On the eve of releasing my Taanab, but need guidance

Takhomasak

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Greetings...  I should have been making this post a year ago, but so much happens in RL.

I am about 80-90% finished with my Taanab add-on for EMU servers.  It will be tested and hopefully deployed first on the SWG Choice server (www.swgchoice.com), for which I am grateful.

Taanab has:

Redesigned flora, terrain, and environment - some brand new elements, utilization of some of the original design in new ways.

Several POIs, some old and some new, and five exploration badges.

One new NPC city.

Invasive Robas and Banthas, and new creatures: Ambrian Staga and Nerfs.

New Norulac Raider NPC faction.

Fully integrated into travel system and client UI.

At least two questlines in concept (they are final priority - may not be in the 'package').

I have relied heavily upon SIE, the Jawa Toolbox, Notepad++, GIMP, the ZonamaDev SWGEMU environment, and the old Essential Guide to Planets...

The snapshot is currently about 50% complete, the terrain 95% complete, and the server and client files 80% complete.  I need some assistance in finding a few things, though...  I have scoured the file structure and the message boards and found no help so far on the following issues:

How the heck do I seed native resources?  I have added them all to the resource_tree... 

Where do I control baby creature spawns and tamability?  I am guessing they're automatically generated somewhere, there has to be a switch in some script...

Social groups in the server mobiles...  are they just defined in the individual mobile LUAs?  


Taanab is a SWG modder's grail at first, but I've been messing with it for years.  I've learned the secrets of the terrain files now, and once I'm done resurrecting this unfinished mess,  making brand new maps will be my job.  And it will be fairly easy with what I've learned now. 

Here are some screenshots of Taanab - and of one of my next projects:

first - the dreary Taanab directly from the game files: http://i.imgur.com/ZX0WhE9.jpg (the mkpods were out of hand, they were the first thing to go)

my new rolling plains:  http://i.imgur.com/1HPzavE.jpg

the sparse, young forests in the valleys:  http://i.imgur.com/urb72uM.jpg

the Painted Hills, an original feature I left unchanged:    http://i.imgur.com/mHH9oII.jpg

a POI in progress:  http://i.imgur.com/qkFQAQj.jpg

my Arcon Multinode Hybrid Plantings POI, in progress:  http://i.imgur.com/LoDAPU9.jpg

the waterways (I only kept two, extended the huge one into the ocean): http://i.imgur.com/rGMpzNQ.jpg

an old POI and flora style, early test:  http://i.imgur.com/Um9H90E.jpg

early work on the high mountain wastelands - and a nod to those old rock spires that used to cover the map: http://i.imgur.com/EJ7xvol.jpg

the beginnings of a starport:  http://i.imgur.com/tD2U7i1.jpg

early work on the coast:  http://i.imgur.com/kjzv7KJ.jpg

Here is a picture of one of my current, very early concepts, Coruscant.  More of a snapshot job than a new terrain, but it is too fun to not work on.  The terrain file is an original idea I'd had for many years - to integrate Coruscant into SWG.  It will be a smaller map, divided into three or four tiers or sections, horizontally and vertically.

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


So, like I said, the old Taanab file has been a mess, and fully restoring it has been a headache - but now I can make new terrain from scratch, so I'm developing a priority list of canon planets that are manageable with existing game assets.  I have a short-list of about six, and am very interested in adhering to original SW movie and EU canon.  Also, I know that a few other servers have done a version of Taanab in the past, but I wanted to make my own - also use it as a proof-of-concept for further ideas.  I set out to do a simple re-skin job, but now I'm looking at creating a whole series of brand-new planets over the next several months.  Creating new terrain and controlling the structure is exactly one million times easier than trying to untangle somebody's unfinished mess.

If anyone has info on the points I asked about, it would be very helpful.  Those are my last two stumbling blocks for full integration, I believe. 

I am hoping to make a package for the SWG Choice server to test in about a week.  They will push it to live when they see fit (they're only just recently re-established).  Then, after some testing, I will make a package available for any EMU based server.  If there are no other modifications made to the server, it should be a simple drag-and-drop modification and a very lightweight TRE file.

