Cities And Housing Archive
Thread: The process of creating a structure for SWG
TheNarcis wrote:
DarthMinos wrote:
ofim wrote:
Sorry but this doesn't explain why Architect has had ZERO new real content in 3 years. If it's this dificult to make a house using the tools that the programers have given you, then they need to work on a better set of tools.
Artchitects have continualy asked for:
Furniture Colorization
New House Floor Plans
New Bestine Paintings
More of the NPC House Furniture to be craftable
Why is this such a problem? Some of these things are already in the game!
He wasn't trying to explain why you haven't had any new content. He was explaining how the house came to be. Two completely different topics.
QFE
Thank you for the information. I must say that any glimpse we can get of what goes on behind the scenes is welcome. We'd love to see some better Friday Features on things like this.
I know you dont get to make the decisions on what you can put in game. I am just hoping that someone will come on the boards someplace and answer these questions...
Why has there been absolutely no new non-civic structures added in this game in over 2 years?
Why hasn't there been at least more options given in floorplans for the existing houses?
Why haven't we been given things like Texture Kits for the interior or exterior?
If it takes 40 days or so to put in a new structure, why hasnt it been done in the past 2 years?
DarthMinos wrote:
ofim wrote:
SWG-Goliath wrote:
I have seen some people wondering what takes so long in creating a new structure for SWG and I wanted to explain what it is we do when we create a new structure or ship.
The first thing we have to do is get a concept for the exterior of the house and maybe one for the interior as well. A concept artist will spend a few days working on this and it will go through several stages before its actually finalized. Next it will be given to an artist like myself and Ill spend approximatle 40 days creating the ooutside and inside. there are several tasks when creating an interior/exterior house or ship
- creating mesh
- creating textures (including effects like normal maps and specularity)
- pre-lighting each room
- adding character lighting
- adding floors
- adding other technical components
After this is all done, we put it through a review phase where several other artists will look over the assets and make sure they work properly. If anything is broken I will have to go back over it and fix any issues. then it is re-submitted for a second review. Once it passes the review it is exported and a designer has to work on it.
Designers will need to add things like terminals, repair points, chairs and any other objects called for in the design. they will also need to make sure that it works in the world and that the turrets, engines, thrusters, guns, signs and any other additional items funtion and fit. all together it can take over 2 months from start to finish to bring a new ship or house into the game. Thats one artist taken up for 40 days and a designer taken up for additional days to bring it in.
The bunker I made recently was an exception to the rule andI was able to finish it slighty faster then previous things I have made like the Y-8 and ARC170. In the case of the bunker I was asked to use the pre-exsisting mustafar bunker exterior. that saved me alot of time in mesh and textures. I also designed the interior from my own concepts so I didnt need a concept artist. all of this shaved my art time down to about 25 days. The house is now in the stage where it is being prepared for the game by designers. When it finally gets into the game it will still be 40+ days of development however.
Hopefully this sheds some light on what me and the other artists do from day to day to bring you the Star Wars experiance
Sorry but this doesn't explain why Architect has had ZERO new real content in 3 years. If it's this dificult to make a house using the tools that the programers have given you, then they need to work on a better set of tools.
Artchitects have continualy asked for:
Furniture Colorization
New House Floor Plans
New Bestine Paintings
More of the NPC House Furniture to be craftable
Why is this such a problem? Some of these things are already in the game!
He wasn't trying to explain why you haven't had any new content. He was explaining how the house came to be. Two completely different topics.
Easiest thing..
Make "customiziable" houses. Let the players design their houses. Architects provide Walls, terminals, etc. You work the design. The system runs it thru a builder and Whalla!
The house looks awesome, can't wait to get mine. I love my yacht. Can't wait to see the YT-2400, also. Keep up the good work. Can you name some of your other artwork?
