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Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on May 20 2016 23:54 |
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Unsure if anyone even comes on here to use the forums which is probably why I am posting this:
1. to test to see if anyone is here.
2. to ask if we can look at ideas to update the look of the website?
I think Winter mentioned it about 3 years ago, and I have seen some coding changes to the site but it could do with a serious cosmetic facelift to try and attract more players since this is the landing page from TMC/mudconnector etc this is what should be grabbing peoples attention and MAKING them want to login.
I don't want to increase anyone's workload - and I guess purely by mentioning this I have. But year after year I come back and it looks like the community online is just getting that tiny bit smaller every time, if I remove all the spell bots etc. And I guess that could be just the the dwindling population as people play newer games (Boooo!)
I want to help - tell me how I can best help.
I am not fantastic at anything, in fact quite dangerous (a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing). I can bumble through some code, my engrish is OK, I can design things and I have run a few games as admin (not a request for admin - I just know at times it can be a long thankless job ).
Until I hear a request for specific things, I will start posting random things. I am trying out animation at the moment - so lacking original ideas I started with avatar as my base idea. These are just layers prior to trying the animation - I have some sprites I want to try and use - but early days who knows what it will end up looking like.
I was hoping not to turn this into a rant - but Avatar is a great game and I want to help keep it alive. Perhaps you can list odd jobs that could be safely farmed out - graphics, design, research, recruitment, help file rewrites. Or turn it into a competition rather than rely on 1 person - this would attract people back to the website to check in on submissions and to vote? Dunno just throwing ideas out there now.
Cheers,
Lag
http://i.imgur.com/5cvbMJO.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:21 |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on May 27 2016 22:07 |
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Hmmm so I guess I was on my own on the whole website update thing. Well I guess as promised in light of no real tasking I will just keep adding random ideas.
An updated overworld map? - I started mapping this out a few days ago trying to walk around Avatar staying somewhat dimension-ally accurate - some areas I had to fudge the scale a little bit but I am working around the place mapping trying not to get melted by some mob I don't know about - pretty safe at the moment I think. Heading up to LLoths peak where there is heaps of stuff to map which might change the scale of everything but I want to at least float the idea - I figured this kind of thing could be a small portion of a bigger idea to help attract players.
http://i.imgur.com/tN9dMbm.png
I am drawing up the coast line at the moment, I always imagined the south area and around to bloodsong to be cliff dropping away into the sea. I really want to finish off the cliff and bloodsong island to get the coastline shape right before moving on to the other bits. If anyone has sketches of the general shape they thought it would be submit here and I will see if we line up on the ideas. I am not anywhere near bloodsong yet still over in the plains near Qa river mouth.
http://i.imgur.com/igZtJD1.png
Also if you have a suggestion as to what should be in the overland/world map throw in a comment. I have mapped most of start area, around solace, up to mt durr across to qa river, down to coast, crystamir etc so the west side. After I fix the coastline I can fill in the detail.
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:22 |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on May 28 2016 04:42 |
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In my haste - forgot to add Gnimh, will add Fizzdrops lair in there somewhere too. Have to draw in river folk area if anyone was going to ask where is it  rivers, coasts and lakes are not so great with the program I am using so have to hand draw them all
http://i.imgur.com/pu2WCoJ.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:22 |
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RE: Website |
Qismat
Administrator
Posts: 12
Location: United Kingdom of G.B, N.I and Berwick upon Twede.
Joined: 16.02.13 |
| Posted on May 29 2016 13:00 |
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Gosh, very nice work!
I recall Izanagi did a lot of research into how all the areas related to one another when completely revamping the connector area Airways. So, I would definitely check out that area, and maybe have a chat with any builders who are around when you get to adding areas they have built. I have drawings of the areas I have made, so I am pretty sure other people will have drawings knocking around for their areas, too.
The maps created by players do not always reflect the descriptions in those and adjacent rooms - rather, they are often just an efficient grouping of linked squares, so I would be a little wary about simply hitting the wiki and grabbing the navigation maps. Oh, and it goes without saying that the room scale in Avatar is defined on a room by room basis by the room descriptions, and varies both between areas and within areas. I realise, though, that some builders have assigned an arbitrary volume of space to each room and constructed their areas on that basis.
