Large S.T.A.L.K.E.R. inspired Island "NOVA ZONA"

[meshcarver 12]

Hi Ceh,

No, it will be more subtle than that. "Less is more..."

Most of it will come from the design of the environment and structures, and the sound will play a big part. Those things, coupled with the weather settings and atmospheric effects will come together to give a feeling of unease.

Honestly, seeing some of the houses with their exposed framework etc on a dark night in Cherno with the rain and lightening is pretty scary by itself. Now factor in other players, Anomolies and sound fx... It should all add up.

Sound is vastly underated in this regard...

There will be the Anomalies of course, and as you can see from my take on the Witches Jelly, I am going down the route of giving them a more visceral touch.

If I ever do monsters/mutants, it won't be for years, as I need the map to put them in first lol..!

Besides, there's already Bloodsuckers addon.

For the record- For now I am only making the full environmental map, no humans/monsters etc, but in the future would consider adding some form of Zone creatures only if they fit the theme so to speak.

[meshcarver 12]

Any crits/suggestions for the Stalker modified container at all, as I'll try to incorporate some feedback into the next designs... ;)

[Alo Keen 7]

Well, since you asked :)

The container itself looks cool, maybe add some non-container stuff to it, to break it up. Like a wooden shelf under the "shielded" window, or some wires or whatnot... Anything that hasn't come from the container itself, if you know what I mean. Maybe a wheel rim at the base of the rod that is holding the flap. Perhaps a dent or two in the structure of the container itself.

[meshcarver 12]

Hey man,

nice ideas..! :D

This is the kind of stuff I lap up... if you have any more about any aspect of the objects so far, please feel free to keep the crits/ideas flowing- it's all good.

Also, once placed in the map, structures like these will be "populated" with little things like gas lamps and filthy mattresses... so rather than building the things into them, I'll place them freely for more variation.

Ahhh, gotcha about the inbuilt shelves- nice one..! Indeed, I'll add a metal panel shelf welded to the interior of the one I'm working on now Ceh, thank you.

Edited April 12, 2013 by meanmachine1

[KorroBravin 1]

For the modified containers, I'd almost say add some more playing to parts of it, as I'm not sure how bullet proof it is on its own. Other than that, they look spot on perfect, though some damage might not be a bad idea (scratches, bullets holes, etc) to make it seem more used.

[meshcarver 12]

Hi KorroBravin,

aye, this was raised elsewhere about the bullet proof question.

For this island, the assumption is that these big old containers are protection enough, as to add a lot of panelling all over them would take up too much texture space per container because each piece of metal sheet I added would need its own texture on the sheet and they're pushing it as is I'm afraid..!

There are some extra sheets added already (Not loads granted) on the corners and over the window part, and if you look closely there's about 100 ( I counted!) bullet holes dotted across it..! ;)

I might do a second pass on the Stalker modified ones though yes mate- add more wear and tear, scratches etc cheers!

Again, thanks for this feedback- it's great to know what people are making of this, as it's changing as I go along too..!

[KorroBravin 1]

Ah, I must have missed those, they do indeed look good (forgot to zoom in on the picture, thought they were just part of the grunge!) But yeah, some claw marks, or scratches on the floor like something heavy and metal was being slid around might not be bad, either way it looks great!

Edited April 12, 2013 by KorroBravin

[Alo Keen 7]

No mutants :P :D

[meshcarver 12]

Hi Ceh,

you mean you'd like Mutants or not man..?

Either way, it's going to take quite some time just to get the whole map finished first..!

[Alo Keen 7]

Not really... I'm glad you're taking the less is more approach - monsters and stuff are a big immersion spoiler for me.

[grimwald 24]

Nice progress. Couple of crit's:

No bearers in the house to hold up the floorboards of the first level.

The houses look like they never had electricity - no fuse box, power points, etc.

Floorboards need broken edges and sagging boards.

Maybe some moss or black-mold for the corners that never see sun.

If there's modified containers and improvised fortifications perhaps some props like MIG welders, tin snips, stacks of bricks, compressors, nail-guns, entrenching tools, and such could be made to litter about.

Further ideas:

Sites nearby would be stripped of candidate materials.

Improvised fortifications: reclaimed materials, beams staked into the ground, bricks as a retaining wall for soil, chicken wire or mesh fencing as grenade screens. It's very "Mad Max" but I imagine these forts will be limited to faction headquarters and smaller ones for holding the tactical points.

[meshcarver 12]

Hi,

Great feedback, thank you..!

Yeah, as for the bearers in that little house, it's so small i thought not to include them but I might revisit it now you've pointed i out lol..! ;)

The other larger houses have them.

Fuse boxes and old switches will be added later, probably as different object for variation in placement, but yes I will add little power points, nice one.

I can't add too many sagging floorboards where untis can walk on them as it'll cause different LODs count to go right up! The way ARMA works, for this house there's another 6-7 models you don't see, shadow, collision and fire being some of them. I'll leave walkways flat but will sag some unreachable parts...

All those little prop ideas are amazing, and I'll definitely be including them mate.

I'll also be adding wiremesh etc to some Stalker structures later as a second pass..!

Thanks very much for taking the time on this mate, appreciated! :)

[seamusgod 1]

Not really... I'm glad you're taking the less is more approach - monsters and stuff are a big immersion spoiler for me.

plus it's more in line with the source material. there aren't any explicit monsters or mutants in roadside picnic or stalker(the film) either, only phenomenons and artifacts.

