MoMaR: My Latest EverQuest Landmark Endeavors

Friday, May 16, 2014

My Latest EverQuest Landmark Endeavors

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Little by little, the team at Landmark have been doing a great job at tweaking the tools we have to work with and giving us more goodies to test out and play with during the Closed Beta phase. Every week we have a patch and an occasional hotfix or two. Even with all the downtime for this, I have been having a ball.

I currently have two builds going on, in two separate locations. One is in a desert area and the other a forest area along the coast. Neither of them are finished...and I doubt they ever will. One of the cool things about this game is that if you can think it up you can more than likely build it. That means that my builds are always victim to new ideas and additions.

This also means that I have been a very busy bee. Not only am I working on two separate builds, I often tend to stop building/decorating and do a lot of experimenting to see what kinds of things I can and cannot create. The tools we have (right now) have their limitations and it's fun to try to find work arounds to them to create the ideas in our heads.

Prime example, in one of my builds I knew I wanted tunnels...curved/rounded tunnels. At first this was not a major task. It was pretty easy to design the curved straight-a-way sections and the sections that have a downward/upward slope. The bends/turns in the tunnel, however, were a different story. I spent roughly 30 hours, over the course of a week, getting a 90 degree bend to look like I pictured it in my head. The game is based on a small grid pattern and does not play well with curves. Keeping the walls and ceiling curved to where it meets the flat floor all while making a 90 degree turn almost had me pulling my hair out.

After about 4-5 different builds/attempts, just on this one section of tunnel, I finally had a finished product I was proud of. Then came the task of making it possible to edit the colors/textures of the walls and floors, while putting in a border where the walls and floors meet, all while keeping the curves nice and smooth. Again, the game does not like curves and tends to give you wonky results.

Enough of my ramblings on this. Browse the photos below to see what I have been working on. If you happen to be playing the Beta as well, feel free to stop by my homes. They are both on the server Adventure and on the island Marsh. One, Fort Thelan, is the first claim southwest of the Spire. The other, Hidden Enchantment, is due west along the coast. My toon's name is Thelandir.