How to Create Interior / Exterior Map Combinations

slinkyal

You want to make a village with buildings you can enter and exit at will? There are many limitations inherent in the foundry which make this a difficult proposition. First and foremost, you cannot use the same map twice, so by traditional methods you would need to have a new outdoor map every time the player left a building, and a new indoor map every time the player reenters a structure. Very soon your player would spend more time staring at a load screen than actually playing.

There is a solution, but like everything else it has it's limitations. Like every work around it can be difficult and time consuming.

Build your structures on an outdoor map, piece by piece, from the ground up.

How? Well, I am here to tell you.

LIMITATIONS

• Detail Budget - Constructing these buildings can swiftly consume your entire budget, larger elements have higher costs. Know your constraints.
• Time Budget - Some people have a real life and can not spend all day constructing a fantasy village board by board, if that is you I do not suggest this method.
• Camera Clipping - It has not happened to me, but I have heard complaints and warnings that having a Detail roof can cause camera functionality problems, it has been described as the camera "hanging up" on the environment. The higher the ceiling the better, 20 foot minimum, 40 feet better, 80 feet safe zone. For me there is a trade off, I dislike loadscreens.
• Aggro Radius - If you spawn mobs in tight spaces, say two rooms on the same level, it is possible that an adjacent group of hostile characters will "come to the aid" of their compatriots. This may result in unwanted encounter stacking and increase the difficulty of your adventure. To avoid this, I suggest using place markers to spawn your mobs only when needed. Put a Place Marker with a radius of 10 feet directly in front of the door which spawn the mobs inside the room. That way only the mobs you need will be around and reduce the risk of encounter stacking. If the encounters are objectives, do your quest progression room by room and not building by building.
• Combat Glitches - I have noticed a tendency for mobs to get stuck behind open doors, put with careful placement this can be avoided.

Execution

• Numeric Placement - To speed your construction, do not try to eye it, be swift, be precise, be numeric. Start with your first element, make sure it is at 0 degrees rotation, put it somewhere with a round location number, example X = 250, y = 9, Z = 1350. If you are placing floor tiles that are 40 feet wide, you can now simply add 40 to the appropriate axis to place your next object precisely and quickly.
• 2D and 3D - Remember, 3D is fun but has it's limitations. If you construct and entire building but then notice the ground is sticking through the floor, you can switch back to 2D mode, select the entire building and rotate it as a group, or move the whole group as a single unit.
• Skyfades - This kinda goes with limitations as well. If you have an exterior map, with exterior lighting, even though you are pretending / faking having interiors they will still be lit as if they were exteriors. To combat this flaw, use indoor skyfades strategically placed. This will eliminate the unusual disjunction of light on interior walls which should be in shadow, and the effect, if executed properly, is super cool!

How To...
Build a Human Village Structure.
Elements:

• Human Interior - Movable Wall 01 - basic wall, half brick half stone.
• Human Interior - Movable Wall Doorway - similar with a doorway and wooden beams at each vertical end.
• Movable wood Beam/Column - a separate wood beam needed to connect wall sections
• Human Interior Door 01 - A one time use door that opens and fits into the doorway
• Human Building Trim 06 - flipped 180 degrees on it's Z axis works well as a floor
• Human Building Base 01 - (optional) sunk into the ground works well as a brick foundation.
• Human Building Stairs 01 - (optional) if you add a foundation you will need stairs and these work, the other stairs have a weird geometry which is only visible on one side and ruins the effect.
• Human Building Rooftop 01-03 - offer veriations of room that work well with this method.
• Mm Stairs Mod 01 & 02 and Mm Stairs Mod Upstairs 01 - The only workable indoor stairs model I have found. They fall a little short of the twenty feet needed to accommodate the walls and must be stacked two high to work.
• Fireplace Unlit 01 - Has a full chimney which will extend out of a single story structure, with a limitation...
• Human Chimney 01 - If using the fireplace you will note they left off a bit at the bottom, use this object flipped 180 degrees on it's Z axis to fill in the missing portion of the lower
• Human Building Window 04 & 05 - 04 light, 05 dark, these two circular windows should be placed opposite each other, light on the outside wall, dark on the inside for nighttime and vice versa for daytime.

These objects can be combined in any way you see fit to make an entire village.


Build a Traditional Castle with a Fortified Wall
Elements: Gate and Wall
Gate

• Blackdagger Keep Gate 01 - Best gate for a traditional fortified wall, nice and thick.
• Dungeon Portcullis Large - This is the best, not ideal, door for your gate. It will not give any clipping, but has holes in it which your players can see through to the other side.
• Crypt Door - Iron Large & Crypt Door - Wooden Large - These alternative doors block player's line of sight but have clipping issues and don't fit snuggly in the Keep Gate opening. Each door, Iron and Wooden, come in 2 sizes, 11 and 13 feet wide, but all are 40 feet tall. They must be either sunk in the ground, making the clicky weird, or into the tower making clipping issues, to fit into the opening.

Fortified Wall

• Blackdagger Keep Wall - a straight wall which matches the Keep Gate, the outside is plain, the inside has a slightly recessed arch, a good little nook for a statue.This Gate has a walkable path along it's top and has crenulated fortifications.
• Blackdagger Keep Tower Wall Trans 01 & 02 - Two sloped walls which match the Keep Gate and the Straight Wall. Unlike the straight wall, these sloped walls do not have the recessed arch on the inside wall. This wall has a walkable path along it's top and has crenulated fortifications.
• Blackdagger Keep Wall Corner 01 - This is a 45 degree corner for the wall, this variation has a truncated version of the recessed inside wall arch and extends slightly passed the area needed for a corner. This wall has a walkable path along it's top and has crenulated fortifications.
• Blackdagger Keep Wall End Cap 01 - This is also 45 degree corner for the wall, this variation does not have the recessed inside wall arch because it is shorter and has only enough wall to account for the corner. This wall has a walkable path along it's top and has crenulated fortifications.
• Blackdagger Keep Wall Corner Out 01 - This is a 45 degree corner for the wall, tis variation is the inverse of the other two, check it out you'll see what I mean. This variation has the slightly recessed inside wall arch. This wall has a walkable path along it's top and has crenulated fortifications.
• Blackdgger Keep Wall Broken 01 & 02 - Obvious, but the walk way is interrupted
• Blackdagger Keep Tower 01 - Obvious but to make it work you may have to put some corners together to keep unwated visitors out.

