5 réponses à ce sujet

[Verilazic]

So I was compiling my portraits collection, and figuring out which ones to put together into a hakpak for my module because I didn't want to make people download an entire 500MB portrait pack when I might only use a small fraction of it.

 

Then I got to thinking that I'd like to be able to do that again for my next module, but without having to go back through and compile a brand new portraits.2da by hand. So I made a spreadsheet of all my portrait names combined with the other relevant details to make it really easy to copy-paste them into a new 2da.

 

But this got me thinking: how doable would it be to set up a more involved system for other resources? Imagine a SQL database of all models and associated skins possible for every article of custom clothing and every phenotype out there. Imagine a simple program that would let you browse through screenshots of every article of clothing, and select which ones you want to use, and the program would automatically bundle them together with appropriately adjusted file names and 2das.

 

What do you guys think? It's fairly straightforward to write a basic script to trace the text in .mdls, etc and replace as needed as well as change file names and generate corresponding .2das. Maybe even making a basic database of files with the correct links to superset files, etc could be straightforward too. I feel pretty confident that with some review, I could write a program to trace through files and replace text, but I haven't done anything with SQL in years, so it would probably take me much longer to figure out how to do that.

 

How crazy would it be to try to build this? XD

[MerricksDad]

It has been a goal of mine for years to do something like that, but with the sheer amount of content, and in different formats, a large portion of the community clump would have to be sifted out by hand. For instance, how do you categorize placeable-creature hybrids which require scripts to function? How do you micromanage a collection of models in different formats, mostly being compiled and non-compiled, and yet some are still in just max/obj format. Some things just simply would not fit into these species lines.

 

On the other hand, a catalog where each and every armor part, much like a clothing store for sims2/3 would be wonderful. A catalog could be done for any given 2da type which calls on media, basically with a store for appearance, one for each armor part, one for portraits, one for placeables models, etc.

 

To keep them separate, like they do with sims2/3, what you'd do is basically just give them unique index numbers. A second database could be kept for related, but optional content. A third database could be kept which links required stuff, such as script for proper usage.

 

I've thought about this on and off for many years, and more so whenever anybody makes a comment about the complexity of the CEP, especially for those who do not want the entire package, or the work of trying to unpack only the parts they want (like myself).

 

To an extent, this is very doable, but it would require a team of like-minded individuals to get a large portion of the oddball stuff to fit. But yes, very do-able.

[MerricksDad]

KlatchainCoffee wrote...

 

I think we can be more pro-active as a community to aid potential new players/builders find and join us.   We are stubborn, creative and resilient and prepared to mitigate even the loss of such a the great depository as NWVault, but, until such time that a better toolset with the same level of user-friendliness is created, we need to take more steps to be visible.

 

The two most practical things I can think of are:

 

1) Organising and presenting the existing custom content in a more inspiring and easy-to-use manner (already under way, in many ways);

 

2) Communicating with the current main seller of the game (GOG.com at the moment) to ensure that they provide extra information (links to the active server list and to the CC resources/community) on the product page. It will be in their interest commercially anyhow and will let anyone new trying out the game know that there is a myriad of worlds and potential out there beyond the single player game.

 

And this is exactly why I think making a more user friendly, shopping-mall-like site for new users is the biggest possible way to get new users to download and try new things, and to also get them interested in making their own models and adventures.

[Verilazic]

And this is exactly why I think making a more user friendly, shopping-mall-like site for new users is the biggest possible way to get new users to download and try new things, and to also get them interested in making their own models and adventures.

Agreed. Anything that reduces the time required to include custom content while also maintain NWN's main advantage: flexibility.

[Verilazic]

So on the off chance that I manage to actually put something together, would the Vault be capable of hosting some form of SQL database?

[Rolo Kipp]

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Ready, willing and able ;-)

 

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