poll big map for Castle siege / tower defense module.
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questions :are large areas of nwn2 buggy or not?
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gate types (like keep or simple)
- big gate
- small gate
- something balanced
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- big map 32x32
- mid map
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maps ideas
- default 9 gates
- make more diference and more interesting maps(move gates and make gates area more walkable/if areas walkable .some enemies can attack them without going through the first gate if they have a workaround
- the map should be different too boring and square. maybe change the number of gates or something
- (your choice-in comments)
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If you make the map too large, the time it takes to get across will rule out quite a few race/class combinations.
If you can randomize at least some of the gates for size or location, it will be far more replayable.
Good luck!
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I don’t think big areas are necessarily buggy but it depends on what is going on ( creatures fights etc. ), how much grass and detail there is, walkmeshes and placeables or environmental objects.
The main problem with a big area is that it will take ages to make and if it does go wrong you’ll be screwed. You also might make the frame rate suffer, I had that in a large interior area so I chopped it up.
The Last of the Danaan mod used overlapping areas so you could see the next area from the one you were in and transitioned to it. No idea how he did it but GCoyote fixed it up and might be able to explain how.
Personally I’d go smaller and have different areas to defend, maybe have a castle in the middle and a north south east and west area to transition to.
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Hi GCoyote , thanks for the reply!
Why do you think so? those who play will always play the warrior first-but he can buy weapon and others items+you need to control all gates.
and move fast and make good strategy-and use analysis skills - this not hack and slash game -this more strategy-if you use your minds you can win otherwise - no.
(maybe some other classes are unlikely /there is no rest in this area).
and game wil have dynamic events and choices and consequences.
and randome stuff.
and the champion can wield both a sword and various abilities, and so on.and in final game player must use champion .
any ideas and suggestions are welcome.
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Hello Tsongo , thanks for the reply!
Can you be more specific about what it is? and how to solve this problem.
the thing is that the attack is happening on the whole fortress, so I want everything to happen in 1 area. because otherwise how will I control it?
I have a timer there, and loading another area will most likely throw it off + loading screens - it’s not good.
and both you both chose big gates they won’t fit in the middle area.
24x24 maps video( 24x24 - YouTube)
image now
maybe the area looks smaler but it’s 24 x 24 ,
i pasted gates here for comparisons,
here big map
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maybe I’ll just remake - the big gate - I’ll shorten it and try to assemble it, but it looks like the size of the map will not be 24 by 24, so it won’t fit much - the big one looks good even in a rough version - but we’ll see. too much confusion with the paths of enemies and so on, that’s all for me need to be clarified
and make it look like
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also if anyone has interesting map ideas, you can throw them here.
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The frame rate is the amount of frames per second that you are seeing so when the computer is “thinking” about too much at once it struggles and the view becomes jumpy because it’s got to “print” out a lot of things all at once and work out who’s moving where and fighting etc.
The area I had trouble with finished up looking like there was a strobe light going off when there was a fight. You can help it by turning down the graphics and things like that but bear in mind some people don’t want that and will get frustrated when they’re moving about like robots or you could crash their computers.
However 24 x 24 isn’t too big and I understand what you want but you might have to compromise on looks quite a lot. You could forget the castle and battlements etc and go for a fort in the woods or a village that’s a bit more simple to start with to test your mechanics.
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Thanks Tsongo and GCoyote for the ideas.
a few areas , basically not too bad.
great ideas Tsongo!
moreover, each can be made unique.
there is of course a drawback - the loading screen. however, this is the price you can pay (after all, the game is old).
and this will make the game even more difficult, which is great (now the player will have to keep in mind not 1, but three whole areas + correctly distribute gold and so on)
I need to do something simpler for test and corrections - for example, my area is 24-24 - or reduce it even more
and gradually increase. - correct a little and you can test.
it will look like this: first we protect region 1(3-4 wawes),
then 2(3-4 wawes) and so on.
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Tsongo
well, a big one, it’s quite possible to do it, you just need to make sure that it will not fail.
I need to know what makes them the most buggy.
(you probably had a lot of trees and environment objects)
since there are many, most likely there will be only enemies and then a limited number.
by checking factor by factor, I will create an ideal area (probably not exactly).
.will require testers + a lot of checks.
I think you just exceeded a certain limit above which nvn2 will not pull out.
like when I exported a model with 110 thousand triangles - the toolbox kicked me out when I tried to display the model - it was funny.
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I’ve been playing Sean Maxhell’s Town Simulator which faces some of the same problems you are trying to work through.
- The game begins to lag when there are more than about 40 total combatants and gets bad when you have more than about 80 total (defenders + hostiles). At least that is how it behaves on my average system.
- Large numbers of corpses, loot bags, and active spell effects can make the problem, worse. If possible, just have the bodies vanish after death.
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The area I had trouble with had no trees or grass, it was an interior, but it did have quite a lot of people and lights. Make sure you turn as many placeables as possible to environment objects and cut out the walkmesh around them.
On an exterior I wouldn’t try to use walkmesh cutters ( unless I had to ) but would use the “non walkable” function of the toolset and cut it out using the triangles provided on the map.
Having no point lights and making it all happen at one time of day might help too, that way the sky is not moving/ changing and you don’t need lights. Also be wary of too much grass.
I think I’d probably do the basic area and check what happens with the fighting before making it look nice with additions because you could finish up making a lovely area that won’t work well when the swords start swinging.
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Well, the light - you just need to adjust that’s all.
I almost have shadows disabled: buggy engine
eats memory and processor due to an error, namely memory leaks.
and this problem is actually quite well-known - in the engine itself and the lighting system.
I also created areas where there are many light sources and everything is ok.
Well, I think it’s easy to check, you just need to just test, that’s all. That’s an unexpected error for you - it’s not unexpected at all, they must be clearly monitored and defined.
and create a decision list.
Tsongo Thanks for the information. After all, the more I know, the better it will help to recreate problems in advance and learn how to solve them and the solution will be available to everyone.
I propose to create such a topic and find out for what reasons the areas are buggy. How do you like the idea?
There is a plugin called the powerbar and that has a lot of extra features for the toolset and adds tabs one of which is a thing that counts area statistics like placeables, trees, lights etc. you might find that useful for working out what causes what in certain areas.
As for what makes areas buggy it’s pretty random and hard to define you could have an area with five hundred trees and an acre of grass, nothing goes wrong. Then you make another similar one and it all goes at a snails pace because of one light point or caster with a funky script.
The area you show with the hoard attacking has nothing but fighting to consider so should be fine as the computer isn’t doing anything else. Put in a load of grass and fight the hoard with a high level wizard doing area spells and see what happens because that’s a lot more calculations to do at once when they get hit.
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