'Nazca Remains' concept & development thread

[docfo4r]

As requested, this is the place to discuss and share ideas for my track 'Nazca Remains'. I'll go back to the modeling work after my exams in the beginning of December and would like to gather lots of feedback and ideas from you guys. First posts in this thread are posts taken from other threads and merged into here, so don't wonder if the conversation flow appears to be corrupted. Let's just all collect some ideas:rock:rock

Here is the storyline for Nazca Remains:
While the 200 meters or more of large line-shaped symbols in the desert of Nazca have always fascinated archaeologists and scientists, the abandoned constructions and buildings mainly remained undiscovered until 2087. That year, an AG-Research establishment bought the whole piece of land for a very large amount. Their goal was to create a iconic racetrack while leaving the remains untouched. While a noble goal, it resulted in a very windy course of the track, and as large amounts of tourists were certain to damage the location, only video broadcast of the races was possible.

With such an outlandish proposition, the project's initial sponsors began to drop out after the circuit failed to make money, and the track was eventually left abandoned. But good ideas never completely go away, and after almost 100 years people are starting to view the circuit as an investment once again. With such a mystical and convoluted history behind both the track and the ruins themselves, the circuit has become iconic in the ARC-150 lineup, and while it hasn't been maintained in years, this seems to only increase the appeal.

In 2185, pilots are once again making their way back to the remains. The track is twisty and challenging, with landslides, collapsed sections and other wear and tear providing rude suprises for any inattentive pilot. Even if fans can't be there in person, the Nazca Remains ARC-150 Grand Prix will definitely be one of the headline events for the new age of AG racing.
Finalized: 30th September 2087
Location: Peru desert

A short video of messing around with the AI in the desert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKM0a2VQw2c&feature=youtu.be

[DDD113]

Hey again you guys. I know your Youtube video of Nazca Remains had a request for feedback, so here I am! First of all, I have to say that for the stage of development it is in, it looks really great. I love the red rock section, but my only comment there is that the tunnel would look more natural with a red rock floor as well, instead of the cracked ground, which is cool in the unpaved section. This way, it just looks more like a natural cave. The floor could have some texture to it so it was not just flat, which would add to the look too.

In addition, the metal sections of track (both types) just seem to hit me wrong. For some reason, they just feel out of place. I know the backstory on the track, and it is not supposed to look finished and well maintained, but I think re-texturing the track sections to look more like this. 8125. It still keeps that rough, unfinished look to it, but I just think that the style of the track would be better fit by the patchwork look, like when the track was originally built, they built the foundation, but did not surface it, so the metal is still raced on. You could also use this 8126 or another color variation on some sections of track, just for added flavor. Just providing the patchwork metal idea in general, you guys can play around with it if you like it. :) Overall, though, great progress, this track is coming along beautifully. :D

P.S. I made another sponsor concept on the Fan Contribution thread, and I was also wondering if iFreet had an official slogan yet, because if not, I have ideas... ;)

[docfo4r]

Hey DDD13,

you are absolutely right about being concerned about the textures. To be honest, I suck at texturing atm and am awaiting Xpands lessons. Lots of textures are going to be either changed or modified. The tunnel floor texture was just a quick thing to have "something" there, this cracked floor makes no sense at all :D Actually I dunno if I would keep this cracked floor, a salt plain on the open section but only where the track is is a bit strange to me. Xpand once favoured an more open sand section so I am thinking about changing this sand part to make it more "open". What do you think? This would go closer to Fatal Inertia then than to WipEout, but maybe it is a good contrast to the narrow tracks like Cassandra and I heard feedback where ppl "complain" about zero changes in narrowness of tracks, so this could be a nice contrast.

Your textures also look great and I'll definately go for something into this direction. Hey in case you can find and/or create seamless textures like those, you'd help me alot :) If you have any experiences in modeling or texturing you can also pm me ;)


HMMMMMM DDD13 you gave me a great vision now for Nazca. Guess I will redo the whole open sand section.

