Post by kalbaern on Sept 26, 2009 10:07:47 GMT -5
Please follow the following when building an area.
1) Keep the initial size to 8x8 or less (total of 16 when you add length and width ... IE 6x10 and 4x12 would work also) Any areas larger than this are subject to being chopped down into more manageable sizes. We do have and will have more areas larger than this here, but keep in mind that "size does matter". Limiting area size plays a big role in lag reduction.
2) After painting terrain, set your background music and sound effects along with lighting. These can go a long ways to setting the mood of the area even before placeables and critters are added in.
3) Do not place any treasure in an area. Place a waypoint with a note requesting the type you envision instead.
4) Do not place creatures or encounters in an area. All of our creatures need to be created as custom due to leaving corpses, our loot system and our XP system. Do not submit creatures unless preapproved. As with treasure above, place a waypoint with a note requesting the type you envision instead.
5) Do not alter any scripts or add new ones without advanced approval. Period. Scripts are never imported with submitted areas to our module until they've been checked out in a blank module for testing.
6) Traps may be placed inorder to let us know where and the general DC of our random traps later.
7) Tilesets:
- Avoid using the "Castle Exterior, Rural" and "Microset" tilesets. The "Castle Exterior, Rural" has very high polygon counts and more players than not will find it extremely laggy. The "Microset" is duplicated elsewhere in other tilesets now.
- Whenever a desired tileset has a "CEP" equivalent, use the CEP version.
8) Placeables should be limited to no more than 12 per "square" and any placeables that block movement should not cross over the red boundry lines from one square to another unless absolutely required. Fewer placeables in each area of our module simply allows for more areas in our module in the end.
9) Use visual effects sparingly if at all. Most visual effects become a strain on the server after awhile. When glowing, sparkling or foggy effects are required ... take your time and see what the "least" you can do is and still retain the desired effect. In many cases here I'll be scripting some effects to spawn/despawn based on whether or not anyone is in the area.
10) No merchants/stores will be accepted. These are generally a pain in the butt to import as we've a single map that holds all of our "stores" here. (Not their NPCs and interiors, but the waypoint holding their wares.) Copying any merchant to our pallette therefore adds even existing pallette items in that store as a custom blueprint and leads to massive bloating of the module quickly.
11) Whenever exporting areas, creatures or whatnots ... make sure the "reset factions" box is unchecked when you finish the export.
1) Keep the initial size to 8x8 or less (total of 16 when you add length and width ... IE 6x10 and 4x12 would work also) Any areas larger than this are subject to being chopped down into more manageable sizes. We do have and will have more areas larger than this here, but keep in mind that "size does matter". Limiting area size plays a big role in lag reduction.
2) After painting terrain, set your background music and sound effects along with lighting. These can go a long ways to setting the mood of the area even before placeables and critters are added in.
3) Do not place any treasure in an area. Place a waypoint with a note requesting the type you envision instead.
4) Do not place creatures or encounters in an area. All of our creatures need to be created as custom due to leaving corpses, our loot system and our XP system. Do not submit creatures unless preapproved. As with treasure above, place a waypoint with a note requesting the type you envision instead.
5) Do not alter any scripts or add new ones without advanced approval. Period. Scripts are never imported with submitted areas to our module until they've been checked out in a blank module for testing.
6) Traps may be placed inorder to let us know where and the general DC of our random traps later.
7) Tilesets:
- Avoid using the "Castle Exterior, Rural" and "Microset" tilesets. The "Castle Exterior, Rural" has very high polygon counts and more players than not will find it extremely laggy. The "Microset" is duplicated elsewhere in other tilesets now.
- Whenever a desired tileset has a "CEP" equivalent, use the CEP version.
8) Placeables should be limited to no more than 12 per "square" and any placeables that block movement should not cross over the red boundry lines from one square to another unless absolutely required. Fewer placeables in each area of our module simply allows for more areas in our module in the end.
9) Use visual effects sparingly if at all. Most visual effects become a strain on the server after awhile. When glowing, sparkling or foggy effects are required ... take your time and see what the "least" you can do is and still retain the desired effect. In many cases here I'll be scripting some effects to spawn/despawn based on whether or not anyone is in the area.
10) No merchants/stores will be accepted. These are generally a pain in the butt to import as we've a single map that holds all of our "stores" here. (Not their NPCs and interiors, but the waypoint holding their wares.) Copying any merchant to our pallette therefore adds even existing pallette items in that store as a custom blueprint and leads to massive bloating of the module quickly.
11) Whenever exporting areas, creatures or whatnots ... make sure the "reset factions" box is unchecked when you finish the export.