise of Shadovar Campaign.
Well, most of the lined up stuff was done on purpose, to hide the outside of the maps. I use smaller maps so I can cram in more details in a smaller area, but this means the player can see the boundaries of the maps (i.e all 4 sides surrounded by hills).
So with some clever placement of lots of tree and depthfades, I made it look like parts of the map went into an endless forest, despite there being a mountain right there.
And those 5 pips...those are my emergency allowance, in case something just comes up, lol.
As long as you are enjoying yourself, which is the most important part.
From a personal point of view mapmaking isn't one of my skills, however I've spent 80% of my time on the campaign in research and writing. One of the features the devs have mentioned that I'm looking forwards too is sharing for map and character designs so I can get some of these excellent mappers to design maps for me.
But yeah, how long you need to spend is however long you spend until you're ready to release your mission.
I'd say at least 80% of players, myself included wouldn't care if you just take a premade area and have the game generate details as long as it has a good story and pacing. Overall your reviews are going to be lower for a bad story vs a quickly made map.
Once Cryptic allows us to place chests and stuff (if they ever do) it will be worth it to have side passages (notice in official content all the side passages have some type of reward if they're not part of the objectives).
Look how popular WoW was and the details were sparse compared to other games and the buildings, etc were duplicated ad nauseam.
I work better when I go back and add the details after publishing. If I spent too much time on detail I'd never publish because I'm a perfectionist. If a blade of grass is an inch off the ground it drives me mad (and that happens a lot with the grass clusters).
Also someone said that there is a quest limit on details, for instance you can have 1500 details on a single map and up to 10 maps but you can't have 10 maps at 1500 details. I think the detail limit is somewhere around 4500 or 5000 for the total quest. So if you're heavy on details forget doing more than 3 maps.
Try my quest Tucker's Kobolds, now with an all new map and encounters!
Version 2.0.2 (5/11/2013)
NW-DGW8GFH6
@EB2013
Part II Coming Soon!