12 réponses à ce sujet

[PJ156]

My need for order and thirst for cool cc is driving me inexorably towards volunteering to do a creature cornucopia,

 

What might it look like?

 

I think that each creature might have a folder with it's various parts in. the folder would have the creature files and would be named after the creature and the creator. All creatures would be stored on an excell spreadsheet to help keep track. 2da's would be maintained and updated by a single person.

 

In my vision a modder would look in the cornucopia, pick out the creature they wanted and pop the folder into their campaign folder. that would be it.

 

This would go back in time to all the current creature list. So pains work would be superseded over time in the short term it would be used a basis. In my opinion pain did a good job but it could have been a little ore refined. Packing all RWS is good but not great if I only want the Sahuagin.

 

The issue is the blueprints, That is the time consuming bit and would interact with other 2da's is new creature items needed to be created?

 

Lastly, this could be an easily broken down community project. Each person can take a creature out of the pot as time suits them. package the files and create the blueprints. One person could gather the work up and ensure the nexus and vault were updated.

 

Does any of this sound foolish. is there a better way.

 

PJ 

[rjshae]

Yes, creating the blueprints and creature items could take a lot of work. But many of them may be available in the modules where they are used. I also suspect having a download folder for each creature type may prove prohibitive. A possibility would be to group creatures by type; thus you'd have a Constructs download containing all constructs.

[kamal_]

I would say the most important thing about blueprints is that there is one for each creature appearance, and that the name property is the name of the creature. Unless there's something special that is integral to the creature (beholder eye rays for instance), a blueprint being rulebook accurate in terms of stats, abilities, levels etc. is nice, but not necessary. From a time standpoint when I create creature blueprints I prefer to find a stock nwn2 ability that seems a decent match for a special ability that's not in nwn2 instead of custom scripting something that is a perfect match.

 

I'd probably sort creatures into a folder for the creator, then folder for each creature, with the creature folder having all files necessary for the creature (animations, textures, model, special scripts, vfx etc).

[PJ156]

Sorry I was not clear in the way I worded that. I think there should be one download with everything in plus a download for each update creature. There will be a folder for each creature in the download.

 

So an update would be one small folder and updated 2da files. Does that make sense.

 

The thing that has made me wary of this project is the blueprints that's a lot of work and it's subjective in some cases.

 

PJ

[4760]

Some creatures also share textures and animations. So grouping them is definitely the best option I believe.

[kamal_]

The thing that has made me wary of this project is the blueprints that's a lot of work and it's subjective in some cases.

 

 

Like I said, sourcebook accurate blueprints are the probably the least important part. Nice to have, but not necessary. If someone wants to make sourcebook accurate blueprints, let them.

[PJ156]

Some creatures also share textures and animations. So grouping them is definitely the best option I believe.

 

That would be a pain. I had not realized that. Is it so prevalent as to not want to repeat those files for each of the creatures? i.e. if it's one or two could we just repeat the files. If they are stock then the stock files won't go in the creatures files anyway?

 

"Like I said, sourcebook accurate blueprints are the probably the least important part"

 

If that is everyone's thoughts then the task becomes much easier.

 

PJ

[4760]

Is it so prevalent as to not want to repeat those files for each of the creatures? i.e. if it's one or two could we just repeat the files.

Well, I guess there aren't so many creatures using the same animations, except if they use a stock skeleton, in which case you won't need the animations files anyway.

"Like I said, sourcebook accurate blueprints are the probably the least important part"[/size]

I'd say, "use the blueprint provided with the creature". For the sharks, the Formians and the Slaads, I checked the details in the D&D books and updated the values accordingly. Same has been done for the octopus. But for the crab, I probably used an existing blueprint (from a fire beetle or the like) and didn't change a thing. After all, you volunteer for a creature cornucopia, not as a reviewer/approver of their characteristics.

[kamal_]

That would be a pain. I had not realized that. Is it so prevalent as to not want to repeat those files for each of the creatures? i.e. if it's one or two could we just repeat the files. If they are stock then the stock files won't go in the creatures files anyway?

My approach with the tileset project was that each tileset should be complete and self contained. It should not require a file that does not exist in it's folder(s). This means that there was some duplication of textures, as some tilesets used the same textures (RWS tilesets tend to use some of the same textures for different tilesets).

 

The disadvantage of this is it makes for a larger download for builders and users. This is offset by two things, the download is not that much larger in comparison to a download with no duplicate textures, and broadband internet making large downloads less time-consuming than they used to be.

 

The advantage of this is that things like this don't happen:

"Tileset A doesn't work! What's wrong?"

"Did you delete any tilesets you weren't using?"

"Yes, I deleted Tileset B."

"When you did that you deleted textures that are shared between Tileset A and B."

 

As the maintainer of the tileset project, the advantage of my needing to do less support well outweighs the disadvantage of you having a slightly larger download.

[PJ156]

I agree with Kamal_ it would be better to pick up a creature folder and know it will work rather than mess about with potential missing files. If its's stock it does not need to be in the file. if it's custom it goes in the file. Even if that results in some duplication.

 

Does that make sense?

 

PJ

[Tchos]

A problem with not putting importance on the blueprint accuracy for what should be a definitive collection is that a beginning builder will simply use them as they are, perhaps not even knowing that they're not complete.  Andy observed this as well, having seen modules including mind flayers that did not include their special script even though it's present in the stock resources, simply because it was not in the blueprints provided, leading to rather ineffectual mind flayers.

[PJ156]

A problem with not putting importance on the blueprint accuracy for what should be a definitive collection is that a beginning builder will simply use them as they are, perhaps not even knowing that they're not complete.  Andy observed this as well, having seen modules including mind flayers that did not include their special script even though it's present in the stock resources, simply because it was not in the blueprints provided, leading to rather ineffectual mind flayers.

 

If we are building a resource for us to use, that is less relevant since we know what we are doing and what we want.

 

I would rather build for a new modder who knows little more than to sort the files out to bring a monster into the tools. In this case a competent blueprint would be important and yours/Andy's comments are very much true.

 

Any custom scripts would also go into the creature folder making it a complete entity. In the case on a mindflayer, where the model is stock but the script/AI is not then all the folder would need to be is those non stock scripts and items along with blueprints. That makes sense to me though i might be over simplifying.

 

Some of this work is done, this is as much a collation exercise as anything, though clearly there is also much to be done that would be new.

 

PJ

[XbiT]

A problem with not putting importance on the blueprint accuracy for what should be a definitive collection is that a beginning builder will simply use them as they are, perhaps not even knowing that they're not complete.  Andy observed this as well, having seen modules including mind flayers that did not include their special script even though it's present in the stock resources, simply because it was not in the blueprints provided, leading to rather ineffectual mind flayers.

 

Having a base blueprint severs many uses. But I agree with Tchos there are many facets to some creatures that would get overlooked or questions asked of the collection team as to why xyz doesn't work. It's time consuming but I'd like to think that if time was being taken by people adding creatures to the cornucopia that this effort could be spread out and make the collection more complete. It would be nice to have a Monster Manual Collection that at its base was a plot and play undertaking.