WIP: Need advice on topology optimisation for this kind of 3D situation:

VintageWarm

Hello everyone, I'm currently working on this sword and want to improve my topology skill in general . The egravements seen at the center are meant to be recessed into the metal as I plan to use another texture for that area. I wonder if there is a better way to connect/ transition between the vertex points from engravings & the metal together. And if there are other parts you would like to pointing out for improvement, please do so. Any comments & advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks & have a great day
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Notink

Hi @VintageWarm , I would suggest that you don't model the egravements for the final model that you will texture. This part of the sword can be flat, it will be your lowpoly mesh. Then you can model the egravements on a highpoly mesh with all the details. After that you can bake the details of the highpoly mesh on your lowpoly mesh with for example Substance Painter or Marmoset Toolbag. You can even use ID to make it easier when you will texture the sword. For a video game props it's the best workflow in my opinion.
You can see how it is done in this video for substance painter.
And if you want to go further here is a documentation from substance painter.

VintageWarm

Thanks for the idea @Notink . Will try to apply this method.