Tag Archives: fantasy

Landmark: Build Two in Pictures

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I’m still logging into Landmark now and then, though I have been pretty heavily distracted by other things (the main one rhymes with Morecraft). I did, however, finally get around to finishing my second, much more ambitious build. I actually wanted to blog about it sooner, but, again, distracted.

I think this is a case where a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me take you on a visual tour of the construction of the Vale of Whispers.

My initial plan had been to find a nice mountain valley and then tunnel into the surrounding cliffs, but I couldn’t find a valley that was the right size or shape, so eventually I threw up my hands and declared, “Screw it, I’ll build my own valley! With blackjack! And hookers!”

So I claimed a good chunk of a mountain and set to digging. Carving out a valley didn’t take too long…The early days of my second build in Landmark

The early days of my second build in Landmark…But smoothing it and terraforming it to look natural became a pretty huge ordeal. I think it wound up being something like three or four hours of nothing but smoothing and tweaking the terrain. I did it in bits and pieces over several days, but even so, it was exhausting.

Once that ordeal was finally finished, the time came to start painting the terrain.

The base terrain of my second build in LandmarkBy this point I had already spent many hours on build two, and I had only reached the point my first build had started from — a blank slate of terrain.

An unfinished version of my second build in LandmarkThe next big task was to begin carving out a system of tunnels, which would house an academy of arcane study.

Carving out the tunnels in my second Landmark build

When you don't have a ruler, you make do.

My method of measuring so the pillars would all be even with each other.

Stairs suck, let me tell you. You have to take it one step at a time — literally. I couldn’t copy and paste because I was digging into the native terrain rather than building something new. Maybe I should have just hollowed out the whole mountain and built the tunnels from scratch, but I’m not sure that would have been any less work in the end.

I thought I had some screenshots of my building the many stairways, but apparently not. So much the better — I’d rather burn the whole experience from my mind.

I did end up cheating and using teleporters in some places.

A teleport in my second buildWith the valley built, the basic terrain established, and the tunnels dug, I could finally turn my attention to the fun part: Making it pretty.

The finished tunnels in my second Landmark buildI added woods…

The trees in my second build in Landmark…Ancient ruins…

Constructing "Stonehenge" in my second Landmark build…And balconies.

The balconies of my second Landmark buildAnd I populated the tunnels with ritual chambers…

A dark ritual in my second Landmark build…Shrines…

A shrine in my second Landmark buid…Workshops…

A workshop in my second Landmark build…Living Quarters…

Living quarters in my second Landmark build…And more.

The observatory in my second Landmark build

Unlike my first build, the NPCs in Vale of Whispers are friendly. Mostly.

My second Landmark buildNow, at last, the whole thing is finished. I think I did bite off more than I could chew to some extent with such an ambitious build, and it was pretty exhausting after a while, but I am happy with the results.

My second Landmark buildThe Vale of Whispers turned out to match my original vision incredibly well. That’s one thing I can definitely say for Landmark: If you can imagine it, you can make it.

And I think it’s quite pretty, if I do say so myself.

My second Landmark build, viewed from a distanceIf you’re a Landmark player, I welcome you to visit. Look up Vale of Whispers in the gallery or walk down to the southern fjord on Lonely Glacier (Serenity).

Admiring my handiwork in LandmarkAnd don’t forget to check out my first build, as well: Maigraith’s Grove, just southeast of the spire on Silver Shallows (Serenity).

TSW’s Hide and Shriek Seems Underwhelming

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We have at last gotten an official announcement for The Secret World’s second spin-off, and huge TSW fan that I am, I should be over the moon about it… but I’m not.

A screenshot from Hide and Shriek, the new spin-off of The Secret WorldThe new game is Hide and Shriek, a 1v1 PvP game where players attempt to literally scare each other to death with various traps and surprises.

I can’t help but see this all as a waste of potential. If you ask people what makes TSW special, I really don’t think a lot of people are going to answer, “PvP,” and those that do would cite the build system as the reason for that, and Hide and Shriek won’t have that.

The appeal of The Secret World is its story and ambiance, and it seems like Hide and Shriek won’t have either. It’s still horror in a sense, but it’s horror based entirely on cheap jump scares, and the whole reason I admire TSW’s take on horror is that it doesn’t lean on cheap scares.

When I heard they were doing another spin-off, I was overjoyed, because I thought we’d be getting something like The Park — something to expand the story of the universe. The Park was an amazing experience. But instead we’re getting something closer to a TSW version of Overwatch — a mindless competitive arena that has only a tangential relationship to its own backstory.

I don’t even see it being a good marketing tool for TSW because they’re such different games. Despite the obvious mechanical differences between a combat-focused MMORPG and a combat-free walking simulator, The Park still ended up feeling a lot like TSW. If you played The Park before trying TSW, you’d find a lot that’s familiar to you in the style of story-telling and overall feel.

I can’t see that being the case for Hide and Shriek. If someone played Hide and Shriek and then tried TSW, I think they’d just be confused by how different they are. An intentionally cheesy, jump scare based PvP arena versus a subtle, ambient PvE RPG.

I’ve generally been of the opinion I’d be willing to throw money at anything with the TSW name, but that theory is about to put to the ultimate test, I think.

The only possible silver lining here is if they do a tie-in mission like they did for The Park. Given Hide and Shriek apparently uses Innsmouth Academy as one of its settings, this could be an excuse for new Innsmouth content in TSW. And that is always a good thing.