[WIP] Cresty's West Gash landscaping

I've been assigned to landscaping and cleaning up West Gash. Since the Gash has been worked on by many different landscapers with different styles, it's quite inconsistent, and I will try to streamline it.

Because Ravanna is remaking Kurasaki's rock formations, I will most likely not be filling up the blank areas for the time being, or it would look extremely repetitive. For now, I will be optimizing some areas that have already been done, since some of it has been done quite badly (most likely due to the lack of assets, even before Rav had started remaking them).

Pictures will be posted here, constructive criticism will be more than welcome. Keep in mind this is a Work In Progress, and everything is subject to change.

Progress

I have decided to just update one map of my progress that will always be on the first post. I will try to update it at least once per week.

Red is incomplete and/ or completely untouched by me because the areas are claimed by other people (Iceflame), or I just haven't gotten around to do it yet

Yellow is cleaned up parts that are basically empty, but most of the terraforming is done.

Orange is places that have the main big rock formations done, just need to place medium sized assets like dirt cliffs and rocks

Blue is mostly done, just need more assets like flora and tiny rocks. Basically awaiting icing for the cake.

Green is absolutely done, ready for beta.

2015 06 11

Last edited by Crestycomb on 11 Jun 2015 - 07:32.

It pains my heart to see that

It pains my heart to see that image you linked, However I am greatly looking forward to seeing where you take this! Hopefully you can make it as badass as we hope! :)

I'm going to have nightmares

I'm going to have nightmares about that image tonight. Cut the skooma rations for landscapers from now on.

No, don't take my precious

No, don't take my precious skooma! Anyway, West Gash landscapers seem to have a curse called "Leaving the project prematurely, before finishing their work" (working title), and I surely hope that this curse wont be passed down to me aswell.

You know what'll happen if

You know what'll happen if you leave.
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Other then fixing up random

Other than fixing up random duplicates and just deleting a bunch of rocks, I've been messing around with dirt cliffs, which are not yet textured correctly. Also, I couldn't texture the ground, since CK crashes on my when I browse textures since 0.9.5, so some places might not look right, but bear with me.

Pictures

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P.S. This is south east of Khuul.

Yes, hot!

Small bit of critique

Small bit of critique regarding rocks

Image

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My thinking is that arched rocks should only be used in areas where the erosion would actually erode only the center. For instance in this image of the 'Park Avenue Arches' there is an obvious valley that has formed, yet there is still the archways overhead

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Also only rotate rocks on the Y axis, Or if you do rotate them on any other axis, keep it looking natural by making sure the flow of the rocks goes in such a way that the rocks look like they have formed that way.

I love it! Very... Khuul (bad

I love it! Very... Khuul (bad joke, I know, sorry...)

Those cliffs look great, and I admire what you're doing. Clearly I've been playing Morrowind with grass and tree mods for so long that it looks strange seeing it so brown and dead, but it looks great!

I love it! Very... Khuul (bad

I love it! Very... Khuul (bad joke, I know, sorry...)

The rock arches SHOULD be

The rock arches SHOULD be used as infrequently as possible, but I'm quite desperate for assets at this point, so I made it a bit too repetitive, although I will be getting the second batch of Rav's rocks soonish, so it will get a bit more varied in the future. A lot of the rock stuff you see in these pics (not all). was done by LA Sentry, so half the things you see are mine, the other half is LA's, but it will get changed and made more similar eventually if that makes sense. The rotated arch on the right, was made like that for two-ish reasons (although theyre not so great):

Since Red Mountain is quite hectic, rock formations would get jumbled around from they're natural location;
That specific arch is right next to a small, natural bay, so waves would crash into it and, again, disrupt it's natural location.

Despite these reasons, I will delete that specific rock, since it does look funky.

I decided to try and (very

I decided to try and (very half-assedly) clutter a small area, to see what it would look like:

Pictures

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BONUS ROUND - Lets melt my pc!

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Props to Grumpy for making a patch for texturing, and props to Squally for sending it to me.

Thats very nice!, One

Thats very nice!, One suggestion i have is to throw in a lot of smaller rocks around the base of the cliffs (If you have any, that is) and also add some small protrusions into the terrain from these smaller rocks. They could also be used instead of grass, as this area is very dry.

Nope, no small rocks yet,

Nope, no small rocks yet, Ravanna said that there wont be any small rocks until phase 1 of landscaping is done. This was more of an experiment, most of the flora you see are just placeholders from skyrim.

A willowtree in the middle

A willowtree in the middle overthere is perfect, all the rest is good to throw away, just kidding. It's magnificent.[External image]

Yeah, vita. It's nice.

Yeah, vita. It's nice.
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But actually i would be pleased to see not so comfortable to player movements landscape.
Plants could be placed more thick with completely unreachable areas.

Yeah, Vita's trees are

Yeah, Vita's trees are amazing. And Vita made ten of them. TEN!

