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How to build a perfect custom map
diogene0
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Disclaimer: This isn't a "how to build your first custom map" guide. There are many tutorials on the internet. Check the StarbaseUGC website for more detailed information. This is an advanced guide summing up the issues I've had and the workarounds I used on my custom maps. Of course, this isn't an exhaustive guide. I can't tell you about something I never tried.
When you build your custom map, keep in mind the limits of the foundry:
- 500 assets per map
- 50 costumes per mission
- 100 buildings per map. Everything listed in the "building" tab will count as a building, even if you found it in the details tab.
- 20-30 or so contacts (not sure about this one) on a map
- around 100-150 NPCs on a map.
These limits may look generous, but it's really not. So, before you start building something that won't work, you need a plan.
I - You need to know exactly what you want to do.
As a general rule, you shouldn't waste your assets to hide little imperfections. Your asset limit is very low and your map don't need to be absolutely perfect to be fine. You need your player to think your map is good, you're not doing something to please your math teacher. Don't be a perfectionist. It won't work and you'll just waste time doing custom sets you'll never be able to use because you didn't respect the aforementioned quotas.
The easiest possibility is a custom interior map. Your player won't get outside the building, so you halved the number of issues. If your building/ship/cave/whatever is small, feel free do do anything you want. Just make sure to follow some basic rules: Do not overlap assets that should match perfectly. These assets will start blinking and the game engine doesn't like that. It happens often with basic platforms and walls. So, if you want to use two platforms, you will need to either hide the overlapped parts with smaller platforms/assets, or to leave a very small distance between your two platforms. The second option is the best, most of the times, because it's less asset consuming, and no one will ever notice or care that there is a 0.005m hole between your two assets. It's like building a parquet floor. You may overlap anything that doesn't match perfectly with the surrounding assets though.
Customizing exterior maps is more challenging. You have to deal with pre-made maps and none will fit with your project. Your player will be able to visit every part of the map. The more details and variety you want, the more complex it is, and at some point you have to give up on variety or details if you want to customize a larger part of the map.
So, when you want to make a custom exterior map (let's say a secret base hidden in the mountains, a village, a refugee camp, the lost Cardassian city or whatever map you have in mind), you should use the biggest assets you can. Place them first on the map so that you don't get into trouble later, it will allow you to see what you need to work on, what you need to hide, what will likely work and what will require more assets to hide the original map. This is extremely important. Don't start with a detail you absolutely want to add on your map. Fill the map first, place your platforms, ramps, large building 0x. Make sure your player can visit the most important areas. Then place the medium size assets and walls if you want a custom building on this map. You can work on details as soon as it's done, which means as soon as the part of the map you want to customize is half done and only needs a fountain, crates, statues, benches, consoles and stuff like that. You will be able to use all the remaining assets for your details.
When you work on details, you should start with the center of your customized exterior map (which may not be the center of the cryptic map), you will be able to sacrifice the surroundings if something gets wrong. Try to use the largest details you can. For instance, if you need a cell or a prison, don't build one from scratch, there are nice captivity devices. If you want a chair and tables, don't add a table with 10 chairs, use an existing table with chairs. Customizing sets is a good idea, as long as you're not getting crazy with originality or perfection, because a fully customized area is extremely small.
Sometimes, even if you follow these advices, you'll end up with FUBAR areas, hopefully in a minor room or in the surroundings of your custom area (because you followed my advices, right?) It happens. Don't get mad, just lock it up with invisible walls or other large props and focus on what works and what needs attention without eating all of your assets quotas.
II ? Dealing with the limited amount of contacts on the map
This may be an issue for the largest maps. If you want friendly NPCs on the map, you'll likely get a message you won't like saying there are too many contacts on the map. Fortunately, most of the times, very few NPCs need to be actual contacts. If you don't want your player to talk to them, you should use a friendly mob instead, unless you need hostile NPCs in the vicinity. It will also help you not to add useless contacts telling everyone about their life no one really cares about, which is a nice idea when you have 10 NPCs doing that, but a pain when you have 50 guys with an exclamation mark above their heads. You can give them costumes, and you can even animate the whole group! Just plan to use the 4 (capt 03) or 5 (ensigns only) NPCs, because you can only choose one animation per group. If you really don't want 4 NPCs then send the 3 or 4 extra NPCs inside the ground or inside a foundation block. Just keep your quotas in mind, and don't forget to change the names.
III ? Dealing with the limited number of costumes.
This is the easiest part. You don't need one costume for each NPC. Most of the times, you can't see any difference. So, unless you want to rebuild the tower of Babel with 150 races, you may only have 5-6 costumes per race (2-3 males, 2-3 females), no one will ever notice that. You will also save a lot of time you'd have wasted for something completely useless.
