Problems with Concepts

Here are some of my thoughts based on what is in the dropbox. This was to long for the comment section and to important not to be read by everyone so I decided to make a new post. Sorry its long but they are some changes I think we really need to consider making before moving forward.


**Remember Gnomes are Tinkers first and foremost and our town should reflect that, while they are skilled at mining metals and precious gems that is not they are well known for. Dwarfs are well known for there mining and metal work ability with things like weapons. We need to outfit our town to look like a Gnome lives there, as it stands now it looks like a Dwarf town. We need off the way, crazy clockwork contraptions as the main focus of the down, not where its located.**

Based off the 3D concept posted of the town.

Problems: Gnomes while they are skilled miners are not as known for mining as Dwarfs. Right now the town looks like a Dwarf mining town with gears slapped all over the place. Gnomes are known more for tinkering clockwork stuff while Dwarfs are the miners.

Solution: I still like the idea of them having a mine but I think we should limit the tracks to outside the town that could lead to the mountain/mine entrance. Right now every time I see the 3D concept I think Dwarf town over Gnome even though there are lots of gears.

Ideas: For the Gnomes I really think we should try and focus more on the crazy contraptions and inventions that they make. Lots of there inventions fail and have explosive consequences.



Based off the 3D concept/drawings of town.

Problem: From the concepts I have seen it seems that instead of most of the town being on a big platue onto of the upside down mountain the buildings are places all over the sides of the inverted mountain. I see quite a few problems with this.

First Problem: If we have these buildings on the sides of the mountain that means the detail all along the side of the mountain will have to be highly detailed to match the buildings near by or it will look off with high detailed houses and low detailed terrain.

Second Problem: Boring view for players down along the mountain side. Since this inverted mountain is suppose to be in a canyon the view for players when along the side of the mountain will be pretty plain and boring. It would be almost nothing but the canyon walls no matter where the player would look.

Third Problem: Pigeonholing the player into set paths. Building a city along the side of a cliff will limit the freedom for the player to explore the city. There can only be so many paths to take to get from one place to another. In Everquest all there city's are large open areas so you can move from one building to another without a set path. With catwalks connecting the buildings it forces the players to go from one house to the next in a line.

Its like traveling up a mountain, there is only 1 or 2 ways up and your forces to see places based on there position on a path. A city built more on a flat plain gives players the freedom to go from house to house how they choose not based on whats next along the path.

Fourth Problem: Lack of tinker room. With buildings on the side it limits the space available for the Gnomes to do there crazy contraptions. They wont have like a lawn or a lot of space to make crazy things which they are known for. This will lead to most places looking the same with not much individuality.

Fifth Problem: The amount of work with the terrain will already be extremely high as the mountain and canyon will all have to be done with custom statics as its not something Unreal can do. If players can get close to something you have to make that area more detailed then places the player cannot reach.

Sixth Problem: This is now more then 1 zone. Have a top city, side of the mountain city, bridge off the city and path to witch doctor is really more then just 1 zone, its 2. The city uptop and the city on the side would be big enough to its own zone. This will more then likely lead to having less detail in city to get everything done since it is so expansive.

Ideas: Change things up and have most of the town uptop on the platue. This gives players the freedom to roam around where and how they want to. It also gives us more area to work with when decied what kind of crazy clockwork creations we can have the gnomes building. With the sides of the mountain we can have them less detailed and use implied shapes and forms to get across the message of the inverted mountain without sacrificing close up detail that the player could see.

We can add houses to the side later on for visual effect if it looks good but make it so players cannot reach those places. We want to focus more on what makes Gnomes Gnomes, not that we can stick there houses on the sides of a mountain. Although the conepts that were done are nice it looks like a Dwarf town with gears in it. We should focus not only on the houses the gnomes live in but what crazy inventions they are making in there yards over pully system. Not saying we shouldnt have pully systems I'm just saying it shouldnt be the focus. The focus should be all the crazy, wacky, expolsive things the gnomes build for themselfs.



Based off Andres Store Concept

While I think its nice it looks like a human house with gears glued on it. It dosnt look like a house a gnome would live in. I think the modular concepts for the houses Gene and Jeff did earlyer looked better and had more of a gnome vib to them.