I don't suppose you would consider putting up a scruffy version of the file - your neat image with rough notes slapped on it for where you think things should go or labelling things you have added?
Regarding the website - I'm afraid you will need to wait two weeks for a response on that topic, due to something that is occurring this week and next.
Thanks for the interesting post. And do ping me in game if you manage to catch me (I'm snowed under with job training and assessment tasks until October).
Q. |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on May 30 2016 06:52 |
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Yep by dimension-ally correct some things will have to give. at this point it will probably be a little stretch in roads etc to allow for the detail. I imagined the map to include any room you could view "sky" in. Of course Cities etc will be compacted down, but I was hoping to include some of the defining features of sub areas (rivers, large trees, lone houses - basically large things mentioned in each room description that "could" work or connect to other areas.
Using the larger connecting maps as the framework I was going to fill in the detail and stretch as required. I am changing the way I was "sketching this and will probably move to a more dynamic method since the old way had me moving things around it already was getting a little manual and I keep finding more details.
Stay turned will publish the overview sketch.
Also filled in a little more of the map (need to add river folk houseboats)- will halt this now. I would prefer to get consensus on the rough version first.
http://i.imgur.com/DFfc2NZ.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:22 |
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RE: Website |
Qismat
Administrator
Posts: 12
Location: United Kingdom of G.B, N.I and Berwick upon Twede.
Joined: 16.02.13 |
| Posted on May 30 2016 13:44 |
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>Using the larger connecting maps as the framework I was going to fill in the detail and stretch as required.
Sounds like a good plan. Put in all the connectors, block out the areas... 
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on May 31 2016 10:04 |
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Hmmm soooo this is a stupidly big world....
Just the sketch is going to take forever lol.. ah well so I have a rough sketch of the west - the rest of the east I will fill in after the west map is complete. I added a line to show the west/east split. Lots of islands I need to check out in the east - these will take a while to build etc
Its a big picture as I did not want to miss much if I needed to zoom in - feel free to sketch over the top - use a color that stands out for me so I see the changes
http://i.imgur.com/d58ZoTL.jpg
So if anyone has sketches of things in the west - this is a very high level map, but I could include general shape some defining features (cliffs, forest, hills, caves, rivers, towns/cities, cliffs, big stuff basically)
Or a quick scan of the west and you see something big missing I need to add? msg me here.
Sketches can be sent to my email Lagmonsta@gmail.com
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:23 |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 02 2016 06:01 |
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The map is too big it crashes my computer... anyway chopping it up seems to work ok. I have been messing around with the north-west part of the map. Some areas I have not visited - too afraid to get melted so just taken a stab at what it would look like from some wiki maps etc.
Lots more detail to add - I had to resize this smaller twice just so I could upload it. Some may say res is still too high but it was resampled from 8000px wide so has gone blurry a little. Final version will be better.
Still working on basic shapes along the bottom - so work in progress
EDIT: I have been working on this tonight so figured I would just update the pic
http://i.imgur.com/WSABit2.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 04 2016 01:23 |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 04 2016 01:21 |
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So progress slowed a little, I went back and changed a few things - as you do. Added a little low level detail - desecrated monastery bridge and cave, tree of light in Morgan vale. I have to revisit Qa river as it is not right. Land countours and sea are just there as fill - have to fix these.
I decided to go to a colour map which meant the mistakes I was covering up with a lack of colour had to be fixed 
Anyway - still low-res resampled image but you get the general idea. Idea is to use google map API and turn it into a zoom-able map with points of interest etc
http://i.imgur.com/LLUmH4e.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 11 2016 03:23 |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 04 2016 03:47 |
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Removed the images inserted in previous posts so it does not take 30mb to load this forum.
Also forgot to add Sarphyre's Court to top of Morgan Vale
http://i.imgur.com/eIrlUIR.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 11 2016 03:23 |
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| Author |
RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 11 2016 00:36 |
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Has been a week since I have posted - I have been working on and off on the map. Mostly just wandering the MUD trying to figure out exits etc to see if I can actually map it. So far, kinda so good - have not really run into much that defies the laws of physics.
