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DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R - any use?

mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
edited November 2013 in The Foundry
I've been considering building a "studio" to show (and explain) various Foundry tricks.

Here's my first cut: NW-DHZ5DAV4R

There is no combat required. There are a few encounters to demonstrate Difficulty Sliders and Mimics.

This is in development. Some aspects may not be fully working.

I'll try to keep this post updated, so you can tell when new stuff is added.

- Black-out and wake up in a new location
- Coin-flip to open one of two doors, and random-roll simulator
- Combat Difficulty Selector and Encounter tips
- Custom traps (crushing walls, collapsing floor with earthquake, acid pool, burning bridge)
- Dialogue tips
- Illusionary walls (both built-in and custom)
- Lever-activated extending bridge (pseudo-animated using drop-timers)
- Lighting
- Locked doors
- Mimics and loot-dropping chests/mobs
- Non-sparkly interactable
- One-way teleporters
- OR-logic demo, with pseudo-skill kit use [July 2]
- Projectors [July 22]
- Showroom of Magical Effects ("FX" Detail objects)
- Special Objects with unusual behaviors (see this thread)
- Timers! Lots and lots of timers!

Thanks to all the creative foundry authors who share their tricks!

What other tricks would you like to see demonstrated? I'll gladly give credit in-game to whomever I learned the trick from.
DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
The Cursed Emerald:
  1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
  2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
Post edited by mosby1 on
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Comments

  • nullwolf1nullwolf1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I'll take a look after work. I'm all for tutorials like this. ^_^
  • zogvarnokazogvarnoka Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 151 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    I'll check it out later tonight.
    Removing the Grey Mask
    NW-DJ56XFK6G
    My first installment in the Rise of Shadovar Campaign.
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    Added a mimic chest (thanks Izatar).
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    Added a one-way teleporter.
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • izatarizatar Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,161 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    This sounds great to me! I think having a video to go along with it would be nice!
  • ananvilhurtzananvilhurtz Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Very awesome.

    I approve.
    Religion - 60 GF (15.3k GS)
    The Seeker - 60 DC (11.5k GS)
    Faithless - 60 CW (10k GS)
  • izatarizatar Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,161 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It would be cool if you could add a 'real' chest too. Same thing but instead of a mimic, it gives 'loot' and turns into an opened chest. Crok2's idea was to have it give fake thieves tools or a portable altar, so it seems like real loot, and who keeps track of how many of those they have anyway? ;)

    I have also created a way to make random stuff happen, if you want to try it. This is something that is sort of complex so really needs a demo, and I don't have time to do it.

    How it works is you make two easy encounters A and B of the same kind in same place, and kill them somehow: you can use a hard guard encounter to kill them in a boxed in area or even just use the player to kill a stacked easy encounter.
    Now, you make two objects, one that appears on the death of encounter A, and disappears on the death of encounter B. The other appears on the death of encounter B and disappears on the death of encounter A. After both the encounters are killed, only one of the objects will exist. There is a little flash that happens when this occurs, so you would obscure this with a wall or something.

    Now you can use the random object to trigger future events, or the object could be a wall that blocks a tunnel, so in effect you have a randomly chosen tunnel fork. You can chain these together to get 1 bit of randomness per encounter pair. There are lots of possibilities!
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    Cool idea, I'll see what I can do with it.

    Also - someone (I forget who, sorry) had a neat effect where you fade to black, and wake up somewhere else. I think that was the idea anyway. Anyone got a link for that thread?
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • izatarizatar Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,161 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    mosby1 wrote: »
    Cool idea, I'll see what I can do with it.

    Also - someone (I forget who, sorry) had a neat effect where you fade to black, and wake up somewhere else. I think that was the idea anyway. Anyone got a link for that thread?
    Oo I played one that did that yesterday. That was a mind boggling effect!
  • crok2crok2 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Silverstars Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    mosby1 wrote: »
    Cool idea, I'll see what I can do with it.

    Also - someone (I forget who, sorry) had a neat effect where you fade to black, and wake up somewhere else. I think that was the idea anyway. Anyone got a link for that thread?

    The quest we played lastnight that had this effect PERFECTLY executed was Ovaltine74's Stomach of Darkness... Now Called Mind of Darkness
    NW-DMIME87F5

    And the thread that explained this neat little trick was:
    Author: hercooles130uscg (from the alpha)

    _____


    "blackout" method, tested a bit

    Added some screenshots in post #5

    So I was doing some tech testing last night in the Foundry in preparation for my next quest and started working on a way to simulate a blackout, or getting knocked unconscious and waking up in a different room. Got it working pretty decent. Thought I would share and see if anyone else has any input or wants to give it a try as well.

