Incredibly Meticulous landscapes

dichebach · January 5, 2019, 9:11pm

I find the landscapes in this game to be, probably the best I’ve seen in any game, at least from the standpoint of looking very realistic.

The lack of distinction between collideable and non-collideable bushes (foliage) is a slight annoyance, but other than that: WELL-DONE! to the artist, programmers, animators, and level builders who put together this fabulous map.

The thing that is really amazing about is: I have some training in geology and archaeology and a lot of experience in wilderness in Southern Africa, Caribbean and North America (including some rural areas that were effectively still “medieval” when I visited them), and the landscapes really seem to be designed by someone who knew what a real landscape looks like, and what a medieval agrarian human geography would look like.

So here is my question: how far have you folks gone with this!?

Reason I ask: I noticed a strange mound shape on the hill that is just north of Rataje. This is a largely deforested area with hedge rows and roads separating fields and pastures. It would have been an ideal spot for a pre-Roman (even Neolithic) hill town and here is this mound right where a famous chieftain would have been well-venerated. To top it off, just to the east of this mound (maybe in other directions too), there are a series of burms that seem to be composed of football sized rocks and soil and could very easily be the remains of a palisade or internal walls of a town.

Kaven · January 5, 2019, 9:58pm

I am not KCD developer, but I can say that KCD map is based on real landscape of that area. It is a bit modified, but not that much (they cut away parts of real landscape so that places important for game could be nearer). It all means that if you find a strange shaped hill in game, it is there because the same hill can be seen there even nowadays. Landscape was then “medievalized” (castles or churches recreated, historical settlements added etc.), but I expect that it did not affect something as timeless as hills.

If there was some ancient settlement on the hill, there might be some archeological research and therefore some study about it may exist. But that is where my knowledge ends.

Pentaxon · January 5, 2019, 10:45pm

Fairly extremely modified*

dichebach · January 5, 2019, 10:58pm

Interesting! So there probably is an actual burial mound and pre-Roman archaeological site in whatever area the hill north of Rataje is actually meant to represent.

That portion of Bohemia reminds me of south-central Missouri, where I grew up! Rolling hills and alternating pasture land and forests. I’ve always wanted to visit the region and hope to do so before I croak.

Anyway, back to the apparent burial mound: when I saw that, being the grubby gamer I am, I naturally thought of the gold and silver buried with the long-dead Chieftain and had a look round the area for a “secret” entrance, but didn’t spot one.

Kaven · January 6, 2019, 7:40am

Well, yes in a way that they removed (sometimes large) portions of land in order to put villages closer to each other. But they did not create new hills, valleys etc. Things that remained in game are fairly accurate.

Kaven · January 6, 2019, 7:59am

It would be nice, but Warhorse had really hard time finishing game on time. And these treasures were usually stolen far before Henry. Some treasures were found in Bohemia, but as far as I remember it was always money that someone hid and never retrieved. I don’t think that we have any rich and unrobbed ancient grave.

Little curiosity - oldest coins in our country were found in Podmokly (western Bohemia) in 18th century and were of celtic origin. They were found by a common farmer, who had no idea that they were coins (and that they were made really of gold), so he gave them to his kids as a toy. At last it was recognized as gold by local jewish merchant, who said it to owner of the area and he confiscated almost everything.