Todd Mitchell wrote:
What is the difference here? - a 'house in a box' would be a blueprint
too, no? The point being made is that the store would sell a 'token'
representing a building template the player would like to be built on
site - the templates tells the apply invocation which maps to create
and link to the exit it creates. You could call it a 'house kit' a
'blueprint' or even a 'doggydoo' if you like - you would need an arch
to implement it in any case.
I believe what he meant by a 'house in a box' is rather different. As I
understand, he just means a nice package of buildable parts to start a
house with from scratch so you don't have to forage around the few small
building shops there currently are when you first build it.
Also I am not sure what a 'global unique map' is but I was under the
impression that to instantiate a building from a blueprint you should
write a copy of the appropriate map (a committed "template" in the
maps module) to the *var/maps* directory.
What I meant by 'global unique map' (which was a bad term), is new class
of map similar to unique maps and overlay maps which would be better to
call 'template maps'. Storing in var/maps would not be appropriate,
because this is where overlays are stored, not complete maps based off
of a template, so they should have their own directory in var, which
wouldn't be restricted to land plots, as I intend the template maps
feature to be potentially useful for other parts of crossfire too.
Also, you seem to be missing another part that IMO is important:
-That I also plan to make is possible to make unique, and template, maps
using the a map generated from the random map generator as a template.
I believe this is how/where the weather code generates and stores the
modified world maps with the weather effects. Building a house from a
template should be as simple as grabbing the slaying field from the
blueprint object to find the templates directory (e.g.
/templates/house1) containing the maps in the template, replacing the
return exit coordinates and perhaps some inventory checkers (set
slaying to match a marker in the player's inventory so they can access
their vault and trophy rooms) and then writing the new maps to the
var/maps folder and poping a unique exit object on the world map on
the zoned tile(s) the blueprint was invoked on. Naturally the map
templates contain buildable areas, however even an 'empty' entirely
buildable map would require a template since they would need a map
size and return exit in the very least.
IMHO, you seem to be missing what to be would be a significant part of
the fun of land plots: Building the house from scratch, though it might
be nice to have a prebuilt blueprint for when you don't want to spend
time building details. However in my opinion, building from scratch
*should* be the primary way of building, with the blueprints just as an
alternative.
Using the feature I'm describing above with using the random map
generator, I feel more depth could be added to the land plots by making
the random map generator randomly make little landscape details here and
there that are different in every plot. In my opinion, if blueprints
were encouraged as the primary method of making land plots, then too
many would look too alike even with player modifications, which defeats
a large part of what I think would make land plots so great, which is
that every player's plot would be unique to them and of their own
design. Such customizeability is something that I feel helps to make a
great RPG. Sure you could encourage blueprints and have empty as an
alternative, but I feel that the land plots may be somewhat dull if the
blueprints become the primary way of making them as opposed to empty
ones generated by the random map generator and built completely by the
player.
Alex Schultz
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