Will keep my eyes on this thread and update when I finish.

contact me via PM here, or at SWGEMU forums (same username), or SWGCHOICE forums (same username)
 

Arioch

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i can help with two of those three things, and help figure out the last, but id like to know how to make a new .trn if you dont mind...
 

Takhomasak

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Arioch said:
i can help with two of those three things, and help figure out the last, but id like to know how to make a new .trn if you dont mind...
Well, you still can't, technically.  You can change every single aspect of any existing one, thought, with the IFF editor and terrain templates.  It took me about two years thought, and two weeks of day-long trial and error sessions to learn the structure within the file.  

I'm not talking about replacing shaders and what not, I mean writing brand new layers, manipulating or deleting existing ones, adding new shader, radial, and flora groups...  the only thing I have not done successfully yet is add a new fractal in MGRP.

That Coruscant shot is on a custom map that I wiped and made my own flat city layer, then a raised plateau in the center, and will eventually have trenches for the undercity.  That's why I said it's more of a snapshot job, going to require some creative structure placement and line of sight.
far away shot of the city center: https://i.imgur.com/EEdmgwwh.jpg

That Hex agriculture feature on Taanab is all tedious math... but that was my first experiment when I realized I could completely manipulate the terrain.

I can get into more detail ... edited the original post, so as not to confuse. I can't create a brand new one, but completely rewrite one to do anything. Like delete everything but the water table and start fresh.
 

Arioch

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That sounds great to me. are you available sometime to join a teamspeak server sometime soon and i can get your resources going and help you with the babies and stuff?
 

Takhomasak

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Arioch said:
That sounds great to me. are you available sometime to join a teamspeak server sometime soon and i can get your resources going and help you with the babies and stuff?
yes.  all day. vent is easier.... unless there's an android TS client also. I use my phone cause my sound card is weird. Works great for vent, at least.
 

Arioch

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ok i can be on tonight, ill post back here around 9 pm central and we can figure it out
 

Halyn

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Excellent looking work! For entirely selfish reasons, I'd love to see Coruscant come to life.
 

Takhomasak

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Halyn said:
Excellent looking work! For entirely selfish reasons, I'd love to see Coruscant come to life.
Well, I have the hardest part complete...   and I'm doing it for selfish reasons as well :p

I have developed a system/workflow, so after Taanab, future installments should be much faster.
 

Sytner

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I like the hexagonal features, nice work!
 

Takhomasak

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Sytner said:
I like the hexagonal features, nice work!
Thanks, (many thanks to you as well).  You and Timbab gave us the tools!  Trying to use them for the intended purpose.

I, personally, need about 20 fully developed planets in galaxies before it will feel right.  Got the old books right here, and a decade's worth of planning and dreaming on the subject. and most importantly... some free time...
 

Pake

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Very awesome work. I would love to learn how to do even half of that, especially where you were able to replace the ground with the concrete looking pads for the cities. I tried learning from posts here but tbh I'm didn't have much luck :(

Back when I was working on learning how to make planets I started re-working I guide I intended to share but just hadnt finished it yet. Anyway I did learn some bits that could help.

How the heck do I seed native resources? I have added them all to the resource_tree...

http://www.modthegalaxy.com/forums/thread-guide-how-to-create-your-own-planet-swgemu-in-progress?page=7&highlight=resource Unfortunately I never completed these notes when i was working on my Taanab but starting at post 68 in the link is where I believe I got most of the info.

Where do I control baby creature spawns and tamability? I am guessing they're automatically generated somewhere, there has to be a switch in some script...

Also unfortunately the notes I kept for when I was playing around with were on bits of paper easily lost. Going from memory, I was working on making Juv Kraytes tamable for my son. What I was able to gather was that the spawn rate for babies and the chance to spawn as a baby is directly linked to the tamingChance in the creature's lua file. If this is set to 0 than there will never be a baby spawned. When I changed this on the Krayte juvie after enough kills at the graveyard and a baby would spawn. I changed the spawn rate too, but just to speed up the testing :) I also had to edit some other files for CH that capped the combat level. I cant remember what those were but shouldnt matter for what it sounds like your doing.

Social groups in the server mobiles... are they just defined in the individual mobile LUAs?

These are controlled by a lua but you prob may also have to edit some String files to have them show up properly. faction_manager.lua I believe.

