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Beamdog may eventually add new tilesets! What kind would you like to see? Poll

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  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    What about expanding (without otherwise altering) existing tilesets? For example the existing Forest tileset can be very effective with the right lighting, and could recreate the Feywild type images above if it had some buldings, or a tropical rainforest with some appropriate set-dressing.
    ProontOmnipsiSkipBittman
  • tinbluetinblue Member Posts: 18
    Dungeons. Lots of nice old fashioned dungeons. And with ceilings!
    ProontOmnipsiraz651
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    tinblue said:

    Dungeons. Lots of nice old fashioned dungeons. And with ceilings!

    That's kind of a none-answer. How would those dungeons differ from the existing dungeons?
  • FreshLemonBunFreshLemonBun Member Posts: 909
    The forest tileset really isn't that good, it's certainly not possible to make a convincing feywild or fairy realm style with it. You even need haks just to make an adequate elven tree village.
    Proont
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    The lack of structures is a problem, but you can certainly make Faywild locations with the Forest set. The various lighting techniques can make it very atmospheric. The lighting is the most powerful aspect of the toolset.
  • mangamusclemangamuscle Member Posts: 30
    Fardragon said:

    How would those dungeons differ from the existing dungeons?

    How about vertical dungeons? Dungeons are usually a big horizontal grid with a ceiling, but that design is not very useful in a tower, where there are very few rooms and loading a new level every time you go up or down is a bit off putting. But if the "dungeon" is thought of as a vertical structure, a character should be able to go up and down without additional loading. This concept could also be applied to a mountain wall or cliff:

    http://shelledy.mesa.k12.co.us/staff/computerlab/images/Western_CO_History_Anasazi.jpg

    tbone1ProontOmnipsi
  • FreshLemonBunFreshLemonBun Member Posts: 909
    It is impressive but it's not that impressive. For one thing structurally the feywild isn't simply a forest, certainly not one that seems in perpetual fall. Most planes are specifically designed to evoke a certain set of extremes so much so that when ppl use standard material plane tiles for them it always looks bad. It evokes the sense of "Yes... I kind of get where you're going with this... I'll accept it and play along" by a player that should otherwise be disorientated by the sharp change from the material plane.

    Similarly yes you can make a medieval castle town with the original city tileset but it wont really look like any actual castle town. The argument can extend to representing any kind of location with the original tilesets, but ppl either mod or ask for new tiles because it's not really the same thing they imagined. A jungle for example is also essentially like a sparse forest that just needs more placeables, except not really.
    Omnipsi
  • GorgonGorgon Member Posts: 22

    How about vertical dungeons? Dungeons are usually a big horizontal grid with a ceiling, but that design is not very useful in a tower, where there are very few rooms and loading a new level every time you go up or down is a bit off putting. But if the "dungeon" is thought of as a vertical structure, a character should be able to go up and down without additional loading...

    The lack of Z overlap (a creature/PC able to stand over/under another) in the current walkmeshes makes things like cylindrical staircases/ramps or whatever a pain to do in any tileset, without transitions.

    Add Z and watch all sorts of new magic, but that is no small request either. :(
    FardragonProontOmnipsi
  • BelleSorciereBelleSorciere Member Posts: 2,108
    You could do a tower on a single map with transitions to each floor represented separately on that map, couldn't you?
    Proont
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511

    You could do a tower on a single map with transitions to each floor represented separately on that map, couldn't you?

    Yes, you can do that with existing tiles, but it's not what @mangamuscle was asking for, which, as has already been pointed out, would require the game aquire a z-axis, rather than just a new tileset.

    The thing is, with preset tiles, they are never going to be exactly what you want, so you either going to have to mod the tiles themselves or expect players to exercise thier imaginations, PnP style.
    Proont
  • BelleSorciereBelleSorciere Member Posts: 2,108
    Fardragon said:

    You could do a tower on a single map with transitions to each floor represented separately on that map, couldn't you?

    Yes, you can do that with existing tiles, but it's not what @mangamuscle was asking for, which, as has already been pointed out, would require the game aquire a z-axis, rather than just a new tileset.

    The thing is, with preset tiles, they are never going to be exactly what you want, so you either going to have to mod the tiles themselves or expect players to exercise thier imaginations, PnP style.
    I know it's not what he was asking for, but what he was asking for is unlikely to be what we get.
  • mangamusclemangamuscle Member Posts: 30
    edited December 2017

    I know it's not what he was asking for, but what he was asking for is unlikely to be what we get.