About the house: For the sake of efficiency, can we get the number of lots for the bunker house changed? A medium house holds 200 items and takes 2 lots, the bunker 400 items and takes 5 lots...it'd be more efficient for me to use 2 mediums than 1 bunker, can we please change the lot requirement to 4 lots? Thank you.
About the ship: Will the pilot of the YT-2400 be able to shoot? It would be nice if POB ships were capable of single-pilot operations, even if grossly inefficient at it (this applies to the current POBs as well).
I for one thank you for working those nights. I look forward to seeing what you have in store next. Like the2400!!!
SWG-Goliath wrote:
RogueBoomer wrote:
The fact that this home had been suggested as a two-year vet reward means that it has been in the pipeline for quite some time now. Only when an expansion with questionable worth to the non-combat class is it paraded out and offered as a "Pay for new content"
This house was not suggested as the 2 year reward since it wasn even created yet. I know there was the suggestion of a bunker house for a 2 year reward along with dozens of other suggestions. This house is NOT that bunker. This house was an idea that I had and a few others wanted to see in the game, so time wasset assideandI worked many nights to bring it to you.
Very nice work, cat't wait to move my stuff into it Thanks for your hard work on this. My only hope now that SOE authorise more (player built) structures to go into the game.
SWG-Goliath wrote:
This will be my last comment on this subject.
Rouge 5 and I were having a discussion about what kinds of things players might like to have for purchasing this expansion,A reward that I thought would be as good as the BARC speeder has been. It was my own idea to suggest this bunker house and how it could also be implimented faster then normal structures. R5 liked the idea and so I created this house. Thats how this bunker got into the game. Had I not suggested it and a way to quickly get it in, you might never have seen a bunker.
I hope that clears things up.
Man there are a lot of jerks around here, aren't there? This thread is full of them.
antares
Oh, and congratulations for the Y-8 and the ARC-170! The Y-8 is impressive for roleplaying purposes, though completely unuseful for mining (looking forward to the two upcoming new turrets) and not very realistic for that purpose; and the ARC-170 is a very nice support ship.
By the way, there's been a graphic glitch with the weapons beneath the wings on the ARC-170 and the astromech droid not showing since day one of RotW. When you have the time, please fix it: I like space more than ground and I like the work you did on the ARC-170 a lot
Keep up the good work!
SWG-Goliath wrote:
Narut0 wrote:
SWG-Goliath wrote:
The bunker I made recently was an exception to the rule and I was able to finish it slighty faster then previous things I have made like the Y-8 and ARC170.
YOU WHERE RESONCIBLE FOR THE Y-8 ?!?!?!?
dude you fked up
mining ship can't be a platform unless its a drill platform that docks to the astroid.
if this ship is a mining ship for collecting rocks it should look more like a balldozer with a open face, make it smaller dirtyer. i tell you what let me spend some time on some consept designs and ill get back to you, /mumble piff devs' mumblemuble.
Actually I had concept work for that. I didnt design it, I only made the 3d art. Maybe you can take solece in the additional 2 turrets I added to it for publish 24.
personly when i started mining i found it probbly the most profitable of all things to do in JTL (fp & loot are good for fast cash though)
i found mining in a starfighter fast & easy as i became more experenced (found out how to use the follow button)
so i looked forward to compleating the quest to get the Y-8 but when i did it was pure disapointment in the practical sence. You cant deny the fact it is probbly the most roomy POB ship and very large in mass, but it just has no practical applications and can't do what it actualy said on the tin.
The reason it can't be used for what its for dosn't come down to bugs alone, the pilot chair is impractical you have less visiblity they your helmsmen, even in 3rd person you can't see much around the HULK of a ship. also lookin at the ship you would think it would be able to straf in all directions due to the multi angel thrusters postioned around the lower part of the ship.
the ship look wise would make a better Mobile landing pad for smaller skiff mining ships maybe auto drones, problem with POB ships is just general size some times, see i can mine around 1550 units of any astroid in around 3 to 5 mins now even with agro from the pirets.
the total fact 2 more turrets are going to be added is something to look forward to but i can't help but think how!
