an idea i had for a foundry improvement

poppawoodie

Im just a free player but i recently starting tinkering with the foundry making content and i came up with an idea that would make the foundry a little more user friendly. not sure if you guys can or even wanna bother with something like this but i thought id share my idea anyway.

Anyone who has messed with the foundry knows when you create a map and place a contact object or person on the map, sometimes its difficult to see some details of the room and you end up having to place them and tweak them several times to get them just where you want them. My idea is to make it possible to enter a map, and place the object with your foundry character/ ship inside of the map,so you can "eyeball" the placement of the object,npc you are trying to place. that way you can adjust it while you are looking at it thru your foundry characters view.
i know its probably not something you guys might care to get into cause it sounds like its potentially alotta work for the devs. But it would greatly decrease the time it takes some people to create content cause they spend hours going in and out of a map orienting a forcefield, or moving a contact thats stuck in a wall or cut off by a table. and the map tabs window simply doesnt always show great detail. an example, half the targets/contacts i place anywhere on DS9 so far, atleast in the foundry i end up with an enemy in a wall or a contact in some crates that ya dont see on the map grid window.

Im sure if you added something like that, if its even at all possible with the games layout. ive used 3d chat programs where you can do the very thing im describing. placing something in the room using your mouse to place it and orient it where you want it to me. i know it can be done, and i would be completely addicted to the foundry if you ended up creating something like that. im sure any foundry dev will agree with me that it would be a massive time saver.

ajstoner

Not a bad system, most console games where you get to "decorate" areas usually go this route in fact. The main issue is that the foundry author requires a much greater degree of precision than this allows for and it would be a totally new foundry system that would have to be added to, and wrangled into working in tandem with, the old one. Given the state the tool is already in this would blow-up in everybody's face.

kirksplat

If I recall, the system can't handle something like this. It's not like the decade-old half-life 2 engine (where we can build like Garry's mod).

The reason that we have 2D editor to begin with is because every time an object moves, the map has to load a new version of itself. It can't handle it in real-time.

poppawoodie

yeah. thats too bad tho. i know there are engines out there that use it. was on one this morning. wont say the name of the program cause thats just rude. but as much money as PW has to be making on all their games,why dont they just splurge on an engine that can handle that. and then maybe more people will be inclined to create foundry content.. dont get me wrong, im not complaining. actually enjoying the foundry. but it would be soo much easier if i didnt hafta go in, come out, go in, come out.. id like to be able to be inside the map looking at the wall with my foundry character and mouse dragging the object exactly where i want it.. might even get more foundry masterpieces that way too.

stardestroyer001

It takes a while, but the current system works for me.

I usually do a lot of map-work in the editor, then test it out every two hours or so. I then write down every issue I've seen, and then make the necessary changes. Presto, you're not switching too often between the editor and the testing mode.

Also, I use the X/Y/Z coordinate system often, so I can place components exactly where I want them. For example, if I want a row of walls extending from left to right on the map, I set the Height to the same, and the Up/Down to the same coordinate values. Then, I just tinker with the Left/Right values to create a long, precise wall.