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Cluster Object Brainstorm
crypticmapolis
Member, NW_CrypticDev, Cryptic Developer Posts: 240Cryptic Developer › Cryptic Developer
Greetings, Moonstar Elite!
Now that you've had a few days to explore the Foundry, I wanted to create this thread to come up with ideas for new cluster objects. First, here's a quick description of Clusters and how they work.
What are Cluster Objects?
A cluster is simply a group of objects that can be placed as a whole. Each individual object in that group can be moved or deleted, and each object automatically aligns itself to the height of the terrain. This works great for clusters of trees, grass, and rocks, but has many other potential uses!
How do I use clusters?
Cluster objects can be found in the "Clusters" tab in the right hand pane of the map editor. To place a cluster, simply drag and drop the object from the list onto your map. You can move and rotate the whole cluster by selecting the group, represented by a large grey circle. Currently, they only work on exterior maps with terrain, but we plan to enable them for use on interior maps as well.
Below is my own list of cluster objects I came up with, many of which are already added to the library. If you guys have any ideas for clusters that aren't on this list, please comment!
EXTERIORS:
Nature
- Rocks
- Trees
- Grass & Bushes
- Small Water Features (ponds, waterfalls, streams)
- Clusters for Different Nature Types:
- Snow-covered versions of all of the above
- lava flows/rocks
- Chasm/spellplague themed clusters
- Underdark/cave rock formations
Buildings
- Buildings with doors/windows/clutter around them
- Villages
- camps
- ruins
- graveyards/tombs
Infrastructure
- Paths
- Walls/fences
- Markers (torches, posts)
Misc
- Ground Fill
- corpses, battle debris
- rubble
- hay, dirt, pebbles
- Effects
- Fire
- Ground Fog
- Fireflies
INTERIORS (Not yet implemented):
Furniture
- Cluttered tables
- table/chair/booth arrangements
- Bar
- Bedroom arrangements
- Kitchen arrangements
- Books & Bookshelves
Clutter
- Crates & Barrels (I hate that store BTW)
- Misc items and debris (papers, potions, reagents, etc.)
- rubble
- drinks & food
Themed Sets
- Torture Devices, cages
- indoor foliage, vines, overgrowth
- spellplague cracks/fires
- Water drips, puddles
- Coffins/Sarcophagus
- Mining equipment/minecart and tracks
Thanks all!
Now that you've had a few days to explore the Foundry, I wanted to create this thread to come up with ideas for new cluster objects. First, here's a quick description of Clusters and how they work.
What are Cluster Objects?
A cluster is simply a group of objects that can be placed as a whole. Each individual object in that group can be moved or deleted, and each object automatically aligns itself to the height of the terrain. This works great for clusters of trees, grass, and rocks, but has many other potential uses!
How do I use clusters?
Cluster objects can be found in the "Clusters" tab in the right hand pane of the map editor. To place a cluster, simply drag and drop the object from the list onto your map. You can move and rotate the whole cluster by selecting the group, represented by a large grey circle. Currently, they only work on exterior maps with terrain, but we plan to enable them for use on interior maps as well.
Below is my own list of cluster objects I came up with, many of which are already added to the library. If you guys have any ideas for clusters that aren't on this list, please comment!
EXTERIORS:
Nature
- Rocks
- Trees
- Grass & Bushes
- Small Water Features (ponds, waterfalls, streams)
- Clusters for Different Nature Types:
- Snow-covered versions of all of the above
- lava flows/rocks
- Chasm/spellplague themed clusters
- Underdark/cave rock formations
Buildings
- Buildings with doors/windows/clutter around them
- Villages
- camps
- ruins
- graveyards/tombs
Infrastructure
- Paths
- Walls/fences
- Markers (torches, posts)
Misc
- Ground Fill
- corpses, battle debris
- rubble
- hay, dirt, pebbles
- Effects
- Fire
- Ground Fog
- Fireflies
INTERIORS (Not yet implemented):
Furniture
- Cluttered tables
- table/chair/booth arrangements
- Bar
- Bedroom arrangements
- Kitchen arrangements
- Books & Bookshelves
Clutter
- Crates & Barrels (I hate that store BTW)
- Misc items and debris (papers, potions, reagents, etc.)
- rubble
- drinks & food
Themed Sets
- Torture Devices, cages
- indoor foliage, vines, overgrowth
- spellplague cracks/fires
- Water drips, puddles
- Coffins/Sarcophagus
- Mining equipment/minecart and tracks
Thanks all!
Post edited by crypticmapolis on
0
Comments
1) Even with the current cluster of walls they tend to be a bit short. I was trying to make a city and i still needed about 20 clusters. can we get walls added to be longer?
2) I'm also wondering if you could actually have clusters of NPC contacts?
So a villager cluster, or a city guard cluster, a mage cluster etc.
Treehouse cluster in forest for watch-posts.
