POT Templates

Discussion in 'Player Owned Towns' started by Poor game design, Jan 13, 2016.

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  1. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    I'm not satisfied with any of the templates we have to choose from.

    We have Forrest Pax Lair:
    [​IMG]
    Port Pheonix Swamp Pax Lair:
    [​IMG]
    Vengeance Desert Pax Lair:
    [​IMG]
    Snowy Mountain Pax Lair:
    [​IMG]
    The Island of Bumpy Hills and Unplaceable Lots:
    [​IMG]
    Siloed Community Created Underground:
    [​IMG]
    And a few more to come. Mountains and Grasslands.

    Because both Dynamic and Static POTs will have to work off of these templates. I feel I need to comment now before it's too late. I personally need a template that can accommodate a VERY large area that lots can be placed in. None of the current templates meet my needs in anyway, let alone my preference to have an island swamp biome.

    So because I try never to speak for anyone else, please comment here if you have similar issues with the current templates. Especially if you would also prefer a template that had a large area of flat space that could support a large sprawling town.

    Thank you.
     
  2. Selene

    Selene Avatar

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    I am hoping, since the grassland is a different template from Paxlair and should include lots of flat spaces, it will be translated into other biomes. Also, I would really love to see a tropical island especially with a volcano. When I think of an island, my first thought is something more like Estercove than what is currently available for a POT. And, I agree with the Baron that a swamp island would be nice as well, especially since the Shardfall where his town is located IS a swampy island. (it would make sense the surrounding islands would have the same type of biome)
     
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  3. Senash Kasigal

    Senash Kasigal Avatar

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    The Island Template has big flat areas in the middle.
    There is even space for a few castles.
    Thats my current design of of my PoT Dracheninsel. Drachvald region
    blue = castle walls

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Thanks, Senash.

    Unfortunately that's not nearly enough space for my 524 row lots and 1 duke lot. There are also a lot of spots where the lot placement is broken up arbitrarily by hills and large trees. What's really needed, from my point of view, is to have all that space North to South to be cleared and flattened.
     
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  5. Selene

    Selene Avatar

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    There is definitely a bit of a learning curve on placing lots, especially water lots on the island template, but I agree that the current incarnation of the island is quite workable for most applications. The trick to the water lots is to look for the sandy beach areas with a steep dropoff to the water (like the sand has been carved at a sharp angle)

    On the Islands of Wonders (near Paxlair) 4B has managed to place some rather large lots close together, including a capture the flag course made of two keep lots right near the middle with a couple attached lots for seating and prep (town and village) and there was lots of room to spare. The rest of the island, including a city center that is right beside the CtF course, is beautifully decorated by Sole, and is a great spot to get ideas for utilizing the current island template as well.

    Have you seen Arx Draconis? That one is pretty darn flat in the middle. I wonder if they could make that version of the island available without the wall around the outside and the static placement?
     
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  6. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    I have seen it but I didn't realize that it wasn't essentially the same template as the Island one. I'd actually want to keep the walls. :)

    I think this is the same template it just has the walls and perhaps some paving.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Weins201

    Weins201 Avatar

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    As I stated LONG ago, "we bought into a meeting with Devs to create / customize our POTs, and I was concerned that we where going to get fed a template" then all the sudden we where force fed "templates" designed by a few of the chosen, exactly as I feared and warned about.

    Now we are asking for the ability to customize our templates using some kind of tool so we can flatten, change some areas to accommodate our whishes.

    Guess what we are going to have to eat - it, and accept what some of the chose have picked for their ideas.

    And is you look at the Forest / Swamp / Mountain they are almost exactly the same all that changed was what the base land looks like. The basic design and placement of the lots is almost identical.

    Where is the Meeting with a Dev to discuss our design. Gone - pick a template and chose, then you have some piddly ability to change minor (very minor) design :-(

    Not what I purchased - and of you are going to tell me to drop 10 k for a custom town - . . . . . . . .

    If you are going to say that was NOT what was there, I will print the pic of what a POT said when I bought it.
     
