Sewer scene advice needed.

[poc301]

Hello everyone.  I am working on a sewer portion of one of the areas in my game.  It is in medieval time, and you are playing as the thief character of the group sneaking through the sewers (where the thief guild is located) and avoiding the members of your former guild (you have a death warrant out for you).

So with that in mind, I need some advice on making this background more 'entertaining'.  I don't know, it is just sort of missing something...  Maybe some barrels or crates or something... I dunno.

LEGEND :

BOX : Where the thief guild lookout will be.
ARROWS : The path to safely avoid being spotted by the lookout.
X : Where you enter the screen.




Thanks!

Bill

[Pod]

The lighting is very......odd.
Also, for a sewer, it's damned wide. Do you have a fullbright render?
Where is the roof?

[Babar]

the sewer looks kind of advanced for a medieval game...I was under the impression they just did their stuff down a hole back then...or just dug up a gutter to the nearest stream. I doubt it was that elaborate...though I could be wrong

[Pod]

Well, most medieval people did do that. The romans built London a nice sewer system, thought it started to give people cholera before it got changed

[Abulafia]

While most medieval peasants would have just went in a hole the major European cities developed something akin to a sewer. Typically, waste was carried away on small waterways. These were simply covered over with brickwork and functioned as sewers.

So, with respect to your picture, you could thin the waterway down to about the width of two people. The flaming torches seems silly - maybe use lights from cracks in overhead brickwork. Incidentally, your brickwork seems to modern too. The bricks are all quite even. The hole in the photograph below is a ruin of a medieval sewer. Notice how thin the hollow is.



Consider condensing the image to make it seem more claustrophic. An example would be Misja's tent at Bimini - a preliminary sketch can be viewed here.

Also, rats are always a nice bet for a sewer. 

[poc301]

As always, excellent criticism guys, thanks.

Pod : The roof wasn't made when I did that picture.  It is rounded and kind of oval.  No fullbright render.  Lighting ambiance is important here.  Plus, no need to see the jagged curves in the walls

Babar, Pod and Abulafia:  The sewer system in question is under the capital city of the realm.  It is a big city, almost a 'medieval metropolous' if you will.

Abulafia: I really like the idea of condensing the image to make it claustrophobic.  Sounds like a good idea.  I will be re-doing the screens I've already done now

Thanks!

Bill

[InCreator]

This scene, despite it's stylishness, is hard to understand.
What's these volume lights up on the...   ....ceiling?
Why are ...torches? Lighting up so little of this wall the're attached to, but a big area on water?
How do medieval people make so almost-neon red light?

You definelty have to give some more light to this room. Low ambient perhaps?

[Pod]

Babar, Pod and Abulafia: The sewer system in question is under the capital city of the realm. It is a big city, almost a 'medieval metropolous' if you will.

Take a look at London's Sewer system then. Both modern and old.

[Abulafia]

Medieval London Sewer:

Sewer means "seaward" in Old English. London's sewers were open ditches sloped slightly to drain human wastes toward the River Thames, and ultimately into the sea. Sewer ditches quickly filled with garbage and human wastes, which overflowed onto streets, into houses and marketplaces throughout London.
Ã,  Ã,  By the late 1500s, King Henry VIII wrote an edict which made each householder responsible for clearing the sewer passing by their dwelling.
Ã,  Ã, The King also created a special Commission of Sewers to enforce these rules. However, no money was provided to pay its members. Therefore, the Commission was not installed until 1622, when it was decided that fines for non-compliance could be used to fund its activities.

So we're already in the Renaissance period before anything was being done about this metropolis' sewers.

I think the big objection here is that you have said medieval sewer when you obviously mean a medieval style sewer in a fantasy world. If this is the case, the brickwork needs to be made uneven, and the lighting sorted. Crap floating in the sewer - more crap than water, really - would help it look like a sewer too rather than an underground canal.

[poc301]

This scene, despite it's stylishness, is hard to understand.
What's these volume lights up on the...Ã,  Ã, ....ceiling?

Thats a reflection. Ã, I will need to turn the reflectivity down.

Why are ...torches? Lighting up so little of this wall the're attached to, but a big area on water?

The water reflects more than brick.

How do medieval people make so almost-neon red light?

Its a torch light. Ã, It flickers orange/red, that screen is just one of the screens.

You definelty have to give some more light to this room. Low ambient perhaps?

Probably a good idea, thanks.

Bill

[poc301-guest]

Medieval London Sewer:

Sewer means "seaward" in Old English. London's sewers were open ditches sloped slightly to drain human wastes toward the River Thames, and ultimately into the sea. Sewer ditches quickly filled with garbage and human wastes, which overflowed onto streets, into houses and marketplaces throughout London.
Ã,  Ã,  By the late 1500s, King Henry VIII wrote an edict which made each householder responsible for clearing the sewer passing by their dwelling.
Ã,  Ã, The King also created a special Commission of Sewers to enforce these rules. However, no money was provided to pay its members. Therefore, the Commission was not installed until 1622, when it was decided that fines for non-compliance could be used to fund its activities.

So we're already in the Renaissance period before anything was being done about this metropolis' sewers.

I think the big objection here is that you have said medieval sewer when you obviously mean a medieval style sewer in a fantasy world. If this is the case, the brickwork needs to be made uneven, and the lighting sorted. Crap floating in the sewer - more crap than water, really - would help it look like a sewer too rather than an underground canal.

I will change the lighting around.

As for the sewer system, I believe I will add some 'stuff' to the water. Ã, Keep in mind this is not earth. Ã, Also keep in mind it is medieval-esque times, but there is also some technology present. Ã, They have electric lights, and very basic technology. Ã, So its not quite the same as human era medievalism

Bill

[Andail]

  They have electric lights, and very basic technology.  So its not quite the same as human era medievalism

not quite

I think the overall scene is a bit boring, truthfully...instead of real details, there are these fancy reflections which just reminds me of cheap 3-d software tricks.
Poorly modeled 3D is in my humble opinion much much worse than poorly drawn 2D, and I think most artsies will agree with that...