[DDD113]

I think it would be cool to have a more open section, kind of like the desert section on Temtesh Bay, but with a lighter color to match the rest of the circuit. I do still like the cracked sand texture for this section, and maybe you could have some rocks and pillars of sand as obstacles similar to Temtesh, that would make things very interesting, and iconic to the league. :) Unfortunately, I have no modeling/texturing knowledge (I really wish I did), I'm more of a 2D artist like TypeProton, but I'll be glad to help in any way I can! :D

[DDD113]

Hey, Kai, exactly what are your visions for the open sections of Nazca? Is it going to be really wide like the Temtesh section, or narrower? Also, will there be obstacles, and maybe a faster but more dangerous route, like a skillcut? :D :D :D Just wondering, I might do some sketches if I know exactly what you're looking for. :)

Also, PLEASE don't change the angled starting grid, I love that, it's so unique, especially being used to all the recent WipEout games where the starting grid was straight and flat, I love this idea! :D

[docfo4r]

Haha thanks :) Nope, I won't change the angled start grid and you nailed down the reason why I even made it ^^

Oh it would be wonderful if you can draw some concepts, I am struggling with the right idea for days and always push it back & program achievements in the meantime :D
My plans are that this big cliffside on the right will remain more or less, and serves as the right side track limit. But the sand part itself will be wider, so it deserves the name "open" section. So the left side will break into the desert a bit more. Have you seen that metal cliff support that keeps the stone from falling down on the track? I want to go wider exactly on this section already. So ppl can choose the comfy clean right way, or the skilled left route where they have to navigate between those metal posts.

My plan with this section all along was to place some remains and ruins from the old Nazca cultures there. I actually wanted to place em next to the track but with the sand section being very wide, it wouldn't hurt to place a few obstacles right into the driveable section. But only just a very few and small ones, can also be just rocks.

Finally, when you look at this imaginary image from the top, you will notice that staying left is always shorter. So I thought about placing a skillcut on the right section. Now, how to have a skillcut on a road which is longer than the default route? You'd have to give some opportunities for barrel rolls there, which don't exist on the left part of the track. Maybe even tiny slopes and hills, placed in a way that you could combine several rolls. This is the hardest part for me to come up with, cuz I also don't want to just place random hills there, they need to be more or less reasonable, nature-wise.
Btw I don't want to place any speed-/weaponpads there.

[docfo4r]

For everyone who wants to throw in some ideas for the open section of Nazca, here is a top-down view:
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http://imageshack.us/a/img809/340/6ncf.jpg

And here is my first idea:
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http://imageshack.us/a/img46/9461/7xqg.jpg

[DDD113]

Cool, thanks, that helps alot to be able to see what you're thinking about. Also, on the topic of track views, would it be possible at your convenience for you guys to make the top, side, and perspective wireframe track maps like the ones in WO1? I just think it's fascinating to look at the core design of the track, and see what it looks like in layout and elevation. I'm not asking for anything right away, just whenever you have the time, it would be cool. :D

And I will work on some open section concepts for Nazca as well when I get the chance. :)

Edit: I got a chance pretty fast! :D Here's my concept:

8193

To fill some of the space in the open section, I added a large crack in the Earth that unaware pilots could fall into. Also, I denoted a few buildings in ruin in 3 places around the track. These would be some small ancient buildings that are sinking into the ground and crumbling. You can move them about as you like, although I wouldn't add too many, or it will get crowded. The rest of the section including where the blue track line is (although that won't matter anymore) would be filled with boulders of different sizes and maybe a few large ancient construction stones that are sinking into the ground. There would be more of them along the left side of the crevasse, to make it riskier, and less (but still a good number) along the right side.

Then, for my tunnel-jump concept to work (which I will explain in a moment), the cliff would have to be extended and continue to overhang until the lefthand corner towards the end of the open section, and then continue to the apex of the hard righthander (making it a blind corner in the process :)). Then the tunnel, which would be made of stone like the red stone tunnel, except that tan color that the rest of the track is, would enter in the cliff and rise dramatically until it reached the top of the cliff and leveled out, which is where the line denotes that there is no more roof. The cliff itself would continue to hug the right side of the track until that final left corner on this map (I actually forgot to draw this part, oops! :P), and it would curve back off to the right. This extension of the cliff lets the track run along it for a short time until the cliff and track end together, creating a jump and BR opportunity back onto the main course.

Also, you will notice that the left side of the open section merges back into the blue layout earlier than in your preliminary design, and that is so there will be a chicane when coming off the main open part, slightly slowing it down and evening the time gap between the left track and the right skillcut.