To conclude, keep in mind that the "perfect map" isn't a map with no imperfections, but rather a map where you find a good balance between imperfections, details, diversity, and the size of the customized area.
When you build your custom map, keep in mind the limits of the foundry:
- 500 assets per map
- 50 costumes per mission
- 100 buildings per map. Everything listed in the "building" tab will count as a building, even if you found it in the details tab.
- 20-30 or so contacts (not sure about this one) on a map
- around 100-150 NPCs on a map.
These limits may look generous, but it's really not. So, before you start building something that won't work, you need a plan.
I - You need to know exactly what you want to do.
As a general rule, you shouldn't waste your assets to hide little imperfections. Your asset limit is very low and your map don't need to be absolutely perfect to be fine. You need your player to think your map is good, you're not doing something to please your math teacher. Don't be a perfectionist. It won't work and you'll just waste time doing custom sets you'll never be able to use because you didn't respect the aforementioned quotas.
The easiest possibility is a custom interior map. Your player won't get outside the building, so you halved the number of issues. If your building/ship/cave/whatever is small, feel free do do anything you want. Just make sure to follow some basic rules: Do not overlap assets that should match perfectly. These assets will start blinking and the game engine doesn't like that. It happens often with basic platforms and walls. So, if you want to use two platforms, you will need to either hide the overlapped parts with smaller platforms/assets, or to leave a very small distance between your two platforms. The second option is the best, most of the times, because it's less asset consuming, and no one will ever notice or care that there is a 0.005m hole between your two assets. It's like building a parquet floor. You may overlap anything that doesn't match perfectly with the surrounding assets though.
Customizing exterior maps is more challenging. You have to deal with pre-made maps and none will fit with your project. Your player will be able to visit every part of the map. The more details and variety you want, the more complex it is, and at some point you have to give up on variety or details if you want to customize a larger part of the map.
So, when you want to make a custom exterior map (let's say a secret base hidden in the mountains, a village, a refugee camp, the lost Cardassian city or whatever map you have in mind), you should use the biggest assets you can. Place them first on the map so that you don't get into trouble later, it will allow you to see what you need to work on, what you need to hide, what will likely work and what will require more assets to hide the original map. This is extremely important. Don't start with a detail you absolutely want to add on your map. Fill the map first, place your platforms, ramps, large building 0x. Make sure your player can visit the most important areas. Then place the medium size assets and walls if you want a custom building on this map. You can work on details as soon as it's done, which means as soon as the part of the map you want to customize is half done and only needs a fountain, crates, statues, benches, consoles and stuff like that. You will be able to use all the remaining assets for your details.
When you work on details, you should start with the center of your customized exterior map (which may not be the center of the cryptic map), you will be able to sacrifice the surroundings if something gets wrong. Try to use the largest details you can. For instance, if you need a cell or a prison, don't build one from scratch, there are nice captivity devices. If you want a chair and tables, don't add a table with 10 chairs, use an existing table with chairs. Customizing sets is a good idea, as long as you're not getting crazy with originality or perfection, because a fully customized area is extremely small.
Sometimes, even if you follow these advices, you'll end up with FUBAR areas, hopefully in a minor room or in the surroundings of your custom area (because you followed my advices, right?) It happens. Don't get mad, just lock it up with invisible walls or other large props and focus on what works and what needs attention without eating all of your assets quotas.
II ? Dealing with the limited amount of contacts on the map
This may be an issue for the largest maps. If you want friendly NPCs on the map, you'll likely get a message you won't like saying there are too many contacts on the map. Fortunately, most of the times, very few NPCs need to be actual contacts. If you don't want your player to talk to them, you should use a friendly mob instead, unless you need hostile NPCs in the vicinity. It will also help you not to add useless contacts telling everyone about their life no one really cares about, which is a nice idea when you have 10 NPCs doing that, but a pain when you have 50 guys with an exclamation mark above their heads. You can give them costumes, and you can even animate the whole group! Just plan to use the 4 (capt 03) or 5 (ensigns only) NPCs, because you can only choose one animation per group. If you really don't want 4 NPCs then send the 3 or 4 extra NPCs inside the ground or inside a foundation block. Just keep your quotas in mind, and don't forget to change the names.
III ? Dealing with the limited number of costumes.
This is the easiest part. You don't need one costume for each NPC. Most of the times, you can't see any difference. So, unless you want to rebuild the tower of Babel with 150 races, you may only have 5-6 costumes per race (2-3 males, 2-3 females), no one will ever notice that. You will also save a lot of time you'd have wasted for something completely useless.
To conclude, keep in mind that the "perfect map" isn't a map with no imperfections, but rather a map where you find a good balance between imperfections, details, diversity, and the size of the customized area.