    What you will need.
    Details for two different "rooms"
    About 4 black depthfades, size depending on room size.

    Essentially what you are doing is building two complete rooms on top of each other. For ease though I just simulated getting knocked out and waking up in a smaller prison cell.

    Take the first room and build it for you quest. Next build the second room inside of it, but using walls and something a as floor and ceiling. For my jail cell I used brick dungeon walls, and the castle floor. I also wanted to have a jail cell door, so I threw some more walls across the cell door so players looking through it feel as if they are in a room connected to a small hallway. When building your second room, you want to have the walls far enough apart from each other that the depthfade effect, will completely black them out.

    After the second "room" is built you will add the depthfade effects. Position these close enough to where the player will be when they interact with whatever will render them unconscious. This will have to be done through dialogue for the best effect. The depth fade is designed to blackout everything around the player. It will hide all the walls and decorations of the first room until they can be properly hidden.

    The process go something like this.
    Create the dialogue for the transition. Something like.

    Prompt 1"You reach out to take the treasure, and feel a hard thump on the back of your neck." Response "continue"
    Prompt 2"You slip into unconsciousness, the room going black around you." Response "Continue"
    Prompt 3"As you slip in and out of awareness, you sense that you are being carried."
    Prompt 4"Your not sure how long you have been out, but you feel cold stone under your back. Response : "Open your eyes"

    you can add or change, but it works best with 4 to set up the transition

    On prompt one, nothing will happen.

    On prompt two The black depthfade's will appear, making everything around the player and all but a small bit of floor black.

    On prompt three, with everything well hidden you disappear the old room's details and appear the new rooms. If you set your depthfade's up right, with enough space between the player and any walls or objects(in both rooms), they should never see any of the swaps happen. The way the Depthfade works is that the further something is set into the fade, the darker it gets. So if you don't have enough depthfade extending past an object, you will still be able to see it faintly.

    On prompt 4 you then disappear the depthfade and presto, the player is in a jail cell with no loading screen and no apparent change in scenery, as it was all hidden in blackness. The only thing they would notice is the floor changing, but this can be made less apparent by interesting dialogue during the transition, or by positioning the object that causes the blackout to position the camera away from the floor or ceiling during the dialogue.

    To save on complexity, it is best to then change maps soon. For example, have the door leaving the cell transport to a new map, or have them leave the cell, and move to a new door a short distance away, all within this second room of course.

    A time saving tip is that depending on how you design your room, you don't really need to disappear most of the first setups details, as they will be hidden behind walls of the second setup.

    It is best to not use ambient sounds on this map, but place-able sounds that can be triggered on and off with dialogue.

    Other ways to use this would be change the color of the depth fade and add random objects "floating" around the player, as in a dream to coincide with dialogue.

    Hope this gives some inspiration.
  • zocat1zocat1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 27 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    mosby1 wrote: »
    Cool idea, I'll see what I can do with it.

    Also - someone (I forget who, sorry) had a neat effect where you fade to black, and wake up somewhere else. I think that was the idea anyway. Anyone got a link for that thread?

    http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?233541-Fade-to-Black-w-scenery-change

    This one?
  • levitatemelevitateme Member Posts: 48 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    i wish we had the ability to 'fork' other people's quests as though it were github or at least given permission to fork. This is a great example as to why such a capability would be nice to have. Rather than have to explain how to do something, people could load it up into foundry and *see* how.
    Currently working on : Shopping Mall Security (NW-xxxxxxxxx)
    Author of the LGBT quest: Alternative Entertainment (NW-DHQPDNBZM)
  • zitpopperzitpopper Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I think this is a great idea, and would be awesome as a tutorial sticky for future reference as you build the studio! And thank you crok2 for pasting that depthfade tutorial... I'm getting ideas! LOL
  • nubsorsnubsors Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Taking a look at the quest right now.
    Here is my Quest. I plan to make it a story arch.
    NW-DBW5IYNH3
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    izatar wrote: »
    It would be cool if you could add a 'real' chest too.

    Done!
    izatar wrote: »
    I have also created a way to make random stuff happen, if you want to try it. This is something that is sort of complex so really needs a demo, and I don't have time to do it.

    That works great! I improved it a bit I think. Basically I have two doors (A and B). On top of those, are the two doors you describe (C and D). I spawn the encounters right away (with a dialogue option), and when they are both complete, a component (an "Orb of Chance") appears. Interacting with that component will cause my doors (A and B) to vanish. Since C or D appears when the encounters are complete, this prevents the flash you mentioned.

