[Showoff] Unleash Dreams Project

Hi! This project as an idea easily goes back about 10 years (but I always made the same mistake: not making backups, including the map). I lost many maps, and that really discouraged me, so I kept postponing the motivation to start a new one.


Eventually, after getting tired of playing servers (and hearing phrases like “If you don’t like my OTServer, make your own”), I thought, “Hey, that’s true—if I have so many ideas, why not dedicate myself to something that’s exclusively mine?” I proposed this project to some friends, they dismissed it, and that became my breaking point to say, “I have to do this.” I want to learn, I want revenge, and I want to see how far I can go.


This project is personal (I’m the only one working on it, although the OTA community, through its criticism, has helped me a lot to improve many things—from mapping to coding and UI—and I’m very grateful for that). I’ve already presented these maps on OTA, but it saddens me that Map Showoff (which used to be one of the most active forums on Otland) is so dead now. When I was a teenager, I used to drool over the maps by Neon, Peroxide, Blackstone, Chauz, Aburrio, etc. There was a huge amount of activity exclusively in that section of Otland.


The continent has no name yet, but some cities already do (or at least some housing areas).


The lore of Unleash Dreams focuses on reality itself.
Greyhaven is an empire that has dedicated itself to conquering other cities, with Tapuyra being the last city to remain independent from Greyhaven. To the south of Tapuyra, there are mineral mines that are of great interest to Greyhaven.


However, the people of Tapuyra are not entirely innocent either, since they are actually a former colonial settlement of Greyhaven that rebelled against the king of Greyhaven. In the past, Tapuyra mostly belonged to the lizardmen, who were pushed south by Tapuyra’s mercenaries.


Tapuyra is not the only place that must defend itself from invaders. There are regions such as Nimrodelion Camp (home of the elves) or Mornkul Woods (inhabited by orcs) that are also trying to resist both the invasion of Greyhaven and their own internal threats—because it’s not only the living who are at war; the dead have their own wars as well.

So, welcome and thanks for read my wall text!

1. Nomad Camp





2.

Dragon nest


2.








3. Fishing hut



Church (surface)

3.








asas

4. Church (underground)










5. Coffinrock Weblands (surface)











6. Coffinrock Weblands (underground)








7. Mornkul Woods (Orc Fortress)










8. Tapuyra City










9. Tapuyra (second part)

A reference to Moais ( )



Tapuyra Museum



10. Zzangatu (High lizard zone) (some zones dont have creatures because they will be quest zones)









Quest


asas

11. Zambe (low lizard zone)










asas

12. Zangatu Naval Shipyard, Zambe and Zangatu minimap







13. Tapuyra Castle and Diyu (deepest Zangatu)










14. My last work (im starting honestly xDDDDDD)

Nimrodelion Camp



15. Bonus track:

Emerald mines + Comedy Tower







Comedy Tower
Me vs Chickenzilla



16. Minimap

Sorry if minimap it's segmented but it's because it's big as fuck (the shape it's thanks to Cwiras <3. I download the shape from Otland)

Looks promising, but i have to pour bucket of cold water on you, that minimap is FREAKIN HUGE. You will have problems completing it in current timeline. Reconsider its size or you will hardstuck on it forever.

fridai said:

Looks promising, but i have to pour bucket of cold water on you, that minimap is FREAKIN HUGE. You will have problems completing it in current timeline. Reconsider its size or you will hardstuck on it forever.

Click to expand...

Honestly, I thought about this some time ago, because when I look at the minimap, no matter how much I map, I feel like I’m not making progress.

At the same time, the fact that the map is so large gives me a kind of “OCD” about seeing it empty, and it makes me want to fill it. Personally, I’m planning around 3–4 months for this, if possible. If I manage to complete the entire surface and the main spawns for progression up to around level 350–400, I think I’ll be in a good place.

I need to finish the surface first so I can properly understand how to lay out the underground spawns (I already have several underground spawns, and managing floors so that two spawns don’t collide with each other is a whole challenge on its own).

As the server grows—if I’m lucky and everything goes well—I can keep adding more content in underground areas.

Thanks a lot for the kind words and the good vibes!

