The McDohl residence makes my brain hurt...

[rewinged]

I've been working on something (a secret I hope I can reveal whenever it's complete) that involves me making sense of the strange shapes of the nonsensical buildings in Suikoden 1. What I'm referring to is this:

http://vgmaps.com/Atlas/PSX/Suikoden-Gr ... Start).png

The shape of the building from the outside looks like a square with the four 'tower' looking rounded shapes sitting in the corners. There's a step leaking to the front door and the building is on a raised foundation. (also note how the front door is 1.5 storeys high). If you look at the interior pictures, the bottom floor's bottom two corners are on much more of an angle than the top two, there's no foundation, no step and the top-most wall doesn't indent in the middle like the bottom-most wall does. Take the stairs just before the hallway up and you will notice they take you right up against the south-most wall somehow. All four corners are pretty even on this floor and there's suddenly an indentation on the top-most wall.

I know this seems like a strange complaint, but it's not a complaint at all. It works for a game like suikoden as the scale of things changes between the world map, the town map and the interiors. I'm just wondering how best to approach this if I was 'creating' this house. Should the stairs be moved south more so they don't lead upstairs and right into the dining room wall? Should the northern indentation be removed or placed onto the first floor too to match the shape (Poor Pahn will have an even smaller room ) Also what are with the windows? They look like iron bars, do you think they are actually glass panes windows? What lighting would the house use, just candles like seen in the dining room? Should the chimney extend down through the dining room in the corner to above the stove?
I'm also curious about the exterior. What are those looping golden parts along the top, perhaps just an ornamental pattern? And on the second floor exterior, the parts on the far left and right of the wall, are they windows? The right ones look like windows but the left almost look like banners.

Anyways sorry for the strange questions, I'm just curious to see if anyone else has suggestions for me. I obviously want what I'm creating to look as authentic to the game as possible, but I have to make the exterior and interior together which is where the main problem lies...

Then again I'm sure it's not as big of a problem as the drainage issues they must have in the centre of their roof

Haha thanks and sorry for the weirdness of the questions again. Feel free to move this if it belongs elsewhere!

[Antimatzist]

I'm not sure I got all your questions, but:

The windows ar eprobably glassed + iron bars. This is not really uncommonr for medieval to premodern houses. Thes ethings on the far left and right are probably windows, but it's just not reflected in the interior.

About the lighting, probably none? Just some torches. I'd say the chimney goes from the kitchen directly outside, so you shouldn't see it in the dining room.

The gold ornaments are maybe to drive away doves? Stability? It looks pretty?

I don't think any RPG ever created realistic houses. Look at the door of the McDohl mansion, it should extend to the second floor judging from the exterior.

Milich's mansion is even weirder, the first floor is way smaller than the ground floor.

[rewinged]

Thanks a bunch for your inputs. It's always hard explaining questions like these, especially when English isn't my native tongue. I'll try and show off some of what I've been working on in the next week or so. I imagine roleplayers will like it at least. Thanks!

[sticky-runes]

Did you try looking at the version from suikpden 2? It might have better details to work from. I wouldn't bother trying to make it too much like the game, though. Try looking at real world historical mansions that have a somewhat similar layout to the McDohl residence and work from real plans and photographs rather than maps of an old top down rpg with very simple graphics.

[rewinged]

Yeah that's a good point. I'll try searching for some good reference photos. And I noticed the buildings look more detailed in Suikoden 2, especially with the amount of clutter and random objects around

[KFCrispy]

i'm thinking the top floor could be "upsidedown" on the maps... on the lower floor the map is oriented "normally" with N on top, S on the bottom.. the upper floor could be flipped with N on the bottom, S on top. of course that doesn't explain everything, but the stairs make a little more sense this way. XD

i made comments about Toran castle's crazy layout a long time ago...

[wataru14]

I can live with the McDohl Mansion being like it is. The stairs not lining up in the HQ really makes my brain hurt.

[BrucePrintscreen]

Ohoho, someone is making is own Suikoden fanmade game

Seriously, one thing that always bothered me in RPGs is that their houses never have any toilet or bathroom... Where do they pee in the McDohl mansion? That bucket in the kitchen?

[sticky-runes]

I thought it strange that Cleo locks her diary, but she doesn't lock her bedroom door...

[Mg_Salad]

When you think about it, almost every 2D JRPG has crazy home architecture. Earthbound (and Mother 1 preceding it) is especially crazy with proportions.

Either way, I love the idea of recreating the environments of Suikoden in a new way, so I hope your project is coming along nicely!

[rewinged]

I'm making some progress, that's for sure! I suppose I can reveal a little of what I'm doing...
I noticed there was a lack of 3D art based on the Suikoden games so I've taken it upon myself to use the skills I'm developing in my course (Degree in Professional Game Development - specialising in 3D art and animation) and to 'practice those skills on some Suikoden scenes. At first I just wanted to make a few locations and perhaps make a video, but now the plan is to try and build Gregminster in modern graphics. I'll be importing the models into Unreal Engine 4 and releasing new builds whenever new areas or things are added. The first build will probably be in a few weeks and will likely be unpopulated and first person, just for exploring. The next step will be modeling some of the main characters and adding the ability to play in 3rd person or top-down. The next step will be basic multiplay functionality so roleplayers can act out scenes and stories in Gregminster as their favourite characters together.
I'm not sure how far I'll take it as it's more of an experiment and just to help strengthen the skills I learn, but if it's something that can be enjoyed by other Suikoden fans then that will make me happy

Just out of curiosity, once I've done all of Gregminster, should I do the surrounding landscape, in an open world style that allows you to travel to Rockland and other areas? Or should I just focus on some other towns that would be good for roleplaying, such as Muse perhaps, or the HQ in Suikoden 2?

Thanks again for the tips. I ended up speeding through S2 to the point where you go to Gregminster and it's much more populated and the buildings make a bit more sense. Here's the first floor of the McDohl mansion I took from screenshots in s2:



Much better!

[sticky-runes]

Don't forget there are walls we can't see in the 2d version, so you might want to add your own shelves and pictures and things to fill it up.

If you're going to recreate environments beyond the McDohl House and Gregminster, I think you should move onto something dramatically different, as you might get bored making city environments. So maybe do a country village like Kaku or the Warrior's Village, or a natural environment like one of the mountain trails.

[rewinged]

Yeah, once I get to modeling props I'll definitely add some extra decorations around on the walls you can't usually see.
I have the base shape of the building done as well as areas where the doors will be. I'm away for the weekend but hopefully on Sunday night I can do the areas where windows will be. Then it will be time for detailing, texturing and making all the props. It's hard to see what's going on, but here's a screenshot of where I'm up to. I put it in x-ray mode as wireframe would be impossible to comprehend haha.

[rewinged]

The edit post button isn't working for some reason... Here's what I've done of the mansion so far though. You can change the view to xray to see inside. It obviously still looks bare without the textures or details. I will upload new versions whenever I complete anything big so it should update automatically.

McDohl Mansion (View in 3D)


EDIT: Okay , edit is working but delete isn't now haha >.<
I was wondering how to get into contact with the site admins. I'd lov eif they could add p3d.in 3d model embedding support. It only takes a few minutes to set up and there's instructions on how to do it here http://p3d.in/faq/integration
Thanks!