New Pre-CU Planet: Hoth

[Halyn]

What's FBIT?

 

[Nee]

it seems I can manually convert Echo Base, so it's still on.

The rest will be cake.

Then...  I have more work to do.

You're amazing.

Keep pluggin' away dude.

I for one am sending you 1 meeelion  /pep-talks!

p.s. Earlier you said something about "giving middle finger on Mustafar" ... What did you mean by that?  Do you not like Mustafar?  Are you dreading the eventual Mustafar conversion-to-Precu effort?  Or did you mean "middle finger" as in  give-the-middle-finger-to-SOE ? (full disclosure: Mustafar = my 2nd favorite planet lol --- with HOTH being 1st of course. )

 

[Sytner]

What's FBIT?

FilterBitmap - it lets you filter based on an image.

It's used for the heightmaps in Kashyyyk/Mustafar but you can also use an older version of it in pre-CU terrains, it just lacks the gain value but that isn't a big deal in my experience.

 

[Halyn]

Very interesting...

 

[Takhomasak]

Very interesting...

Yes it is very... very interesting.  It works.  

Nee, I mean my first heighmap test was to paint a 3D middle finger on Mustafar.  Am not a prequel fan.

 

[Nee]

Nee, I mean my first heighmap test was to paint a 3D middle finger on Mustafar.  Am not a prequel fan.

ahhh ok

Well, tbqh,  i'm not a huge fan of the 'prequels' either (parts of  Ep.3  were  decent, but otherwise yeah overall i was very disappointed in the prequels, as was most every SW fan  above the age of 5  lol ) .

Anyways, the reason(s)  i love(d)  Mustafar so much is, well, too many to list but i guess the main reason is how it FELT.

It felt...alive.

And i really enjoyed some of the quests---like 'Droid Army' , for example---despite them being  instanced.

p.s.  You & everyone may want to check this new commit out ASAP...

http://review.swgemu.com/#/c/5140/

 

[Takhomasak]

Nee, I mean my first heighmap test was to paint a 3D middle finger on Mustafar.  Am not a prequel fan.

ahhh ok

Well, tbqh,  i'm not a huge fan of the 'prequels' either (parts of  Ep.3  were  decent, but otherwise yeah overall i was very disappointed in the prequels, as was most every SW fan  above the age of 5  lol ) .

Anyways, the reason(s)  i love(d)  Mustafar so much is, well, too many to list but i guess the main reason is how it FELT.

It felt...alive.

And i really enjoyed some of the quests---like 'Droid Army' , for example---despite them being  instanced.

p.s.  You & everyone may want to check this new commit out ASAP...

http://review.swgemu.com/#/c/5140/

I said it there and I'll say it again here - <3 Nee

 

[Lasko]

p.s.  You & everyone may want to check this new commit out ASAP...

http://review.swgemu.com/#/c/5140/

It's in!!

Many thanks to Reoze, Nee and Everyone at SWGEmu for even considering this

 

[Halyn]

Great news!

 

[Takhomasak]

I seriously got discouraged yesterday!  Really impressed with the response, yeah.  WHEW

So I'm back on track with this today.

Starting work on a third planet as well.

 

[Himalayas]

Anyways, the reason(s)  i love(d)  Mustafar so much is, well, too many to list but i guess the main reason is how it FELT.

It felt...alive.

And i really enjoyed some of the quests---like 'Droid Army' , for example---despite them being  instanced.

http://review.swgemu.com/#/c/5140/

I second this. Mustafar was an awesome expansion!

 

[Takhomasak]

Anyways, the reason(s)  i love(d)  Mustafar so much is, well, too many to list but i guess the main reason is how it FELT.

It felt...alive.

And i really enjoyed some of the quests---like 'Droid Army' , for example---despite them being  instanced.

http://review.swgemu.com/#/c/5140/

I second this. Mustafar was an awesome expansion!

You're all making me feel bad for trashing it.  I loved the new stuff, visuals, yeah..

I guess I was most opposed to the gameplay, and the necessity for the Musty content or...you couldn't do much.  I am all about emergent content more than material, for driving gameplay, personally.  Just would have implemented items differently, spread some content across the galaxy.  