Overall, I tried to keep your ideas similar to my design, and you can play around with them and ask me if you don't understand something in my explanation, because it would not surprise me! :P Just tell me your thoughts, and we can work toward a final design. You can also make a more final, fancy color-coded drawing too, I don't know how to do that like you. :D Anyway, hope you enjoy the concept!

[docfo4r]

Hey,

I really enjoy your concept over there. Having a large crack is something very interesting that I didn't think of before. If someone falls into it, he will get respawned but skilled people could use the edges of the crack to pull barrel rolls. I really like this concept. I also talked with Damian and the AI will be updated so they can race several paths or alternate routes.
I might not place so many stuff into the sand that really blocks you, but I think I place some stones there which might cause some turbulences when flying over it. Or the ground could have some cracks aswell, making the actual road a bit bumpy and harder to navigate.
Also I like your tunnel concept. You think you can complete the drawing over there?

The idea with the chicane on the left side where the open section merges back into the blue road is also a very good idea. I'd even increase this chicane a bit more.

So finally, I think I am going with this design of yours... The tunnel, the chicane and the large crack are great ideas. Only thing I'll change is that I don't place entities onto the road where you could crash into, but rather add cracks and stones and bumps to make a section difficult, and I will increase the chicane a liiiittle bit more. How's that?

[DDD113]

Sounds great, I like the idea of the bumps that won't stop you but maybe you could add a slight slowdown to add the challenge. I'll finish the tunnel soon, and I'll post it back here when it's done, but overall, I'm really excited to see how this turns out! :D

Edit: And the final tunnel plan is done! Even better, I made some concept drawings of the part of the skillcut where it is on top of the cliff and the tunnel itself. I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, I'm still playing with the scan settings on my printer, it doesn't seem to pick up shading well, so I just captured them with my camera for now :P

819581948196

The orange line is the cliff. It continues to overhang until you see it cross back over before the skillcut and then it hugs the side of the track until the skillcut ends, and it turns away into the distance. The shaded area of the skillcut is the tunnel, the white part is when it is on top of the cliff in the little trench illustrated in the above picture. The little brown line over the skillcut shows where the roof of the tunnel ends.

Also, the tunnel drawing (which I made hastily) is just a concept to show you that I think it would be cool if it was textured with little ridges of rock. It doesn't have to be really rough, but just have an uneven feel to it, since it is a cave. :)

Please tell me your comments and suggestions, if there are any changes/drawings you would like to see I can make them! :)

Edit Again: Do you think we should just create a separate thread for Nazca Remains Development? I don't know if this really fits in any existing thread, and it would clean up the SSGX forum, cause we have things scattered throughout multiple threads, maybe if a moderator would move all the posts into it for us, it would make it easier. I would love to keep coming up with ideas and concept art for this track even after we perfect this open section, I've really come to love it, just a very unique and very cool idea. :D

[docfo4r]

Seperate thread created as you can see :)

Well, what can I say about your ideas and sketches? I really love 'em alot. This skillcut road and also the tunnel looks very nice. In mid-December I could start modeling some stuff based on your drawings and we can check how it looks. I really like the looks of the skillcut, because if there are a few things left and right, like a cactus, bushes etc. it would make a stunning view, especially when you consider that you are more or less facing the sun with this direction :D

Do you think you could create a 3D-ish drawing of the big crack in the middle of the open section aswell? I think that I will not paste any fences or anything around it. Careless ppl or ppl that are unlucky to get pushed into that crack should fall a few meters and eventually experience a respawn. But skilled people could use the edges of the crack for a short dive-in-and-out to gain airtime for barrel rolls ;) Now how's that? :D

[DDD113]

Thanks for the thread Kai :)

I didn't realize the skillcut would be facing into the sun, that will be really cool, maybe have some sort of blinding effect when you come out of the tunnel? :D I'll try to make some sketches of the open section tonight, and I think it would be better without a fence, it adds more character to the track, and the chance for some pretty epic BRs, which is a great idea too. My favorite thought of it was last night when I imagined racing for the lead and Impulse blasting an opponent into the crack... now that would be satisfying! :D

Also another thought that just came to me, what do you think about maybe putting some rusty vertical stairways and ladders down the side of the crack? Then they could light up with work lights at night and give a really cool look to that section, with the light coming from where you don't want to go! ;)

Edit: Back again with concepts! (These ones are dark because I didn't write very hard, so they show up better in the dark.)

