Architect Archive

Im not quite getting what the big deal is here......Light or no light....why we have the CTRL L feature.

You want to talk bad lighting? Try the Naboo houses, particularly the smalls. Also, I have a medium generic on Lok just like the one on Rori and the lighting is exactly the same as the Rori Med Center/ cantina. Its bright and very well-lit.

I think he means the lighting in those player-made generic planet houses is broken - it's like someone coated the inside walls with aluminum foil and then placed several 10000 watt lightbulbs in every room. When you step into the house you are immediately blinded and your character looks like a black cardboard cutout in front of a whitewash backdrop.

Yep. Check my sig - I'm a tailor. I use this exact same model as a showroom, and if I want people to be able to see the clothes on display, I have to use six torches - two in the large rooms and one in the small rooms. And the light they give off is very orange. And the ctrl-L light is very yellow. But the light in the Rori rebel base cantina/med center is just about right.

Look, I know that at least some of you know what I'm talking about, or "lamps that don't light" wouldn't be on the list of top architect complaints.

(And yeah, I've seen the Naboo housing. The Naboo medium is actually slightly better than the Corellian/generic housing, lighting-wise.)

I try not to lose my temper, I really do. But I just noticed something yesterday that has my blood, well, not boiling but definitely simmering.

I had occasion to stick my head into the combination cantina and medical center in the Rebel Base on Rori. Never been? Go take a look around, if youcan. It's worth doing. If there are no other players inside, scroll back to 3rd person view and take a look at yourself. Why? Because even though the building is recognizably a Generic Planet Medium House style 1, you can see yourself and each other in it. People aren't black cardboard cutouts! There is actual ambient light - not bright light, but at least as good as in any public building like a standard cantina or medical center.

This is despite the fact that there are no visible lamps (let alone torches) and the light tubes in the ceiling are in the exact same places that they are in the identical player-owned buildings. Even so, the light is even and useful and sufficiently bright in all four rooms.

Now, can we please get the Architect correspondent toask the developers why, for the love of Ghod, does the same building have such drastically different lighting when we buy it than when they place it?

I know what my theory is - my theory is that some of the ceiling lights aren't turned on in player-built generic houses. Maybe even all of them. I shouldn't be surprised to find out that there's supposed to be a light switch command in the house control panel, they never got around to implementing it, and player-built houses default to "off." If I'm right, then all they have to do is change the default switch setting to "on" and do one database pass to change it on all existing buildings.

In any case, whether I'm right or wrong on why it happened, with such a clear-cut example I have some hope that a developer can track down the problem and fix one of the biggest remaining problems with player-owned buildings.

Minor update: The "bad lighting" problem does not apply to new structures, either, because you don't get this problem in city halls or player cantinas.

Have you noticed that PA halls now have shiny, reflective floors? And when you look at those floors, you see the reflections of many light tubes. When you look up, you see no light tubes -- they're invisible. (Above a drop ceiling?)

So since it's obviously possible for player-owned buildings to have multi-directional ambient light, and since this model of building already has such light when the developers place one on the map, can we please get this fixed? And if we can't get it fixed soon, can we get the Architect developer to acknowledge the problem?