Jump to content

Asharren: Fan-Made Map Design


Xarkly
 Share

Recommended Posts

first

 

also looks like we got our next map figured out

Link to post
Share on other sites

Really liking this and I wish this is what we are getting for the next map, excellent work and consideration put into it.

will be expecting a full map built from scratch by you in 2 weeks.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Asharren.

 

I love the name since it's been a lore place since 2019. It's something one of my character has a connection to, a land he always wanted to visit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

This is very good imo! Though, a few questions. I do recognize you said that you've made no Minecraft map for this but in a hypothetical how big do you think it would be if you (or someone else) where to make this into a minecraft map?

Link to post
Share on other sites

I feel like the people in charge of the various aspects of the next version of LoTC are too opinionated and have too many players they don't like or trust which is costing the community. What phase of the next version is the team even on, will they even discuss a post like this at this time?

Cool post, I also hate hubs.

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, MailC3p said:

This is very good imo! Though, a few questions. I do recognize you said that you've made no Minecraft map for this but in a hypothetical how big do you think it would be if you (or someone else) where to make this into a minecraft map?

 

To be honest, I have no concept of physical map sizes, otherwise I would have included something. I can't remember how big Almaris is or any previous maps.

 

To give some kind of idea, though, I think it should be a good bit smaller than Almaris.

 

We don't need fringe regions like the Rimeveld, mountains behind Norland, and basically most of the border areas down south since no one uses them, they don't look great, and they're massive, making the map look big and feel empty.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Excelent ideas, as always, its just a shame that they'll all be ignored. God knows why they've not added to you the next map build team yet

Link to post
Share on other sites

This has my mark of approval.

 

My only concern is that (at least from the main map graphic) a lot of the grass colors seem to be a bit dead/dull, although I'm pretty sure most of that is just artistic license and an actual worldpainted Asharren would have the non-volcanic/desert, non-swamp, and non-icy areas be plains, forest, or taiga biomes for the livelier grass colors.

 

Yaksha's table is a cool concept. We haven't had a proper plateau on an LOTC map for a while, and obviously including one is a great way to throw in some Y-level variation without ruining the area for settlement building.

 

The Scars might be a hit or miss honestly. If done well it could easily be one of the cooler areas on Asharren but if done poorly it'd just give everyone PTSD from Almaris' swiss cheese mountains and not get used much.

 

In general I think one big flaw of this map concept is that it relies heavily on the Story Team to pull a lot of weight to keep these areas interesting. Having 1-2 event biomes is alright, but with the amount of lore and story put into Asharren, it's likely an area or two might not get too much attention from staff events and default to nation/settlement/lair territory that's bought up when all the more desirable land is taken and filled with vassal settlements that'd have a much easier time building on non-event terrain.

 

This map concept needs an active, devoted Story Team to work at 100% efficiency.

 

My suggestion: Replace the Plagued Path with something a bit more usable. Your description for it doesn't even mention it existing as an event-zone, yet such a large area is still taken up by it that's WAYYYYY less desirable for settlement what with the magical taint all over it. There's three nation spots near the Plagued Path that might want to expand into it so I think it's due for a replacement with something that can suit that goal better.

 

On another note, the two nation spots on Yaksha's Table I kinda feel bad for because they are hemmed in. The nation spot nearest Rokar's Tomb would be GREAT for Orcs but the other nation spot is much less desirable. Blocked in one direction by another nation on Yaksha's Table, and with The Scars (event/lair/challenge biome) to the west and The Plumes (not very hospitable) to the south, and finally with waterfall-visual biome to the north, there's just nowhere to go! At least the Table itself is a good biome for building stuff on.

 

ok ramble over. I think it's an amazing map but I'd suggest a few changes if staff actually do go through with this.

Link to post
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, DrakeHaze. said:

I feel like the people in charge of the various aspects of the next version of LoTC are too opinionated and have too many players they don't like or trust which is costing the community. What phase of the next version is the team even on, will they even discuss a post like this at this time?

Cool post, I also hate hubs.

 

In particular, I hope they don't continue the previous policy of secrecy, as if the details of the next map need to be kept mostly hidden for the purposes of hype or something. Mapdev Team has said they plan on doing a lot more Your Views, so that's good as long as they stick to that. From what I hear, there's a current draft that's been painted, so I hope we get some community input before Mapdev Team decides to stick with a particular design.

Link to post
Share on other sites

ok omg this looks so good

Link to post
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

This has my mark of approval.

