PaxLair Player Owned Town Scene Design and Test

Discussion in 'Player Owned Towns' started by Winfield, Mar 31, 2015.

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  1. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    Yes hopefully some good news on fishing and nodes in POTs even if it is one resource or small amounts of a resource.;)
     
  2. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    I have uploaded my PaintShopPro 7 file. Photo shop should be able to read this type of file. Let me know if you have problems. Try downloading: paxlairdesign_layers.psp

    EDIT:
    I converted it to a PSD file and uploaded it. 50 MB file. Download paxlairdesign_layer.psd

    The layers in the file are like this:

    [​IMG]
    Paint Shop Pro 7 layer palette

    The layers that make up the "template" are:
    • BackgroundRoads - this is the geography with roads and bridges
    • CityLots - these are the template red city lots that would have level land for adding our specific lot position requests
    • WaterLots - these are template water lots to be selected or not selected for our specific request
    The layers that customize it for PaxLair are:
    • Lots - the blue specific house lots that we selected/sub-divided
    • StreetNames - we don't know if we will get street names on our PoTs, but I threw them in
    • PaxLair NPCs - the NPC buildings are in the template image, and these are just numbers
    • PaxLair Labels - these are neighborhood labels like Sunset Rock
    • PaxLair Scenes - these are the entrances and exits to Overland Map and other linked PoTs

    All good questions. We are still learning how the developers may create other templates for other sized PoTs (same size geography, smaller, etc.). But during this test, and by seeing our questions, I imagine they are thinking on such things.

    As for other things like fences and walls, I don't know how they would implement that yet. For PaxLair, we do want some static benches and maybe a fence or two near one of the openings to another PoT. That might all be done on a final pass as they dress things up at the end; I don't know.

    I think there could be several templates with different structures and features like walls.

    For a new island design, I imagine that is possible.

    As for caves, I think that is also possible. We've asked that the The PaxLair scene have a cave entrance to go to another PoT scene (Dragons Watch - PvP). I don't know how long the cave might be inside the main scene before transition to the next scene. I don't know if a PoT owner could have just a "cave" to walk in, open up to a bit of a large room, etc. and not transition to another location. It would make for nice features and interesting areas on a scene template though.

    Fishing? Did you say fishing? I don't know about the ice fishing and ice skating ideas. For snowy biomes, I think there would be templates made to represent other biomes.

    I am not a Unity person so I am speculating here a bit ... to make fast templates, maybe they could take some well developed templates, like PaxLair template, and quickly snow cover them? Change the trees? It might be less terraforming. I just don't know what is easiest or what would be appealing. The developer who does this certainly has in his head how to approach template designs efficiently though. I imagine we will learn more as we go through this test and they consider more options and methods.

    I believe there has been some talk by other players about making or adding music to their town scenes. But I am not in the loop on that; good question though... I have not considered adding music to PaxLair.


    I hope this all helps a bit!
     
  3. Duffrey Blake

    Duffrey Blake Avatar

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    Thanks a lot again for sharing and beeing so helpful Winfield. Unfortunately photoshop will not let me open the .psp file. Would you mind to provide a photoshop compatible file as well (change "Save as type" to Photoshop)?
     
  4. Raven Swiftbow

    Raven Swiftbow Bug Hunter

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    Aye, it wouldn't open in Photoshop Elements, but would open in Paint Shop Pro.
     
  5. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    I do not mind at all! I should have done that - See further down.

    My PaintShopPro version 7 program is from 1998 it is still really "fast" at simple things like this template design. Ashlynn did the image geography in PhotoShop for the mountains, rivers, trees, roads, and initial lot layouts, etc.

    Maybe it's time for me to upgrade my image editor program. I've seen PhotoShop and it looks great and I remember watching Stephen Daniele work his "magic" in PhotoShop (I think it was PhotoShop). But having a paint brush does not an artist make I think. I'm more of a draftsman. Shadowing effects just throw me. Maybe when I do a little fishing and sit on a log, I could try my hand at drawing the big fish!

