Geologist's idea of using a crystal as a weapon got me the hankering for a map based inside of a geode, all dark and cramped, surrounded by gloriously colored crystalline structures.

All I ask is that someone make it for me.

Why not ask me? ;D

Edit: I've wanted to make a map with some crystals/rock stuff in it for a while now...if I come up with any good ideas I'll post 'em.

You need someone who is absolutely awesome at shading

Check out this sketch:

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This isn't to scale, and its not really representative of the layout or anything, but thats the basic layout. The crystals would cast their own "light" (the shading), and maybe black terrain with a black background would make for an interesting map.

Edit:I can't make it myself because none of the map-makers work on my PC. If someone made something compatible with the Windows 95 shell, then I would most certainly make it myself. I can, however, draw the sceneries. Don't let the sketch represent my drawing skills.

Could you look for/create a good crystal scenery for the center of the map? It's your map idea, but I think a picture of a real crystal or a big cluster of crystals would kick ass. I'm in the process of making your map from that drawing.

Yeah, I'll do my best to make some scenery or at least find some crystals for you. What you have so far looks awesome, I like it very much so.

Basically, I'm trying to capture the ambience of exploring a cave ripped from the pages of fantasy.. only, inside a geode. A world within a world, you might say. It just has an appeal I can't explain.

I'll see what I can do about that scenery, The Geologist.

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Does that look good? I'll edit it in a bit. Let me know if you like it.

I have the basic crystals drawn. I dunno how they'll look in the map maker, but they're pretty basic pixel art stuff, so they should look fine.

Would it help if I posted/sent some pictures?

Oh, I suppose it might help if I refreshed the page before editing. Does that look good? ^^^

Wow...that picture would make a good addition to the middle of the map. How did your drawn crystals look? If they look better than what can be made in the map maker (which is prolly the case) we should use those and color the map accordingly for each scenery (if that makes sense..).

They're somewhat small, about 25x25 pixels. They're simple, mono-color crystals that are "checkered", to look transparent. I.E, one pixel is colored, next is blank, etc.

I'll have a zip of them all, in red, blue, green and yellow varieties, in just a moment. Do you want me to edit the crystal above to make the background transparent too?

Edit: Here are the self-drawn crystals, Geologist. They're pretty quick and shoddy, but they're multifunctional and they can work at any angle.

Here you go!

That'd be good...I'm not sure about what you had in mind, but a good background scenery would make this map feel a lot more enclosed. And with a transparent background on that crystal it would be much easier to work into place.

Yeah, something dark and enclosed.. unfortunately, I am not any good at drawing anything large. I dunno what to do about the background, at the moment. I will, however, fix up that crystal for you. A moment if you will, kind sir.

Edit: Here you are. I left it in .bmp format so you can easily save it and put it to work.

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Alright..it's getting late over here, so I'm crashing for tonight. But here's what I've done so far. Also, I decided to go with one of the new textures from Grand Diablo (oldstone) because it kinda looks like the marks left when a rocksaw cuts open a geode. I also have an idea for the crystals...I took a screenshot so you can see how the .bmps you made look in game. They look good in some shots, but I'm not sure if they fit with the map...but this is still an idea in the works, so no worries. Here are a few screenshots.

Overview: I know there are some errors in the shading..I got tired/lazy :P...
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Standing in the crystals:
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Using that crystal as a center (this was taken after I made that overview shot...it's in the map now):
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It looks very nice, Geologist. I cannot thank you enough for doing this for me.

I will work on making some more crystal scenery, and I'll see if I can't find some small crystal to use, possibly as a replacement.

Either way, it looks great. Keep up the good work.

Better make that background darker eventually. Also, it might look better if you used polys for some larger crystals, since that scenery is pretty pixelated.

Mmh..or make some dark crystalish backgrounds..I'm astounded by what you 2 achieved from scratch, you make a good team :D

If you want, I could help with making scenery. I made this as an example of what I could do:
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(imageshack seems to convert bmp to png, so you'll have to convert it with irfanview or something)
I can make any type of crystal you want and any size you want.

Wow, thank you BManx2000, that looks a great deal better than the picture I had acquired. It seems like it will fit a lot better in the map, that's for sure.

I also agree with your thoughts on making the map darker. It will need to be fairly dark, in order to capture the better look of the crystals.

Polys would work for larger crystals, indeed. I just wish I could help more in the creation of this map. You're all too kind for helping me so.

I'll see if I can find a background image, maybe something along the lines of the inner hull of a geode.

Edit: I found some pretty interesting pictures, not all of them of real, live geodes either, but here's the gallery:

Geode Rendition

Several pictures of crystals and geode-related structures.

This would be cool if the seam weren't quite so obvious.

Amazing, how large these things can get.

That's all I have found in terms of good backgrounds and scenery so far. I'll see what I can do, however.

Yeah Bman...that crystal kicks ass. Put some more up, I might hafta put in the one your made and see if that works better. I like those pictures LL, using part of one of those or something similar could make for a great background. Here's my own shot at a simple crystal (made of polys):

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I like your poly-crystal, Geologist. It looks pretty damned nice. I imagine using polygons would make, uh, making the polygons hurt the player.. easier. Yeah.

Might want to stretch the texture on the polycrystal.

Good idea...I'm really messing around with this map. That could help out a bit in making these crystal polys look a little better. Of course, I'll have to do that after getting rid of the headache caused by your avatar ;D

I think that if the map were made a bit darker overall, and given either more or less detail to the background, it would be damned near complete. Play-testing it was awesome and it's a really fun map, especially for DM.

I like the map. Nice shading, good 3D look and i like the crystals idea it make the map real awesome. So i agree wit hyou and BMX, put a darker background. I suggest you to make stalagmites and stalactites, the map will look more realistic. Trust me, i know the underground world ;).

You should check out Zaraza's ctf_crystal, it has some really nice effects.

Yeah...I like the layout of the map, but something about it has been bugging me in a major way. I don't want to make this map and have it be an eyesore, y'know? I'm thinking about changing things around considerably, so stay tuned in the weeks to come for changes. You might just find a totally different map (in a good way).

I'll be glad to see the final product, Geo. I can't wait to see how it looks.