Quark 6.3

#1 The main reason MM VI to VIII did this was because they used one engine for indoor areas and another for outdoor areas. Torque uses the same code for both. In other words, what you're suggesting is unnecessary if you're using TGE.

The earlier MM games (I to V) did not need to load interiors separately, although they did still load the map in sections. I think MM IX also used a single engine (Lithtech), although I haven't played that one as much.

#2 Ya...
well, do you think havin a whole town or a dungeon
as part of your outside world is resource smart?
I'm thinkin of separating areas like that the same way
they did.

For instance:
I have a world that is basically made with the Torque
mission and terrain editor. There is an area that goes
into a ravine, and in thiis ravine i want to put the mouth
of a cave for the RPG'er to enter a 'dungeon'.
I can see how I could put the dungeon under the terrain
if I went downhill from the entrance.. but, what if I
wanted to go uphill. or, what if i wanted the towns
to have a completely different feel from the outside
terrain environment?

wouldn't it make sense to have it load a new area?
And another reason for doing this, have each mission
area like M&M did.. when you leave the mission area,
it loads a whole new environment.

How is this done?

BTW, me and another game developer are getting
together to work on an RPG that will be similar to
M&M. But, it won't be a tribute, it will just be similar.
And if anyone who is a little experienced in this area
wants to get involved, contact me at Ingot@kc.rr.com
We will need people of all talents.

The game at this point is for learning.. but if it gets good
enough, it may get to be for earning.

#3 Something I've been doing, that may be unnecessary, but seems to work well; LOD1+ contains only the entrance geometry, and enough interior that you can see it as you approach. So basically, once you leave the tunnels, they no longer are rendered.

#4 Towns and small buildings in MM VI to VIII were still part of the outdoor areas, although you couldn't walk around inside the buildings (clicking on a door just brought up a menu screen). Attempting to load the interior of each of these small buildings separately as the player entered them would be much more resource intensive, and add an unnecessary delay.

I can't think of an obvious scenario where including a large, complex building such as a dungeon or castle on a map is going to be less "resource smart" than loading it separately. I can see that it might be too large to fit within one mission area and require placing in another, but with a little thought you should be able to avoid that when designing your maps.

In your example, as long as the dungeon could physically fit within the ravine, it should also be possible to have the entrance sloping upwards. Including a short level pathway leading to the slope would give you additional headroom and make it easier to fit.

As for making towns look and feel different, it is possible to include up to 6 different terrain textures as standard, so you could afford to use a couple for roads and pavements. You could also use QuArK to create raised platforms, pavements and the like, which would have separate textures.

One of the aspects that helped the player become more immersed in MM VI to VIII was being able to view the surrounding area around towns from a high vantage point (on top of a wall, building or hill). This would not have been possible without including at least some terrain outside town limits.

It was necessary to load regions separately because they were several days travel apart, and the terrain usually changed. In this case, you would check whether the player has left the mission area, then unload the current mission and load a new one accordingly. This isn't something I've tried yet, but this resource might help: Adding Reactive Mission Regions.

#5 Thank you everyone for your input.
It has been very helpful!