Suggestions for new Environment and Underground Art Sets

Grim Dawn Development Updates
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As per our Kickstarter stretch goal, we’d like to start a discussion to generate options for our additional environment and underground art sets. This thread will be only to generate ideas and then later we’ll post a poll with the top approved choices.

Keep in mind, Grim Dawn is a small-scope indie title and there is a limit on how many assets / how much complexity we can build for each. We will have to weigh the ideas in terms of whether they’re something we’re capable of pulling off when selecting the final choices. Of course, we’ll also want to make sure they fit our world / fiction.

Environments
Currently for environments we have marsh, green deciduous forest, village / town, farmland, highlands, autumn forest, necropolis, dumping grounds and some hybrids that are sort of in between. We are expecting to do a winter set for an expansion, so as popular as that might be, we’re probably going to hold off for now. So, what else would you like to see? Wasteland, highlands, ruined fort… perhaps something more exotic? Some people mentioned the Ch’thonic void…

Undergrounds
For undergrounds, we have a couple varieties of natural caves, cellars / dungeons and are planning to do a mining set for caves. We may be able to do another UG depending on how elaborate this one ends up being.

People have mentioned sewers, catacombs… A while back Brazilski posted about wine cellars / vaults - I wouldn’t see this as being a whole UG set by itself but it could be a unique new mini-set we build for the cellar underground. If there were a bunch of ideas to build mini-sets for existing UGs, we could put a few of those together too as an option, which might be nice to help diversify what is already one of the most frequent UG sets.

Anyway, have at it! Special bonus for including photo reference like Brazilski’s thread. :wink:

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I would like to see a wasteland for the environment, this is afterall, post invasion, so many areas should be barren / wasteland, maybe the resistance was stronger in those areas but got destroyed, and as a warning to other towns / areas, the areas in question were nuked, (I mean wasted, destoryed uttery, not a real nuke, but you get my drift

I think this would be fitting for the game, and would be more realistic, because not every area should be green and lush, so barren wasteland is my choice for a new environment, runined forts would be great too, if you can add them in with the wasteland

winter areas would be good to have, but I agree should be an expansion, and once you are farther away from the main areas, so more northern, or southorn, or winter landscapes would look odd

but for wasteland, maybe we could have the following, if possible, broken carts, ripped tents, some signs there was life here, but they tried to hold the line but failed, probably these areas could be where the invasions started? or like I said, where the resistance fighters tried to stop the invasions, but paid a heavy price. so the landscape should reflect that, so burnt trees, no foliage, as it would have been burnt away.

anyway that is my chance for an environment

PS

for underground, I would like to see sewers, but I’m not fussed on whatever option is chosen for that

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Outdoor areas:

Battlegrounds - would be cool to go through some of the major battlegrounds from the first years of the invasion. Large bombed out craters, destroyed fences/trees/houses/ect, and decomposed remains of the participants. Also things like mounted machine gun positions and stuff like that. I think you could even work environmental hazzards into it for instance lingering green chemical warfare gas (like mustard gas) sunken into some of the deeper craters.

This would be a dark area…scorched and muddy. Obviously the game has color but the ‘feel’ would be something like the black and white photos below.

Indoor areas:

European-style Catacombs - Obviously you already mentioned this but figured would just condense it into this thread. Anyways obviously would be a mixture of tunnels and larger more open rooms. Lots of opportunities to put interesting things in though like walls of skulls, secret occult altars, and stuff like that.

Combo!

Road to dilapidated castle/internal castle - This is kind of a two-in-one deal and maybe suitable for a mini-boss. Basically you have to travel via an old road to a dilapidated castle where a powerful enemy has taken home. the road there would be maybe starting out from a town/camp on an old dirt road through an old forest, then as you get closer maybe a small cemetery (common) or a small bog/swamp to some broken iron gates. Inside the gates is an area with perhaps stables/common houses for staff/ect then you transition into the house.

Not a huge indoor area, but perhaps you have to go through a few levels either up to the keep or maybe into a small dungeon/cellar to face off against the boss.