Elements: Castle Interior and Exterior
Exterior

• Blackdagger Keep Wall Stairs 01 - You may be tempted to use the keep wall as the walls to your castle, if so be my guest, but I use these stairs flipped 180 degrees on the Z axis as the wall. It is more narrow than the keep wall and does not have the recessed inner wall arch, and it's slight color variation from the walls adds some, well, variety. A single row of inverted stairs will accommodate a 40 foot high castle, any higher and you would have to stack stair cases.
• Blackdagger Keep Tower Wall Arch 01 - This object, in conjunction, with the flipped stairs is an excellent entrance to your castle. Unlike Blackdagger Keep Gate 01, it is much more narrow and will take less space. I will not list the optional doors again, but I will mention that the door opening space has the same limitations, portcullis best, Crypt Doors look nice.
• Dwarven Building Kit Pillar 01-06 - flipped 90 degrees on their X axis and you have decorative trim for your castle's roof. They are all 40 feet tall and would also work as columns or structural supports for your castles exterior. The coloration of these elements work passably with the Blackdagger look.
• Dwarven Building Kit Roof Dome 01 - Don't be fooled by the name, there is no dome here. Flipped 180 degrees on its Z axis this works well as a courtyard / castle floor, but it is 9 feet thick.
• Keep - Platform - Floortile 01 - no need for flipping and this object matches the Blackdagger look better, but it is 12 feet thick.
• Either one of the two floors listed above work well as a courtyard and a first floor of your castle, but their thickness prevents them from easily being used as the floor for any interior levels. You may be tempted to use Blackdagger Keep Floortile 02, but it is only 21x21 and will take twice as many elements to cover the same space as either above listed floor options.

Interior

• Partition Wall 20x20 - Partition Wall 20x40 - Partition Wall 40x20 - Partition Wall 40x40 - Partition Wall 80x20 - Partition Wall 80x40 - Partition Wall Column 20ft 01 - Partition Wall Column 40ft 01 - Partition Wall Column 80ft 01 - These all work as interior wall and can be combined to suit your needs.
• Volume Gate - Crypt Partition Wall 01 - Secret door which will blend seamlessly with the other walls for secret doors.
• Transition Door - Wood Openable - Again, don't be fooled by the name, no transition here. These doors can be used to open, only once, and are 20 feet high. Assuming you have 20 foot stories these door will fit perfectly between floors and not need additional trim along the tops or sides to fit them.
• Human Building Trim 06 - flipped 180 degrees on it's Z axis works well as a floor. Because this object is only 3 feet thick, it works well as interior floors.

Alternatively, you could use elements of the Dwarven Building kit to make a castle, combined with the partition walls, but there would be a disunity with the Blackdagger Keep Walls. But you get the point.


Conclusion
These two examples are only a small selection of the myriad possibilities of interior / exterior maps. The addition of the Dungeon Builder kit and the Thay objects has increased interior / exterior map options to a huge degree. I cannot document them all.

Tips, there are even some buildings which are hollow and can be used in a similar manner to those constructed by you, including Old Red Barn, Ruins, Sunken Tower - Top and a few of the Thay buildings. For more building options filter for Vellosk, Netherese, Dwarf (or Dwarven), Thay or simple check Type - Builing Pieces in your asset library.

slinkyal

So you have built your structure, now you are constructing your quest and you need to lock a door?

Well, I am here to tell you how.

Regular Unlock Door Objectives do not work with placeable detail doors, so you need a different approach.

First, let us understand how placeable detail doors work regularly. When you filter for door details you will be presented with two types of doors, one type is strictly for show and will not open, the other is a one-time-use door which will open with no effort from you other than placing it where players can access it. How can you tell the difference? The simplest method is to look at the representation in the asset library. If the door is flat, it can not be opened, if it seems odd, like it is showing you both the open and closed states at once, then it can be opened. The exceptions to this are the sewer gate and portcullis, which do show you both states, but since both are flat it can be confusing, in those instances choose the taller instance of the door.

I am posting during shard maintenance, so I will update later with a detailed list of all doors which can be used like this, though simple trial and error will show which is which.

How to make an Unlock Door objective for a detail door

Assuming you have placed you door, and all you need now is to make an objective. There are two methods, both work the same.

Place an invisible wall detail in front of your door. Create the "key" item. Then make a Interact with Object objective, select the invisible wall as the detail, and select Required Item, choose the "key". Then on the invisible wall's properties select Disappear When This Objective Complete.

Some people have difficulty manipulating invisible walls, for those people there is an alternative. There are two versions of every door detail, one opens the other does not. For this method, place the non-opening door. Create the "key" item. Then make a Interact with Object objective, select the non-opening door as the detail, and select Required Item, choose the "key". Then on the non-opening door's properties select Disappear When This Objective Complete. Now place the opening version of that door IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT and have it appear when the objective you just made is complete.

Of course, if you want player to have to unlock doors, but do not what that to be a quest objective, simply use one of the methods above but make the doors / invisible walls interactives instead.