Alysander, that goes a bit against my philosophy as a landscaper - making a beautiful landscape, while still accessible to the player, but I might still try that.

Cresty forget to mention that

Cresty forget to mention that it will be best if you stay away from the Bitter Coast rock ridges. I'm going to start landscaping that ridge line. Obviously don't want any conflicts.

The stuff I'm doing right now

The stuff I'm doing right now is all the way north, so there wont be any conflicts.

Small update:

I'm familiarising myself with batch 2 of Ravanna's assets, and they are pretty amazing (like always). I wanted a bit of an opinion on an arch that I placed (another angle). I have to admit, it looks very cool, but is the poly waste worth it? This specific arch has two legs that get hidden by two big rocks. Do you guys think it's worth it?

P.S. Obligatory enb pic

Quite a bit update!

Quite a big update!

I got batch 3, it has black spots on the textures, that will be fixed, I got massive seams, that will be fixed as well. Keep in mind, this is EXTREMELY (can't emphasise that word enough) early, and very much a WIP, what you are about to see is the result of my first attempts at creating canyons, which will be the main feature of everything north of Gnisis.

Pictures

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As a wise man once said: "This is just a proof of concept, but it's still missing something. Let me know what you guys think of it so far regardless!"

And I will repeat - please do not comment about floating bridges, seams, or crappy textures.

So hot! Lets hope we can fix

So hot! Lets hope we can fix those seams on the cliffs that Ravanna made.

That isn't Ravanna's fault

That isn't Ravanna's fault though, the cliffs snapped perfectly for him, it might have been my fault, since I had to import the models into CK myself this time.

Hm, I'm not so sure about the

Hm, I'm not so sure about the floating bridges.... and those seams are really immersion breaking, not to mention the crappy textures.

I jest.

That looks really awesome. Though the canyons fill up a lot of playable space (which might not be a bad thing considering the size of the region). Do you plan to make them climable at all?

Now it just needs some Tusken

Now it just needs some Tusken Raiders..

Thought I'd just comment to say how nice that looks. It seems like a rather fresh and new look for terrain in the elder scrolls. It really does give me that feeling that I'm in a foreign and exotic land. With bug fixes and clutter i cant even imagine how nice it'll look.

They will be climbable, they

They will be climbable, they are connected with bridges, but I am trying to find a happy medium on how to navigate the canyons. I don't want to make every canyon climbable, since that would make bridges almost useless, but I don't want to make only a couple of climbable ones, because then if you fall down, you will have to backtrack quite a bit, and that would just be annoying.

As an example, here's an area I've currently done:

Yellows are the elevated places, reds are where you can actually climb up on them, greens are the bridges in between the canyons

Map

Obviously there are way too many bridges, and possibly too little ways to climb up the canyons, but this is a WIP, after most of phase 1 is done for North Gash, we can worry about these kinds of details.

In my mind, West Gash will be quite a hostile region, at least the northern, canyon parts, since it will be so easy to ambush the player, for example, in the middle of the map above, there is a small canyon, on top of which a hostile ashlander lives on top of, so he will probably start to shoot the player from above when he sees him.

> many bridges

> many bridges
you can make this place guar-shepherd themed: because this is natural fortress from carnivores - this can add sense to bridges.

I think level designers,

I think level designers, probably in later phases, could make a good use of Skyrim's bandit rock traps ;) Getting ambushed by tusken raiders ashlander exiles would be really cool, especially with the use of traps.

And I think their outfit will look awesome in that environment:
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Some natural arches can be

Some natural arches can be used in place of bridges in some parts:

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I would recommend some dust dunes (the assets are in the CK currently) for terrain variety and to create the hilly feel of the original:

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I feel like some dust-blasted smoother points are important in maintaining the feel of the West Gash, and can help in adding more places to climb the cliffs. I'd say that dust-mound hills running alongside the roads can help bring that feel, surrounded by the canyon walls you have also which are more reminiscent of the Gnisis concept art.

Something else that could really add to the immersion would be to utilize the blowing ash assets from Dragonborn (also in the CK already) to show dust moving along the flat cliff-tops and falling into the canyon below. Skyrim also has some great snow-blowing assets that show snow falling off the edge of objects, I could alter the texture gradient for that to look like dust.

I like the dust dunes, but

I like the dust dunes, but unfortunately, they use the wrong texture. I will use the blowing air asset as well, but I think unless I will be taking screenshots, I'll reserve that for the second pass of landscaping.

And as for the arches as bridges, I have only done it once, but I plan to do it quite a bit more often in the future.

Oh and everything south of Gnisis will not have canyons, it will be much more open, and more like the original West Gash.

Sounds good. The dune texture

Sounds good. The dune texture can be swapped out quite easily in the CK (that is the dirt road texture, I was using it in Gnisis, but it would need to use the rocky dirt texture instead). Also, about that blowing air asset, there should be one that looks more ashen in the ck as well (ash blowing instead of snow blowing), but that can come later as you said.

