UltraScape - The Ultimate Virtualscape Experiences

[The Grim Reaper's Friend]

Greetings, all, and welcome to UltraScape, the ultimate Virtualscape experience! What is Ultrascape, you ask. Simply huge virtualscape boards. And by huge, I mean huge. We're talking thousands upon thousands of tiles used here. Literally.
At any event, UltraScape was brought about by my fan fictions. Feeling compelled to design a castle that had appeared in one of them, I one day opened Virtualscape and began what was to become the largest HeroScape set up I have ever seen anywhere.
This thread contains my Virtualscape UltraScape set ups... currently just one, Cyprien's Castle. There will soon be a second one however. It will be more of a fortress than a castle. I would tell you what it is, but as it has not appeared in my current fan fiction yet, I shall wait.
So, here are my UltraScape set ups. Enjoy!

Spoiler Alert!

Greetings, one and all! Well, while writing The Quest for Valhalla, a character of mine entered Cyprien's castle, on Feylund. (Not to be confused with the one on Valhalla, which is completely different. ) Now, I like to design things, so I drew Cyprien's castle on paper. It was only four levels high, five including the underground section, but I thought it looked pretty cool. So, I went about making it in Virtualscape. And then it hit me just how large it really was, four levels or not.
Coming in at merely 132 24-hex grass tiles, 77 7-hex grass tiles, 5 3-hex grass tiles, 1481 single-hex grass tiles, 16 24-hex rock tiles, 184 7-hex rock tiles, 3 3-hex rock tiles, 202 2-hex rock tiles, 2319 single-hex rock tiles, 9 water tiles, 34 big ruins, 6 small ruins, 668 single-hex dungeon tiles, 7 shadow tiles, 316 5-hex bridge tiles, 38 2-hex road tiles, 28 single-hex road tiles, 28 wall sections, 11 4-hex trees, 22 12-height trees, 27 11-height trees, 116 10-height trees, 17 9-hex wall walk tiles, 15 7-hex wall walk tiles, 4567 single-hex wall walk tiles, 735 wall corners, 1691 straight walls, 129 end walls, 59 doors, 1 arch, 98 battlements, and 91 ladders, Cyprien's castle takes approximately fifteen seconds to load, on a fast hard-drive. It doesn't sound like too long, but think about it. 15 seconds. And that's only four levels. All that grass is spread out over three levels.


So, I give you, Cyprien's castle! Enjoy, and please tell me what you think! (I would simply make it downloadable, but I can't do that.)



So here are the pictures of it in the 3D state. If you want to know what a specific aspect looks like, just let me know and I'll take a screenshot of it.

Spoiler Alert!

First up, a picture of the whole thing, from directly overhead:

Note the strange looking roofs off to the left. Those are the result of what happens when something gets too big in Virtualscape. It goes off the edge of the map. And, of course, you can't scroll off the edge of the map, so I couldn't put the ceiling on. Ah, well. Just imagine the rest of the roof.
Next, two pictures of it at an angle, from either side.



Before we get into the castle, let us take a moment to look at Sonya's private garden. Why the only things in there are pine trees, and why it is outside the castle, rather than protected by its walls, I cannot say. That's the way it was found when Cyprien kicked out its last occupant.

And in case you actually wanted to be able to see into the garden, there is the overhead shot as well:

Now, note the main gate, to the right, in the above picture. On top of it you will see a curious structure. This is the result of the last occupant, who apparently lacked the necessary tools to make thin circular walls, attempting to use battlements to enclose a watchtower. Ah, well, at least you can't fall off, as you can on any of the other staircases in the castle. At any event, here is a slightly better shot, taken from that walkway which so conveniently cuts straight through the above picture.

Charming though the watchtower is, I'm sure, the view from it is at least worth mentioning... or showing anyway:

Well, there is only one outside shot left, so I will show it here:

I know what you are thinking. (No, really, I do. Creepy, isn't it?) Where in the blazes is this? Well, the large building/short tower directly in front is the largest of the circular 'towers' in the over head picture. The other one off to the side is the smaller one, off to the side, in the overhead picture. After that incredibly clear explanation, let me tell you why these said towers appear to be hollow.
Cyprien, out of the goodness of his heart, has decided to use this part of his castle as a roosting spot for bats.
...