Hot spring fountains and baths.[water that comes from ground with high speed]
Freshly cut clearings in forest.[to show recent lumber activity]
Farms (Paddy fields, cotton fields, wheat fields, malt fields, hops fields etc.)
More will come up when I use it properly tomorrow.
- non-combatant swarms like a swarm of insects (think gnats or bees While I'm on it, include swarms in combat too [no options there when chosen.])
That's it off the top of my head.Farm cluster includes a small - medium house. crop field and fences.
And even interaction or speech already programmed to be going on between the npc's in the village..
And my favorite:
6. NPC clusters of people running in panic away from this fighting!
Village/towns folk for easy population of large cities with light walking set up
an angry mob with torches and pitchforks (in honour of every game forum ever).
City guards/watch - possibly in formation to suggest being ready for battle or training exercises.
Dead bodies to show a slaughter or a battle
Monks/priests gathering for a ceremony, perhaps praying
mages preparing a ritual, chanting and moving their hands
several other non human groups such as elves, dwarves, haflings.
e.g. You have a caravan. You can put carts and tent, but no cows or horses to show who pulled those carts. I am currently using pet gnolls though... but it is not realistic.
Also horses grazing in the grass.
The ability to create custom Clusters and save them.
Maybe a specific location you want to be able to re-use later on, a specific pattern or collection of traps or really anything that you want to use as a single unit.
Forest foilage cluster.
Sea shells and pebble cluster for beaches.
Shipwreck cluster.
~~~~~~~~
Regarding clusters, a temporary solution is that you can place things and copy them to paste them as group. I do it with farms. (multiple select after making a row and then copy paste the row).
**This is not an idea**
So I was working with clusters in foundry and I placed wall clusters. After some time, a specific type of wall from the cluster disappeared and I saw error saying 'component no longer exist in foundry library' (Stone wall cluster - a specific wall with [UNTRANSLATED] attached to it as postfix).
So I manually replaced the walls and not a big problem, but I just wanted to make sure:-
This is a "alpha test" related issue only, right? Because if such 'disappearances' are there when game goes live, many old foundry missions would need to be redone later.
EDIT: Thanks I just wanted reassurance.
I'm aware of the issue with the walls actually. I had a specific wall segment that wasn't properly tagged as a UGC object, so the foundry was rejecting it. We've added validation this morning to prevent this in the future.
Maybe I'll take a night off editing and let the patches do their thing. After all finished two basic mod layouts, working on a third (all campaign) and half the time I'm trying to figure out if things not working are me or bugs
EXTERIOR:
Battlefields.
INTERIOR:
Tavern
One thing that might be nice as well would be a variety of skins focusing on the various patron deities.
As far as tavern clusters, there is another option already available to you... some of the human interiors have Pre-population sets that are Tavern themed. (r-click the placed room, select pre-populate). Not a complete solution, but might help you out a bit, today.
Treasure piles (Gold, Silver, Gems)
Discarded Books
Cluster of Weaponry (Swords, Daggers, Axes, Crossbows, Bows)
Ship wreckage
Seaweed
Piles of Fish
Broken Glass
Surprised no broken glass, but confirmed not there. And DUH GJ to the treasure piles! Will come in handy for those treasure room scenes and future dragon's dens.
A must!
Just felt the need for it when I was using kobolds. When we have a dragon in game, we have to have a hoard which it guards!
While I'm thinking about it, a sound clip for those monster to only say Kolbold! No just kidding!
But I liked them in the main quest mission BTW. Nice use of traps!
A bookcase with interactive books in it, how in The Elder Scrolls did I miss that idea?!
There is one limitation to cluster objects that I have to bring up here. All objects within a cluster currently snap to the terrain. This means I can't actually stack things on shelves or tables, because they would fall to the ground when placed.
However, I can certainly make objects that have parts flagged as being interactable. For example, there's a house I added where if you make the whole house interactable, only the door will sparkle. So in the case of the bookshelf, I can make one or more books interactable in a full bookshelf, but I can't let you break the books apart from the shelf as separate objects.
With that in mind I still like hearing suggestions for pre-built objects like bookshelves, so that's great
This is no longer a big issue due to addition of vertical invisible walls.
But is it possible to have one vertical wall which does not sparkle when interact-able but is interact-able all over? Possible the 20x20x1?
Cluster idea:-
Snow capped peaks - A simple snow with snowman and other things which can be dragged and added to potions of map like the peaks of mountain etc.
You guys should say something after making such nice changes! Thanks for the crops and other clusters!!!!
EDIT: *trying to breath* OOooohhhh!!! Helm's hold! Hotenow! Out on ofundry so are many detailed outdoors .....
Instead of 3d models, if we can just get a 2d picture for FX, that would be fine.
EDIT:
And you added zoom bar in preview window too.
EDIT2:
lol, I feel like a foundry stalker.