Anvil Islands Second Draft
With this post I’ve caught up to my current version of the Anvil Islands map.
I chose an unusual method for my rivers, carving them out of the landscape rather than drawing them on top. I wanted to avoid strange overlaps with my raised edges at the ocean line. The other tricks I tried just didn’t work, but I’m pleased with this solution. The only downside is it doesn’t work with CC3’s smooth polygon tools, so my rivers were carved using the fractal tool and I may have to clean them up a bit.
When I posted my earlier map on the CC3 forums, one of the criticisms was my map appeared constrained into a box shape. So I’ve altered my southern coast, dipping the Meglis island downwards considerably. I think that solves it, but I’d appreciate feedback if anyone disagrees.
(Click the image for larger sizes)
Also due to comments, I added some extra contours to give a sense of the height of the land. I don’t want to make a full height map since the proportions here are meant to be representational, but some extra depth probably helps.
I’ve also redone the political borders to account for the natural boundaries of the rivers, plus I’ve added an index / legend. The parchment scroll for the legend was inspired by art from the Vintage Collective set on Flickr.
There are still a lot of details to fill on this map, but I’m going to start on some of the cutout segments next. In particular I’ll be trying my hand at city / town mapping.
Feel free to let me know what you think. =)
Anvil Islands First Draft
I’ll try to give as much info about the geography and people of these fictional lands without giving away too many project details (for now).
I’ve posted these images elsewhere for feedback and that’s been hella helpful so far, especially since I’m new to making my own maps. I’ve been a big fan of fantasy maps since forever and I’m surprised I took this long to get into making my own. Having a purpose for the maps is a great motivator. This project so far has kept a huge grin on my face.
This map is my first real dabble with Campaign Cartographer (well, after the initial tutorial map at least) and it’s the main region for the project. Most of the maps that will follow will be increased detail on cutaway portions from this map.
Anvil Islands. The name is derived from a fantastical aspect of the islands. Due to a peculiar placement in the overall world geography, these islands are situated in a rare and powerful south-to-north ocean stream. The populated areas of the map are protected from the heavy current by the massive mountain range at the southern reaches of the two main islands. The waves are said to crash upon the rocks like a “hammer upon an anvil”.
(Click the image for larger sizes)
The gap between the two main islands forms a channel locals refer to as both the “Gap River” and the “Gap Firth” although it’s not precisely either. The western main island of Dovon is the most populated, while Meglis has seen expansion more recently. To most of the population, these islands are their whole world.
At this point in my map design, I haven’t placed the rivers yet and overall the map is sparse on detail. I have placed the capital cities of the primary political factions, as well as the Forest of Breeze, a locale which plays a key role within the story.
The map was created completely with Campaign Cartographer 3, using my variation of the Mercator style from the first Annual update. It’s complex CAD-related software and not what I’m accustomed to working with, but I think I’ve gotten past the initial steep learning curve.
I’m playing catchup posting this, there’s another iteration which I’ll post about tomorrow (you can sneak peak via my Flickr feed on the sidebar). Regardless, I’m happy to hear criticisms or commentary based on what’s here so far.
Maps for Anvil Islands
I’m not ready to spill the full beans on this project, that will be awhile down the road, but feedback helps me work. So I’m going to release my maps in progress while I work on them.
Here’s the initial rough sketch drawn on graph paper and scanned:
I’m further along than this now, but I figured I’d post the hand-drawn version first to show my progression.
Hell hath no fury
Tesh dug up this guest article from Penny Arcade and I thought it was worth relinking. It’s written by Daniel James (aka Captain Cleaver), CEO and designer for Three Rings Design (Puzzle Pirates).
The paraphrasing quote hits home like a hammer:
“Money can’t buy you love, but love can bring you money. In software the only sustainable way to earn money is by first creating love, and then hoping that some folks want to demonstrate that love with their dollars.”
Free to Play hasn’t grabbed onto my heart as it should. Most of the publishers are so busy seeing dollar signs and trying to leverage the word “free”, that I often sum up the whole business model as a bait-and-switch ploy.
There are some notable exceptions and that’s what this quote above is all about. How to do it right.
In that same article Mr. James slams the “expectations of vast profit” of traditional media and I’d say that has plenty of overlap into the games industry. All of the major publishers (and minor ones, see: gPotato’s faux pas with Allods Online) are salivating over what it means (in dollars) to be the gatekeepers.
