12 - Lowlands and Backdrops

This time I'm going to be showing the start of the Lowlands zone - which was talked about as part of the initial loop of the game since the beginning. This zone is intended to be the second zone players visit after clearing the Western Forest. They player should be around level 5.

Overlooking the lowlands (just the terrain, no trees or props yet)

I like the idea of a branching path. You can see there are three forks in the road. I'll probably have the questgiver for the zone specify that the quest objective is down the middle path, and the other two will be optional (likely involving world quests).

I also implemented backdrops for the forest and lowlands zones. Something I've had to think about is how the borders for each zone will work. The northern border of the playable area is mountains, but we'll need all the borders eventually. I think invisible walls makes the most sense (even if its kind of lame) because it lets me define a playable area where you can clearly see how the game would continue if you were to run in one direction. I may come up with some way to not use an invisible wall (trees too thick to pass, a palisade wall too high to jump over) but until then, it'll be an invisible wall. Here's the trees continuing on into the fog as seen from the top of the hill in the Western Forest.

Finally, here's a view from above the entire playable area with the fog turned off - unfortunately the LoD is killing the town in the Western Forest, but you get the idea.

I had to turn the fade distance on trees way up because even from the top of the large hill in the forest, the trees back in the hub area were disappearing.

I wanted to get the Lowlands into the game so I wouldn't have to stare into the void every time I got near the southern border of the Western Forest. Now I'll go back to completing that zone - I still need to create the second half of the forest area, and the entire goblin village on top of the hill.