Player housing - opinions, assistance...

[RCon]

So, I've created the start of a player housing module for my shaahesk druid/shifter PC (Pelarite), and have gotten the placeables positioned more or less how I want them. The basic idea of the house is that it's an "open-air" treehouse, with very few amenities. I see the cauldron as an Avlis alchemy table, the shed as an ep-chest, and the rest pretty much as it looks.

As this is my first attempt at a module or player housing, I'm looking for some feedback or ideas that I may not have considered. The module is located at:

http://www.richconway.com/avlis/KassaerthTreehouse.zip

Some specific things to note:

* I like the look of the shed, but the normal front "door" to it isn't a door at all, but rather a torn sheet, which doesn't really fit the idea of a locked shed in which the PC stores her things. Instead, I added a Stone Door placeable and some Black Crates to cover up the obvious edges of the Stone Door. I think it's better than any of the other shed-type placeables, but would welcome any other ideas.

* I haven't attached any scripts yet, as I'm not sure which scripts I would use for alchemy tables, ep-chests, etc.

Thanks in advance for any serious or schtick comments, suggestions, or ideas...

[Tel]

Instead of trying to block off the entire shed, a simple change would be to add a place-able in front of the "hanging", then you can search through the vfx list for the "door" you'd like. Then you could have the place-able be useable/plot/EP-chest, so while the entire space of the shed would be your storage, it would be accessed via the door which was key-only. There are a few free-standing "normal" sized door options if i recall which could work well for you.

I think the way Avlis is setup most of the overhanging foliage will get cut off, I remember Grunt & Gorgon both talking at one point or another about the clipping plane for trees in the new & old wilderness tile sets & I believe the canopies tileset your using.

And since I know Kassereth I know your not likely to be hosting huge parties, however you might find it useful to have seating for more than 2. Without adding more physical objects you could make the logs your using multi-seating, by setting them to static and placing "invisible Objects" where you would like the seat to be. Just make sure you rename/relabel them appropriately and that the orientation matches how you want someone to be able to sit in it.

[Marleh]

I gave it a quick lookover, and here's some suggestions.

I like the look of the shed too, but I strongly suggest not making it your EP-chest. The reason for this is that the whole thing is then going to be selectable (clickable?) and whenever you mouse over it, the whole thing is going to glow blue. You might not think this is a big deal, but when trying to maneuver your character round such a small space you're going to start hating that blue very fast.

What I suggest instead is that you put a chest inside the shed and use that as your EP-chest. Most chests have a much smaller selectable footprint and wouldn't get in the way nearly as much. In the description panel you can put something like "chained through the floorboards to the branches of the supporting trees" if you want to cover all your bases that it couldn't be carried off ICly.

I suggest something similar with the logs. Instead of having each huge log selectable, use the invisible object to place seating along the log where you want it to be. This will also give you multiple seating spots, instead of one PC hogging the entire log to themselves. Rename the invis objects as "comfortable log" and scoot it to wherever you think looks a good spot on the log to sit. Once you get one invis object placeable set up as you like (sit script, renamed properly, description changed, etc) you can ctrl-c, ctrl-v it to create as many as you like. Just make sure the visible log placeables are then made static.

Check that all placeables that you want to use are facing the proper direction. In the toolset, when you select a placeable, a small blue arrow will appear, which shows the front of the object. If this is an item that will be a container, like the alchemy "table," and you click on it, usually your PC will run round to stand in front of the object. So if you have the front of the item, like the cauldron, facing off the platform, that's not generally a good thing. Double-check this with a PC inside the mod though, some placeables open from the side, which is confusing and very annoying and leads to my last suggestion.

If you haven't yet, make sure you log into the place as your PC and fly/walk round a bit and view everything from the PC's perspective. The top-down view in the toolset is surprisingly deceptive in that you think everything is where it should be, but actually placeables are floating a foot above the floor or half inside another placeable. Especially since you're using placeable trees and a lot of that foliage isn't going to disappear, you'll want to make sure it isn't too thick that it bothers you while IG.

You don't have to worry about attaching any of the ep-chest or alchemy table scripts to the placeables, Madkat or her support staff will do that.

Hope this helps.

[RCon]

OK, did a bit of work on this, and I think it's definitely better.

* Added a door placeable to the storage shed, which would then become the ep-chest
* Added some static crates to block the view of the sides of the door
* Changed the logs to static and added invisible objects as seats

I end up with a few questions still.