Well, I doubt out of the goodness of his heart, but those holes are definitely the roosting place of bats, and very large bats at that. When Cyprien and his vampires prefer a dramatic entrance, they hop on their giant bats and fly out into the chilling night. Or sultry summer's night, either way. It just sounded better the first way. The tower off to the side holds Cyprien's personal, extra-large, version 2.0 mega bat. The difference between this bat and the others besides size? Absolutely nothing. Enough chatter about worthy topics. Let us take a look inside the larger of these two caves...

Erg, lack of room. Ah, well. I would take the ceiling off, but seeing as it is composed of some of those thousands of single-hex wall walk tiles, I shall decline. Suffice it to say that this is merely a very small part of the bat caves, somewhere near the main door. (In fact, I believe if you enter through it, and turn immediately to your left, you will see something very similar to this.)
At any event, I know that you have all been dying to see the banquet hall. Yes, the banquet hall. You know, for all those extravagant feasts of blood sausages, blood-shot eyes, and blood pheasant? No? Oh, well, it can't hurt to see it...

Hmm. Rather plain. Ah, well, the previous occupant was doubtless the one to cast the levitation spell over those tables, although I think it was Cyprien who carved them into that shape. I believe he thought it would help separate his warriors from each other, but I fear it only made two of them sit closer together... Ah, well. Can't blame him for trying.
Well, only one last thing left. The dungeons.

That is only one of many dungeons. There are two whole blocks under ground, that is the second, and slightly smaller block. You might notice that I had to remove the grass on top to give you a good view of it. That's how short those tower walls really are!
Did I say that was the last thing? It appears that I forgot an older picture of the dungeons: the hallway in block 1.

It appears I also neglected one of Cyprien's diligently kept secrets: his wellspring. Yes, Cyprien has a wellspring. Why not? He got drinks from Utgar's, wouldn't it follow that he'd want a backup supply on Feylund?

Pretty, impressive, huh? Now you know what I meant earlier about the staircases...

The Dungeon Blocks
This is an in-depth look at the dungeons, guard houses, military head quarters, and accompanying halls.

Spoiler Alert!

So, to start off, let us take at look at the whole dungeon block.

The dungeons are obviously underground. The two artistically sculptured squares you see are the two guard houses. They are exactly the same size, and look exactly the same. This is supposedly meant to confuse anyone breaking out, but it has been rumored that they are actually identical copies of each other from parallel universes. Nothing has been proven, however. After the two guard houses, you have the two hallways. In between these hallways is the court yard. No one is sure what this courtyard was meant for, as it is completely inaccessible unless you can fly. Cyprien, however, likes to keep his zombies in there. Most of them anyway. Anyone he wants disposed of quickly, he throws into the zombie-enemy-erator. Past the halls, you have two large square buildings, one on top of the other. These are the military head quarters. You'll see more of them shortly.
While attempting to get past Cyprien's security guards in order to show you the guard houses, I discovered that that removing the levels does not zoom you out. A break through! So, I now give you the military headquarters, floor-by-floor.

First of course come the dungeons. Now you can really see them.

No, it's not directly covering the dungeons. If you look closely though, you'll see the tops of the doors coming through the grass. At any event, this is level one of the headquarters. Moving from left to right, you can first see the basement of the main tower. This was originally used as a storage area in the days before Cyprien, but who knows what he has down there now?
Next are the first level floors of the headquarters. You'll notice (Or maybe you won't, I can't make you) that the two rooms aren't connected. Each of the hallways from each of the two separate dungeon blocks ends up in one of those rooms.
Off to the far right, you can see one of those same hallways. For those of you who have read my fan fiction, the Quest for Valhalla, you can see the place in the hallway where Nargshir hid and slipped past Cyprien when he came out.

