Painting the Wilderness

This involves editing an image which represents the various kinds of rooms we support in-game. It's 2,000 pixels high and 2,000 pixels wide (4 million pixels) and is around 12MiB uncompressed.

A special palette uses different colors to represent different room types. For example a certain shade of green could represent Grassy Hills while another shade of green could represent A Heavily Forested Wilderness.

Getting Started

1. Download the .
2. Open it in a paint program.
3. Download this which describes the current room types and their color value shown in RGB(red green blue).

Remember

• Never paint using colors with different RGB values than those described in the palette file.
• Do not move current linking points(R = 255, G = 255, B = 255).
• We would prefer that in general you add new islands to the map without modifying the existing ones. If you feel you have to change the current islands for some reason get in touch with other builders with an explanation of why, what and where you would like to do this.
• Remember to get the newest version of the palette once in a while so you are certain that you have the latest room types.
• Keep the new islands reasonably small, and try to vary the terrain a bit so we don't get huge patches of one room type (It is boring to walk around or fly over a wilderness that is just green). Look at the existing islands for inspiration.
• Do not modify or build anything too near the island in the top right corner. It is reserved for the Haven.
• Never save the image in a lossy image format like jpeg. Preferable save it in PNG.
• Remember teleport is random, therefore if the wilderness is full of small islands that it is impossible to walk to (deep ocean) then it is easy to get stuck if you are unlucky. So either space the islands far away from each other so nobody will accidently teleport to them, or make sure you can reach them by walking over bridges or using levitate to walk over shallow water.
• The further away from Talorien (coordinate 1000x1000y) an island is the more hostile wilderness monsters will inhabit it.
• When you would like to return the contribution contact senior staff along with a short description of what you added/changed.
• If you are using GIMP under Linux, then you can save the palette file directly into your ~/.gimp-*/palettes/ folder. Then when you start GIMP the palette will automatically load along with the default palettes.
• Try and keep the island you paint reasonably small the first time until it gets approved and you get the feel of how to paint the wilderness properly.
• Try and keep the complexity of the terrain down to some degree, while also trying to change it often enough not to bore players walking around in it. If it is too complex or too simple it can be very hard for a walking adventurer to navigate through it.

The Palette

GIMP Palette
# Wilderness -- GIMP Palette file
255 255 255     A Link
230 230 230     Arctic Wasteland  
180 180 180     Mountains 
200 200 200     Side Road 
102 102 102     A Fence               
127 0 127       A Wall     
255 0 255       Main Road
0 255 255       Shoreline  
0 127 127       Pond
0 0 255         Lake 
0 0 220         On the Ocean   
0 0 200         River 
0 0 127         Ocean     
130 127 0       Swamp
125 125 0       On the Moors
127 0 0         Barren Hills 
0 255 0         Forest 
0 200 0         Thorny Underbrush 
0 100 0         Forested Hills        
0 110 0         Grassy Hills          
0 115 0         Grasslands            
0 127 0         Jungle 
0 120 120       Stream                
0 0 0           A dense area of Trees
1 1 1           Upcropping of Rocks
2 2 2           A holy area
3 3 3           Main Pray Area
255 255 0       Beach or Desert 
250 250 250     Tradeshop
4 4 4           A Bridge
5 5 5           Chaos Waste
255 174 0       A Well Tended Grove
255 0 0         Lava River
250 0 0         Lava Sea
200 174 70      High Plaines

Writing the Wilderness

Each room type has an unlimited number of template room-descriptions attached to it. Whenever the game needs a room-type that has template rooms, it will choose randomly among it's templates.

For example, here you have the templates for An Imperial Road:

1. Stretching off into the distance, this road is wide and made from hard packed dirt. The road is well maintained and in amazingly good repair considering the centuries of travel that this road has seen. Small bushes and trees line the sides of the road providing shelter from harsh weather. Occasionally an out cropping of rocks offers a nice spot to sit and rest from long journeys.
2. The road runs through the surrounding countryside and crosses many small streams along the way. Shade is offered by the numerous trees that line the roadway. Weeds and patches of wildflowers cover the ground like a patchwork quilt. Rocks are set alongside the road to offer places of rest and an occasional water barrel offers a traveler a cool drink to quench his thirst.
3. The road here widens to allow almost three wagons to pass unhindered, and the ruts in the road show that this road is well traveled. Trees line along the road and many thick bushes and patches of wildflowers speckle the landscape. The skittering of small animals and the chirping of birds seems to come from all around you.

If the game needs an Imperial Road it will randomly choose description 1, 2 or 3. The more descriptions each room type has the more varied the wilderness appears.

Walk around in the wilderness, or check out the palette file above for the various room types and start writing. The room descriptions basically follows the same rules for room descriptions as described in the building areas page.

Each room also needs random "emote" messages that will fire now and then, like these entries used on the ocean description:

• Suddenly a huge spray gushes from a nearby whale surfacing for air.
• Huge swells create a deep valley covered with foam and mist.
• A swift pelican targets a fish nearby sending a salty spray across your path.
• Shadows of various shapes glide through the underwater abyss.

Remember this is a game of grim fantasy, so try and add some creepiness to the room descriptions without overdoing it. Especially the rarer room types that are mostly found far away from the heavy populated areas (Talorien etc) should have a touch of the grim taint of chaos corrupting the empire. Do not make them too long, nor too short, the size of the entries above is a good measure. Also please format the room descriptions properly using the /f editor format option on the game. This way it is faster and easier for Nocturnal to implement the new rooms.

We also need new and exciting room types, once again you can check the palette for existing ones, or walk around the wilderness. The room types we have now are sort of generic, but we need more specialized ones as well. For example the creepy forest surrounding a graveyard, a river of boiling blood, a warped and twisted oak forest etc.

Entries can be sent to any senior staff member.