Future of Foundry

beatannier · February 2015

Let` be honest — current Foundry form is nothing more but just put already existing, well–known weak foe into the 2d net, decorate with a very limited models and finally add some npc to make restricted dialogues.

Yeah, we can add fancy text and scraps of fable, but it`s all.
Result: All Foundries looks same. Same foes, same heroes and same locations (few models, often repeating).
And in game has zero value — nobody plays it in end–game as there is no point of doing it.

You announce you are the only that gives us Foundry, yeah… but others gives us (modders players) all required assets to make an unrestricted, full quality content they adds into game. Why not follow them?

Public SDK
Public material assets, model editors etc.
Let us use SDK togheter with new content from assets to inject into Foundry game files
Give us AL9 instead of AL3 so we can test new content wrote in SDK
Let us submit the new content we made (like new map location, new skirmish or the whole dungeon with new foes/bosses)
Appoint community Foundry managers from most experienced modders to pre–filter submits
Finally, verify the new, community modders submitted content and release it if it passes, giving authors symbolic reward as in–game item/skin (like a mount/skin etc).

TL;DR Let us make the content.

reiwulf · February 2015

I'd love to be able to actually upload content, both models, textures, and music! custom music can really make it feel like a different game altogether.

torontodave · February 2015

beatannier wrote: »

Let` be honest — current Foundry form is nothing more but just put already existing, well–known weak foe into the 2d net, decorate with a very limited models and finally add some npc to make restricted dialogues.

While I agree with your enthusiasm for putting lots of love into the foundry, I disagree with this statement. ;D

Even with the existing foundry we can create fantastical adventures.. Much BETTER quests than the dailies we get. If you want an example of this, check out the quest in my signature. ;D See if you like it.. ;D

dragoness10 · February 2015

Okay from a former Dev of Neverwinter Night Classic side I can see some problems with this.

As a player you'd like the variety, and customization to make any quest uniquely your own. This is understandable. However, this unfortunately can leak in malicious hacks and exploits as well if items/ NPCs / outfits / commands are uploaded from an external source. I'd warned a NWNC server before on allowing people to upload any areas (stores, custom house, guild house, etc) they wanted to without going through the files first. Sadly, they didn't listen, and the players suffered for it as a few unscrupulous people kept making problems for the Devs to sort out. Crashes ensued, code conflicts, illegally imported items giving benefits in PvP and PvE had to be removed, and even security of player's private info (such as IP addresses) went into jeopardy.

What to do now then?
A possible compromise:
Allow players to upload content to include in Foundries, BUT make publishing take at least 3 days so Devs have a chance to sort through new Foundries to check for exploits. Beta Foundries not completed may be an exception to this to ensure Foundry Authors can still test them before publishing. Any Foundries found to have exploits or hacks in them will be removed before Approved Publishing.

How's that sound?

mrgiggles651 · February 2015

May as well ask for a pony. The Devs aren't going to check foundries for exploits. For one thing far too many foundries get produced to make that possible. They're not going to allow texture/music/model/etc uploads for IP reasons, they said so back during Foundry beta.

If you want the power of the Neverwinter Nights 1/2 toolsets, well, those toolsets still give you all the power you ask for, and plenty of people still play and make new content for them.

imaginaerum1 · February 2015

We're still waiting after all this time for a simple sit animation (already in the game), plus a plethora of details that we've requested (also already in the game), and various NPC clothing, costume, and monster options (also also already in the game).
I don't see them adding a bunch of extra code and taking the time to properly vet uploaded content when we can't even get some of the basics that are already in the game added to the Foundry, and the dev team being busy with other stuff as evidenced by the last few Featured updates all being reruns.

mrgiggles651 · February 2015

imaginaerum1 wrote: »

We're still waiting after all this time for a simple sit animation (already in the game), plus a plethora of details that we've requested (also already in the game), and various NPC clothing, costume, and monster options (also also already in the game).
I don't see them adding a bunch of extra code and taking the time to properly vet uploaded content when we can't even get some of the basics that are already in the game added to the Foundry, and the dev team being busy with other stuff as evidenced by the last few Featured updates all being reruns.

True, there's the asset request thread where among many other people pointing out things like missing details, I pointed out that many of the big wants and long desired things like timers have existed in official game content at launch, complete with exactly where they were and how they were used. I gave up on identifying content that existed in game but not in Foundry, because a) there was so much despite us being promised that everything that could be done in official content could be done in Foundry, and b) nothing was ever done about the long list of stuff that was compiled, not even a "hey thanks for this list".

bardaaron · February 2015

Allowing players to import their own textures & images would lead to major quality control issues. A lot textures would just be BAD, and inconsistent with the rest of the game. I vote against it.

However, I would be all for them giving us access to every texture, and an editor that lets us render the 3D frames and so forth onto which those textures would be applied. This would allow us to use wood textures currently available to create wood floors, railings, decks, stairs, walls, desks, and so forth. We could make statues that aren't the same 5 statues seen EVERYWHERE IN FAERUN APPARENTLY. We could make walls, floors, and objects of different sizes and textures. In fact the possibilities are endless, even without letting us make new textures.

eldarth · February 2015

There are major problems dealing with terrain modification, models, and uploading custom sounds.