Here's a quick mockup (in its

Here's a quick mockup (in its own concept worldspace) I made to show some stuff that can be done with the large arches for Ashlander camps:

I'd imagine there could be paths behind the camps that lead to the top of the cliff for some traps to be set up as Dragomir mentioned, while the camps themselves would be sheltered in canyon alcoves.

So... Beautiful...

So... Beautiful...

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Ashland Petra can be good

Ashland Petra can be good idea. You can add more stones and plants masking way to it.

Here's another mockup, I'm

Here's another mockup, I'm using these in place of concept art because it's easier for me to landscape than draw:

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Just some experimentation with bringing the hilly West Gash look to parts of the canyon.

There's plenty of West Gash

There's plenty of West Gash to go around Ice. You should get back into it if you aren't too busy with town clutter. That "experiment mockup" looks amazing.

To avoid conflicts and

To avoid conflicts and stepping on toes, if anybody is going to landscape West Gash you'll need to specify exactly where.

I'm doing the west ridge between the Bitter Coast and West Gash up to the stronghold Andasreth. This range does not use the new assets.

ice, do I see more " hashed

ice, do I see more " hashed together retexture meshes" in that pic?
You should have everything you need for pass 1 now (if batch 4 is done by grumpy/eloth". please dont make new random assets, unless its absolutely necessary, then notify us or set up an excel of new ones u made, else we'll lose track of shit.

I am now almost completely

I am now almost completely finished with the canyons in north gash. Now I will do the canyons around Gnisis, while consulting with Iceflame, to not ruin his work, and make sure that his work blends in with mine. This is how most of Gnisis island (everything that is surrounded by river Samsi) looks (for now). This is how most of north gash looks like (everything north east of Gnisis island). Here is a map of where my canyons have approximately placed.

Some my thoughts.

Using everywhere bridges as communication route could be a bit repetitive. Some arcs instead some of them could be good. Second thing is that some plateaus could be set on some small angle, just to avoid rts look. Maybe with a bit differences with height and size between them.

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Returning to my previous point, you have several missions when you start from gnisis as basepoint heading to south.

In yellow part I suggest to add sth like image below.

Just passcavern, with pulled down coping in some places. If is it possible it would be great to achieve effect like that. But I don't know if it can be achieved.

Anyway, I will wait for final results how you will do your job ;)

I am slobbering over that

I am slobbering over that image, Lukkar, I will definitely try this!

I like this concept: pay

I like this concept: pay attention - this is more hole for water, than "natural bridge".
Natural bridges aren't stable and must be relatively rare.

Its a game Alys, not

Its a game Alys, not everything will make perfect sense.

The more sense - the more

The more sense - the more life.
With small exception for magic.

Well, it didn't turn out

Well, it didn't turn out quite like Lukkar's image, I like it nevertheless. A small stream seemed weird for a big river like Samsi, so i went with two small waterfalls. I didn't place any natural bridges here, I couldn't find a good place for it, it will be placed somewhere a bit closer to Gnisis.

Pictures

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Please excuse the purple textures, I'm a lazy bastard and I didn't retexture the ground.

I just wanna take a bath

I just wanna take a bath there.....naked..

Looks neat, don't forget to

Looks neat, don't forget to raise the water level though. (:

Like Taerkalith suggested, I

Like Taerkalith suggested, I will have several of these kinds of small waterfalls all over River Samsi.

Nice shot Cresty. I don't

Nice shot Cresty. I don't know if you have recourses for it or you it later but it needs a bit rumble, like in image below. It looks a bit natural.

image

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some alluvial things where flow is slower would be cool too.

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Here I will explain what I thought about "underground rivers"

Quite optional thing. VVa..whatever is volcanic island so it can have many remains of lava tubes like in Hawaii islands. We can use it here too for communication reasons and for entertainment.

Just underground fast streams like in these examples video and how dangerous inside will be

examples

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How I see, I created these beautiful concepts

pure awesomeness

Just hole in the roof.

One stream can has many entries, or just one. The same in situation of exits. They can have one path or many. Just natural amassment park. I'm not sure if we have sth like "current of the river". Do we? A lot of space to creativity.

Anyway this optional thing which can be added anytime without changing too much exterior. And of course we don't need new assets for it too.

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About lake-river samsi. How about giving lake-river samsi unique turquoise or reddish/brown color, just changing BC lake color to particular hue. Just like concept down here.

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You know we have a lot minerals here, and would be cool to have sth unique.

Reddish/brown? This can suit

Reddish/brown? This can suit more, due to ash in the water.

IMGE

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I'm fairly certain that ash

I'm fairly certain that ash doesn't turn water red, that tends to be caused by metals like copper. Based off of the Gnisis concept art, the area seems to have green rivers from volcanic minerals.
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Skyrim's volcanic tundra uses water similar to that.