My ideal mining ship would look more like a wale with a open mouth, blowing rocks then eating them like a shcool o fish. turrets would be set at 4 angels on an octagula body, this would give max visablity for ship defences. while a belly mounted mining cannon would pluse though the rocks to get at the ore. also a 6th weapon slot would be avalible for tractorbeam only, this would mount a tractorbeam dish on top of the ship that gives a cone effect makein it easyer to pull in rocks within a 45 degree angel of the pilots view.
Pilot also would have 100% visablity and a full (ctrl+f2) view of the area.
a good way to make Y-8s viable would be to allow cargo transfer between starfighters and the Y-8 via docking, thust compleatly removing the landing prossess all to gether.
Goliath i can't realy blame the model for the flaw in the way it works, i admit that, (unles you count the lower turret) the ship as is can be fun to fly, and good for PVP if you can get the help. i already noticed the belly turret plates positoned like nippels on the brest of the Y-8 and can't wait for them to be active but will the Y-8 be practical with a tractorbeam, i have been on Test center and im trying to get a Y-8 to test it out. just grinding pilot with minimal resorces (IE lack of shipwrights) is a hard prosess.
ravingbantha wrote:
SWG-Goliath wrote:
Narut0 wrote:
SWG-Goliath wrote:
The bunker I made recently was an exception to the rule and I was able to finish it slighty faster then previous things I have made like the Y-8 and ARC170.
YOU WHERE RESONCIBLE FOR THE Y-8 ?!?!?!?
dude you fked up
mining ship can't be a platform unless its a drill platform that docks to the astroid.
if this ship is a mining ship for collecting rocks it should look more like a balldozer with a open face, make it smaller dirtyer. i tell you what let me spend some time on some consept designs and ill get back to you, /mumble piff devs' mumblemuble.
Actually I had concept work for that. I didnt design it, I only made the 3d art. Maybe you can take solece in the additional 2 turrets I added to it for publish 24.
it won't, it's obvious from his post that he is a long time space miner in RL and has been piloting Mining ships for years. I mean he obvously knows what he's talking about, after all his knowledge on the subject must be extensive, after all he grammer and spelling are spot on...
/wisper Narut0 if your going to critizice someone else, better make sure your post is lacking in flaws, so you do not look like the *** you have made yourself looklike.Oh and awsome work goliath, as an artist myself and a long time Star Wars fan your doing great.
*COUGH*Brownnose*COUGH*
And
Flatfingers wrote:Goliath, these peeks
inside the development process are absolutely invaluable for letting
players understand just how much effort goes into every aspect of the
game world. Thanks!Since we're talking about how houses are
constructed, maybe this would be an acceptable place for me to ask
about an idea I had many months ago: modular architecture.The
details and someexamplesare in the link, but the main idea
issimple:replace the existing handful of prebuilt house
schematics withhouse module schematics and rules for how modules
can be mated. (Modules would bethings like rooms, stairwells,
doorways, balconies, etc.)Architects wouldwork with buyers
(perhaps using something similar to the UI for Image Designers) to
assemble the modules into a blueprint schematic,which the
Architectthen uses to crafta prototypethatcan
bedeeded to actually create the house.In addition to
giving Architects the ability to actually practice
architecture
a house that more closely reflects their style, and to change houses as
their interests change.I expect there are some technical
issues with implementing this. What I don't know is how tough those
issues are. From your point of view, are there artistic problems (such
as lighting) that would be really difficult to overcome?Any chance of this ever being implemented, do you think?
--Flatfingers
the process still isnt over. Its been over 40 days and while I was
fixing the bar, I had other issues that needed attention with this
asset. Its an ongoing process which can take a very long time when
adding something as complex as a player owned structure.
Modular houseing seems really really difficult based on what I know
about the programming in this game, which granted isnt much. But from
the art end I can see many nightmares about trying to implement such a
system.
Master Artist