When the developer’s love of their game gets superseded by the publisher’s love of money, the gamer’s love dwindles accordingly. On this topic, balance is everything. Love can be a fickle thing. Expose your hand with motivations of pure greed and, well– Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned.
Too many of these games are trying to design themselves around a supposed addiction and not enough around joy.
The Cost of Convenience
I don’t really want to get into another argument with Keen again, but when the nature of Allods Online’s cash shop came up within one of his post threads, I couldn’t help but give my $0.02.
Let me start by saying I think Allods Online is a fine game. It’s very polished and delivers on a lot of features other MMOs have failed on. Although it’s way too much cute-on-cute for me, I can see the appeal. I hope it does well.
One of the reasons I won’t be playing however, is because I’m expecting some serious burns down the road with the cash shop.
It’s cool to sell convenience items on your cash shop. It’s not cool to directly inconvenience your players to send them to the cash shop.
Allods Online has introduced a “Fear of Death” debuff, reducing stats by 25% after leaving Purgatory (already a delay on your death). You can remove the debuff via gold or via a cash shop item (perfume). The perfume can also be obtained in-game via a daily quest. The debuff isn’t much different than the sort you may find in any MMORPG, except for one key difference: It’s really long (scales by level, 45 minutes at lvl 40). Stacking it is exceptionally nasty.
In WoW the death debuff is a decision pivot: “Do I go back to my body, or do I take the debuff and go somewhere else?” If you decide to accept the debuff, it will likely dissipate during your travel time, since it’s only 10 minutes. Players suffer with the death debuff in WoW. In Allods Online, it’s an imperative to remove if you reasonably wish to keep playing (at least at the higher levels).
It’s a clear push of inconvenience to get you into the cash shop and not a good indication for this game down the road. Players can decide if it’s a big deal to them or not. I generally agree with Keen’s summation that a death penalty is a good thing, but clearly this is a case of business model directing the gameplay.
That’s the idea of microtransactions isn’t it? To make the cash choice seem small and then add more later. A little bit here, a little bit there. Already players are calculating that only ~$22 would keep you lush in perfume per month, which makes me do a double-take, because there’s no coincidence that’s just slightly higher than a normal subscription fee.
That’s my $0.02. Or maybe that $0.02 is getting paid to gPotato?
. . .
If you’re curious to try Allods Online for yourself, they’ve opened up closed beta for a few extra days to everyone that signs up. See allods.gPotato.com. Just do me a favour and don’t send me screenshots of your gerbils, okay?
What’s wrong with a WoW clone?
I seem to be in the habit of eating crow lately and here’s another subject where my tune is changing pitch slightly.
I’m not exactly happy that the MMORPG genre is knee-deep in me-too design, but I’m starting to wear down on the alternatives. I don’t know what happened along the way, but somewhere the concept of creating a virtual world became lost on all of the big game houses. Oddly, WoW has been the closest approximation, although it’s been slowly sliding off the virtual world scale since release.
The clones? Most of them don’t measure up, that’s for sure. Some, like LOTRO for instance, are superior in a number of ways, but still stop short of the most important elements (for me at least) that keep me from feeling like I’m adventuring in a living and breathing world. Aside from a tiny few exceptions, they’re all online theme parks. Not enough open world space, too many intentional bottlenecks funnelling players into one locale, not much in the way of exploration and oh my look at all those linear goals.
Bring in the clones. That just might help. Look at Allods Online for instance, which I admit I’ve been completely dismissive of. By most accounts, it’s come the closest to a WoW-like experience and may even *gasp* surpass it (I shouldn’t start this hype machine tho, look how many games have disappointed after such rhetoric). The free-to-play moniker scares me tho.
Maybe even Blizzard can recapture WoW’s original magic and clone the pre-expansions version of the game with Cataclysm. Although I suspect they’re more likely to put it on rails.
I was hoping to move forward, to even better and bigger games, but now I’ve realized you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. I’d just like to have that thrill again, the one I enjoyed when I first explored Duskwood, The Loch, Desolace and all of those times in Blackrock, Stratholme and Scholomance. When WoW was less scripted but somehow felt richer.
If someone can clone that, I’ll happily play it.
Except I’m probably not teaming up with gerbils, especially three boxed-movement gerbils. That’s just creepy.