You would immediately have hundreds of foundries containing:

Phallus Forest
Swamp of farting, sex noises, and random curse words

And as mentioned, there is no way, especially with severly limited development resources to validate the hundreds of foundries that get published probably daily. Not gonna happen.

tipadaknife · February 2015

I disagree that all foundries look the same. The premade maps are there for beginning authors, but most of the skilled authors here have long moved past those, and their maps look absolutely unique. I am stunned by what people do with these tools.

I'm a developer, though not for a game company. Nonetheless, I know how things that seem easy to implement can actually be kind of tricky, especially given a player base that absolutely will exploit anything they can.

Sure, I would absolutely love just to be able to save, load, and trade costumes. Just that would be amazing. But...

If you're seeing foundries that all look alike, you're not playing the right foundries

eldarth · February 2015

tipadaknife wrote: »

If you're seeing foundries that all look alike, you're not playing the right foundries

Exactly. I'd be interested to hear of any foundries with the interactivity of my Under Siege, or the above/below terrain customization of my Gruumsh's Tower of Conquest, or the detail of my Arena of Calimport.

huajia2 · February 2015

Sorry, but I wouldn't at all be interested in that. If you want 100% original content - then create your own game with the programs and tools out there to do so. That's not what the foundry is for. It's for making new quests in the NW world - and I don't think I've played two foundries I felt looked alike once, let alone played the same way.

I'd much rather see them add in the assets they haven't made available yet and fix the long list of bugs in the foundry than worry about being able to upload content. As others have said, the need to screen through such content would be nothing short of a giant headache. With the foundry getting so little attention as it is - the last thing I'd want is for it's resources to be spent screening player created uploads rather than fixing the glitches that have needed attention for months and months.

feuygar · February 2015

Eldarth.

If you're looking for hand-built maps with lots of detail (and a story), then I think you've enjoy my adventure. It is spread over 7 maps, is not heavily focused on combat, but I've hit the ceiling for adding details (for a single quest) at 9781

422 - Yeenoghu's Bride

NW-DUMTEJ9KZ

I've added a couple of pics below to whet your appetite.

A pyramid temple solely used to add backdrop flavour

Golden%20Temple%20of%20Bahumet_zpswgfen6mi.jpg

Creating new designs from rotating and merging objects

Building complexes on a grand scale

I hope you'll enjoy it.

Feuygar

valcontar73 · February 2015

feuygar wrote: »

Eldarth.

If you're looking for hand-built maps with lots of detail (and a story), then I think you've enjoy my adventure. It is spread over 7 maps, is not heavily focused on combat, but I've hit the ceiling for adding details (for a single quest) at 9781

422 - Yeenoghu's Bride

NW-DUMTEJ9KZ

I've added a couple of pics below to whet your appetite.

A pyramid temple solely used to add backdrop flavour

Creating new designs from rotating and merging objects

Building complexes on a grand scale

I hope you'll enjoy it.

Feuygar

wow lot of work here, and it's very amazing!!! Will try later!

reiwulf · February 2015

If we actually got all assets aviable in game, including emotes, costumes, assets, and better rewards, much more people would be playing the quests, that's for sure.

eldarth · February 2015

feuygar wrote: »

If you're looking for hand-built maps with lots of detail (and a story), then I think you've enjoy my adventure. It is spread over 7 maps, is not heavily focused on combat, but I've hit the ceiling for adding details (for a single quest) at 9781

422 - Yeenoghu's Bride
NW-DUMTEJ9KZ

Nice. I'll have to check it out.

reiwulf · February 2015

The first pyramid is outstanding, I don't recognize the assets, how did you do it?

feuygar · February 2015

The golden pyramid is made from Thayan roof and corner roof pieces (about 150 of them), turned 90 degrees and stacked on top of each other to give the effect.

I'm happy to share any tricks I've used, as I've tried to use assets in different ways to create what (hopefully) looks like a unique asset that you wouldn't find in the Foundry library

reiwulf · February 2015

I remember playing the quest with the bottom pyramid, it's one of the ones I always remember because of the uniqueness of it.
back to the original topic, I still think we should be able to upload music, you can always report something if it's copyright infringment and if we can't upload models, it would be awesome if we could scale available assets and retexture them. That would really give us the chance to make things that look much more unique too.
Even though we can make somewhat unique maps now, many of us already recognize the assets and it takes away some of the uniqueness of the maps.

bardaaron · February 2015

I wholeheartedly support the ability to scale assets. They already do this in-game with the statues among other things. Those giant armored statues are just too big for most situations I find myself wanting to use them in. Also, HEADS? WHY ARE THERE NO HEADS?

psyb3rtr011 · February 2015

eldarth wrote: »

There are major problems dealing with terrain modification, models, and uploading custom sounds.

You would immediately have hundreds of foundries containing:
Phallus Forest

Swamp of farting, sex noises, and random curse words

And as mentioned, there is no way, especially with severly limited development resources to validate the hundreds of foundries that get published probably daily. Not gonna happen.

I could so see most of this as a Temple of Sharess!

zahinder · February 2015

After giving up on Foundry I wandered off and discovered that free(ish) CGI is actually quite good nowadays.

I have no idea how far what Cryptic uses is from stuff like Daz or whatnot, but there is LOADS of content out there that could make for cool NW content.

Future of Foundry

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