[crossfire] Buildable Land Plots

[Alex Schultz]

Todd Mitchell wrote:

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      What is the difference here? - a 'house in a box' would be a blueprint 
     
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      too, no?  The point being made is that the store would sell a 'token' 
     
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      representing a building template the player would like to be built on 
     
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      site - the templates tells the apply invocation which maps to create 
     
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      and link to the exit it creates. You could call it a 'house kit' a 
     
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      'blueprint' or even a 'doggydoo' if you like - you would need an arch 
     
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      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.

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      Also I am not sure what a 'global unique map' is but I was under the 
     
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      impression that to instantiate a building from a blueprint you should 
     
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      write a copy of the appropriate map (a committed "template" in the 
     
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      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.

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      I believe this is how/where the weather code generates and stores the 
     
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      modified world maps with the weather effects.  Building a house from a 
     
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      template should be as simple as grabbing the slaying field from the 
     
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      blueprint object to find the templates directory (e.g. 
     
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      /templates/house1) containing the maps in the template, replacing the 
     
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      return exit coordinates and perhaps some inventory checkers (set 
     
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      slaying to match a marker in the player's inventory so they can access 
     
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      their vault and trophy rooms) and then writing the new maps to the 
     
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      var/maps folder and poping a unique exit object on the world map on 
     
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      the zoned tile(s) the blueprint was invoked on.  Naturally the map 
     
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      templates contain buildable areas, however even an 'empty' entirely 
     
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      buildable map would require a template since they would need a map 
     
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      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