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Suggestions to improve the Foundry
veetaber
Member Posts: 6 Arc User
I have recently created my first Foundry mission, and in doing so I've come across a few things that could be greatly improved. First off expand states to include animations, combat, friend/foe, costumes, and triggers to switch states. This will allow users to actually make it look like npcs are beaming out, disable ships, have contact npcs help/follow you, appear to shape-shift, etc.
Second is customization. In the ability to make costumes for the npcs there should be more than your standard customization options for that species. For example, their should be Borg customization options for every species that the Borg will assimilate (Just imagine fighting a squad of assimilated ferengis). This is for ships as well let us access the assimilated visuals for ships as well as other shield effects (just like visuals of our own ships).
Last but not least there are a few additional effects (more bigger explosions) and objects that could be put in such as specific planets, weather effects like are found on Elachi stations, and a camera shake with a pattern of explosions (suggesting the ship is exploding around you).
Second is customization. In the ability to make costumes for the npcs there should be more than your standard customization options for that species. For example, their should be Borg customization options for every species that the Borg will assimilate (Just imagine fighting a squad of assimilated ferengis). This is for ships as well let us access the assimilated visuals for ships as well as other shield effects (just like visuals of our own ships).
Last but not least there are a few additional effects (more bigger explosions) and objects that could be put in such as specific planets, weather effects like are found on Elachi stations, and a camera shake with a pattern of explosions (suggesting the ship is exploding around you).
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New Generic ships would also be a nice idea.
We have basically everything that exists in game atm as far as like the borg costuming goes, pretty much it ends up assets made for the rest of the game are what we will get, not 'specialty' ones just to fill out a roster. As we don't even have ferengi npc units at all, I dont know when we will see this, this falls into the same sphere as the programming, but also falls into the art dept and possibly systems (though heck, I would love to recreate a fight like in...was it the last outpost where we saw the Ferengi vs Riker on the surface and their energy whips?)
again this falls to the art dept.
Now I've done alot of nay saying, which I hate because I want it said that I would love to see these things happen, but unfortunately I have to set the expectation level for what will happen as well. Now that said I would love to be suprised and see all these things (and moar, moar MOAR!!!) happen, but the reality is, we still need a number of costume elements from the recent past added, let alone some of the Neverwinter systems that have existed since their foundry launch ported. That's not even including the fact that I feel the Foundry, at the very least playing spotlight missions, if not everything else, should be allowed for on the consoles. (This gets into a whole other thing, I believe then we get into the realm of console approval, which I have a feeling is a stickling point since there is so much content being updated so often that it makes it impractical, but I an dream.) At the moment though In ZeroniusRex and Tacofangs we hope (for the things they can bring us)
For example: [ EngShipOfficer ], what's our status?
So when it comes up in the published mission it shows up as your Engineer's first name.
good grief yes, a more robust metadata tag system would be lovely, especially if we could actually get some support for it such that we can actually do something like if>then (by this I mean if=vulcan, then display 'it is not logical to say 'blah' '
No, what I'm talking about would help us greatly in map building.
For the Editor:
1- The ability to change the Y setting of the end of the piece. Like I need this end of a piece at Y-2 and I need the other end to be at Y-1.
2- A snipping tool. This would be useful for those time where you might need 5ft of a piece instead of 10Ft. Or you might need a Triangular cut, instead of a round or square cut.
In the Map:
1- Place Marker - The ability to move to a spot in the map and mark it as, "I need a piece here." Just need to be able to set 2 of these in the Map. Like I need a piece to go from Marker A to Marker B.
2- Chalk Line - This is for the snipping tool. This for when you set a piece and go in to the map to see how much of it you're actually using. You Chalk Line that and then snip out just the piece you need in the editor.
3- The ability to delete assets that Cryptic has placed. This wouldn't increase our Max number of assests. It would allow us to clean up a map as we need to. I can build things out of the premade maps all day. But in so doing, I can also see where I'd like to leave some things, but other things just need to go. This would help us use the premade maps to our advantage more, as it would clean up the "Crytpic Clutter" of the map.
One small asset we do need though. Upside down ramps. This way if we use a ramp somewhere that needs a ceiling. We can select the upside version of that ramp to place above it for a ceiling.
Another thing that would be useful is a piece counter. It has a place you can put it with ease. First of though, lets set what each thing would mean.
M - Maps
P - Planets
C - Contacts
D - Dialogues
B - Buildings
O- Objects
Obt - Objectives
EE - Enemy Encounters
Ctm- Costumes
SP - Spawn Point
RP - Respawn Point
Now on the Editor you have the File, Edit, Map line. Put these up there, or even add another tab to the map editor that lists it. But for the line I mean it would look like.
File Edit Map Help M P C D B O Obt EE Ctm SP RP
Then just make the counter appear when you hover your mouse of one of them.
I remember a dev saying that there were others but they never released what they are, I have experimented bu have yet to discover them.
Episode Four - Head Of A Needle Episode Five: The Duality of Men Episode Six - Redemption Earned
Episode Seven - Shattered Universe Episode Eight - The Gepetto Condition Episode Nine - One Room, Two Officers
Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest Star Episode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't Hurt Episode Twelve - A Protracted Officer
Episode Thirteen - Somewhen Episode Fourteen - The Boy Who Lived Episode Fifthteen - Empathy
You could make this, WeatherEffect - Static Interference, A zone wide map effect of static interference, 5x5x5.
1. Allow us to make custom NPCs for every faction, not just the playable ones. I've always wanted to make a Romulan Star Empire admiral for my episodes, but I can't give him the appropriate uniform.