    I do no think that the main selling point of new features for the EE is "something easy to implement". A Z-axis would also allow levitate (maybe even fly) spells (already hearing the groaning "but dungeon traps would become worthless"), allow real swimming and opponents that really fly (winged beasts, insect swarms, etc) and attack by occupying the same hex as yourself (only at a different position in Z).
    ProontflyinghtcherOmnipsi
  • BelleSorciereBelleSorciere Member Posts: 2,108

    I know it's not what he was asking for, but what he was asking for is unlikely to be what we get.

    I do no think that the main selling point of new features for the EE is "something easy to implement". A Z-axis would also allow levitate (maybe even fly) spells (already hearing the groaning "but dungeon traps would become worthless"), allow real swimming and opponents that really fly (winged beasts, insect swarms, etc) and attack by occupying the same hex as yourself (only at a different position in Z).
    I think a z axis goes from "not easy to implement" to "turning the engine inside out." It'd be nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
    Proonttbone1Fardragon
  • Barry_1066Barry_1066 Member Posts: 77

    Maybe some 3rd party stuff already did this, but I want some mesopotamian style desert tile sets for a Dark Sun setting.

    I made some doors in CEP - actually 100 or so - some of those doors have ancient painting and or other media. A number are from Santorini and Greece but others form Babalon, and multiple other ancient sources.

    You cannot underestimate the impact of this imagery in setting the scene. I would urge you to have a look.


    tbone1Proont
  • AnonySimonAnonySimon Member Posts: 28
    I would like to see racial city tilesets: An elven city (set in a magical forest), A human maztican city (set in a jungle, complete with ziggurat temples), A dwarven city (set in mountains/caves), A halfling shire (set in hills and plains), A Goblinoid/Orcish village (set in a swamp, with very tribal tents), An aquatic city (set underwater).

    Although, I also wouldn't complain if when creating new areas in the toolset, you werent limited to tiles from an individual tileset, but were instead limited by only interior or exterior tilesets (so that you could build areas that transitioned from hills -> mountains -> desert -> plains -> forest -> jungle -> swamp -> ocean.
    Proont
  • SherincallSherincall Member Posts: 387

    Although, I also wouldn't complain if when creating new areas in the toolset, you werent limited to tiles from an individual tileset, but were instead limited by only interior or exterior tilesets (so that you could build areas that transitioned from hills -> mountains -> desert -> plains -> forest -> jungle -> swamp -> ocean.

    This has been requested a few times, but the game doesn't work like that. One of the basic properties of an "area" is that it is tied to a "tileset". A tileset is literally a set of tiles (!) that can be used together, with some additional info that applies to all tiles. Using tiles not in the current Tile Set is borderline oxymoron. It wouldn't be a simple change to allow it, and it'd be a nightmare to do it and keep backwards compatibility.

    What you instead do is extend the tileset (or make a new one) to contain all the tiles you want. So what you're really requesting is a new tileset that contains all the default tiles. There's a few issues with monolithic tilesets, but nothing that can't be ironed out. The biggest problem with just bundling everything is that you'll still be missing the transition tiles (e.g. grass<->desert tile), so any changes will be sudden and rigid on the tile border.
    The vault has a lot of these "combo tilesets", but they usually combine only a few things (city exterior merges pretty well with everything) because of this.
  • Dark_AnsemDark_Ansem Member Posts: 992
    edited March 2018
    My wishlist of new tilesets for a new adventure modules:
    - extraplanar, with very WEIRD stuff
    - Lovecraftian, insanity inducing horror tiles (could it be the previous one? meh?)
    - swamp
    - oriental dungeon of persian inspiration
    - Gothic interior
    Post edited by Dark_Ansem on
    Proont
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    I haven't voted for the simple reason that what I want isn't on there. A proper sewer tileset as opposed to what ships with the game. Proper pipes that you walk inside, walkable sewer water up to your waste, curved or semi-circular ceilings. Changes in level, narrow walkways at the side, breaches in the pipe that lead elsewhere (Such as dry rooms or caverns) but are still part of the tileset. Not the vast steampunk rooms with unwalkable water that we currently have.

    TR
    Proont
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    I've never really understood why sewers where so common in allegedly pseudo-medieval settings?
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    edited March 2018
    If you are talking about RPGs, it's because they feature in lots of movies and books set in pseudo-medieval settings. Anyway, this is fantasy, so you can have whatever you want in your game. Even in the real world there is the example of the ancient Roman sewers, some not only still in existence but actually still in use today.