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  8. Cinder Sear

    Cinder Sear Avatar

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    I don't have a town, but as a player, I would LOVE to see more variation of the templates.. it's a huge bore to walk around all the towns I have that all 'feel' the same, because it IS the same layout almost everywhere (nevermind the loading times needed to enter, and leave the town). I don't understand how POT placement works, but I'd love to see you POT owners to be able to place lots anywhere, with no restrictions and with many more different biomes and land layouts (taking a river or lake from the same layout is hopefully just a lazy 'placeholder' until better content gets made).
     
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  9. Grave Dragon

    Grave Dragon Avatar

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    I asked during the telethon if we would have the option to mix/match biome with templates as was originally advertised, but unfortunately they didn't get to it before the session ended.

    Since the very begining, I've wanted Dragon's Fall to have the Port Phoenix template with the updated docks and stone landing but a Forrest biome instead of swamp.

    Thanks for posting this Drocis!!
    Good stuff.
     
  10. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

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    Here is the timeslot for flattening of templates.
    Code:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGuwQ3YoaGk&feature=youtu.be&t=19018
    Darkstarr (paraphrasing)
    Please report spots that you think should be flat as bugs, remember to use the /loc and stand in the right position.
     
  11. Drocis the Devious

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    /loc The entire Island Template.
     
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  12. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

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    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Drocis the Devious

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    I don't think we're using a physics model that works like that.
     
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  14. Grave Dragon

    Grave Dragon Avatar

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    But how cool would a waterworld floating city be, made up of half destroyed ships, logs and debris as walkways between boats and sporadic flat land poking out of the water? A pirates dream.

    It's not exactly doable, I know, but would be cool.
     
  15. Abydos

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    POT's Template need definitely more work's.
     
  16. Drocis the Devious

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    For Rats Nest I'm looking to do something more like this...
    [​IMG]

    This was just a proof of concept and unfortunately it really isn't possible to create the type of town I'm looking for on the current template. This was "close" but there were significant deficiencies. Many of the houses I placed here where only in these positions because they covered up a tree, or because they couldn't be placed where I really wanted them to go due to the available lot space being conformed in special areas. I need all of this to be flat and in my control.
     
  17. Stryker Sparhawk

    Stryker Sparhawk Avatar

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    Arx Draconis is a static placed town so has forcibly flattened areas for the design.
    As Dara Brae is also a static town, one would think the island POT might not fit everyone's layout, but we have had the largest POT as a dynamic town for about six releases now on that island template, that being Hometown.

    I know I have had to adjust my view of town structure everytine a new template has rolled in and the devs and Kazyn know well I have had my share of loves and dislikes of this process. So, it is a matter of just remaining agile with design as well as encouraging each other with the good as well as presenting criticism constructively.

    I am slightly amused at the irony that the grasslands is not a coastal version, but maybe it's easier to add that in later...
     
  18. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    That is the Dara Brae Template. GET IT RIGHT! :D
     
  19. mdsota152

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    My problem with the forest template "paxlair" is the giant parking lot with no trees and some of the areas around the parking lot have bumps. Plus, for a forest template, it sure does not look or feel like a forest.
     
  20. Drocis the Devious

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    When they made the Pax Lair template they made it for Pax Lair. Which works great for that community, but not so well for those of us looking for something different.

    The Pax Lair folks tried to design something that could be reused, but at that time we didn't know a whole lot about the process and there are plenty of POT owners that were trying to keep their design ideas held close to the vest. There are a lot of unimaginative copycats out there, and it can be rather frustrating when you've worked hours on developing something only to have someone else come a long and steal the entire premise for their own use.

    I think a larger concern at this point is that we have over 230 POTs that still need "created" and we only have this small handful of templates that we're all supposed to work off of. I think the Dynamic POTs are very cool and give a lot of functionality that will help this process for a lot of POT owners, even with the lack of template choices. But now that we have all of these limitations to the current templates identified, I really hope we can move forward with larger flatter templates that allow players to develop their own layouts without obstruction.

    I think that might be the best way to go for static towns, POT owners can build their layout (foreground) and then make requests to fill in the background with trees or mountains or whatever.
     
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