2. Add a "Starship Editor" that allows us to create ships for custom factions without having to resort to existing (or even the butt ugly generic ones) designs. We could be able to choose a base hull design (for example a wedge) and then add prefab impulse engine designs, warp nacelles, deflectors, bridge modules etc. Then, we can choose from various hull materials (including those from shields) and also "equipment effects" (for example the blue impulse trails from the MACO engines), and change the colors on it as we see fit (example: we give our wedge-shaped design the Tholian hull material from the Nukara shields, but we change the hull color to a darker gray, change the blue lights to green and the yellow ones to purple). To top it all off we can set the "level" of the new mob (i.e fighter, frigate, battleship, etc.) and give the ship custom weapons (being able to choose from all existing options, like giving our ship Na'kuhl plasma beams and Thoron Infused Quantum torps, for example) and custom abilities (again being able to choose from all existing options).
3. Same as 2., but for ground mobs. Possibly an "Alien Editor" with more options.
2. and 3. would be very helpful for people like @thay8472 , whose missions heavily feature a custom faction.
Who's the prettiest of them all?
While I do like the idea of more customization for things. Right now, I'd be happy if they added more groundscale KDF ships and shuttles. I have ideas I want to pursue in that area. But all I have to work with is the groundscale mogh. And it's not the kind you can reskin.
Better yet. Just make the ground scale ships to where I can change their appearance like a contact. It's kind of hard to make anything with the KDF, with the limited KDF assests they have in the foundry. Any one working either side will notice this with the KDF. The foundry, just like the game, they are further behind than even the Romulans.
You're right, the KDF is severely lacking in that department. Speaking of Klingon-related stuff, why aren't the Gre'thor and Shrine of Kahless ground maps not available in the foundry?
Something else that would be nice: banners and flags. Right now, we only have the old Fed and KDF banners, some Starfleet department and starship development banners, and the Romulan Star Empire banner. The flags from the Khitomer Conference map, the banners from the Solanae Dyson Sphere and those from the New Khitomer ground map from "Temporal Reckoning".
Who's the prettiest of them all?
We have Boreth Barge, but that's just the ship. There is also "Boreth Interior" which seems to be the Shrine itself.
My character Tsin'xing
No, I don't mean the interior of the New Khitomer station. During the mission in which it was attacked and occupied by the Temporal Liberation Front, there were rooms in which you would find banners of the Krenim, the Na'Kuhl, the Vorgons and the Terran Empire. I just mean these assets.
Who's the prettiest of them all?
More KDF assets, including TOS stuff.
I'd also like to see the building block walls, platforms and ramps, get expanded. We have 3 colors of each of these. But 6 colors of the Foundation Blocks and Walls. The platforms/walls/ramps could be expanded out to 8. Give them the 3 missing skins from the foundation blocks/walls and the two lava skins. We really wouldn't need these skins in the foundation blocks/walls. Well walls can have them. This way we can get a mountain or valley to look that way. I'd say may be apply the lava skins to Cave Wall 01 and 02 as well as Wall Piece -Rock 02.
The FX - Static Interference for a Ground map is on there as well.
The Light - Klingon Ground 01 and 02, and the Combat Arena need to be fixed. The fire is at the base of the item, instead of the top. But this has already been reported.
Interior and Exterior 90's for the Wall Piece - Rock 02. Though mainly for this one. An exterior is really all you need.
On the ramps, like I said earlier, having them with 8 skins would be great. 9 would be better, these could be given a stairs skin. It would also be nice to have these as a water plane. That way we can have lava or water running at downward angles.
Blue colored waterfalls would be great. We only have these in purple at the moment.
We could also use more premade maps, like Nopada Desert. I mean the desert part, not the crash site part. It's a nice clean terrain, with very little in the way of clutter. Since we can't create terrains, but can only work with the terrain maps Cryptic gives us. So, some empty terrain maps would be great, or at least take the existing terrains we have and erase half the clutter that's on them. Take the Red Desert maps. These don't feel like a desert. They feel like a giant rock every 10 feet with some sand thrown around them. This map would be far better, if they just erased half the clutter they have on it. Then another example would be Meadow Clearing. The clearing itself is great, awesome job. Outside of that clearing, clutter, clutter, clutter. They could even make this a slider selection for the map, to allow us to choose how much of the ambient objects the map has.
My character Tsin'xing
The option not to have anything appear in a dialog window would be great. We could use this option for both player and computer dialog. We tend to use a prop in the window which really makes no sense. Both of these things would go a long way to improving the way we tell stories and improve the experience for players.
1) Re-Skinable Flying mobs (like the Scorpian Fighter in the Romulan missions)
2) 3D Editor like from Neverwinter
3) Turrets (Mainly Ground)
3.5) Vaudwaar Tank (from Dust to Dust)
4) Mobs that don't fight back (but don't count toward accolades or drop loot or XP)
5) Ship disabling
6) Proper Warp-In settings for Contacts and Space groups
7) Ability to export and import characters as XML files (or something similar)
My character Tsin'xing
Regarding ground maps, for planet surfaces, we could get prefab "floors"; ready made with ground textures, elevations, depressions etc. We'd just have to place details ourselves. In this case it would be great if we could place details in groups, like multiplying a tree in a designated area of the map in order to create a forest, or placing flowers (I don't know if they are placeable details or belong to the ground texture) on a grassy plain to create a meadow, and many more things, like the desert @trennan mentioned.
Who's the prettiest of them all?
I wouldn't take as far as being able to make a terrain map. Though that would be awesome. But more being able to adjust the premade terrains. The ability to remove and move what's already there. Then one premade terrain could become many different terrain maps. With this, the terrain doesn't change, just the topography of it does. Like for instance using a premade map that has buildings in it. Being able to remove or more those buildings around. Normally it isn't the terrain that I have a problem with. It's the amount of clutter they place on that terrain.
Who's the prettiest of them all?