I like the idea of many worlds, each with a few unique attractions, Musty and Kash (though I adored parts of Kash too.. like Myyydril Caverns) seemed to be such a concentration...  that when one returned to the base game it seemed empty and lacking in comparison.

mind, I played 03 to 09, so I missed the explosion of content right before the end

 

[Himalayas]

You're all making me feel bad for trashing it.  I loved the new stuff, visuals, yeah..

I guess I was most opposed to the gameplay, and the necessity for the Musty content or...you couldn't do much.  I am all about emergent content more than material, for driving gameplay, personally.  Just would have implemented items differently, spread some content across the galaxy.  

I like the idea of many worlds, each with a few unique attractions, Musty and Kash (though I adored parts of Kash too.. like Myyydril Caverns) seemed to be such a concentration...  that when one returned to the base game it seemed empty and lacking in comparison.

mind, I played 03 to 09, so I missed the explosion of content right before the end

Haha it's fun to beat the dead horse of Pre-CU vs NGE.

Yeah the content was awesome. I agree though, the pre-CU world feels empty and dead - hence why modding is mandatory for me to even consider playing pre-CU.

 

[Takhomasak]

Alright - an update here, and a call for suggestions

Hard to tell in this picture - but I have finally imported the heightmap from the NGE, so Echo base is sitting snugly in a custom hill designed for it. There's no way to fall through the ground anymore.

http://i.imgur.com/KXgQdvv.png

Today I'm finalizing world design (the shaders in the picture are just the test terrain, btw) - and addressing one final problem with Hoth --

This is ..maybe... why the original devs made it an instance. If you travel halfway across my full-sized Hoth, then come back to Echo Base, the model will have despawned, and you can't see it or get back in unless you teleport or shuttle to reload the zone.

So I need to find a way to force a zone reload for people who venture too far out - but without necessarily restricting the planet size.  Or just reset the structure parameters somehow.

I am considering making permanent 'storm zones.' These could bound PvP areas, travel corridors... and essentially make it necessary to shuttle if you want to travel long distances. You *could* try to outpace the storm damage... it's still going to be an open world... just extremely dangerous.

Still, it would probably be possible to run back and see the despawned Echo Base.

I will be looking into solutions, perhaps there is a parameter I've not encountered yet that determines the type or spawn distance for this type of POB. Also - perhaps it is merely a database issue on our Test server. It wouldn't be the only one (til we wipe/refresh).

If anyone has any ideas on this issue, let's talk!!

In the meantime, still looking to finish in a week or so. Even if the final solution is to make a small/restricted map. The content is too cool not to include.   I just want to stick as close to my original idea of a 'canvas for content,' rather than start shaping/suggesting on it to avoid mechanic issues...

 

[Valkyra]

For the echo base, how are you placing the object, in a world snapshot or server-side?

 

[Takhomasak]

For the echo base, how are you placing the object, in a world snapshot or server-side?

snapshot. building string is defined in a LUA serverside of course


ahhhh, is this perhaps what an SSA file is for?

one further note- this server is pre-navmesh debacle

 

[Takhomasak]

Alright - notes..

FBIT - using a heightmap is not as advantageous as it may sound.  I just opted to use the echo_base.tga from the NGE to cover the POB, then do the rest of the terrain the old fashioned way.

I laid down a frozen body of water with snowdrifts on top today:

http://i.imgur.com/PIPNvZO.jpg

I have three distinct types of falling snow working, now, and weather transitions all over the planet. 

Tomorrow should be another full day at work on the terrain and environment!

 

[Nee]

So awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep up the good work!

./super-snow-pep-talk

 

[Himalayas]

Your comprehension of world building is absolutely incredible! I love all the considerate ways you approach problems!

 

[Takhomasak]

This one is taking a lot of work, but I am making progress. The only remaining obstacle, at any rate, is the Echo Base POB... I guess I need to load it server side somehow. The visual effects and items all work now, but players cannot zone in simultaneously. There is no crash, and they still run out into the same world... I made an SSA for it, but it just caused a client crash. Like I said before.. I just have it dropped in the snapshot for now. Any suggestions or hints would be appreciated. I have even looked into screenplays for hints, and tried a public structure tag in the objects/buildings LUA...

The rest is awesome, though. I have developed four unique terrain zones, now...