The City

[Uatu]

150 portraits?!?! Chee, that is a lot. I sure haven't done that many total yet, and I am quite sure I won't for quite a while! (Got to get down and do some more walls, anyway.)

[Dinonykos]

When I read Manikus' post, I thought: "150? Ha! I surely have much more portraits..."
However, when I looked, I recognized that I indeed have ~150, not more, and it took me legions of hours... Thus, quite a high number. Maybe it is easier to do with Manikus 3D approach, but I am not so sure about that...

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus Dinonykos walls have been modded to fit in better with my style and I plan to use some to replace what I've currently been using. I hope that 96 wall slots is enough.

I just thought that my part of the city will have original Dinonykos walls then, while yours will have modified... Is that okay? I am still wondering how the change in graphic styles can be explained to the player (certainly I have several ideas). On the other hand, it may be very interesting to go sightseeing through the different sections with different art...

[Dinonykos]

In the other thread (paths and lakes) we discussed some season-related things. How long then should a year be in the city? 365 days? And when is winter? Day 1 to 90? Could it even be different for different city parts (do to magic or technological devices)?

[manikus]

So, 150 is a lot of portraits. If I look at everything I've done, discounting action shots of the same character, I've got about half that number, and maybe ten of those I like well enough to use. The number is so small b/c I'm not counting any of the PCs or NPCs I've done for deault DC. I figure others can use those if they want to, as not everyone is an artist (at least not yet). So, I have got some work ahead of me on that front. I did get a good quality start this last weekend with a nice portrait of the head of the Scribe's Guild.

Let's see, I think if he was different versions of the same wall, that only adds to the variety of the city, and that's a good thing. That's the thing about this project, it's up to each "Ward Master" to choose the look of his (since only guys have signed up so far) section. They can choose to try and integrate it visually or make it foreign and exotic. Whichever is chosen is the correct way.

As for the length of the year...I believe that the Faerunian year is 365 days, Faerun being the name of the main continent in the Forgotten Realms. I think others may be able to correct me if I'm wrong. I think we should agree upon a set starting 'calendar' and then it is up to each designer to implement it as they see fit.

Let's informally cast votes here for which season to start in, okay? I vote for Summer.

[Dinonykos]

Starting with Summer is okay with me. Let's see if somebody comes up with snow for the last 91 days of the year, then...

Concerning the art styles, I guess I should see the city like a kind of demo. Not in the sense that it should be an incomplete design, but in the sense of a demonstration what's possible.

[manikus]

Okay, so tentatively the year will be:
Summer days 1-92,
Autumn days 93-183,
Winter days 184-274,
Spring days 275-365

One of the seasons has to get an extra day...I think it should be summer.

As for the different artistic styles, I think of many of the 'developments' in US cities - an area will have similar type architecture, and then the next neighborhood over, which is 20 years olders looks different, but is internally matching in style for it's neighborhood.

[Dinonykos]

Oh, dumb I am. Certainly, snow should thus fall from 184 to 274...

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Dinonykos Oh, dumb I am. Certainly, snow should thus fall from 184 to 274...

I've been trying to think of ways that one could reasonably depict winter weather (or any other season for that matter). The easiest seems to be a simple quest/text statement combo. The logic block trick for figuring out the phase of the moon can be very easily adapted to calculate which season. Then you could have NPCs say stuff like, "That was sure a cold one last night." during the winter, etc. Of more work would be to do some additional graphics, for example NPCs could be seen in coats or parkas, or the wall switching trick could be used for the winter walls (or a text event somewhere to explain that "magic keeps this part of the city snow free").

I'll go ahead and create quests and sample logic block events to track seasonal and lunar activity, then if other people want to use them, you can just copy and paste.

[Dinonykos]

I will exclude snow, ice etc. from the Helmetlands (if only to avoid further delay... ), but I guess I will try the option to change the walls via logic blocks.
It would, however, be a lot of effort, since (to my knowledge) you can only change two walls per logic block. Or maybe the "set_level_stats_asl..." script can be used for this? I never tried so far...