Elvish Treehouse Proposal

[Eleazar]

This is pretty tough to get right.

I think you need to take a step back and look at the entire tile. You have a lot of small parts and details, but they aren't all working together to create a unified image. Too many small chunks of foliage for instance.

[lurker]

This is pretty tough to get right.

Indeed The hardest terrain I have tried so far. Constructive criticism is much appreciated.

I think you need to take a step back and look at the entire tile. You have a lot of small parts and details, but they aren't all working together to create a unified image. Too many small chunks of foliage for instance.

Hm, yes, I run into that trap a lot with these houses (see below for a possible reason why). I have already pretty much dismissed the leftmost variant for that reason. I have the feeling - but you may disagree - that at least the middle one works somewhat ok, but perhaps you have in mind a different concept entirely.

I personally think that the tree houses are a great concept to be designing and it may be
a good idea to look at the 'lord of the rings' tree homes of elves to see if such improvements
to the designs can be made.

From the very beginning I had the description and general feel of Lothlorien (from the book, can't remember how it looked in the film) in mind. That's why I did not make the houses from wood, added big platforms, and generally tried to give them a very upper class look. I wanted them the be the kind of houses an elf would choose if he could afford it, with regular houses used only if no suitable tree is available. That too is quite hard, since a lot of detail of the tree and of the house have to be shown in a very limited space.

[Eleazar]

I don't have a concept in mind, and as mentioned elsewhere i'm not entirely sure any concept will really work in the space available. I know that's not very helpful, but i can't tell you exactly how to make something that works. I can just point out what i see that is and isn't' working.

It's great to have a lot of ideas for the detailing, but they don't all need to appear in the same image. Scatter them through the variations .

[lurker]

The problem seems to be that the forest has a different scale than the villages. I have not completely given up yet. But, to be honest, I am not so confident as before, so if somebody could move the thread to the workshop, that would be fine.

Anyway, new concept. I am going for full immersion into a larger forest new, not for singleton trees on a glade. First step was to copy the current forest good enough not to stick out too much.

step1.png (148.83 KiB) Viewed 6995 times

Second step was to make some bigger trees and to add a small part of the treehouse. Just enough of it to be discenible.Ok, I am cheating somewhat, I want to show as little of the house as possible, hoping the scale mismatch is less visible this way.

Greetings

Lurker

[enchilado]

It looks like a tower in the forest rather than a treehouse because you can't see anything below the top room. Also the top tree touches the front of the roof, but if it's growing out of the house it should emerge from somewhere closer to the centre, shouldn't it?

The trees in front of the house seem somewhat blurrier than the others, too, and they have less dark patches.

[artisticdude]

Second step was to make some bigger trees and to add a small part of the treehouse. Just enough of it to be discenible.Ok, I am cheating somewhat, I want to show as little of the house as possible, hoping the scale mismatch is less visible this way.

The scale issue is less visible, yes, but so is the fact that it's a treehouse. At first I thought it was just a standard on-the-ground house that happened to have a thick clump of trees in front of it. Given that it blends in so well with the other trees, it might also be easy for the player to miss the village altogether.

Honestly, I think the only option here is to go with a house in a single, larger-than-normal tree. But I dunno, maybe I'm being too nitpicky...

[lurker]

@enchilado: Yes, the trees were blurry, replaced them
@artisticdude: Made the house brighter, and gave it a big shadow. I should be easier to see now, and perhaps the shadow strengthens the notion of it being bigger/higher up.

You are both right, it could very well be a tower. But the single big tree option led to nothing. And all of the trials I have seen so far - including mine - feel massively wrong near regular forest.

tower.png (174.3 KiB) Viewed 6802 times

[zookeeper]

And all of the trials I have seen so far - including mine - feel massively wrong near regular forest.

If you think it might help, we can always make forests next to tree villages use the "sparse" tiles instead of the regular dense ones. Just a thought.

[Eleazar]

Also feel free to produce a "house closely associated with the surrounding trees, that belongs in the forest",
rather than a "house actually up in the trees".

Either one could fulfill the role of a logical place for forest elves to live, but the first might be easier.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Sorry to bump this, but is there any chance of getting a version of this which I could try out in the editor?

[lurker]

Sorry to bump this, but is there any chance of getting a version of this which I could try out in the editor?

Sure. WML to be supplied by yourself, sorry.

Greetings

Lurker

[Crow_T]

To me, it just needs more contrast/color range. Otherwise it's a cool concept.

[beetlenaut]

To me, the tree on the top looks like a conifer laying on the roof with the tip facing us. I doubt that was the intent.