17. Zangatu Emerald Mines






asd

17. Nimrodelion Camp (South)

Keep it up. Looking good!
Remember, the more you make prior to a test, the more overwhelming the bugs will be. Will allways be bugs and mechanics that doesnt work the way you imagine.
Map your way to a small test , finishing a portion.

Anyway, nice to see custom.

Klank said:

Keep it up. Looking good!
Remember, the more you make prior to a test, the more overwhelming the bugs will be. Will allways be bugs and mechanics that doesnt work the way you imagine.
Map your way to a small test , finishing a portion.

Anyway, nice to see custom.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the words of encouragement.

I usually map first and then like to play on the map to check stairs (or mechanics), because since I still don’t have the “feel” for placing creatures, sometimes I add too many (or sometimes too few).

I also find that I haven’t yet developed a good sense of “width and height” to know whether a spawn is too big or too small (there’s a Giant Spider cave where it took me 3 days just to decorate a single floor).

So as I keep mapping, I’ll gradually get a better feel for the areas.

I choose custom over other maps because i think, if i can control map -> i can control progress too

I’ll be posting more progress soon.

18. Nimrodelion Camp finished

Maps are pretty nice, well detailed and I like overall compositions and different types of floor / walls combined. But I will agree with previous comments. Huge area with empty spaces can keep you unsatisfied with results and it can lead to fast burn out.

It’s a good idea to first define the overall boundaries of the continent and mark what you want and where. Just like you've done already. Personally, I find it much more satisfying to work in a cyclical, small-step approach. You can prepare your main area (let's say it's a city) and then work on something close to the city - for instance a small graveyard - then glue it into your main (production) map, adapt the paths, and check how everything works together (stairs, connections, flow, etc.).


In the next cycle, you move a bit farther from the city, for example to an area next to the graveyard. After each cycle, you end up with a playable version of the map, and at any point you can release it or play on it. Otherwise thoughts like “I can’t release this yet, I still have to finish X, Y, Z” will keep haunting you until the final release.

Keeping fingers crossed.

VitoxMaster said:

Maps are pretty nice, well detailed and I like overall compositions and different types of floor / walls combined. But I will agree with previous comments. Huge area with empty spaces can keep you unsatisfied with results and it can lead to fast burn out.

It’s a good idea to first define the overall boundaries of the continent and mark what you want and where. Just like you've done already. Personally, I find it much more satisfying to work in a cyclical, small-step approach. You can prepare your main area (let's say it's a city) and then work on something close to the city - for instance a small graveyard - then glue it into your main (production) map, adapt the paths, and check how everything works together (stairs, connections, flow, etc.).


In the next cycle, you move a bit farther from the city, for example to an area next to the graveyard. After each cycle, you end up with a playable version of the map, and at any point you can release it or play on it. Otherwise thoughts like “I can’t release this yet, I still have to finish X, Y, Z” will keep haunting you until the final release.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the words!


My way of working is kind of the opposite of the “classic” mapping approach.


I already have the whole continent finished (that way I more or less know how the space is distributed between the different spawns). From there, I start looking for specific areas to work on — mostly on the surface, and I only go down to lower floors when it’s really necessary or for very specific cases.


Once certain surface areas are already decorated, I can clearly see how much vertical space I actually have to build caves underneath without them colliding with each other.


My RME is modified, so I can move or reshape chunks of the map by redrawing them. Because of that, it’s much easier for me to visualize underground collisions and overlapping zones.


Also, since the map is already “painted”, I roughly know that the base map size is around 20 MB (and after decoration and details, it will probably end up around 50–60 MB).


Another advantage of working from the surface is that it naturally excludes lower floors. If I want to add new content later, it will simply go deeper.


From a lore perspective, the idea is that players can unlock lower floors through items (to strengthen the market and decentralize it, similar to what CipSoft did with imbuements and creature products).


I’ve seen servers that work with downloaded maps and they usually don’t have good control over their spawns. If a player already knows the map from another server, they can just walk around and access areas that are supposedly not accessible. On top of that, the structure and distances of the map help me shape the lore itself — what quests I’ll need, what missions, what NPCs, etc.


For example:
If I build a city and place level 40–50 creatures very close to it, it’s going to be a massacre. But if I place level 8–20 creatures nearby and then level 20–40 creatures further away, that gives me the structure I want.


