Questions for a new Foundry User - any advice appreciated.:)

alundros

So I was incredibly fond of the NWN toolset, and had got a borderline endless ammount of enjoyment from that, so here I go, trying to pick up this toolset. I've spent about 3-4hrs so far, just mucking around with the toolset, creating various test environments to get a grasp of how different mechanics work individually, and in doing so, I've got a list of questions. Some of these are "why isn't this working" and some are "is this possible". So bare with me, and any help or advice would be very much appreciated.:)

1) Encounters - I tested out setting up sets of encounters, of various types in a standard simple room, and in every case, all but 1-2 mobs would agro, but there would always be at least 1 mob in that encounter, that would simply stand there and not fight, engage, or follow anyone. As I've seen this work countless times in other Foundry missions, I'm not sure whats wrong.

2) Single Mob Fights and Mob Types - This is a two part question. I've seen on multiple occasions, a single fight with a larger npc, in the example for both questions, I will cite a large golem. First, how do you create a single harder fight, or more custom fights (example, 2 golems on opposite side of a hallway, as opposed to one at the end of the hallway). Secondly, I've noticed many creature types (golem as the example), that aren't listed in the encounter list, but are listed in the NPC list (and I've found no way to create an aggressive NPC to solve the above question).

3) Scripted/Conditional Events - I've been sifting through trying to find a way, if it exists, to create scripted events that occur either when a condition occurs, or until it occurs. Example would be near the end of he Linkletter quest, you have portals that spawn waves of mobs, until you destroy two objects, which then shuts down the portal. This would be an example of a scripted event (the spawning of encounters of mobs), that continue until a condition happens (destroying two objects). Can the same concept currently be done in the toolset?

4) Trigger Objects for Conditions - This one is a very specific question. I know its possible to create a conditional object, say "talking to person X" when then triggers an event. However, is it possible to create essentially pressure plates, that don't require any interaction, but the game can detect if a player is standing on them, much like a trap trigger, that can then trigger other events. Example being the common "Step on this tile to open this door".

5) Conditional Event Chaining - Last question, I promise.:) A simple example of a conditional event is a trap. You step on the trigger mechanic, end result is the triggered trap. Is it possible to create multiple events that trigger off each other - example: Someone fails to avoid/disarm a trap, triggering it, which in turn triggered a trap that didn't have a pressure trigger, but was tied to the previous trap.


There we go, the questions that I had immediately on my mind. I appreciate any help or guidance the community can be on this, and I look forward to creating content that I hope my fellow players will enjoy as much as I enjoy making it.:)

-Velinfor

apocrs1980

1. The AI in preview mode for the foundry is dumbed down, this means that the encounters will not act properly in some cases fighting and pathing as to load all of the nodes to do this would take ages however once published they should behave properly.

2. Use the HARD sets of encounters for these you can re-skin the mobs to look like anything available in the NPC costume list, just select the mobs that you like the abilities and health of.

3. this is possible to a degree, (using the Linkletter encounter as an example) although there currently is not any timed triggers you can set it to where more packs of enemies spawn as a daisy chain off of one another so when one pack dies they other pack is set to appear when "component complete" is reached from the previous encounter. I have encounter A and B I set for encounter B to appear when component complete and choose encounter A as my component, now when the player kills encounter A encounter B spawns.
Then you can set all encounters and portal FX to disappear when objective complete (destroy crystal stands) or component complete and select the crystal stand as the object. You can find many work arounds just think outside the box a bit when you get into tricky situations and you will come up with a solution

4&5. Same as above but it is limited you can use a Marker and set the radius to act as a trap trigger and then set a graphic or make a static door disappear and a working door appear when the marker is reached, but for official traps they are always static so you have to be creative with your traps. such as a floor disappears or a encounter spawns.

I hope I was able to help you out some.

zovya

Everything you've asked is possible. Check out these manuals. They cover it all and more.

brutalulz

umm why you guys didnt make a mac version?

alundros

So I followed up on the things you said, and I appreciate the advice! So some further questions based on your answers above:

Regarding the mob packs and adjusting the costume - I noticed that, and its pretty useful to know. A couple of observations and issues I'm having still. Since you're simply changing the costume, the visual on a given pack of mobs, it doesn't actually change the sound. An orc that's been disguised as a giant metal golem, still seems to sound like an orc - this might just be a failed observation on my part, but sure seemed to be the case.

The other thing, is how do you create a single individual enemy, and not a full encounter? None of the encounters were single individual mobs, so for mob placement and setting up where you want mobs to be - as well as creating single individual mob "boss" style fights, I still didn't see a solution to.

Thanks again for all the advice, and I'll be sitting down and going through the tutorials that I saw posted, sometime tomorrow.

-Velinfor

apocrs1980

Sure thing,

Yes the sound we are unable to change, so unfortunately that Nasher is still going to yell out "cut em' down!" even if they are dressed like a golem. >.<

and there are single encounters you can use in the HARD selection, the Wight Battle Commander is the one I frequently used, they will have a picture of 1 actor in the preview window.

alundros

Thanks again for the info.;) I've still got a lot more questions on my list to tick off for an idea I've got in my head, but I won't spam you with more questions! Tutorial/Manual next, then more questions.:) No idea how I never saw that commander though...

-Velinfor

alundros

I have another question to add from something I noticed doing a foundry run today - I was fighting fire elementals, that were clearly initially ogres (as thats what achievement credit I was going), that had its costume switched to a fire elemental. That said, it was clearly using fire-style abilities that you'd expect from a fire elemental.

Will mobs use abilities that are tied to the base encounter, or will they actually pull their abilities from their costume?

-Velinfor

tilt42

Base encounter only. The costume only affects the visuals.

thiagomag

Hello there!

If you need a manual, I will link you both the Neverwinter Wiki and the Community Foundry Manual:

Wiki: http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Neverwinter_Wiki

Community Manual: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?116961-Community-Foundry-Manual

I hope those help, and I will gladly help you should you have questions!

alundros

Thank you for that information, I'm slowly sifting through it.;) One question that was further down my list, but I was reminded of doing a dungeon today - is there a way for players to recreate walls similar in concept to these: http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/575/forcewall.jpg

Essentially a transparent wall, much like a forcefield, that you can see through, but not pass through, until a condition is met.

Thanks again for all the great information everyone has given so far.:)

-Velinfor

nezroy123

alundros wrote: »

Essentially a transparent wall, much like a forcefield, that you can see through, but not pass through, until a condition is met.

There are invisible walls that have full collision and prevent the player from going through. You can combine that with another FX object or something similar to create the desired visual effect. You can then have the invisible wall set to disappear on a specific quest/component objective, along with disappearing whatever visual FX/items you used to visualize the wall.

saavenger

I have a question myself. What height (Z?) do you have to set doors and corridors so that they matches the ceilar of the human interior (or in short how do you handle stories/height)

edit: worse is I fumbled, found what I think is right height (-10) and I can see the ceilar from the corridor I added but when I'm in the ceilar I don't see the corridor/door at all ??

musty

I always edit doors in 3d mode. It saves me a ton of frustration.

When placing the door, be careful of your surroundings. on some maps what you may think is the main floor of the map may not necessarily be. Place your door in a open accessible area and move it from there in 3d Mode.