Currently myself and a friend are developing both a game design document and a class diagram for an online rpg that will run in applet. We are mainly aiming at a 2d game with an isometric view angle. For the ground/terrain, we don’t want it to look flat and boring, but more or less actually have hills and such. I know a lot can be done with shading and proper drawing to show depth and slopes. Im wondering if perhaps using a 3d mesh is the way to go, and we can just do some simple 2d sprites that run over top. Is this a bad idea?
If we go down that route, I’m thinking using the lwjgl is probably the way to go. JME2 would be nice, but I think since it’s primary focus is full 3d, that might not work so well. I do like slick as well, but obviously that wouldnt support the 3d terrain.
Any thoughts or suggestions on that methodology, and the tools we’re thinking of?