1. How do I get the campfire to turn on and off when clicked? The one on the hill in Zvidureth does this.

2. Why does the cauldron disappear when clicked?

3. When I sit on the invisible objects (or the comfortable log before I changed it), the character appears to be sitting well above the log. Can I get it so the character sits lower, as if they're actually sitting on the log?

New mod: http://www.richconway.com/avlis/KassaerthTreehouse.zip

Thanks in advance (again).

[nwmblondy]

With regards to 3, you can change the hiehgt of placeables int he properties.

[Tel]

#1 it's a different campfire place able which has an on-off script like a candle, at least I'm pretty sure

#2 ... I've got no clue on that I'll have to look at the file sometime tomorrow.

#3 if you right click the object and select "Adjust Location" you can move the X, Y or Z (height) axis by +/- .01 manually (huge help to line things up) and the orientation (again great for rotating things 90/180/270 or adjusting to an angled surface)

~Tel

[GunnJ]

With regards to 3, your character's sitting graphic is static, the feet of human and elven PC's are always going to be on the walk mesh, halflings swing their feet, but no matter which race it is you cannot change the height of the character's sitting backside.

I went back to your first mod and checked, and if you change your view to a horizontal angle you can see that the wooden flooring has two levels, there is a middle section where the fire and one of the logs is sitting is about .25 higher than the second log. There is a different log that you can use, if you look at the logs at the Zvidureth campfire there is a bigger one that might work for you. Otherwise you may want to play with the location of fire and the logs to try to get them both on the same level. It looks like you can shift the logs and fire about 1.0 to 1.5 to the east and everything will fit. Once you move the lower log select it again so that it resets to the new Z axis.

If there is still a bit of a gap between your character posterior and the log, you could try to raise the log above the ground just a tenth of a point or two. But because your character is a shaahesk you might really want to look at using the bigger CEP log anyway.


1. For the campfire to turn on/off, go to its properties, scripts, then under OnUsed set the script to zep_onoff.

2. The script the cauldron is set to is zep_torch, and this script actually destroys the "on" object to replace it with the "off" object. But there is no "off" object for the caudron, so you would be left with no cauldron at all until next reset. What you need to do is remove the script from the Heartbeat line. Heartbeat scripts are not allowed in PC housing, that script causes lots o' lag. Don't worry about changing any of the other scripts, the housing people will set the proper scripts needed to make the cauldron an alchemy table.

[RCon]

Awesome, thanks! I'll try this, and then I think I'm just about done. Man, it will be nice to put some stuff in storage instead of carrying everything she owns around with her all the time!

[RCon]

GunnJ was correct on all three items.

1. Adding the zep_onoff script gets the campfire to turn on and off when clicked, like the one in Zvidureth.

2. Removing the default scripts from the cauldron stops it from disappearing when clicked.

3. Changing the Z-axis of the invisible objects doesn't change the height of where the PC's butt ends up when sitting. I suppose the zep sit script is hard-coded for the height, rather than the height of the object, which makes sense from a modeling perspective (I guess?). I went to look at the two logs in Zvid last night to compare. One is the "comfortable log" placeable and the other is the much larger "fallen log" placeable. Turns out, when I sat on the comfortable log, the PC actually sits a bit above the log, same as in my mod. The fallen log looks correct, simply because it's bigger.

So, best I can tell, all I need to do now is swap out the two comfortable logs for fallen logs, and I'm ready to submit?

Sounds like Player Housing will connect/create the ep-chest script, the alchemy table script, and I guess they'd have to create/connect the transition to the area where I want the treehouse to be? Finally, if I want a small modification to the area that leads to my treehouse (specifically, a treehouse structure with ladder), how would I request that?

Thanks to everyone!

[GunnJ]

There are two ways you could do the transition out of your platform. First, you could request that the ladder itself by clickable to take PC's back to the ground. If you would rather have the blue-square transition area you should create it yourself and explain in the spreadsheet notes.

To get the ladder on the ground where you want it what you will need to do is submit a screenshot of the of the area you want your transition-ladder to be, with you standing at the exact spot you want the ladder placed. Make sure that the screenshot includes the map of the area big enough that they can see the arrow that marks your PC, even have him facing the direction you want the ladder to lean.

Then in your spreadsheet notes make sure you write down absolutely everything you want done, from the ladder leaning east to the cauldron being the alchemy table to the direction that you want your area facing "the transition should stay on the west side and the supply shack at the north end," for example. Otherwise you might get your new place and find out that instead of the transition on the west as you submit it, its on the east.