    Anyway... I converted it to a PSD file and uploaded it. 50 MB file. I hope this works! Thanks!

    Download paxlairdesign_layer.psd

    I'm headed out the door for the day, does this work?
     
  6. Duke Death-Knell

    Duke Death-Knell Avatar

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    Well for caves as you were talking about above. I was thinking of more like a cave that the dragon bones were laying in blocking any chance of going back further. Just a teaser to watch people try and try to find a way around to get to the dragons treasure :rolleyes:
     
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  7. Duffrey Blake

    Duffrey Blake Avatar

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    Photoshop and me like this very much. Thanks to You and Ashlynn.
     
  8. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    We already have a task to do this based on Winfield's suggestion
     
  9. Sean Silverfoot

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    DarkStarr, I whispered this to you the other day. Some folks asked about the use of existing places, such as Kingsport, with lot adjustments, for their town. Can you clarify if this is something possible?
     
  10. Lord Baldrith

    Lord Baldrith Avatar

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    Thanks for the work you are doing Winfield...

    I have been doing a PM with my town residents about music/town theme/etc...and I have found a perfect song for Wizards Rest that does not require credits as it is free music...There is a reason I was thinking this could be really cool to have different music in POTs: It would be a whole new reason to explore each POT to hear the varying music...sitting in someone's establishment and enjoying the awesomeness of how each little POT is different...giving these cool towns their own life and their own environment will so much enrich our game...I think keeping a basic redundant template would take away from the game's excitement for many...so I'm hoping we can at least vary our towns enough to make them look interesting and exciting....If you go into a town and say hmm that looks just like Braemar or Owl's Head...it could take away from the 'sandbox' and exploration of a vast world.

    Just my 2c
     
  11. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    We love this idea.
     
  12. Waxillium

    Waxillium Avatar

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    MGT noticed that Ravensmoor is Rift's End without the skeletons. Add a beach, an island, a lake and a NPC square at the top of the two walkways going down to the beach.

    Do you support PoT's looking at other already made assets and not just town scenes?
     
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  13. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    yes
     
  14. Sean Silverfoot

    Sean Silverfoot Avatar

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    Thank you for the clarification sir!
     
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  15. ThurisazSheol

    ThurisazSheol Avatar

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    as always, the pax's open door policy has proven itself. thanks for this folks. i certainly hope to assist with any testing once released.

    any way to reserve a few plots for the moot to play with? We'll be an island biome, if that matters :)
     
  16. smack

    smack Avatar

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    Wait, so POT owners can take a story-based scene like Kingsport and simply move the player lots around? How that will work in terms of each story-based POI having a unique look and feel? I understand the benefit of reusability so I would like to see how you plan to mitigate story-based scene identity vs. PRT / POT.
     
  17. Duke Death-Knell

    Duke Death-Knell Avatar

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    One idea I had which I think would work well with Winfield's design is a crater laker.

    That is a setting in the mountains, you port in to a dock nothing but water in front of you and an island in the distance. The island could be modular to adjust to any size POT.
     
  18. Sean Silverfoot

    Sean Silverfoot Avatar

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    It's my understanding that we would keep the terraformed area of a map with all lots wiped clean. So all housing is gone.
    If you look at the images Winfield posted you can see that there are city lot sized areas all over the template map, not all of them can be used . Putting different sized lots in, then what someone else used can give a whole different feel to it. As would the NPC area, which is geared towards town size.

    Perhaps some trees can be moved here or there.
    More than likely different entry points, so when you first pop in it's a different look.
    It hasn't been decided if all gates, in all towns will be the same distance or shortened for smaller towns, making a different feel.

    I'm sure there are other, hopefully minor cosmetic changes that would be easy/fast to do, that can make it feel different....