[meshcarver 12]

Hi man,

I agree- even a few monsters would tip it too much into "fantasy" sort of thing, although there are "zombies" of a kind in Roadside Picnic- they're referred to as "...moulages- reconstructions on the skeletons, dummies." And that I find a lot more terrifying than standard monsters etc. They're even said to be autonomic, so if you cut the arm off say, it goes on moving and doing its thing... there's a lot of potential in that, more than in monsters and ghosties yes.

Further down the dev, once the map is more or less in place I can start to think about incorporating something along these lines, and have them wandering around deserted villages and graveyards like the one mentioned in Roadside Picnic- it then apparently wanders onto the road..!

Either way, the horror/unease should by far come from the phenomenons and artefacts as you say seamusgod..! ;)

[meshcarver 12]

Hi..!

Another Stalker modified Cargo container.

This one has a single door, and two segments of the siding have been cut away with two holes in each with each part hinged so they can be raised or lowered for more protection while you aim out the firing slots cut into them.

There is also a basic chimney pipe cut into the roof for when you have to shelter in a bad storm, make a little fire, and heat yourself up with the sides down.

Around the far side there's a pipe and a H-bar holding up an extended roof which can be accessed by climbing a basic ladder made from bent metal and shaped welded plating.

A couple of metal sheets welded to the added railings around the top make for some more cover when providing Overwatch for your squad mates, or simply chilling and watching the sunset over the Zone... ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86890612@N02/8648893880/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86890612@N02/8647793493/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86890612@N02/8648894144/in/photostream/

Also, this'll be the last update for at least 6 weeks(!) as I'm going back home to visit friends and family, and have no access to my beloved PC there (Sob..!).

So either way, I'll keep my ideas flowing and write them down in my pad for when I return and if anyone has anymore ideas themselves, I'd love it if you wrote them down here...

Take it easy..!

Edited April 14, 2013 by meanmachine1

[charliemilk 10]

Hi,

Near where I live there is an old concrete pill box left over from WWII. It was used to look out to sea and spot German ships. If you want I can go and get photos up close of it and post them so you can recreate one for your mod if you like? This is the one:- http://www.cannybevvy.co.uk/pillboxes/Tyne%20and%20Wear/East%20Herrington%20Lozenge/index.html

[meshcarver 12]

Hey charliemilk,

Thanks for that mate. I've got a few images pretty simillar already so have the reference myself- and yes I'll be stick a few of these into the map..! ;)

[meshcarver 12]

Hi,

I'm about to more or less sign off from my PC for the next six weeks because of travel.

In the meantime, here's a couple of shots of that House_01 in ARMA 3 in stormy weather- you can see how nice that engine is. Even though there's more or less no shadowing, it does a good job contrast for flat lighting.

Just a simple quick back and front shot- and I know it's the same building and I will get some of the other structures ingame when I get back and put some shots of them up.

I really want to concentrate on knocking all these objects out first though before I go through and get them all in and fully working- it seems more productive that way..! :)

Anyway, here you go Stalkers:

http://www.meshcarver.com/screenshots/INGAME_03.png

http://www.meshcarver.com/screenshots/INGAME_04.png

It's a simple building, but because of the many open windows, two open doorways and a huge hole in the corner and no roof whatsoever it makes for some tense standoffs against AI in the night..! I got killed by an M203 round coming in on top of my head..! ;)

Also, I've had a few more ideas I'd love to implement.

I done a little test in the Editor using the flat area to the north of Stratis and placed about 10 of these houses, Blufor on one side and Opfor on the other, and a huge minefield in the middle in the housed areawith about 100 mines..! It was epic gameplay, very tense once you knew you'd gotten yourself into the mined area, and got me thinking- there's actually a minefield in the Stalker game (I forgot which one, but it's by a heli crash site) so I'll stick a few into the map design.

A few could be defensively placed around old military outposts, or along the length of The Wall/Cordon.

And a think it'd be good to have a completely forsaken and barren village with LOADS of old mines scattered around as the military buried them all there when they pulled out the Zone because there was so much action in that area because of Artifacts or something... a bit of backstory anyway.

Also, a simpler addition that'd add a little to the atmos would be if I modelled a few different ragged curtains I could place inside various houses, so there's a bit more movement. Just slightly blowing in the breeze, and semi transparent and ragged to hell. I reckon it'd look nice in some houses..?

[KorroBravin 1]

Looking mighty fine, mighty fine indeed. And I love the idea of minefields, add a good reason to carry around that rusty trusty metal detector!

[charliemilk 10]

That busted up house looks good. Enjoy yr traveling.

[Defunkt 431]

If you can keep motivated to see this aesthetic, at this quality, through to its conclusion it's going to be one very special island.

[meshcarver 12]

Hi guys,

Aye, it'll be possible to carry on doing these models and textures like this, the hard part is hoping it all comes together in the end..! Visually and performance wise I mean...

I'm going to make sure I lod everything up with visual and shadow lods etc to get maximum performance as I really want it to be playable for everyone.

[docpet 1]

@meanmachine1

Absolutely agree with you, because productivity should be both in single and in multiplayer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdocpet/8657849712/in/photostream

[emoglobinsky 149]

Always great, could it be possible to see some wireframe or texture sheet ? :)

[meshcarver 12]

Hi guys,

@Docpet, nice shot in your photostream of the CNPP mate..!

@Emoglobinsky, it won't be possible for another 6 weeks now mate as my pc is back in the appartment and I'm visting home..!

But, when I come back, I'll stick a few wireframes up and maybea texture sheet or two..!