Square Continents........ - Page 2

Figment · 2012-09-28, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by PoisonTaco

Don't care about realism. Want more balanced gameplay. Triangle continent anyone?

Circular really (donut), as well as triangle with three alternate paths (through various shaped islands, bridges etc) towards each gate. Also interesting could be to have more assymetry, or for example adding spare warpgates, which can be captured.

At first the least warpgates an empire could have would be one, but in that setup, up to three and you'd dynamically have your last one somewhere else.

If we ever get naval warfare, things could become a lot different in shape. Their current design philosophy doesn't quite consider this future, though from what I've been told by Arclegger, they could relatively easily change parts of terrain: just needs an artist a lot of brush work to manually make it look nice again (that's still quite a bit of work of course). But a continent like Esamir has enough room for a fourth warpgate in the south east later on.

Gugabalog · 2012-09-29, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by Figment

Circular really (donut), as well as triangle with three alternate paths (through various shaped islands, bridges etc) towards each gate. Also interesting could be to have more assymetry, or for example adding spare warpgates, which can be captured.

At first the least warpgates an empire could have would be one, but in that setup, up to three and you'd dynamically have your last one somewhere else.

If we ever get naval warfare, things could become a lot different in shape. Their current design philosophy doesn't quite consider this future, though from what I've been told by Arclegger, they could relatively easily change parts of terrain: just needs an artist a lot of brush work to manually make it look nice again (that's still quite a bit of work of course). But a continent like Esamir has enough room for a fourth warpgate in the south east later on.

Circular island idea makes me think of the vanu symbol

GLaDOS · 2012-09-29, 01:11 AM

Wait, are you sure this is legit? What ever happened to this:

Seradin · 2012-09-29, 01:34 AM

Fixed ;P

I dont see why they cant start varying the shapes! just make there be more land in different areas.

GuyFawkes · 2012-09-29, 02:56 AM

Why not just call the continents desert square1, snow square1. Just seems off to give these blocks names from ps1. Kinda like peeing on someones grave.
Why not add shapes around these unimaginative play areas to make them feel more organic, and at same time taking the out of bounds nonsense back a few km in process.
Even a rough hexagon shape would fit with the territory idea. I thought Indar was just a rough plain old basic thing , but now it appears its actually intentional to be square everywhere.
I just dont follow the logic of square being more efficient, if you look at Esamir, the SE of that map will be like the mountain area of cyssor. You might go there once to have a look, but beyond that its dead space.
But hey, if you short on imaginative people, theres a primary school just opposite my house ,probably 60-100 five to 11 yr olds that would come up with some crazy new ideas for you to work on for continent shapes.

Morsong · 2012-09-29, 09:27 AM

I do agree as well, but it isn't really affecting me much. As long as the continents are fun to play on. I imagine the devs will see this post and possibly make new continents a different shape. Imagine a continent that's tropical and resembles wake island from BF1942. Now THAT would be awesome!

Tatwi · 2012-09-29, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

Why not just call the continents desert square1, snow square1. Just seems off to give these blocks names from ps1. Kinda like peeing on someones grave.
Why not add shapes around these unimaginative play areas to make them feel more organic, and at same time taking the out of bounds nonsense back a few km in process.
Even a rough hexagon shape would fit with the territory idea. I thought Indar was just a rough plain old basic thing , but now it appears its actually intentional to be square everywhere.
I just dont follow the logic of square being more efficient, if you look at Esamir, the SE of that map will be like the mountain area of cyssor. You might go there once to have a look, but beyond that its dead space.
But hey, if you short on imaginative people, theres a primary school just opposite my house ,probably 60-100 five to 11 yr olds that would come up with some crazy new ideas for you to work on for continent shapes.

For the record T-Ray, this is not me.

I've already expressed my disappointment in the overall lack of innovation in the world design in PS2. Though I will say that square "maps" does take the top prize for absence of imagination in general game design.

Figment · 2012-09-29, 06:33 PM

For a normal two faction game a square is much more logical, there are many ways to give equal territory to all with semi-square. But with three, there are less options. If they feel space is wasted in a cubic game world, maybe they should use cilindrical coordinates et all instead of a 2D hor/vert grid.

Or use an actual sphere to place all conts on: Auraxis. With spherical coordinates, the interviews travel becomes easier too: Same coordinate system! :P

(Ok exagerating, but hey.)

Aaron · 2012-09-29, 06:36 PM

Yeah, not a fan of the square maps, either. It'll be even more noticeable when you get the global map view. Bunch of squares, eh? Not a gameplay issue, but the design aspect of it isn't very impressive.

AThreatToYou · 2012-09-29, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by Figment

For a normal two faction game a square is much more logical, there are many ways to give equal territory to all with semi-square. But with three, there are less options. If they feel space is wasted in a cubic game world, maybe they should use cilindrical coordinates et all instead of a 2D hor/vert grid.

Or use an actual sphere to place all conts on: Auraxis. With spherical coordinates, the interviews travel becomes easier too: Same coordinate system! :P

(Ok exagerating, but hey.)

Putting Pi calculations in the locations of everything would be disastrous for performance...

cellinaire · 2012-09-29, 10:37 PM

I also saw the leaked sillouettes of other conts in TB's video myself...

and have to agree. Making all continents square-ish = isn't fun

Figment · 2012-09-30, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

Putting Pi calculations in the locations of everything would be disastrous for performance...

Everything is better with pie.

AThreatToYou · 2012-09-30, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by Figment

Everything is better with pie.

As long as it's Pink!e

Rivenshield · 2012-09-30, 02:27 PM

/scowls at Esamir

Bust that shit up into a more-or-less island chain and put long-ass bridges over them. Square sucks.

Shogun · 2012-09-30, 02:58 PM

can´t wait to see the new cont ingame, but i agree on the square issue.

i really hope the devs find a way to differ the shapes for the other conts.
the squares feel like maps, not like continents. it´s not a big issue while fighting, but with square continents the cont selection screen can only look like a arena game lobby. a view of the whole planet with the conts on it to choose from would be so much better and add awesomeness to the whole auraxis feeling.

with all conts being squares, a world view would look like a disco ball

oh wait... maybe that´s the secret behind the vs love for disco...