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Bandit Camps
Overlands Combat Points of Interest
The Context
While working on Hogwarts Legacy, I was part of the Overlands team, fleshing out the optional open world content. As part of this, I was tasked with blocking out various bandit camps, combat-focused points of interest. At first, these were very simple arenas, but I wanted to give the player opportunities to use their magic in more interesting ways, as well as use stealth if they so preferred.
For all of these bandit camps, I created the blockouts, set up the enemy compositions, and set up combatant behaviors, such as patrols or animations. I also designed any puzzles associated with them.
South Hogwarts Bandit Camp
This location began as a very simple open field.
I began by separating the area into distinct zones, and adding short walls and towers, as well as stealth paths and environmental hazards for the player to use, such as explosive barrels and a breakable bridge.
This was also originally intended as part of a quest, so the castle seen here on the left was the goal for the player.
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I refined the shapes, and adjusted the cover as I playtested. After I had figured out the main shapes, I also added secondary cover by way of destructible barrels. This way they wouldn't get in the way of nav if a fight broke out, but they allowed the player to stealth all the way through the camp if they preferred.
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Top view of the camp.
Troll Camp
This troll camp is accessible only via broom, so the player has to land in the arena before they can fight the troll. I kept the surrounding walls high to lock the player in.
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This was also part of a simple quest, where a student is doing their best to domesticate a troll. Behind the bloody pile of corpses, I also set up a basic teaching area with props from Hogwarts, a troll bed, and evidence of the student's attempt to make the troll a vegetarian.
Things didn't work out.
Goblin Cart Bandit Camp
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This camp was part of a simple quest where a goblin has had their cart stolen. I incorporated goblin elements, and big caches of goods to tell that story.
South Hogwarts Bandit Camp
This camp began as part of a simple quest where a boy was kidnapped and you had to return them, but eventually the location of that moved, so this instead became a large-sized bandit camp. With all of our points of interest on Hogwarts Legacy, we compounded them, meaning that even within a bandit camp, you would find extra puzzles, rewards, and even catchable-beast dens.
Encounter 2
Player's foot entry
Encounter 1
Encounter 3
Encounter 4
Top view
From the approach, I wanted to encourage stealth gameplay, so I used these collections of boxes to create stealth paths, and also tried to make it advantageous to do so.
For example, I added a breakable bridge with explosive barrels right next to it. I also planned multiple entry and exit points to each main encounter space.
Back when it was connected to a quest, I built it on these ascending tiers so the player's goal would be clear. Even after it lost its quest connection, I kept them because it made it easy to create zones of increasing intensity.
There are also watchtowers for the enemies to stand on, some of which also have explosive barrels for extra fun.
Goblin Camp
This camp features an upper and lower section, connected by these cable cars. I designed this to be vaguely mining related.
The lower section is fairly minimal, and mostly serves as a medium-sized open arena, since only a few goblins are down here.
Top approach
Explosive barrel
Bottom approach 2
Bottom approach 1
The upper section has multiple approach angles. If the player approaches from the top, they get a good vantage point and can make use of an explosive barrel to kick things off with a bang.
The bottom approaches offer a bit more stealth, which is still fairly minimal.
I chose to incorporate this merlin puzzle (the large stone blocks) into the camp itself, allowing the player to use the stones as cover or to snipe enemies from above.
Top approach angle allows for sniping
Coastside Goblin Camp
This coastside goblin camp is pretty sprawling, with three different tiers of goblin camps. With every camp I make, I try to have strong visual focal points. In this case, the docks down below and the winding cart through the middle tier.
The coastal side has these long dock sections. If fights break out here, there are good opportunities for the player to shove a goblin into the water, which will result in instant death.
The upper section of the camp
Troll Camp
The troll camps needed to stay fairly free of obstacles since their navmesh was so large. We instead opted for destructible trees, which also looked really cool during the fight when a troll swing would take down a whole cluster.
Wolf Den
In addition to bandit camps, I also set up combat arenas for beast dens, an area where the player could come back regularly to collect crafting ingredients.
For this wolf den, I made the pond a central aspect, and made the water wading depth at certain points, which would be a major hazard for the player since their movement is severely slowed while wading, leaving them open to attack. I also incorporated low brush to obscure vision of the wolves to make the fight feel more frantic.