[PlasmaJohn]

Do not use the CEP scripts (zep_...) they cause a significant amount of lag. The Player Housing instructions specifically tell you not to use them for this reason.

For a light that can be toggled use nw_O2_onoff (note that the first "O" is capital). Also make sure that the fire placeable is of the "no glow" variety (doesn't emit light), the script will manage that.

[GunnJ]

Erk, not arguing with you PJ, just pointing out that the Housing Rules don't say not to use them, it just says not to use heartbeat scripts. I thought that meant anything under the script category: heartbeat. I guess some rewording is needed.

1.6) No heartbeat based scripts will be allowed. [[(NOTE: Heartbeat scripts can be found on many items, especially CEP items. Any item that performs an action or moves should be checked for heatbeat scripts. Examples: candles with flames, wall sconces, hanging chandeliers, CEP placeable gates (metal gates), etc...)]]

http://wiki.avlis.org/Player_Housing

[RCon]

Do not use the CEP scripts (zep_...) they cause a significant amount of lag. The Player Housing instructions specifically tell you not to use them for this reason.

For a light that can be toggled use nw_O2_onoff (note that the first "O" is capital). Also make sure that the fire placeable is of the "no glow" variety (doesn't emit light), the script will manage that.

How would one tell if the fire placeable is "glow" or "no glow"? I'm guessing that this means changing the Appearance Type to one with "No Ambient"?

I replaced the zep torch script with nw_o2_onoff, although curiously, it wouldn't let me capitalize the first O; it auto replaces the capital O with a lowercase one. Unfortunately, after making this switch, the campfire no longer toggles on and off when clicked. Something to do with the capitalization of the script?

Is there a corresponding non-zep script for zep_use_chair?

[Gorgon]

AFAIK, using those placeables is fine as long as you don't use anything for a heartbeat script. While Player Housing/QA does remove any found in submissions, it is your responsibility not to submit them in the first place. CEP has a bunch of different things using custom heartbeat stuff that we can't use the same way here (some of the gateblocked doors have very nice animations, but nasty heartbeat scripts to block them when closed). Basic rule of thumb around here is that if something has a script starting with zep_ it always gets turfed or replaced with something else.

If you were going to use one of those CEP light placeables, remove the "zep_torchspawn" script from the "OnHeartbeat" slot (remember, nothing should ever be used in that slot for anything), and change the "zep_torch" or whatever script in the "OnUsed" slot to "nw_02_onoff" (it isn't capital letter O, it is the number zero btw).

*note* unless you make the light useable, you won't be able to turn it on or off anyway (it will use the default state), and if it is static, it won't use any scripts at all (loads with the area and doesn't worry about anything after that...yes I'm oversimplifying things a bit here).

Avlis has a "sitdown" script to use instead of the "zep_use_chair" one, which is in the housing scripts you can download. Add that to the "OnUsed" slot and make it useable to sit in the chair when used.

*tip* if you want to use the emote menu command to "sit in the nearest seat" (or the "/emote sit chair" acp command), the chair must have the tag "sit" or include one of the following in the tag: "chair", "seat", "stool", "couch", "bench" or "throne" (all case sensitive). It doesn't need to be useable or have the sitdown script (unless you want people to sit when using/clicking it like normal), though it can't be static. Unfortunately you can't test this at home when making your house, since the scripts are serverside, but it adds a nice touch when you can sit down and not have a bunch of clickable chairs everywhere onscreen.

[RCon]

zep scripts are removed. The nw_02_onoff script works fine. The sitdown script from the downloadable housing scripts does not appear to work, although perhaps it needs the Avlis server behind it? I made the tags for my seats "seat1", "seat2", etc., which should work with the custom emote scripts?

[Gorgon]

Did you put the sitdown.nss script in the"OnUsed" slot and make it useable to sit in the chair when used? Oh, and build the module (you only need to compile scripts under options for speedy building really) and save. If you don't compile the scripts to create the .ncs version of sitdown, it won't do anything.

The sitdown script is almost exactly like the CEP one, except it doesn't bother with a redundant check for someone else already sitting in the chair, so it should work fine.

As for the tags, yeah that should work, though they can even all be the same. They don't have to be unique to each chair, though it doesn't hurt. As long as the tag includes one of those names in it (or is exactly "sit") it should work.

[RCon]

Thanks to all those who helped! The treehouse has finally been submitted.

[ShadowViper]

*readies himself to chop down a tree*

[RCon]

*readies himself to chop down a tree*

Better hurry. Another 4 or 5 levels and Kass will get dragon shape. Then it's time for halfling brunch!