Semphetana: age in the sky

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Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby fyxa » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:45 pm

Just recently I got into age building, and thought of a great concept for an age. The age itself is five platforms suspended above the surface of a forested planet. Right now I am trying to add a journal along with some sketches into the age. I have already started the story line/journal:
O.K. here goes :)


This age is truely amazing, I'm standing atop a rocky platform situated a half mile above the forested surface of this strange planet I have come to call Semphetana. Or at least that is what our team could roughly translate from the strange lettering on the cover of the linking book. The writing is not even closely related to anything you would find in the D'ni language, even our best linguists could only guess what the letters were (if they were even letters).
Were still trying to figure out how the platforms are suspended in midair, especially accounting for their massive size.

Some of our team is trying to organize an expedition down to the surface by way of parachute. It's risky, we don't know what (or who) might be down there. Faint sounds of animals in the distance suggest a predator, so I'm not particularly exited to make touchdown on the surface, although it might help explain why the land down there is down there, and why the platforms are in the sky.

Still can't find which way is north, blasted compasses keep getting de-magnetized on link-in, which suggests a strong magnetic field in this age, perhaps caused by a ferro-magnetic core in the planet below, if only we had some compasses with stronger magnets for the needles...

There was smoke coming out of the forest! The plume wasn't far from the drop point we had decided for touchdown, we might reconsider the location now, there's no telling if the people down there are civilized, and an unfriendly run-in with the natives isn't exactly what we need right now.

We've done some soundings in the rock, and found it to have MASSIVE amounts of iron in it, especially in the center platform's base. As perposterous as it may seem to propose, these platforms might just be magnetic rock suspended in the neutral bouyancy point of Semphetana's magnetic field. Like how the two same ends of a magnet repel. But it's too early to jump to conclusions, we still have to run tests on the rock, which is proving harder and harder to get a sample of, it seems to be magneticly bonded to itself!

We've set up planks of wood as temporary bridges to each platform. Everyone has to carry a linking book when they go across though, godforbid the planks ever snap.

Tomorrow is t-day, the day we will parachute to the surface. I'm scared, not just of the jump, but what might be waiting for us down there when we hit the surface. The rest of the team is packing serious heat, but I have decided against it... The more innocent we look the better, for I do not know what the natives would think of a militaristic team marching into their camp.

We nearly lost the return linking book!! The wind blew us a mile off from our decided drop-zone, and we nearly go skewered by the trees, and our book got dropped from the uper canopy of the jungle. We recovered it, but not exactly in the best condition. This means we'll have to take another o e of our precious few return linking books with us on our next jump. The damp surface is rittled with moss and ferns, everywhere I look seems the same, moss and trees. Finding our way around is going to be very difficult.

Were not alone in this forest, on numerous occasions I've heard human whispers from far away in the distance, but how far can sound travel in a mossy forest?

I must be going mad, I keep seeing flashes of people walking through the forest.

That's what I have so far, just wanted to get some input on the idea, thanks for viewing! :)

Semphetana.JPG
This was before I added a sky
Semphetana.JPG (78.95 KiB) Viewed 6596 times


Semphetana with sky.JPG
Semphetana Concept
Semphetana with sky.JPG (72 KiB) Viewed 6596 times


(oh and p.s. I am going to replace the skydome image with just clouds (no ocean), and the forest with a more realistic texture to make it a "forested planet", and not a "forested island"... :)
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby Xindhus » Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:23 am

This looks really good! I'm looking forward to visiting already. One nitpicky point:
...I have come to call Semphetana. Or at least that is what our team could roughly translate from the strange lettering on the cover of the linking book. The writing is not even closely related to anything you would find in the D'ni language, even our best linguists could only guess what the letters were (if they were even letters).

How on earth can you tell what a written letter sounds like without a spoken version of the language?
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby Linger » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:38 am

Xindhus wrote:This looks really good! I'm looking forward to visiting already. One nitpicky point:
...I have come to call Semphetana. Or at least that is what our team could roughly translate from the strange lettering on the cover of the linking book. The writing is not even closely related to anything you would find in the D'ni language, even our best linguists could only guess what the letters were (if they were even letters).

