Wolven,
I just got a response from Nate, the designer of the Instance Tool, and he said you can bake lighting with instances. That is good news, and will really increase the FPS.
chierfarchon and Schags also make good points. I personally like the current look with stones that stick out, and that fits with a certain stronghold style. But you may consider an add on kit with smooth surfaces, for building different style strongholds. Many of the castles in Briton and Europe had smooth slooping walls that allowed them to roll stones down upon defenders, and made the walls harder to assail. But I like the way this looks. Perhaps kits for Orc, Elvin, and other style castles and strongholds could be part of your future plans.
Also, the spiral stair should be a tight fit, they were designed that way on purpose, to make them easier to defend from the top, and only allowed a single line of attackers to go up. The current tight spiral stair should block NPCs from getting past a character above them, which is exactly what I want on those stairs…and they look so good!
But on ramparts, you don’t want NPCs to get stuck. After watching the videos, the standard mannequin appears to fit, but just barely. Might be a good idea if your check to see if on major nav areas there is room for TWO characters or NPCs to walk or pass side by side, and wear tall helmets and carry spears, and still pass thru doors and walk around the ramparts. That is a kit design criteria of most large gaming companies, like Bethesda … at least that is what I read in an article on the Fallout 4 kit design process.
I have already purchases several knights and Medieval characters, the collisions on their armor and weapons might keep them from passing through some of the doors and hallways. Have you tested a character in armor with a spear or tall helmet, or a slightly larger character, in your demo level?
Just a few larger/taller/wider pieces in this kit, with the same size stones, not just scaled up, would be fantastic. Sometimes scaling destroys the look of a mesh, like in this case, scaling a door piece, or wall, might make the individual stones or wood planks in the mesh look too large, if they are in the mesh and not just the material.
Looking forward to your interior furnishings and add on kits. Need lots of colorful flags, tents, character uniforms, armor, etc.
Hope no one gets offended, but would love to see the Marketplace offer more Medieval army and Castle characters, in more colorful uniforms and clothing … the drab colors most offer do not give the characters that Medieval look. Noticed a new offering just became available, hope Wolven follows up with Lords and Ladies, merchants, peasants, knight/crusader, Templar, Tuetonic, Malta, Garter, Saint John, Arabs, Vikings, Mongols, Turks, Swiss, Welsh, Irish, French, Italian knights, etc. as well as some fantasy, Orcs, Trolls, Elves, Goblins, Dragons, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings …
Also, one quick question. Are the collisions on the arrow loop slits complex enough, and open, so as to allow characters to shoot arrows through them? That would really add to the game play if we could shoot attacking NPCs through tower arrow slits. Instancing is going to save a lot of FPS, and should allow for more attention to details like this, such as more complex collisions. Not sure if that even makes a difference. But an arrow slit that is blocked off with a collision is not useful in gameplay. Battlefield 1 made sure to address this in their wall pieces.
Which brings up another request, some small level of destructable walls or at least the large gate in the kit would be fantastic. I already have a working battering ram. Would be nice to set up a damage system on the gate.
Anyways, just a few comments intended to give you some constructive feedback. This is by far the best Medieval kit I have ever seen, and a great addition to any Medieval environment. Great job. Really looking forward to the Marketplace release.