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New Missions and Reviews and Bunch of New-Author Questions
ralphgraphite
Member Posts: 628 Arc User
So I put together a simple patrol mission in the Foundry over the course of a few evenings. Playtested it a bunch of times with the Miranda and Cadet they give you, so think it's ready for consumption - was hoping to playtest it live to see if any balance issues/bugs are apparent when using a real ship/boffs.
So I published it and can't find it in the Foundry tab. Looks like it needs reviews before it's available?
How does this process work? Is there a pile of players that more or less review new content regularily? Do I need to petition people to do it for me?
Second question - the ground and indoor maps that Cryptic has premade - is that all there is (or is there a way to make a custom map like the space ones)? Is there to place buildings and preview how they are without playing the map dozens of times? I had alot of problems with buildings floating or clipping into landscape, so I just put them all on a meadow in the end, as it's nice and flat.
Third question - can someone point me in the direction of a good FAQ/Tutorial site for the Foundry? My first effort was a very linear mission (kill 3 mobs, beam down, secure a colony, and then interact with a console to get congratulated), but I want to get good at this. I know it'll take "doing" the work to get better, but don't want my early missions to be Argalabad...
So I published it and can't find it in the Foundry tab. Looks like it needs reviews before it's available?
How does this process work? Is there a pile of players that more or less review new content regularily? Do I need to petition people to do it for me?
Second question - the ground and indoor maps that Cryptic has premade - is that all there is (or is there a way to make a custom map like the space ones)? Is there to place buildings and preview how they are without playing the map dozens of times? I had alot of problems with buildings floating or clipping into landscape, so I just put them all on a meadow in the end, as it's nice and flat.
Third question - can someone point me in the direction of a good FAQ/Tutorial site for the Foundry? My first effort was a very linear mission (kill 3 mobs, beam down, secure a colony, and then interact with a console to get congratulated), but I want to get good at this. I know it'll take "doing" the work to get better, but don't want my early missions to be Argalabad...
Post edited by ralphgraphite on
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Ok, so when you publish a new mission, it first goes into the review tab. You won't be able to see this tab until you click the "Become Reviewer" button, which should be somewhere toward the bottom of the Foundry search menu in-game. All this does is allow you to see missions that have less than 5 reviews (and don't worry, it doesn't cost anything or require you to do anything). A new tab will appear on the left side and you should be able to find your mission there.
Once it has five reviews, it will be visible in the main missions tab.
We actually just started a New Foundry Strike Team, a group of players that will help authors (new and established) get their missions out of review status and into the general population. I'm inquiring as to how people can request plays, I'll update this when I get an answer. Beyond that, if you have a fleet or friends who play the game, you can always ask them, and make a post in the Mission forum here.
Think of the Cryptic-made maps as kind of a base, on which you can build, add new things and customize how you need. There are some maps like Meadow Clearing 01 that have large flat spaces, perfect for building things. Also, many of us make what we have dubbed "Sky Castles" which is we build self-contained rooms and things high above an existing map. Here's a video that should explain the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-lGJWsBns
The video will also have some tips for getting your objects to be precisely where you want them.
Previewing maps many (thousands of) times is unfortunately what all of us have to do.
Starbase UGC is our Foundry knowledge hub. Check out the tutorial section here, with all the tutorials we've made over the years. Also swing by the chat room if you need help or just want to hang out with fellow authors.
Hope this helps!
Meadow Clearing 1 may have been the one that I used afterall. I poked around with some of the forest ones, and couldn't get the builldings I wanted to not float.
For this storyline, not a big deal.
I'm click on become a reviewer to try live playtesting it before asking anyone to review, and definitely will check out the UGC hub.
But yeah, lots of maps have highly non-flat terrain, and certain buildings don't look good on it. sometimes you can just recess the building into a hillside though. As long as the door isn't imbedded in the ground it usually looks fine.
My character Tsin'xing
I was trying to work with one of the forest maps. The buildings weren't floating per se - more like jutting out of the hill, so you could walk underneath them. One side would be at ground level.
In the case of the map I was playing with, clipping them into the hill would not have worked, hills were too numerous and the buildings would have been too big.
THe Meadow Clearing map sorted me out though.
Yeah, I remember having to build a platform for a town hall in "Bait and Switch". Consider it a basement.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
My character Tsin'xing
https://foundry101.wordpress.com/
They seem a bit outdated, but they're brief and to the point, without being too specialized. When things get too wordy (or are in video form), I have a harder time retaining information.
Triggers aren't covered in those 101 tutorials, I forget what I read/watched to learn those, but they're what let you do the cool "show, don't tell" stuff that's vital to engaging game missions.