Would be double cool if at points on the road you could see some of the architecture of the castle on the way. Always thought some of TQ’s best areas was where you guys used elevation and other tricks to give some really epic views.

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Environment:

  • hedgerow maze - perverted and corrupted by the invaders

Undergrounds / mini-sets

  • fortification with casemates - a place for you to clear, so that survivors can re-occupy it
  • rock cut architecture like cave monasteries or rock dwellings
  • archaic, buried ruined city - either an abandoned place in a now unpeopled area or the old foundation of an existing city
  • underground city - once busy place under a city, which became desolate after the invasion
  • cistern - as a variation of sewers
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@Renevent

I think your battlegrounds idea is probably similar to my wastelands, as I did mention that these points could have been the first areas to be attacked, so I think we are talking very similar here, not sure on chemical warfare mind, would the GD period technology be a bit too primitive for this? I know chemical weapons were used a lot during WW1, but not sure, looking it up on the wiki, 1900’s had the following, Chlorine, Chloropicrin, Phosgene and Mustard gas

but I feel the GD tech would be a lot older, not sure, I would not have chemical weapons, but everyone else you said it fine, unless someone else can post otherwise?

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Victorian era goes all the way up to 1901…chemical agents were already being used and discussed during this time.

Not to mention…I think Medierra has mentioned a few times that Grim Dawn’s universe doesn’t exactly run parallel to our own. I think if there’s going to be guns and explosives, early chemical agents like chlorine gas, mustard gas, and cyanide fit pretty well :slight_smile:

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ok didn’t see that, then chem weapons are fine, sorry, the mounted machine guns probably could be Gatling guns, other then that, I think the other things are fine then, didn’t realise that the checmical weapons went that far back, I only read so much, so I missed what you posted. so point taken

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As you’ve already reserved winter scapes for an expansion - I would love to see catacombs / dungeon style questing myself. Entering a cave in order to expell the great evil that lives within. Dim lighting - or no lighting at all save for whatever we have on our person. I’d prefer to see it as if it was carved out of the earth by creatures… instead of something like stonework masonry. Too many games make goblins and gouls master craftsmen in their hidey-holes probably because the nice uniform nature of the stones make it an easy pattern to repeat. I’d prefer something of a more “visceral” feel.

One thing I would prefer not to see is a desert area. I find that desert areas are very often bland and devoid of any character. They often feel like the devs were tired of working on zones… so quickly threw in a desert and filled it with the same 2-3 dune graphics every 10 yards, maybe with a cactus here and there.

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Yeah old school gattling guns were what I had in mind myself…I guess if I had to put a time period on it something between the civil war and WW1.

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or something like this

http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/boer/coltmachinegun_e.shtml

looks that you are right about mounted machine guns too, 1895, which is where I assume or around this period that GD is? has the date of the game been set? I know that we could have some leeway on tech, so for example, the above could be seen a bit earlier then it appeared on Earth, (our timeline) but I dont think we should go overboard and say that things a bit too advance should be appearing, we want some realism here

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I’d like to see an underground oasis that seems to be in dire need of ressurection. Where as your going through it killing monster spawns and corrupted whatever’s , you can actually see the landscape change and start becoming more and more vibrant.
Once you get to the end you have to kill a big chemical blob jelly ( where you can actually see the epic loot hell drop floating in his guts ) then after you kill him the whole oasis turns beautiful and little sprites pop out that will be vendors or crafting or special dye vendor or something…and you get a runestone where you can return at leasure to maybe fish or hunt for mats

12

I think the inside of a gigantic monster would be a cool environment. A purely organic environment would be cool. A quest to journey to the heart to take it down would be really cool. You could have giant tapeworms and other parasites as well as immune system type monsters and traps.
A town under a curse that you have to rescue would be cool too. Maybe a stone curse or the residents are turned into monsters you can defeat and purify in order to make a new hub city.

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I’d like to see the ruined fort idea expanded. Make it a ruined town. Where there use to be walls around the city and then inside that is a castle that’s dilapidated. Basically you could go small on the town part and huge on the castle so you spend awhile in the castle trying to navigate the debris to find x (whatever that may be.). Make the castles parapets able to walk inside and on. Even a destructible wall that lets you move around the debris to find hidden loot or hidden optional boss. There is a lot that could be done with this idea.

