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Thread: A whole new meaning to Organic Mapping.

  1. #1
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    Post A whole new meaning to Organic Mapping.

    Adzy here,

    Here's the biggest challenge I can think of for any level designer to come up with. The insides of a giant creature.

    Maybe the adventurers have been eaten by a 5 mile long worm, maybe a druidic order has a temple on the back of a giant desert lizard or it could even be a sub-aquatic city inside some titanic underwater beast. The only rules would be thus:

    1. At least 75% of the map must be biological in some way.
    2. Artificial structures must be justified.
    3. The creature's biology must play by the rules of nature. It has to be able to stay alive in its environment.
    4. If you decide to put a civilisation in there you must come up with at least a paragraph of backstory/reason for being there.
    5. Whilst the map doesn't need to concern itself with every single part, it must give some idea of the enormous scale of the creature itself.

    The best idea will most likely get itself written into a D&D campaign in the near future (which I will post up here for you guys to read/play with)

    Have fun

  2. #2
    Professional Artist Nomadic's Avatar
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    This sounds more like something you should do privately as it has a bit too many restrictions for a standard mapping challenge. Perhaps you could throw it out in the general forums and see if anyone is interested.
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  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Always wanted to try something like this just never got around to it.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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  4. #4
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    It's a neat idea, but might be a bit restrictive if you know nothing of biology *shrugs*
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  5. #5
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    This is a good idea but it might be better to combine it with another challenge idea too. So for example you could do a vertical map with an organic creature as its basis. Maybe this should be something that we can opt to do as part of another map too. But I like the idea generally.

    A problem with this map is that its a hard one to do. The last time I did something like this was the hideout based inside the skull of a god/titan type creature. It turned out so hard that I made the rooms approx square in the end. Still have better tools this time around but its still a hard option.

    We had another challenge idea for an underwater map where these two might go together well.

  6. #6
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    By rules of nature I meant that it has to have a heart, lungs, stomach etc.

    Maybe I should doodle up an example.

  7. #7
    Professional Artist Nomadic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wellsy89 View Post
    By rules of nature I meant that it has to have a heart, lungs, stomach etc.

    Maybe I should doodle up an example.
    Yes but that leaves out those of us who would like to make more fanciful creatures. The CG after all is a site with a great deal of fantasy mapping. And fantasy doesn't have to follow reality.
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  8. #8
    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Hmmm I am undecided on this one. On the one hand, it sounds like a great original idea; on the other hand mapping out "organics" sounds... exceedingly hard to pull off so that it actually looks like some living creature. I think most maps would likely just end up being normal structures "On the back of a giant turtle", and then the biological aspect becomes an art feature more than anything else. I'll observe the discussion a bit before voting.

  9. #9

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    The first thing I thought of was a map of the interior of the whale that swallowed Pinnochio. Followed immediately by RR's skull hideout.

    I think it's not an awful idea, and I can think of several possibilities for it, but it is a bit limiting. I don't forsee myself ever running such an adventure, so I'd probably not participate. That wouldn't affect the number of participants at all, though, since I only really hit one in five challenges, anyway. And I only finish half of those, unfortunately.

    Anyway, I'm for it.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
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