81978198

The crack is shown in one of these pictures with the cliff and track turn in the background, and a stairwell, ladder, and elevator in the crack itself (the work lights would be attached to these objects.) The other picture shows the objects that could be in the crack, 01 illustrates that if there were stairwells, they would look better with staggered lengths instead of uniform like in the original crack drawing, which was just a demonstration. 02 & 03 show the construction look to the stairwell. Then, 04 & 05 show a concept for an elevator, the construction of the elevator in the picture is really not relevant, I just put it in to give you an idea of what I am thinking of. Anyway, that's what I have right now for the crack, I might make a more detailed and colored drawing later, as our "Thanksgiving" break starts on Wednesday over here, and I will have more time then I had to make these, but we will see. Just tell me what you think, especially about the rusty work equipment, as these are just early concepts made in a short amount of time, and I would like to refine what I have and think of some new ideas, too. :)

Also on a sidenote your website seems to have reverted to the old version, therefore new players can't access the October demo, and I was wondering if there was another link to it.

[docfo4r]

Am short on time, so I will reply to everything Nazca-related later on. Just the website: Yeah, we made a server change just recently and the website returned to an older stage. It'll remain like this for some days though but we already working out a new concept with looks more appealing to the actual game and it will be COMPLETE! :D

[DDD113]

Cool, alright, thanks for the explanation, I can rest relieved. :) Also, this is offtopic much, but whenever you guys have the team/track logos ready, we could start thinking about t shirts, which would be cool to spread the word (and look badass!)

[docfo4r]

Yeah, I can think about some sort of blending effect. But I am not quite sure since on the daytime version the sand storm is also there :D
I didn't really think about how the inside of the crack is going to look. But to be honest, I don't want to make it too "complicated". From the track itself, you can't really look too deep into it and if you fall, you'll probably also don't have lots of time to "enjoy" the ambience :D So, am even thinking about leaving out everything human-related and save those poly's for models next to the track. What could be inside of that crack though are some broken pieces of old remains, so it won't be too empty [people anyways won't fall deep enough to see the ground - a reset must happen before or you will collide with the walls when you drove into the crack and bringing your forward speed with you].

But this rusty equipment and stuff... If you wanna draw something like this, you can think about stuff that can be placed on the abandoned astronomy basis. Like a water tank, a warehouse, floods, speakers, an observatory, more antennas, a crane near the railways for unloading train containers etc.
I am already having nightmares when I remind myself I still need to model all this :D

[DDD113]

Alright, I may work on some more concepts for the rusty stuff later, and still maybe a more detailed 3D crack view. The good thing is we have a lot of time to work on this, I'm sure we'll get there! :D

[docfo4r]

Hehe true. This track won't be finished any time soon and I also don't wanna rush it + personal stuff is in the way aswell atm. But it is good to have some plans to work with when I find some time. So keep on posting ideas, concepts, drawings [not only DDD13 but everyone can join in :D ].

[DDD113]

Here is my updated overview plan of the Nazca open section:

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As you can see, I added in the river as the inside barrier, which extends off into the desert both ways, running right next to the tunnel that then turns into the cliff overhang at the start of the open section, then forming the barrier, and finally continuing to run off into the distance. The crack itself has also been extended so that it is very close to the exit of the initial tunnel, forcing a quick choice of path and good pilot skills to navigate properly. It also extends long enough to make it impractical to take the left split and also the skillcut, which otherwise would be the fastest route. Since I know you want to make the ground rough throughout this section, you will have to be careful so you do not create a hill that can be used to jump the gap from the left split to the skillcut if a turbo is picked up by the player.

On the cliff overhang, although I didn't draw them, I still would use the support beams that are underneath it, though they may have to be slightly modified in position to avoid the start of the crack. Otherwise, you can see that the cliffside is the wall/barrier for the initial tunnel and the right splitway, while the river is the barrier for the left side. The skillcut tunnel would have rock walls like the concept drawing I made for it, and the open top section of the skillcut would still look like my concept for it, too. In addition, after the skillcut jump and the cliff and river split off, the track walls would be the same as the open top section of the skillcut, appearing very similar until it meets the road heading to the astronomy base. [Picture below]

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Finally, the river would be depressed into the desert a bit, like the start of a small canyon, with only a little bit of slow moving water in the bottom of it; I will make a simple drawing of this later. Anyway, I'm eager to hear your feedback and suggestions on this plan for the open section! :D

Cheers,

DDD113