Lenny Barre, lvl 60 DC. 18k.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Post edited by diogene0 on
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Comments
Not sure about one thing though:
And I'll tell you why. I recently went back to a map that i'd build years ago. I wanted to add buildings, but ran into the building limit. I realized I had used some of the blocks from the building tab. I replaced them with the same style and size from the details tab, and each time I was able to place another building.
I don't know if it does it for all of the objects that appear in both lists, but from my experience the building blocks that appear in details do not count as buildings.
I am pretty sure your right about that. I made the mistake of using building blocks on one map from the buildings tab.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
And to add briefly, adding trigger-able objects greatly adds to the overall feel of a map, if done properly. People like to do things in maps, like in real life.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
- 400 Details per map
- 70 Buildings per map
Is more like it. Everything you placed via the Building tab is a building. Everything you placed via the Detail tab is a Detail.
Work from the big details toward the small ones. The structures are necessities to tell the story. The fluff adds immersion. If you are very conservative and efficient with structures, you will be able to add a lot more fluff thus immersion. Adding the fluff should be the last thing you do and you can keep doing it until you run out of assets. This is called Z fighting and a very well known issue in every single 3D engine. The engine draws the faces according to the Z distance (closer objects render over further objects).
If 2 faces have the same, or very close coordinates then sometimes one sometimes the other gets drawn hence flickering occurs.
The best solution here is to use 0.05 difference. If it is a wall then X or Z axis should differ. If floor or ceiling then Y axis.
It is a good idea to place the big slabs first, but because of the Z order (this Z thing keeps coming up). Each object you add renders over the previous objects. EXCEPT if you delete one. In that case, the next object will take the Z position of the deleted one. If you build like you normally would, Floor - Walls - Furniture - Ceiling, then the ceiling would cover everything. It will be a nightmare later on to adjust a map like that later on. So the first thing you should do is to drop like 40 slabs. And if you need one later on, which will NOT cover over your build then you can just get one from that pool. You can change the object in the pool anytime and you can be sure that it will be placed underneath the important stuff.
NPCs are like objects with Default Prompt. Their main advantage is that they can be interacted as often as you want. Useful for fluff and for giving away generic hints or puzzle mechanics/instructions. They don't fight and can't be killed. Otherwise pretty useless. If you need none of these traits, then use neutral single targ mobs for NPC contacts (keep in mind that they have red beam in effect). Make sure you randomize the faces and the clones are placed very far away from each other. This shortcut is very noticeable if they end up walking next to each other.
Name your objects! Especially those, that are triggers or triggered. Map Dialog #14 means nothing. Dialog_BeamUp does. Check out the Hungarian notation for naming conventions!
I usually mark things with "++" to help me locate them from the ever growing lists. So for example, I have a rock which triggers a dialog. I will call it ++TRD_RemanHand, like ++ = important object, TR = trigger, D=dialog, and then the name. From this I know that this object will trigger a dialog. Which is more likely called ++DLG_RemanHand.
When I see something like ++TRO_ExplodeRocks, I can be sure that it will trigger the objects ++OBJ_ExplodeRock_01, ++OBJ_ExplodeRock_02...
You can also sort objects by name, which is very hand for grouping.
For example, you have an enterable building with floors, walls and stuff. Call it B1. On my editor it would look something like this:
B1A_Floor, B1A_Ceiling,
B1B_Wall#1, B1B_Wall#2, B1B_Wall#3...
B1C_Desk, B1C_Console#1, B1C_Console#2...
If you order by name, then the objects will be grouped so that you will find the thing you are looking for in an instant. It is a wall? Bam, sorted in one heap. The furniture is in an other heap etc. You can make as many heap as you want with the different prefixes.
Okay my mistake then. I may have done something wrong. But i'm quite sure about my 500 assets, I think i got over 400 last time, and of course i don't count NPCs.
That's what I said.
Being conservative with contact NPCs is really critical too IMO. And thanks for the neutral reminder, I always forget about this.
Well I was thinking to aliens. No one will ever notice you used the same aliens 10 times, if you have 2-3 different sizes, faces, and clothes if it makes sense. When I need humans or humans with pointed ears, ridged nose, etc, I try to make more costumes, although, most of the times, people won't take a close look at your NPCs, unless they're all in a small room and have a default popup.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Not exactly. By big I didn't mean big concrete slabs. Rather big compound objects. Like an enterable buildings with generic furniture is one big compound object to me. But rooms, houses, sections etc are all big objects. Everything that has a purpose in the mission.
If you do a mission about the Titanic, you will need 1 ship and 1 iceberg. 2 big objects.
The ship is built by say 3 decks, so there, you have 3 compound objects.