I still really appreciate your tips, because I’m a complete newbie when it comes to mapping. Everything I’ve learned comes from observing and dissecting maps (like CipSoft’s) to understand palettes, combinations, and some design ideas.


Right now, I think my biggest issue is scaling map chunks correctly. The Giant Spider respawn is ridiculously huge (it took me three days to decorate just one floor).


From that, I learned that I don’t actually need such massive areas for a single spawn. And after reviewing CipSoft maps, their spawns aren’t nearly as big as they feel in-game — they’re actually medium-sized.


That kind of thing tends to cause burnout, because you get bored mapping the same environment over and over. Since I have pretty bad ADHD, what I’ve been doing to calm that anxiety of wanting to “do something” is rotating between different parts of the map.


Like this Undead Dragon and Ghastly Dragon spawn (which is still unfinished, but I usually come back to it whenever I get bored).

19. Asura Palace

That looks terrible in my opinion

Marko999x said:

View attachment 97796

That looks terrible in my opinion

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I removed archways

I was missing an archway to apply and sadly dont exist yellow archways (and the white archway impact a lot like this archway too)

20. Asura Citadel

Marko999x said:

View attachment 97796

That looks terrible in my opinion

Click to expand...

By colours, for me, walls fit.
And i like very much this part, fit with sand colour

21. Wyrmrest Valley


Once carved by a desert dominion, this valley birthed the first Asuras through forbidden rites and venomous lore. When the realm fell, wyrms claimed its depths, guarding the scar where humanity was left behind.

22. Wyrmrest Valley
Beneath Wyrmrest Valley lie caverns still being explored, their walls marked with primitive paintings of men fleeing horned beasts — the ancestors of the minotaurs. Stone vessels and tools reveal an early desert culture, older than two thousand years.

Deeper strata speak of a later dynastic age: ritual pottery, burial chambers, and the remains of crowned rulers laid to rest within the mountain itself. Legends claim the wyrms, drinking from the pure waters of the summit, guarded these tombs as sacred sentinels.

From this lineage rose a final divergence. Through rites of venom, isolation, and self-born legacy, a chosen bloodline abandoned mortality. Thus the Asuras emerged — not conquerors of the valley, but its last inheritors.

23. Dambori Camp
Dambori Camp is an ape settlement built among the ancient ruins left behind after the displacement of the lizardfolk. The name Dambori, a Tapuiran word meaning “Gathering”, reflects the communal spirit of the camp and its role as a meeting point between old powers of the jungle.

When the lizards were pushed south, the apes claimed the abandoned stone structures, not through conquest, but through agreement. In exchange for occupying and preserving the ruins, the apes harvest coconuts, sugar cane and bananas from the surrounding jungle and sell them to the lizards at a fair price. This pact has endured for generations and is considered sacred by both sides.

Dambori trade extends beyond the jungle. The apes exchange their fruits with desert minotaur tribes for watermelons, creating a rare trade route that links rainforest, ruins, and desert. This commerce has made the camp economically important despite its isolation.

Relations with the humans of Tapuyra remain tense. Humans view the ancient alliance between lizards and apes with suspicion, fearing that Dambori loyalty lies outside the republic. The apes, in turn, see humans as recent arrivals, unaware of the old balance that once ruled the jungle.

Though peaceful on the surface, Dambori Camp stands on fragile ground. Its survival depends on maintaining trust between lizards, apes, and traders, while avoiding being drawn into the growing conflict between Tapuyra and the Greyhaven Empire.

Solid mapping. Looks good!

24. Diyu

Diyu is the underworld of the lizardfolk, where corrupted hearts are judged after death. Those who break the Dracomandaments have their hearts weighed. If lighter than that of a Ghastly Dragon, their souls are condemned to this realm.

Death separates a fallen lizard into three parts.

The body becomes the bones of an Undead Dragon, animated by fading draconic blood.
The soul dissolves into purple mana vapors that gather in toxic caverns and condense into Ghastly Dragons.
The mind is erased or fragmented, depending on its final judgment.

Diyu is not only punishment, but balance. It reminds Zangatu that every broken oath leaves an echo in bone and vapor beneath the world.

Unleash Dreams Minimap (generated using Lorekeeper to get 5k x 5k minimap in 1 file)