Greetings, Heroes!
On the eve of the release of a major update for Hero's Story, I would like to tell you about the creation of a new region - Magic Forest - as well as about the changes in the game world that await players in version 1.0.9.
I want to say that I immediately decided to make the Magic Forest a little smaller in size than Expanse or the Endless Desert. This decision was dictated by the fact that most of the first two regions were almost empty, there was not as much content (especially in the first versions) as I would like, but optimization suffered at the same time.
The first thing to do when creating a new large location is to immediately determine what kind of landscape will be presented at the level. Will there be a river or mountains on the map? How many large points of interest will there be? Will there be access to the sea or chasm? At the first stage, mountains and hills are plotted on the map, rivers and lakes are formed, places for future castles and fortresses are imagined.
The second stage is the arrangement of the main objects (for example, for Magic Forest these were huge trees of wisdom and bridges) and application of textures to the landscape. The bottom of rivers and the shore become sand, hills and mountains - stone, and lowlands and plains - grass. At the same stage the landscape is adjusted, ascents and descents are created, lighting is being figured out.
The next stage is the main objects and vegetation. I advise you to always place settlements, castles, fences and other objects before setting trees, but after landscape corrections, because the longer you edit the map, the more difficult (and longer) process of making various changes will be.
The final touches are adding trees and adjusting the lighting. In the case of the Magic Forest the vegetation on the map has become many times more, so special attention was paid to customization of materials. For example, there will be no dynamic weather in the new region, and brushes are used instead of static meshes (models) where it's possible. Later enemies, chests, flowers and other objects are placed on the level.
That's it for today! And the new update, which also includes new types of enemies and removes "invisible walls" in the game world will be available on June 21th.
Have a good one, Your Silent.