You will need to create a rudimentary and crude build with everything you want from walls to desks and chairs for each deck to make the set functional. If you just add in 3 walls, 1 door and 2 slabs, your set is not functional.
Consider classical the dev phases:
Alpha
Beta
Release
The Alpha is the phase where every feature is in and functional. The build is probably very buggy, full of placeholders, and generally not user friendly, but you can test the whole thing through. A desk and a chair can be functionally required to check spaces for movement and the general looks of the area. Not too dense, not too deserted etc.
The Beta is when there are no placeholders anymore. All the features are in, all the objects are on the spot and the mission is mostly bug free. The desk is the final position. The wall is the final wall etc. You can play the mission through without problem and it is good for a go. When you passed that point, you added all the big, main parts and you can start to add the fluff. Like a vase onto the desk, bystanders, small fixes etc.
Well, our methods aren't similar, but as long as it works it's ok.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
My character Tsin'xing
granted the waters red and you need to invisible wall up everything so the player dosnt get stuck.
Perhaps changing the background atmosphere will affect the water colour. The red tinge may be coming from the sky colour.
By the way, nice forum signature. Even though I cry a little inside for Pren...
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
But... while I was making Diplomacy in the Gamma Quadrant I stumbled on a map that has a lot of water. I think the name is "Tundra" something. The ground has this snow cover effect everywhere, but... a large chunk of the north and east parts is water. I don't think it has a lot of stuff sticking out of the ground so it'd probably be easy-ish to disguise the ground as an ice floe or something.
My character Tsin'xing
Plus you cannot change the sound effects or lighting, which are annoying.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
FYI it's actually spelled "Fek'lhri" (an L after the apostrophe, not an I). It's misspelled in the Foundry editor (and a few other places in STO, IIRC). I know this because their namesake, Fek'lhr, is a canon character that appeared in TNG and was pronounced FEK-Lar. (Yes, I know, it wasn't the real Fek'lhr, but still...)
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
Pren is alive and well :P
The water is always red regardless of what the background is set up as (sunny, cloudy etc)
I have a question that I have not been able to find the answer to yet, I hope you dont mind me asking it here.
I recently completed a story in the foundry and am in the process of planning a follow up.
Is it possible to re-use a map created in previous projects in a new project?.
I noticed there is an option for saving costume's to disk, but that options not available it seems for the maps.
Regards to all
Not yet no.
unless you have a very good memory tthen you can duplicate a map.
Ok thanks for the quick reply.
.............................................................
This is a better option...
"Import the entire existing mission as a new then delete everything you dont need."
I wasnt aware you could do this
Thanks Pendra3780.
Import the entire existing mission as a new then delete everything you dont need.
There is an all blue water map, just limit the visibilty a bit.
Yes, import your old mission into your new mission and delete the maps you don't want. If you need a more detailed howto feel free to ask.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
I can rebuild anything anywhere anytime for the right price
We used to do that more on StarbaseUGC, but its been a year or more. Someone had created a procedure for exporting the data into a usable PDF with the asset list and coordinates. I can't seem to find it now as a lot of the posts and such from 2 years ago aren't accessible on the site.
But I've done it. I have an upcoming KDF mission that has a Klingon Courtroom (similar to the one from STVI) that sabredruid built. I built it in my mission from a list of assets and coordinates that he provided.
Also, looking at this thread I think there's a lot of interesting discussion here and I may bring it up on an upcoming episode of the Foundry Roundtable
I saw Sabredruid's banner add but was unable to find his assets after poking around SBUGC and doing a google search.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Yeah at one point we had a wiki for things like this, not sure what happened to those pages. It'd be nice if they could be recovered and posted again in some fashion, especially for the folks who weren't here then. Sabredruid built several maps that others could use that were brilliant, such as the courtroom and an Orion slave market.
Some of the uploads are still there. You can still download the courtroom pdf from here starbaseugc.com/wiki/images/8/8f/Courtroom.pdf
Why by hand and not by something like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqLruKqHkgc
The PDF format was the most stupid thing ever. The app could parse the export directly into CSV, HTML and even Wiki format, but no, lets make it PDF as it is the most data processing unfriendly thing. Plus you need like 15 more steps rather than pressing a button and copy-pasting.
BTW the old app does not work anymore. At one point, the export file was changed a little so it took me a few hours to rebuild the decode table.
One more thing I just remembered.
How to build things faster, using less 3D checks? Use the Binary search algorithm!
By always eliminating half of the still possible outcomes you can find the proper spot in very few steps.
X 100? Too little.
101? Too much.
100.5? Too little
100.75? Too much
100.62? About right.
Also use your toon as a measure tool stand next to something and measure. Half of him is about 1m. The side of him is like 0.3m, etc.
Oh, and /Freecam 1