Monday, June 24, 2013

Valencia Expansion

   We know there is an upcoming Valencia expansion however we do not know when. The storyline leaves us to believe we are most certainly returning to the renaissance world in the next expansion but the real question is why. Because I haven't completed the Marleybone/Aquila expansion, I can't give you that answer right away but what I do know is that I have some concept and a 3D model by two extremely talented artists hired to work on projects for KingsIsle in the past and the revealing of them was all thanks to the great person in the community Swordroll who has put in a ton of research into finding out about the various artists. You can visit his blog at www.swordroll.com for his daily "Concept101" posts which feature excellent concept as well as in depth looks into the art behind Wizard and Pirate101.

The Origin of Valencia:


   Valencia was supposed to be a thriving world with a theme of a rich Italian culture during the renaissance period. Although they kept the idea of the Italian renaissance in mind, KingsIsle took the approach of making it the "hub" of the armada in Pirate101. A funny fact is they actually said it was a world for Wizard101, now I don't know if it was meant to be for sure, but the artist seemed to take the liberty in making it fit the theme of most other worlds in Wizard101. Making the world one large island apposed to Pirate's, many scattered smaller islands you can sail too. Looking at this concept I cannot tell if it was meant to always be a nice clean world, or they just asked the artist, Xavier Garcia, to create the world before the armada. Either way this concept reveals a lot, and the OCD wizard/pirate I am, will dissect it. So let's grab a scalpel and start cutting.


1. Dragons: If you will notice toward the left hand side of the main island there is the shadow of a dragon. This looks very cool but it makes me wonder, why? In all of the Italian renaissance there has never been mentions of dragons. This really confuses me because, why have dragons in a world where the history has no link to dragons? The main building also has a dragon painted on the side of it which also puzzles me. If we had never had dragons in a world before I could understand however we have had dragons in, well, Dragonspyre, Avalon, various versions in Aquila as well as scattered types of dragons in Wizard City as mounts and pets. It is a strange adaptation the artist choose for this piece but it makes for a good conversation topic.

2. The waterways: If you know a little about Venice, Italy you should probably know the city is on water. Do to flooding the entire city is literally on stilts and rests upon the open sea. Xavier in another concept shows that he took time with his research and made various sketches on gondolas. Gondolas are a main source of transportation in Venice since they cannot have cars and I thought it was a nice addition to include in the concept of the world.

3. The main building: Now I have a few theories on the main building of the world in this concept but I assume it is either a large dam, that keeps in the main water supply or some sort of theater. I highly doubt it is a theater though since there is another smaller building to the right of the city that makes more sense for a amphitheater type building. Honestly it could just be an old building that they incorporated to include the Roman empire and how only the ruins remain. This is a completely random guess and do not quote me on this being right, this is all guessing.

Connection to the Final Concept:
   This is a close up view on the official wallpaper of Valencia. There is a small island getting destroyed by mini machines much like in Gracia. It has a large building much like the concept done by Mr. Garcia and makes me wonder if we will see more islands like this in the future skyways of Valencia. This is the main point of this post. I honestly believe in some way, shape or form we will be seeing, the past version of Valencia in the upcoming expansion. There is a instance in Dragonspyre that is now very popular where you get to go back in time to before Dragonspyre was corrupt and instead of lava it is water and instead of a volcano, it is just a mountain. There are no ruins yet and the place is very alive and full of energy. It wouldn't be the first or last time we would see time travel as we fought Young Morganthe in the Ghost Avalon instance of Avalon. I could easily see an area of Valencia that is not yet touched by the armada as well as more NPCs.

Future NPCs?:
   Did you guys see how I cycled into this? I know I am genius. Anyways, as I mentioned before Swordroll posted some concept of a few 3D models done by, Issac Oster. Looking through his blog I also found a model of a crab person that personally would fit almost perfectly into a Kings Isle game. Don't believe me?

                                 *The final model can be found at the top of this post*
Similarities: I am now going to show off two wired models, one of a Pirate101 Yak from Moo Shu and the other of the crab NPC. Both of which are made by Issac and this is to show off if this in fact could be (or is) a Valencian NPC/Companion.
See the similarities? Both show a low polygon count, as well as a similar color pallet, not sure if KI designed the character or if it was meant for Issac's personal use. Either way I think we all agree that this would make a great addition to Valencia. So that is question of the day, what is your opinion on the little guy? Valencia hero, humble NPC, should he even be in the game at all? If so, which game? What world if not Valencia? Comment below, let me know, until next time I am Nicholas LionRider and I will see you tomorrow!



Links:
Issac Oster's Blog: http://www.isaacoster.com/
   Xavier Garcia's Blog: http://www.ragingspaniard.com/
   *Warning some content not suitable for children*
    Swordroll's Blog: http://www.swordroll.com/
    Pirate101: https://www.pirate101.com/

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