I have basically mapped the entire top of AVATAR now.. sort of - have to add start of triumph river and will start moving south.
Still need to decide on coastline design, was going to freehand it all but this is a big map so I might go the easy route.
So this is the north eastern tip.. strangely enough I never thought of AVATAR as an island. But I found a reference to the sword coast in the north... so if I have seas to the north/south and east? you could almost say a big island.. dunno thoughts?
http://i.imgur.com/8symRUR.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 17 2016 09:37 |
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RE: Website |
Neyne
Member
Posts: 14
Joined: 28.01.07 |
| Posted on Jun 11 2016 02:14 |
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That's a pretty great map. What are you using to draw it? |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 11 2016 03:25 |
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Neyne wrote:
That's a pretty great map. What are you using to draw it?
Campaign Cartographer 3 by Profantasy - it is a great program once you get the hang of it |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 11 2016 03:29 |
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Soooo... what does AVATAR look like? based on my sketches I have mapped out the basic shape now. The islands are just placeholders - The shapes/size will probably change.
But so far...
Warning big map.. still terrible for zooming so I will have to go to google maps for this to work at any detail.
Rather than load this one in forums - it is 6Mb, follow the link if you want
http://imgur.com/q96eOJZ |
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RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 17 2016 09:32 |
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Latest update, after some minor set-backs via a PC crash having to redo a few areas not saved (damn windows!).
This is basically the starter areas and heading east to Midgaard. I have to do the tree of knowledge correctly - it was just an inserted bitmap I found. Gremlin island, needs an island and kingdom of willows needs a heap of willows (need to free hand them all)
http://i.imgur.com/eoByNkW.jpg
And more detail on the sword coast
http://i.imgur.com/Ilg6V7t.jpg
Edited by Lagmonsta on Jun 19 2016 03:52 |
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| Author |
RE: Website |
Lagmonsta
Member
Posts: 27
Location: Australia
Joined: 18.05.16 |
| Posted on Jun 19 2016 03:51 |
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Another Sunday down - more progress made. At the moment I can't do a full map at any great resolution it crashes the computer (16gb ram so no idea).
So I have been moving south east now, every thing still seems to be kind of fitting in to the basic sketch. I did Midgaard Country, Frontier outpost, Lake Triumph and the river triumph including tie in to Thrall swamp. Also covered off world tree, ascension wood, brother grimm (which was fun to add), house of quests, moss village.
Next - vineyard, great wall and maybe go back and fix some annoying things (the blue river and lake needs to change colour etc
I won't embed it since it was around 5Mb I think.
http://imgur.com/SmpSOYk |
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RE: great maps – and enthusiasm! |
laazarus
Member
Posts: 35
Joined: 21.12.07 |
| Posted on Aug 25 2016 03:28 |
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those are great maps, but even more i love to see the energy and desire to make things better (the website, recruit more people, etc).
i agree, avatar is pretty awesome!  |
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RE: Website |
Babble
Administrator
Posts: 2
Location: Scottsville, KY, USA
Joined: 20.08.11 |
| Posted on Oct 11 2016 13:04 |
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Not sure about "redesign" but a few more of us have rights now to post articles and are trying to keep the site looking fresh and more interesting - less dead looking.
I would invite anyone who has article ideas in mind or completed articles/announcements to please email them to me (avatarangelbabble@gmail.com) You could receive credit for a very lovely new news article on the front landing page!
Babble, the Chatty Immortal |
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RE: Website |
Quatsch
Member
Posts: 3
Location: NM
Joined: 27.02.10 |
| Posted on Apr 20 2017 01:15 |
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So... I realize this thread is over a year old but... Damn, Lagmonster! That shit looks awesome! I recently reconnected for the first time in awhile and am walking through trying to enjoy the quests and aspects of the game that I took for granted back when I used to play more profusely. Ive also been dabbling in coding (python), and watching Silicone Valley and it got me thinking about development. Hence me browsing here. Does anyone know where I can find more information about how the game was created, what language it's in, and if it's still being run out of Snikt's basement? Cheers to anyone who stumbles across this post! |
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RE: Website |
Kosmo
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: 06.11.07 |
| Posted on May 15 2017 03:28 |
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Map looks great! |
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