How on earth can you tell what a written letter sounds like without a spoken version of the language?
As this age is under development, I'd say that this is a great point to retract from and expand into again (rewriting the information about an age when thing's don't quite equate happens a whole heap, so don't hold it in a negative light).

Keep developing this age, it's quite intriguing.
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby fyxa » Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:41 pm

Lol, whoops, guess you right. Gotta change that, when I wrote the journal I assumed that they would decode the language using frequency of symbols, but to never have heard the language off the bat would definitely make it difficult... :). As far as development is going I just re textured a lot of objects in the age to add realism. I've also added a desk with some sketches on it, right now my main problem is with AlcScript. I hav already started on a score for the music in the age, but my AlcScript doesn't seem to be working. But I'll get it!
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby griffinps3 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:12 pm

Thats a really good idea! I hope you don't mind but could you tell me how you got your floating rock masses to have there pointy underneeth. ive been working on an age with some floating to for a while. ( Probably since a little before december ) I really do enjoy the concept. By the way if you ever need a concept artist i could probably be avalable since i'm more focesed on blender the my concept art for Core at the moment.
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby fyxa » Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:38 pm

Thanks for the offer! and I'll keep it in mind. And I saw your age concept too, it looks like a really cool idea. I just fixed my age, for a while there it was crashing. So I completely re-modeled everything in the age from scratch, turns out this entire time the problem was with the legs of a desk on one of the floating platforms being joined objects! I have no clue why the legs of a desk would corrupt an age, but as soon as I deleted the legs of the table, the age continued to work. And I have had some more ideas on the storyline, hope to post an update soon. But I do have some new pics! So here they are:

S1.JPG
New Textures
S1.JPG (71.44 KiB) Viewed 6515 times


S2.JPG
Desk With No Legs (lol)
S2.JPG (87.22 KiB) Viewed 6515 times


S3.JPG
Semphetana from afar
S3.JPG (81.6 KiB) Viewed 6515 times



Oh and btw griffinps3, I get the pointy falloff effect on the platform's base by using the random falloff option in blender, just click the little gray circle on the left side of the 3D view window bar, and a list will pop up, chose "on", then a menu will appear to the right of it, choose the dropdown menu that has all of the falloff options (like root, smooth, sphere, linear, ect...) and choose random. When you go into edit mode and select a grid-plane (in my case a made a circular grid for the base of the platform), and what I did was select the centermost vertex of the grid. Then if you did all of that correctly, when you drag the vertex, you will get that cool pointy falloff effect which you can adjust by scrolling your clickwheel on your mouse. For more help if you want it, Jennifer's classroom is a great place to learn this: viewtopic.php?p=16062#p16062
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby Linger » Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:14 pm

Two points:
1. It's very orderly, don't you think a floating place like this would be at least a bit higgledy-piggledy?
2. Those planks of wood meant for moving between the platforms are absurdly long for their thickness.

Textures are certainly looking better though. :) Keep up the good work!
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby fyxa » Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:22 pm

Working on both of those. I'm already thinking of concepts for bridges inbetween platforms instead of the planks, and adding more floating platforms in the distance. Another idea that came to mind was to have the surface expand to the horizon to eliminate the mountaintop feeling, but I am still a beginner at blender (I only started two weeks ago, lol).
And I need some help with sounds, I keep fiddling around in AlcScript following the tutorials exactly for adding sound in my age, and nothing seems to work, but I will get it eventually I guess!
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby Linger » Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:44 am

I suggest having mountain cliffs obstruct the view at least partially, having such geology reach a higher altitude will give the impression that the platforms aren't so high.
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Re: Semphetana: age in the sky

Postby fyxa » Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:36 am

Working on a BIG update right now! Can't wait to get some pictures out, but to give you a rough idea:

1.) I have worked on the storyline some more (thanks for the constructive critisism!)

2.) The platforms are no longer in a square formation, and are now floating at different levels, all attached by rope bridges. Smaller platforms connect to a bigger platform with a giant tree growing out of the top. Hopefully I can get a balcony fixed on the tree accsesable by ladder.

Anyways, I hope to get some in game pics soon!
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