    We'll see. That's what this test is about, find out what is indeed possible. And of course, all IMHO
     
  19. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    I made it back from Austin to San Antonio for the night. I will travel back to Austin for the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.

    The Duke+ VIP Roundtable was fantastic! Richard Garriott told us the history from Akalabeth to Ultima IX and beyond and history surrounding his trip to space. He talked about him and Tracy Hickman working together over the years, which I found fascinating and motivating. We then had lunch and mainly discussed Player Owned Town ideas. Richard, Starr, and Chris were there for the lunch discussion. After lunch we went back in the office and saw amazing things being developed, talked to many of the developers at their desks, and we brainstormed constantly. It was like a "working party" where people come and throw ideas on the table, and then the devs say "I really like that idea!" And the devs would turn to us backers and ask, "what do you think of this other idea?" So we were directly influencing potential design decisions. I guess that's what the pledge reward for the VIP Roundtable is all about, and that is exactly what happened. The devs are very open to talk about all ideas, possibilities, and limitations. We felt like part of their team for the day -- priceless.

    Let me address some of the recent questions and comments. Starr and others may have more information, but I will tell you what I know.

    We talked about caves at the Roundtable. They are hard to build, as Unity does not allow digging into the terrain. You have to build rocks and things on top of the land such as a descending ditch, and make it look like a cave when you walk in. Caves usually have lots of little bugs and glitches. So any caves made will be small and used for scene transitions or small purposes. So your teaser idea makes sense, as the cave would be short. The PaxLair template may have a small short cave for a scene transition, yet other owners could maybe use it for other purposes. We will have to wait and see.


    There was quite a bit of talk about music for the PoTs today. I think there will be a certain number of music slots for each PoT size, and the owner can pick the music desired from a listing. That was just brainstormed today, so other VIP attendees have more information on that or Starr may reveal more. I think the approach will provide a variety of music in the scenes. All the music brought in needs the typical Poets Circle review I think.


    Talk with Sean Silverfoot, the PaxLair City Manager, about lots available for testing in R17 and other releases.

    Oh, I found out today that the co-owner type permissions will not be in R17; it is a stretch goal. So the PoT owner will have to do all the allocation / unkeying of lots. But it looks like I will be able to unkey many lots so anyone can place houses on those lots -- for example, I can open up Embassy Row by unkeying the row house lots there in bulk. Or I could do the same for our market square. I can also unkey a lot for a specific person, or I just unkey the lot, the person takes the lot with me standing there to ensure the right person takes the lot. Anyway, the lot permission and actions mechanics are being worked on and we will have something to test in R17.


    Here's an example: Solania is a Kingsport template. And when I went into Solania last week, I had no idea it was based on Kingsport. So they took Kingsport, changed the biome, added different walls and gates and woods, ... and it came out looking very different. So the story-based scenes can be shaped, rotated, changed, etc. with the NPC buildings and the player lots pretty much in the same places, or nearly the same places, and it looks like a very different town. I would imagine Breamer would be a template that can be modified a bit to look and feel a lot differently too, especially if there is a biome change.

    They said biome changes are pretty easy to do.

    We looked at the PaxLair scene in some detail and description. We brainstormed more about it at lunch. For example, the PaxLair Scene's water (river, lake, bay) can be removed from the scene and thus make a ravine and valley. The biome could also be changed to a desert or even snowy scene. This can make the area more land locked and possibly have better choke points/restricted movement across the ravine for PVP type scenes.

    Also, the PaxLair scene can support 3 castles, or 3 Duke keeps, or a combination of those or less. Thus, the scene could be the basis for some fun PVP towns.

    Thanks for listening!
     
  20. smack

    smack Avatar

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    Yeah, as long as they're making sure there are enough changes so POTs are distinct enough to not be a carbon copy of a story-based town it's based off. Some similar elements are fine, just as long as it's not simply a duplicate with only minor changes.
     
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