    It also makes the result of the "coin flip" appear to happen immediately (since the result was actually decided before the Orb of Chance appeared). I also think it adds to the drama to use a grate as the door so you can see the two possible fates, but that would depend on your story of course.

    Check it out, I think you'll like it. Good luck, I hope you get tails! :D
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • izatarizatar Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,161 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Very very cool!
    Took me 5 tries to get tails, story of my life :p

    EDIT: you might post this on the google+ "neverwinter foundry" page.
  • crok2crok2 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Silverstars Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    (lol izatar.)
    I should probably tag this so I remember to check it out and can find it later :)
  • slatraslatra Member Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Continue this project, please.

    I was just asking about illusionary walls yesterday. I got a quick answer and it's the same one explained in this quest... but not everyone can count on a quick answer.

    rated and commented.
    Trading reviews with anyone that is willing to leave a comment/review in either of the following quests:

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  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    slatra wrote: »
    Continue this project, please.

    Thanks. I got a lot of very positive responses, so I'll keep it going.

    I'm trying to demonstrate Hercooles' blackout effect now, but that one takes a lot of work to make it convincing.

    Anyone have any other tricks they want to see?
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • madbiskitmadbiskit Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I'll check this later
    Neoma - Mindflayer
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    I added an NPC who will let you pick lots of different lighting options, to see what they look like.
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • guitarzan698guitarzan698 Member Posts: 384 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    This sound's like a great idea. I'll be sure to check it out. Try to go over as many tricks as you can think of, please.
  • crok2crok2 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Silverstars Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    back to the top!
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    Added blackout/wake up in new location (based on the approach from Hercooles). I tried to keep it as bare-bones as possible (so as not to hide the trick too much), but this effect really depends on distracting the player with a convincing plot device.

    I'll start work on Zovya's new animated cut-scene soon.

    For the "showroom" area, I've mostly included the small, animated magical effects. Would anyone find it useful to see rooms of furnishings and such?
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    Added a new section for home-made traps. The first one is a "crushing walls" trap. It works pretty well on the levels I've tested it at. I'm not familiar with all class skills though - do any classes get a teleport skill that might let them escape it? If so, I may need to tweak it or they could get stuck.

    Since this is in the DM's Studio (not a real quest) - you can talk to the NPC and he'll let you out before the trap kills you.

    It also uses a few blood-spatter projectors, with a brief explanation on how to set your P/W/R values to get them to work.

    I've got lots of ideas for other traps to add too. Anyone have any suggestions for a type of trap you'd like to see?
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • famkinfamkin Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 9 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I've been meaning to play around with a pit trap, having a marker cause the floor to drop away when over it.
    Monster Research - NW-DIZ2C7YWJ
    Authoring tool to test nearly all encounters in the foundry.
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    I got a couple reports of flakiness with the blackout feature, and the wall trap. If you run into any problems with those, please let me know what happened, and what class/level you were playing. Thanks!
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • nullwolf1nullwolf1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I just ran through the studio, a couple of minor typos on the FX DM (I believe it was) tooltup instead of tooltip (just in his dialog though).

    I'll probably revisit from time to time to refresh my memory. ^_^ (And see new additions.)

    Edit - Going back right now actually as I seem to have missed the trap DM LOL.

    Edit 2 - OK, yeah, didn't actually see the Trap DM, just the Trapped Door. :-/ Map shows him in that spot, but I couldn't see him, so couldn't interact with him.
  • mosby1mosby1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 288 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    Yeah - use the door, and that sets off the trap. The door will open to the DM before the trap kills you.

    But, it's very flakey when published. Works every time in the Foundry, but for some reason the trap and the blackout effect kick me back to the respawn point instead of leaving me in the same spot. No idea why yet, still tweaking things. Thanks for the spelling catch. :)
    DM's Studio - NW-DHZ5DAV4R
    The Cursed Emerald:
    1. Weird of the Weather-witch -- NW-DEZAK4QPA
    2. The Ambitious Apprentice -- NW-DLRAVW4S4
  • pixelb0xpixelb0x Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 24 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    mosby1 wrote: »
    For the "showroom" area, I've mostly included the small, animated magical effects. Would anyone find it useful to see rooms of furnishings and such?

    I would! There are some objects that don't display on the thumbnail view. It'd be great to see if there are any "hidden gems" of objects we normally wouldn't know about without heavy exploration.

    Thanks!
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