Now we have the next level. Off to the left there, you can see what I believe is Cyprien's throne room. The only other thing of note in here (I mean, obviously it's of note, otherwise I wouldn't be noting it) is the library. Yes, the library. What? Cyprien has to store his military secrets somewhere. The military library is composed of those eight slabs of rock you see in the headquarters. Those are supposed to be more levitating shelves.

Right, not much here except for the far left, on which you see... a lot of rock. That is... *checks map* ... Cyprien's private chambers. The full extent of the chambers? Barren rock. Impressive, isn't it? That's because I did not fill it in with the thin walls, single space doors, red banners, stained glass windows, couches, chairs, and footstools that it is supposed to be filled with, and that VS cannot supply. (Now if we could just combine this with a 3D model rendering system, and import our own 3D...)

And thus we come to the ceiling. As you can see, the staircases go all the way, enabling anyone who wishes to to ascend to the roof and fling themselves over the edge... although I'm sure that's not what they were intended for...

Ah. Now these two lovely structures are the guardhouses. Who, you ask, are the guards? The guards consist of a single skeleton. Top notch security, I assure you. The skeleton is trained to respond to movement, and is armed with... a sword and shield. That's it. Really. Why the top notch security? Reason one is that there is rarely anyone left alive to put in the dungeons, and reason two is that no one has ever escaped escape for Nargshir, who did it twice in a row with little effort.
As to the mysterious shadow tile in the center of the floor; that is a trapdoor. Well, no, it's a shadow tile, but it's pretending to be a trap door. Right below that are the stairs to the dungeons.

Now you may have noticed, or maybe you didn't, that only one of the hallways leading from the dungeons has windows. Well, they're supposed to be windows anyway. The reason that the other one doesn't have any windows is because they would open directly onto the zombie-erator courtyard. Not the best of views.

And this, for those lucky Quest for Valhalla readers , is the sight that met Nargshir's wolfish eyes as he looked at the room where Cyprien was right after emerging from the dungeons. It is also what you see if you turn 180 degrees from the last picture. The only difference between this and what was decribed in the book? The fact that Nargshir couldn't see it, due to the door, which would not fit for some reason.
And that, my friends, is the dungeon block.

So there you go! If you wanted to see more of the inside, more of the outside, or anything else, though I think those two areas cover pretty much everything, let me know.

Note: Warning. if you ever intend to make something of this size in VS, be prepared to have objects mysteriously disappear in the 3D state that are clearly there in the 2D state. I had to range a whole line of trees in front of a wall that had gone on vacation to the Bahamas!

[Fi Skirata]

great work TFRF.

vBulletin Message:
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to The Grim Reaper's Friend again.

[Son of Arathorn]

Must... play... Cyprien... versus... Nicholas!

[The Grim Reaper's Friend]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Must... play... Cyprien... versus... Nicholas!

Who is this Nicholas that I keep hearing about?

[Kaemon Awa 123]

Based on the shadows, that's some serious underground

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend

Who is this Nicholas that I keep hearing about?

Nicholas Esenwein! C3V! Vampire! Cyp's nephew and Marcu's son! Do you reside beneath a mineral deposit?!?

[The Grim Reaper's Friend]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Nicholas Esenwein! C3V! Vampire! Cyp's nephew and Marcu's son! Do you reside beneath a mineral deposit?!?

No, I reside separatly from C3V. I'll look him up though.

The underground is just the dungeons and the base of the three main towers. The dungeons are about ten levels high, because I have walls in there. You can actually see the top of the walls through the grass if you look closely.

[The Grim Reaper's Friend]

Just so that people will catch it, I have finally posted the completed Cyprien's Castle!

[Gurei-Ornery]

I can't see any pictures.

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Gurei-Ornery

I can't see any pictures.

That's strange, I can.

Well done TGRF! Looks amazing!

[Bloody Bogle]

Wow. I thought I built big maps. This is incredible. Words can't decribe the awesomeness of this. If all the scapers world wide combined their collections, maybe we could build this and have a castle siege. *sighs. I'll keep dreaming. My tangent aside, amzing work.

[The Grim Reaper's Friend]

Ah, yes, minor detail. You cannot build this at all in the physical world. Not unless you have ways to magically suspend tiles in mid air with no support.
Glad you like it though!