Epoch Games
Developer
Epoch Games is a non-profit indie game development group. Our current project is the single-player RPG "Lays of Althas: Sundered Order". We are comprised of developers from around the world and have a dedication to quality and immersion in the world we create. Be sure to track us for news on Althas!
Early Cartography of Althas
(view original)
Post a comment
Wow that is such a nice looking map. Curious how large it is compared to something like skyrim, far cry 3, westeros, middle earth, etc. Basically how long will it take to travel from Nosmalds to Vislithas and are you planning on releasing it in stages like with MERP where it was going to be released in regions? Also can we expect navel features such as traveling by boat, something like the boat mechanism in the witcher 3.
The landmass is probably between 35-40% of MERP's landmass. But there is a LOT of ocean. And yes, we will have sailing and other forms of water travel.
Its a great map!
But i think feralands needs more mountains
Well one thing we wanted was a variety of landscapes. Vast plains is one of the things that many games lack ;)
I agree with Nuvendil. Most games lack plains. There are enough mountains on this map already in my opinion:D
What program do you use for the mapping? I am currently creating a world of my own but am having trouble finding decent mapping software.
Love how the world looks so far, having more islands that you can get to by swimming/boating is always what I thought Skyrim was most lacking in.
Well you won't be swimming from the mainland to any of the distant islands. Aside from the northern and southern chains, all the islands are miles away from the coast of the mainland.
Players should still be able to try it will just take a few hours or days of gameplay. Also are you going to only use one CryEngine heightmap or are you guys going to have multiple heightmaps auto load in like in star citizen. since even though a 16km heightmap is possible it is quite unstable and from what I hear/read 8km*8km*2km is about the max that cryengine can support stably.
CE3 supports far larger. The heightmap will be 32x32km. However, more than half of that is water. Well over half. So there won't be 32x32km of content heavy land.
Test to make sure it works since I really don't expect it to be easy to develop on with a 32*32 heightmap. I'm expecting the editor to crash... (That's what happened when I tried making a ludicrously huge heightmap in CryEngine3)
I can open a 32x32km map in CE3. Don't know what your issue is. I am opening it with a GeForce 9500m. They don't even make those anymore xD . I will be upgrading my laptop soon though.
I tested it right now and your right. It seems to be working fine:) Although I did read somewhere that CryEngine doesn't support map sizes beyond 8x8km maps. Also how large (HDD/SSD usage) would a 32x32km heightmap be? (personally I don't care since I still have about 200GB on my HDD which is piled with garbage (multiple duplicates of the same files but I don't have the time fix it and it don't need to) but if I was going to want to install Lays of Althas on my SSD I would be limited to a max of 30-40GB since my SSD is only 120GB:( Also are you sure that doing what Star Citizen did isn't a better option? they auto load in heightmaps much like how cell based heightmaps work. I generally dislike laptops and but my laptop is better than school computers so I use it for school purposes but usually I use my desktop for most tasks that require my mechanical keyboard or decent power:D so I guess my question is why are you using a laptop...
The file size question is a matter of content not map size. I honestly can't say. The game certainly won't be small. But don't expect 100+GB :P . For now the map seems stable and will serve our purposes. If we feel the need to split the map we could do so I suppose. As for the laptop question, I need a laptop for the portability due to real life circumstances.
How dense will you expect the forests to be? I love dense forests but they can be hard to deal with when considering movement clipping. And also what are you planning for the mountain ranges? Single mountains or a bit deeper (sort of like an actual mountain range is)?
Love the project, totally would have missed it if not for the facebook post on the MERP page. Please continue your great work ;)
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.