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Baldur's Gate [Alpha] released (as World Save)!
Progress Report: 06-11-2012
It's been a while since I checked in, and I'm regretful to announce that I need to put this project on a temporary hiatus until two conditions are met:
- 1.3 is released
- Subsequent 1.3 updates for MCEdit and WorldPainter
This is not because I have lost interest in the project or have made no progress, but because I have overextended myself in pursuit of it.
To give you an idea of how that is, I'll bring you up to speed on everything that's gone on since June 6. Ever since I started the project, I didn't want to just make a good-looking city map for Minecraft that's just clumsily smashed into the world, I wanted it to emerge naturally out of the terrain. So the first few days I searched, mostly in vain, for a seed to use. Once I thought I had found one, I imported it into WorldPainter and tried to sculpt it into shape, which worked very poorly. WorldPainter is great for painting terrain that Minecraft then fills in the details for, but not especially savvy when it comes to reshaping it in the fashion I was attempting.
So I went with Plan B, which was to find a large enough landmass that I would then import a map into. Finding that WorldPainter could import height maps, I made a rough height map working off the earlier "Grid" map I had made for the city, at which point things took a turn for the maddening.
While WorldPainter has an intuitive UI and powerful features, the learning curve for it is unmercifully steep. The first drafts of the height map had wildly exaggerated terrain, and it took thirteen versions before it was at scales remotely consistent with what I had planned. On the thirteenth version, I started building the city walls, before I realized that the city's plain was 20 blocks below the point where it needed to be. It took another eight versions after that point to finally get the city's terrain perfectly flush with Minecraft's terrain outside of the map area.
So on version 21, I finally got to work building the city. The harbor came together well, along with a neighboring block, but as I built more and more I noticed something was terribly wrong. At certain points things fit like gloves, while in most of the city, it was becoming rapidly evident that I had overbudgeted on space. The Duchal Palace sat alone in the middle of a vast plain; the buildings for the southwest of the city were seperated by streets wider than the blocks they were built on.
I briefly considered pushing ahead anyway and just filling in spots with random assortments of NPC buildings, but decided against it. I reformulated the map again, hoping to keep the spots where the scale was correct as unaltered as possible while minimizing the spaces where I had given it too much room.
So it is now the 24th version of the map and the 3rd draft of the city proper. I figure, at this point, it's time to take a break and come back when I'm feeling less frustrated about the project, and 1.3's release sounds like good a spot as any to pick back up. This will also give me a chance to work some more on my texture packs, which have been neglected somewhat while I worked on this.
This is not a cancellation or indefinite hiatus. I remain entirely committed to picture-perfect completion of this project, and while I'm generally a "good-enough" sort, I'll accept nothing less than picture-perfect from the final product here. In the mean time, leaving encouraging messages and helping promote my project would certainly be appreciated.
| Progress | 70% complete |
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14 Update Logs
Update #14 : by Terzaerian 08/03/2012 1:33:49 amAug 3rd, 2012
-1.3 has been released, but next week, I am out of town. Work will resume on this project 08/13/2012.
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