Architect Archive
Thread: Modular Architecture: A Redesign Proposal
One of the reasons I haven't gone further than Novice Architect is because the buildings we can construct are so painfully limited. There just aren't enough different types of buildings that can be made! Who wants tocrank out copy after copy of This Old CorellianHouse? /yawn
I recognize that there were technical and other constraints that dictated the originalbuilding system designimplemented in SWG. I don't want to sound overly critical of the original designers, who did a good job given the need to include player-constructable buildings as just one system within a larger game. But I believe that a much more satisfying game experience -- for bothArchitects andbuilding users -- could be had by redesigning the current building construction system to one that allows more variation in the layouts of actual buildings.
I'm not suggesting that we need something as freeform as the building construction system of The Sims (although that would certainly be appreciated!). I think a sufficiently dramatic improvement could be made by allowing modular construction. That is, buildings should be constructed from numerous different types of room modules according to specific rules. This would allow variation in completed buildings while not excessively altering the necessary 3D geometry information that allows mobile objects to move through these buildings once they're constructedin the active game.
Examples of appropriate rules for the next-generationplayer building design tool are:
- every module has a defined cost in resources and components
- every module has a defined number of items whose storage is supported
- major modules (big, tall, or special rooms) take up 1 lot
- minor modules cost 0 lots
- stairway modules cost 0 lots
- buildings are limited to 10 modules
- only one stairway module is permitted per building
- modules can only be connected to each other by connection points (openings or doorways)
- modules may not be placed inside other modules (except for stairway modules)
- modules must all be of the same style (Corellia/generic, Naboo, Tatooine)
- buildings must have a "building type" chosen (to set the correct structure terminal)
- a building plan with more than one open connection (to the outside) will not be approved
- plans for approved buildings may be saved in the datapad for reuse in the design tool
- the final cost in resources/components of any plan is the sum of the costs for all modules
- the final number of storable items is the sum of storage counts for all modules
- the maintenance rate of a building is calculated from its final number of storable items
There are numerous other rules that would have to be enforced -- these are just a few I thought of to give you the flavor of how the design tool should work. (And frankly, not all of them may be necessary -- why not allow player buildings to have more than one exit point? What Smuggler wouldn't want a back door?)
Note that this moreflexible design system already exists in one form: the developers themselves have a general building design tool. It might be cheaper to modify this game development tool to an in-game design tool than to write an in-game modular building design tool from scratch. (Or it might not. The developer's building design tool may simply be a generic 3D modeling program.)
At any rate, this is the more open-ended and interestingkind of building design system I'd like to see implemented in a future publish. It would be a major boon to Architects (who desperately need a way to differentiate their products and shouldenjoy the creative challenge), as well as to those who purchase homes and public buildings and wanta unique and consistent "look" that doesn'texactly duplicate that of thousands of other players.
Comments?
Flatfingers wrote:
ElBlufer wrote:
I like this idea, but I think that we should be able to add as many stairways as we want. I personally want a house that has about 5 of them. If you count the amount of stairways in a large naboo house there are over ten... I think that this is a good idea though.
Thanks for the nice words.
With respect to the number of stairways,I think of a stairway as something that links two floors together.By that definition,if buildings can only be two stories tall, thenallowing onlyone stairway gets the job done without introducing unnecessary complexity into the design rules.
A looser definition of "stairway" isn't impossible; it just makes it a little harder to define the rules governing their legal application in a custom-designed house.
--Flatfingers
Also another point that I have something to say to...naboo large=3-4 stories....I really want this implemented, and just want to help you chisel out kinks (all ideas have them).
Whist34 wrote:I believe SWG devs are intelligent enough to implement this too.Thanks,DenierMaster Architect, Starsider
There is a joke in there somewhere
ElBlufer wrote:
I like this idea, but I think that we should be able to add as many stairways as we want. I personally want a house that has about 5 of them. If you count the amount of stairways in a large naboo house there are over ten... I think that this is a good idea though.
Thanks for the nice words.
With respect to the number of stairways,I think of a stairway as something that links two floors together.By that definition,if buildings can only be two stories tall, thenallowing onlyone stairway gets the job done without introducing unnecessary complexity into the design rules.
A looser definition of "stairway" isn't impossible; it just makes it a little harder to define the rules governing their legal application in a custom-designed house.
--Flatfingers
Those ideas are worth paying attemtion to...
but remember that every idea cannot become an ingame feature...
some of those ideas would take so much reprogramming...
But beeing able to make houses the way we want them would be awsome i agree!
We must pray to the Architect gods( devs ) and hope they hear us !
