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Map Import Idea

After the “overwhelming” success of my Foundry Export Tool I came up with another (hopefully more successful idea. An idea, that would require quite a lot of work and might very well not be possible (I will get into that later).

The idea is to create an application that takes a foundry export file, extracts the objects and buildings of a map and rebuilds it in another mission or in fact, in another authors foundry. That way, we would be able to share maps and great building ideas, give new players a glance at a fully customized map and making it easier for veterans to collaborate on mission series.

The first question is: Would you find something like that useful? And more importantly: Would you actually use it? As I said earlier, this would be quite a large project. And I wouldn't want to undertake it, if there is no one to reap the benefits.

The second question is a more serious one: Putting these information back into the foundry would require the program to control mouse movements and keyboard inputs, basically automating the building process. Technically, there are similarities to a bot or a mouse recorder, things usually not looked kindly upon by MMO developers – for good reasons. This application, however, would be completely unsuited for anything else but recreating maps. No EC farming, crafting, mini games, etc. could be automated by this. NONE. It would be specifically build for one purpose and one purpose only: placing objects on maps.

Nonetheless I feel compelled to ask, if authors would be allowed to use such an application. Maybe a CM or Dev would be so kind and provide an answer to that question.

Best wishes

benalexander

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    duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,878 Arc User
    You might try reaching out to the devs directly on this one (AmbassadorKael is the community first contact). I'm sure authors would love the ability to import complete maps but tinkering with automation I think should require a go-ahead from on high.
    Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
    Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
    Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
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    benalexanderbenalexander Member Posts: 40 Arc User
    tinkering with automation I think should require a go-ahead from on high.

    Thank you for your advise. I have done so and the answer Í got was both helpful and quite definite. Long story short: I am sad to say that this project will not go any further. The reasons for that are, I think, quite understandable.

    Regards

    benalexander
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    pendra37#5088 pendra37 Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    Yeah been there, done that, don't bother. Anyway, it is still an extremely efficient tool to facilitate map and complex object sharing and building.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqLruKqHkgc
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz5F1zNr7Z8
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    thegreendragoon1thegreendragoon1 Member Posts: 1,872 Arc User
    I would argue that while the import aspect of your proposal isn't viable, a map export tool may still be very useful.

    Such a tool could take the exported text file, parse out a specified map and create a readable table of each asset along with it's X and Y position, rotation and "Relative to Y" setting. This would allow authors to cut the work of manually transferring a construction in half. If it could format the table in such a way that it could be easily added to a forum post for sharing, even better.
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    pendra37#5088 pendra37 Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    Yes it did that, too. Some sharing happened over the starbaseugc, but it simply went to the way of the dodo.
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