Hope this helps!

Just found this. Check out Miztah's reply (post #2) for more info on taming/babies
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160217&highlight=baby+spawn
 

Takhomasak

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Hey thanks for the reply!

I'll give some updates/specify:

I actually got some assistance from Arioch earlier that might do the trick on resources.  I deleted the resource database and will get it to respawn tomorrow hopefully (bedtime now).

On the babies, he also pointed me to that mobile setting, I'd missed it (DOH) - but my problem, more specifically, is that when babies are spawning, they were coming up with simply the name (baby)... not the creature name, despite my adding them to the stringtables, etc.  Everything else works about them.  So I've just turned babies off for now. ...  but you want to have a pet Nerf, right?  Who knows, maybe even a Nerf mount? (they look like seahorses)

On the faction group.  I have made the faction and social group calls uniform, added a line in the faction_Manager, added strings in the client side stringtables, and still my Norulac Raiders all spawn with random names, correctly, and the empty tag () after the name.  The /examine window shows the correct name, though.  I'm not too concerned with them awarding faction points, just identifying correctly when you see them in the wild.

Like I said in my long-winded main post, these little things, plus just filling out the snapshot, are all I have left before packaging and beta testing.  I'd like to try to finish this within two weeks, then move on, in a more casual pace, to new planets.
 

Takhomasak

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You know, the last thing I'm really dreading doing, for completeness, is making the new planetary map. The hi-rez one Sytner posted for me ages ago is cool, but I've changed it too much.

The part I'm dreading, what I'm currently looking at - and completely willing - to do, is to max out the radar, zoom out to 1024m, and take what... 256 or 512 screenshots and drop 'em in a grid. I could do this over a few days. I guess I can remove the map UI also to get the full size... but I'm wondering if there's any way to export or tweak this generated terrain map on the radar? I will have to start looking in the client UI files tomorrow.

The list is short, but I keep adding these little things - to make it perfect! Like it shipped complete on the CDs is my goal.
 

Sytner

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Takhomasak said:
You know, the last thing I'm really dreading doing, for completeness, is making the new planetary map.  The hi-rez one Sytner posted for me ages ago is cool, but I've changed it too much.  

The part I'm dreading, what I'm currently looking at - and completely willing - to do, is to max out the radar, zoom out to 1024m, and take what...  256 or 512 screenshots and drop 'em in a grid.  I could do this over a few days.  I guess I can remove the map UI also to get the full size...   but I'm wondering if there's any way to export or tweak this generated terrain map on the radar?  I will have to start looking in the client UI files tomorrow.

The list is short, but I keep adding these little things - to make it perfect!  Like it shipped complete on the CDs is my goal.
I'm happy to generate you one once you've finalised the terrain - just let me know :).
 

Takhomasak

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Sytner said:
Takhomasak said:
You know, the last thing I'm really dreading doing, for completeness, is making the new planetary map.  The hi-rez one Sytner posted for me ages ago is cool, but I've changed it too much.  

The part I'm dreading, what I'm currently looking at - and completely willing - to do, is to max out the radar, zoom out to 1024m, and take what...  256 or 512 screenshots and drop 'em in a grid.  I could do this over a few days.  I guess I can remove the map UI also to get the full size...   but I'm wondering if there's any way to export or tweak this generated terrain map on the radar?  I will have to start looking in the client UI files tomorrow.

The list is short, but I keep adding these little things - to make it perfect!  Like it shipped complete on the CDs is my goal.
I'm happy to generate you one once you've finalised the terrain - just let me know :).
You're a wizard.
 

Arioch

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hey sytner, im gonna give a shot at making a new terrain for a planet im working on and have been worrying about a shot of it for cntrl+v, can i get in line for one if im successful?

thanks either way for well that and all this other stuff you do lol
 

Sytner

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Arioch said:
hey sytner, im gonna give a shot at making a new terrain for a planet im working on and have been worrying about a shot of it for cntrl+v, can i get in line for one if im successful?

thanks either way for well that and all this other stuff you do lol
Sure, happy to do it for anyone until the tool is out. Just send me a .tre with everything needed that I can add to a clean client for the generation.
 
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