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Okay. So I know you guys already have a lot of semi-random stuff thrown into the game, which I love you for. But here’s the deal.

 In Titan Quest, I would constantly play around with build ideas. This meant that I spent a LOT of time running around in Greece. I killed the legendary centaur for his majestic chest and the chance to loot blues more times than I want to think about.

 So here's my question: How hard is it to make a random dungeon?

Basically the quest is to kill a red-named, but when you enter the dungeon, it’s different each time. There would be different flavours of monsters [Satyrs would be an awesome throwback to TQ.], and different types of tile sets. (I.E. there’d be concrete, natural cave, wooden construction, ect…)

 The dungeon would be made of these tilesets, using a small algorithm to make sure that you could get to the red name and there wouldn't be edges sticking out in places. Seeing as the game layout is isometric anyways, this shouldn't be too bad to code, right? It would make a HUGE difference in the earlier levels as to how repetitive they are, especially for alt-aholics like myself.

 ...If that's too much of a pain, could we get traps? It'd be amazing if they were randomly placed within a few spots in an area, but even if they aren't...  I can just imagine walking down a hallway to have it fall out under you, or have the walls slide open to release monsters, or have spears shot at you from the far end of the hallway...
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Yeah, I was one of the ones that suggested about the Sewers last month. Most of the stuff I suggested is in the link.

I feel that the sewers should somehow be connected with the catacombs, and even the wine cellar which happens to have a crack on the walls somewhere in there thanks to erosion. The sewer would be a great addition to the game later on during or after beta.

I have nothing more to suggest since most of them have already mentioned. lol



Just wanted to add some Victorian style sewers to spice it up

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I posted in another thread about his, but my idea was for a railroad environment. Here are the pros, as I see them:

  • Setting appropriate - Railroads were at their height during the Victorian Era and thus would fit well into the world.

  • Flexible - It could be made into small environments (a small dilapidated station), larger environments (a complete ruined train yard), or added into existing environments to spice things up (railroad tracks running through existing environments, broken down, burnt, rusted, partially destroyed engines and railroad cars).

  • Above ground, underground, indoor - Railroad tracks could appear on the surface and in tunnels through mountains and such. Buildings in the train yard and stations could serve for indoor areas.

  • Strategic - Buildings, broken down engines and cars, and platforms could be used to create natural strategic pinch points.

  • Destructible - Buildings and cars could potentially be smashed open for destructible fun.

  • Reusable - The track asset could be reused in other areas such as mines.

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Victorian Fairgrounds

http://members.shaw.ca/pauline777/Randall-Williams-Scenic-Railway.jpg

Victorian Underground rail system

And here is the clip from TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze where the turtles find the old underground rail system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8_LG7PKAfE

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Old farm/slaughter house - Similar concept to the dilapidated castle, this would be traveling to an old large farm with a slaughter house where cultists/whatever have setup shop. Farm would have broken and rusted equipment, toppled silo’s, and sheds/small worker houses falling apart. The the main baddies are inside the old large slaughter house where they’ve…um…changed the operations a bit :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m sure everyone can use their imagination as to what’s being slaughtered here. Maybe they are using the human parts/blood for rituals or to create some zombie type enemies. Inside there would be lots of blood, slaughtering equipment, mangle parts/bodies hanging on hooks, and stuff like that.

Old_Slaughterhouse_by_Camereon.jpg850×567

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Tbh I’d like to see the remnants of civilization around.
Being that this is a quasi-Victorian era, that could include the likes of haunted bazaars, old, crumbling castles, interior regions such as mortuary’s, crypts, old fashioned ball rooms, perhaps an old shipyard.

The idea of going into another dimension doesn’t really appeal to me, but if the majority calls for it, then I’ll get used to the idea. :slight_smile:

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I would love to see an old Castle ruin(s), with only a small undergound entrance left inside which would take you to the castle dungeon:)