Digital Nightfall on 22/1/2009 at 06:54

---

http://www.digital-nightfall.com/THC_2.jpg

I was unable to intelligently assimilate the posts here for most of the day. Damn brain has a mind of its own. :tsktsk:

Very slight update, but shown because it's probably not going to change much after this (except the tower tops, but I will deal with that when I do the interiors of the towers). The towers (they're not actully towers, just look like it...) are a bit wider, (they were too tight in-game, weren't they?) and I redid the two meshes at the entryway from scratch (I made them when I was still trying to figure out how to do it). I spent most of the day prepping the interior space for occupation, and trying to reconcile the front room with the way I designed the entryway. That's done. No screenshot of the front room unless someone insists... it's not much to look at. As with the original, I kept it a tiny, cramped space, more designed to intimidate the player in a horror setting rather than present a religious significance, though we can choose to see the latter if we wish.

Going backwards...

Beleg, I think that the "Haunted" aspect of this particular cathedral may be overpowering me when it comes to design choices... just a little. :)

dema, I am really tempted to steal all or most of your ideas, but at he moment I am not sure how to do so other than to write a character into my story waxing philosophical about the Hammerites. I like the idea of the columns being more important than the space between them. One thing I definitely set out to do with this is change the focus from an upwards to more of central or downwards focus, though I am not sure if I got there with this design, since it's heavily inspired by THC which is still heavily inspired by "a church".

Javis, one reason why Christian churches, especially during the Gothic period, were so decorated, was because the people were illiterate. So rather than teach everyone to read the bible, the buildings themselves presented the stories in stone, not really so that someone could look at it and "get it" all, but to provide reminders and visual aids. I don't see the Hammerites as doing that. They don't seem to have a Bible per say, and even the books they have don't seem to be required reading for anyone outside of the order. They're more concerned with obedience than salvation... in fact there's no reason to think that salvation has any meaning to the Hammerites.

As for the entrance, the thing that's making me want to change it the most is ... where do you put the four talismans? :laff:

jtr7 on 22/1/2009 at 08:18

---

Not suggesting anything. Thinking aloud from demagogue's post. Just STUFF.

Mount Olympus, Greek. Pyramids, Egyptian. Temple of N'Lahotep, Precursors. Sunken Citadel, Kurshok.
"...And the manfools piled rock on rocks, and raised a treesie roof. Hammers saws tear the skin of goodsie wood...And laughs at the Woodsie Lord."

"Fire rains upon us from the sky. At the Temple of N'Lahotep, four hallowed geldings were offered to appease the acrimonious earth. The sanguine overture has done nothing to pacify her."
"The Guild must protect what we can, by whatever magical and mundane means we posses. The tower must not fall."
"The ground gape..."
"The Leaf Lord opened the earth and banished us beneath it. Here we dwell forever with no lord or ally, no sun or moon, no rain or wind. The Leaf Lord reached out for the gift he had given us."

The Maw goes down down down under ground. Judgment and folly send man and beast down down down underground. The Hammers defy that and build upward, pulling stone from the ground for their sub-levels, and stacking it up for the main structures. Wallbuilders. Temples. Cathedrals. Even the underground structures involve upward-reaching towers as in the Bonehoard. The catacombs and lower levels of nearly all Hammer structures are rife with abhorrent undead, attributed by Hammers as being of the Trickster.

"Builds your roofs of dead wood. Builds your walls of dead stone. Builds your dreams of dead thoughts. Comes crying laughing singing back to life, takes what you steal, and pulls the skin from your dead bones shrieking. --Clay Tablet in an Abandoned Trickster Temple" ^--Hammer Haunts?

Tower of Babel.

Not reaching up to God, but moving away from the lord of the underworld. Building upward. Upward, and building. The Cathedral is on a hilltop, and remained relatively untouched by the quake that overturned whole buildings down and to the west of the hill. Or, if it wasn't a quake, the foundations were not built for the saturated ground, or something. Removing the lumber trees from all around, pushing the boundaries of the forest away.

"The Master Builder doth surely gaze favorably upon our crusade to subjugate the wild forces of nature with tools built in His name. Here in this tower, with these optic machines, I have learned much about the movements of the lights the Builder hast set above. The divine power of the moon and stars hath been focused into a pool of water, which I name the Lunar Pool."

The only mention of the word "Heaven" in the context of Hammerites, or even the concept of God in a heavenly setting, comes from the TDP promo site:
"I stood before a tower, of planks and nails and stone carved with fire, and I said, 'surely my eyes behold a miracle, not meant for man,' but the Builder smiled and spake, 'I stand with my mind in Heaven but my feet upon the Earth, and so shall you and your kin.' And I wept, though I knew not why."
- The Book of the Hammer

Pagans and Hammers have similar ancestry. Separate from that, maybe, Cavador calls the Precursors "Ancestors" with a capital "A", though that may mean nothing to anyone but himself. Hammers consider the Earth unclean and much of what comes from it, requiring the burning off of impurities. Ore, stone, wooden beams--all of the earth.

"In the beginning we lived as thieves, stealing fur and fang of beasts for survival. Then came the Builder who brought us the Hammer, and with it we forged a new way of life. To reject the Hammer is to denounce the Builder. --The Hammer Book of Tenets"

clearing on 22/1/2009 at 11:34

---

:wot: Wow!

clearing on 22/1/2009 at 12:11

---

I tried 3ds max... its very hard for me.

David on 27/1/2009 at 19:47

---

I mean to post before we went down, but Dan showed me some more screenshots during the downtime, and it's all coming along very nicely! :D