    Re. Jungle tileset. This one is well regarded (haven't tried it myself).

    TR
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511

    If you are talking about RPGs, it's because they feature in lots of movies and books set in pseudo-medieval settings.

    Which movies?

  • Dark_AnsemDark_Ansem Member Posts: 992
    Fardragon said:

    If you are talking about RPGs, it's because they feature in lots of movies and books set in pseudo-medieval settings.

    Which movies?

    Games too. Vampire the Masquerade.
  • JFKJFK Member Posts: 214
    I didn't see this option, but I'd love a new 'ruins' tileset, or more ruins for all the tilesets maybe. Fallen, broken towers laying in pieces on the ground. Heaps of stone, with crooked chimneys standing upright still. Shrubs and trees overgrowing caved in houses. Stone foundations, broken and tumbled, the stucco fallen off. That sort of thing. Without the smoldering. Old ruins.

    On sewers: I think it is the psychology of D&D (first D is for Dungeons), and what I dub the containment principle. Especially in early D&D, dungeon delving was the norm, with the occasional wilderness trek random encounter on the way to the dungeon. Rooms connected by corridors make for controlled environments and exploration, easy ways to internalize 'levels' (it was usually laid out upper to lower levels = lower to higher powered challenges), containment of monsters, placement of traps/riddles/environmental challenges, etc. In order to facilitate getting to the dungeon and still being in a city, sewers beneath the city were envisioned.
    Additionally, the idea of a sewer lends itself to mold, rot, decay, disease, filth. A dungeon can have those things too, of course, but a sewer!!
    Lastly, it isn't medieval, it is medieval fantasy. With magic, why wouldn't a large complex city have a sewer system?

    Just some thoughts. Why? Good question. ;)

    -JFK
    TarotRedhandProont
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    edited March 2018
    Fardragon said:

    If you are talking about RPGs, it's because they feature in lots of movies and books set in pseudo-medieval settings.

    Which movies?

    I could have sworn there were but can't remember a single one. Plenty in other branches of fantasy though (sci-fi, horror, tmnt (just kidding with this last)).

    Still I have a couple of questions for you. Did you look up the "Cloaca Maxima" the Roman sewer, built in 6 BC and still in limited use today? If ancient working sewers still exist today, why not in a medieval fantasy game too? Also did you check out the already existing jungle tileset I posted a link for (or any already made jungle tilesets for that matter)?

    TR
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    I know about the Roman sewers. But after the Roman sewers they stayed pretty much un-invented until the 18th century. And the Romans didn't go in for the iron pipework and valves that proliferate in CRPGs.

    As for movies, the only Fantasy movie I can think of that had anything like that was Return of the King, which was released after Baldur's Gate and NWN. There was nothing of the sort in the book.
  • Dark_AnsemDark_Ansem Member Posts: 992
    We forgot an important type of tileset: Epic Dwarven, ruined or otherwise. Think of something between Moria, Erebor and Orzammar.
    Proont
  • raz651raz651 Member Posts: 175
    Fardragon said:

    I've never really understood why sewers where so common in allegedly pseudo-medieval settings?

    The main reason sewers are so prevalent in Fantasy pseduo-medieval settings is because of Ed Greenwood who started creating his world in 1967.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms

    And the sewers were prominently featured in the are of Waterdeep.
    http://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/cities/w_sewers.shtml
  • themazingnessthemazingness Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 702
    Chult means you will have dinosaurs. Dinosaurs trump extraplanar stuff. But that would have been my choice if Chult was not on the list.
    DerpCityProont
  • the_riblothe_riblo Member Posts: 26
    I Choose Mountain cause NWN gas not decent Mountain right now
    But what NWN really needs is a reworking of the base tilesets giving a grassi/snowy/desert surrounding to the city exterior to make better transitions and better terrain control in Open tilesets and possible roofs in interior tilesets

    Then they Can start adding new tilesets cause the basic tilesets if reworked cover 90% of what we need
  • dTddTd Member Posts: 182
    I voted for mountain because I love that kind of setting but in reality whatever the developers decide is fine with me. For now I will continue to use cep tile additions and edits as well as c.r.a.p. tiles sets. Combined with the latest added in 1.69 I find them to be more than sufficient.
    DerpCityProont
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