Fall Forest Ruins, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

Hey Adepts & Experts! I'm pretty pumped about this alt version of the map as I think it came out super well, and it helps that I love fall. You guys can probably tell that I can't decide on a good way to pick fall colors since every time I try it looks completely different. I like this one, but give me a week and I'll dislike it too, haha. 

Anywho, let's talk about my thoughts as I made this one!

1. As I mentioned in the regular post for this map, I wanted to make a map with a similar feel to the Ayleid ruins from Oblivion (thanks for the suggestion, Baerin!). After some googlin' I felt the ruins' themes are: circular structures, staircases, and many freestanding walls and columns, typically in a forest environment. I chose to really focus on the 'circular' design space like how this gives the feeling of an arena while being dramatic as all get out, and on top of that, the concentric circles offer some interesting paths to play around with while doubling as excellent cover.

After the rough sketch phase, I felt that the map could only be improved by more trees, which are mostly set-pieces but also give the map a feeling of intricacy. I think the only other major change after this step was the staircase, which got more straight lines rather than curves. Curved lines in architecture give a sense of opulence which wasn't what I was going for, while segmented straight lines have more ancient vibes (I think so at least). 

2. Ok ok ok, yes, I did snatch a number of elements from old maps to make this one, don't shoot me. My wife and I started working out this week for the first time since high school gym class and the two of us are achy and sleepy wrecks. This isn't a great excuse because you pay me for primo maps no matter how sleepy I am, so know I'll be back to my usual minimal corner-cutting ways next week. For the curious: the trees and grass lines came from the forest clearing, the rocks, bushes, and ledges came from the forest stream, and the ruins are fresh props. 

3. I wanted to make sure that this week's map meshed well with the forest clearing map from a couple of weeks back, which turned out to be somewhat more difficult than I thought. I usually eyeball my colors and effects, so trying to replicate another map of mine was actually surprisingly difficult even when color-picking directly from the PSD. The problem is that I layer so many effects on my maps that each map comes together differently than the last, which is entirely my fault for being so scatterbrained. I think they look pretty similar though, so I'm sure they will lead into each other perfectly well!

The only other color choice of interest here is the ruins, which I decided to make a nice pale gray, hopefully giving a feeling of bleached stone like the Ayleid ruins they're based on.