 

My only concern is that (at least from the main map graphic) a lot of the grass colors seem to be a bit dead/dull, although I'm pretty sure most of that is just artistic license and an actual worldpainted Asharren would have the non-volcanic/desert, non-swamp, and non-icy areas be plains, forest, or taiga biomes for the livelier grass colors.

 

Oh yeah this is probably just a result of me not figuring out Inkarnate had way more grass brushes until I was like 70% done (which is where I started putting more detail on grasslands in the south).

 

8 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

 

Yaksha's table is a cool concept. We haven't had a proper plateau on an LOTC map for a while, and obviously including one is a great way to throw in some Y-level variation without ruining the area for settlement building.

 

 

I know Mapdev Team has said they're planning to include more verticality in 9.0, so that's great, and I feel like a plateau is great way to do that too. This was one of two areas I took inspiration from Shotbow's MineZ (a 2013 map, of all things), take a look:

 

https://gyazo.com/17642dd5f7e888a635bc6aec0a5cdc1f

 

Obviously it shows its age, but I remember when traversing this area (I loved this map), there was a very tangible feel of verticality between wandering around at the bottom than the top, and finding ways up/down was a cool objective.

 

12 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

The Scars might be a hit or miss honestly. If done well it could easily be one of the cooler areas on Asharren but if done poorly it'd just give everyone PTSD from Almaris' swiss cheese mountains and not get used much.

 

Yeah to be honest, I left the Scars until the very end because I struggled with the concept a bit. I know what I wanted to do in theory, but wasn't sure how to go about it. The idea was (and this ties in with your next point about the ST) it would be a semi-sufficient event location, wherein the event itself was trying to descend into these treacherous ravines and explore whatever was down there.

 

'If done right' is pretty much the caveat for all these regions, but it definitely applies to places like the Scars, the Plumes, and the Rykenwall, as these regions completely lose their point (event/exploration) if not done right.

 

15 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

In general I think one big flaw of this map concept is that it relies heavily on the Story Team to pull a lot of weight to keep these areas interesting. Having 1-2 event biomes is alright, but with the amount of lore and story put into Asharren, it's likely an area or two might not get too much attention from staff events and default to nation/settlement/lair territory that's bought up when all the more desirable land is taken and filled with vassal settlements that'd have a much easier time building on non-event terrain.

 

This map concept needs an active, devoted Story Team to work at 100% efficiency.

 

Obviously you're right, but as I talk about in the introduction, we generally just don't have the resources for the ST or within the ST to pull that off. Sure, they can keep doing what their doing, but I tried to design a lot of this map with environmental storytelling and in-built engagement -- so, like with the Scars, that comes with the puzzles involved in descending down these massive ravines and maybe learning lore/secrets from eventsites there, or the Plumes which is meant to be a gauntlet of environmental challenges - withering effect caused by smoke putting players on a timer, and scaling the lava to the Forge of Ashka, or the same theory for the Rykenwalls with potential PvE mobs. All this serves to make these specific regions an engaging challenge and a sort of event in and of itself without the need for constant ST involvement.

 

19 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

My suggestion: Replace the Plagued Path with something a bit more usable. Your description for it doesn't even mention it existing as an event-zone, yet such a large area is still taken up by it that's WAYYYYY less desirable for settlement what with the magical taint all over it. There's three nation spots near the Plagued Path that might want to expand into it so I think it's due for a replacement with something that can suit that goal better.

 

 

That's probably my bad for the insufficient description, but the idea is that the area would have had some eventsites relating to the namesake plague. I totally get what you mean, though, in that it's not like the other 3 road regions that could have some interest to nations. Maybe that one could be tailored to be smaller, but I definitely see your point.

 

21 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

 

On another note, the two nation spots on Yaksha's Table I kinda feel bad for because they are hemmed in. The nation spot nearest Rokar's Tomb would be GREAT for Orcs but the other nation spot is much less desirable. Blocked in one direction by another nation on Yaksha's Table, and with The Scars (event/lair/challenge biome) to the west and The Plumes (not very hospitable) to the south, and finally with waterfall-visual biome to the north, there's just nowhere to go! At least the Table itself is a good biome for building stuff on.

 

 

Lastly, I noticed this a little bit before posting, so I mentioned in the introduction that readers should assume the nation sites to be all be relatively equal in size, just because I didn't pay enough attention when sizing Yaksha's Table in comparison to, say, the Vale of Aargad. If I were to adjust it, I'd just expand it down into the northern part of the Plumes before the volcanoes actually start.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

stunning work!

Link to post
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...