Politician Archive

Thread: AURGH! Frustrated about placing structures!!!!!

Cybst0rm
Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:19 pm
#1

OK... so I have been EXTREMELY patient with houses clearing out of my city so I can place some gardens and really make it look nice... I FINALLY convince some people to move their houses so I can make a sort of "neighborhood". A garden in the middle and houses circling it. And guess what?



THE ABSOLUTE CRAPTASTIC CORELLIAN TERRAIN IS PREVENTING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Can I get a freakin bull dozer???????????????????


Come on Devs. You guys need to do something about structures not going down on land. Seriously, the problem is out of hand and politicians are working around your lack of foresight! Are player cities JUST your way to take money out of the game???



.:Karthes Braxis:.
_/-Viper Squadron-\_
+BXI+ Corp
Megacity, Corellia

PsychoticChipmunk
Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:43 pm
#2


That terrain hasn't changed since the game began. (at least not much anyway) If one area of the town is inhospitable then work around it, if enough of the town is inhospitable then that area was never meant to be a metropolis. I had to move my city thanks to the location I chose originally and still need to keep it in mind, am a Corellian as well, but simply deforesting the area and pounding it perfectly flat would ruin the appeal of this new area and destroyed the first.


Hate to sound like an arrogant &*#%, but if you can't get the area to work for you either find someone that can and appoint him the urban planner or move. There are plenty of towns that work beautifully well with what they have. Why can't yours?



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Cybst0rm
Sat Jan 15, 2005 10:00 pm
#3

It's a long story, but my city hall CAN'T move. Just trust me.



.:Karthes Braxis:.
_/-Viper Squadron-\_
+BXI+ Corp
Megacity, Corellia

Khristen
Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:54 am
#4

Corellia's rarely a fun place to try and place structures on, but it can be done if you plan carefully. When we started our city on Corellia, I took the job of city planner. Before City Hall was even placed I spent several days mapping out the area to make sure it could support a good-sized city. No one places anything without my approval (or now my assistant as I was able to share the program I use with him) and everything looks great despite the ditches that are characteristic of Corellian landscape.


While my city plan has had it's share of occassional reworkings, having a plan is the key. Even with an existing city it doesn't have to be impossible, although it is much more difficult that way because you can't check the terrain ahead of time. The fact that the terrain really doesn't change for houses being placed can work to your advantage, though. Spend some time with several types of houses in an undeveloped area and get to know what structures work in what type of area. After awhile you get to the point where you can pretty much spot what areas will support what types of structures.


And definitely put someone in charge of city planning. If you don't have the time, there's nothing wrong with delegating it out. Or maybe there's someone in your city who already has that 'eye' for structure placement. It'll take some time since your city's already developed, but you can get there if you keep at it.




| Khristen Lockslett Barezz |
| Galactic Senator |00

Owner of The KhrisNea Companylocated in Kor Spera,Corellia, Naritus-730, 1195
ToppDog
Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:31 am
#5

Yes, planning ahead is very important... but it would still be nice to be able to landscape certain areas so that you're adjusting the geography to fit your plans, instead of adjusting your plans to fit the geography...


It's nice to see how some people integrate a city into some pretty challenging geography, but It would also be nice to see what players can come up with if they didn't have to alter their plans because of a few pesky bolders, etc. I've been heavily involved in setting uptwo cities while playing this game, & both times I would have killed for a bulldozer.


Being able to do more things such as landscape, place roads & pathways, place trees & shrubbery or rock formations etc., would all enhance the visual appeal of player cities a lot... & I would fully support any such changes. Maybe then maybe somedayI'll be able to place this:


http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=194214
Traie
Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:13 am
#6

I'd agree with both sides of this. Being able to terraform the landscape would add to the problems of the servers. However, I do like "small changes". Our city is on Rori, famous for swamps, rivers, and puddles. We managed to find a decent spot, but there are a few puddles that prevent us from placing buildings. That'd be nice to be able to build over.



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mzf5c5
Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:38 am
#7

I know when we first started our city the first day, zoning and land allowed for better placment of houses and stuff, than it does now. Some old places we had houses before, no longer allow the same house to be placed. It seems something happened to that.


I just wish the whole city diameter woudl just level as you went, would solve a lot of issues.





Zachris Coraban - Dark Jedi Knight
Octaviar - Most Feared Slug in the Galaxy
Khristen
Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:47 am
#8

I think it's highly possible that there were some minor changes made to the way houses are placed, meaning what can go where. Just a few days ago, I tried to place a small house in an area that supported it when I was making the city plan up, but it won't go there now. I may have gotten my space count off, as this is the only time I can think of where this has happened.




| Khristen Lockslett Barezz |
| Galactic Senator |00

Owner of The KhrisNea Companylocated in Kor Spera,Corellia, Naritus-730, 1195
PsychoticChipmunk
Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:58 pm
#9






ToppDog wrote:





mzf5c5 wrote:


I just wish the whole city diameter woudl just level as you went, would solve a lot of issues.




Yes, especially since this is already being done for NPC spawned structures. When a camp or compound spawns, it usually flattens out all the lotspace it takes up & then blends into the rest of the geography beyond that. Player placed structures could be made to function the same way.




And increase your ping 10 fold as well as cause an area to lose its natural setting and have steep alterations in the grade where a street ends. My town has 4 bases at the far end for a PvP complex. Bases do a constant "flattening out" of the area and thanks to that and a few other factors the load time in and around there is deplorable. If I had to go through that whenever I passed 2 homes I'd never get anywhere in the game within a reasonable amount of time.


On top of latency issues there is also just plain common sense. Do you really want to have your town mowed down and made into a blank barren field? I have several hills and slight valleys in my town as well as a great POI archway right out of the Agrilat that would simply dissappear if this where the case. While true the trenches unique to Corellia are a bit of a pain from time to time I've been able to work with them and create somewhat natural streets as well as simply used the ridges and bumps as natural display areas for statues and founts. If these where all wiped away to create a dull thoughtless level field my city would lose all of it's originality and appeal. The aesthetic would simply go with who has the best overhead map urban plan not who has the best FPS view urban plan, and symmetry would be preferred entirely over the use of the grade to accentuate the structures especially considering there would be no difference in the grade from one point to the next.




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ToppDog
Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:27 am
#10






PsychoticChipmunk wrote:





ToppDog wrote:





mzf5c5 wrote:


I just wish the whole city diameter woudl just level as you went, would solve a lot of issues.




Yes, especially since this is already being done for NPC spawned structures. When a camp or compound spawns, it usually flattens out all the lotspace it takes up & then blends into the rest of the geography beyond that. Player placed structures could be made to function the same way.




And increase your ping 10 fold as well as cause an area to lose its natural setting and have steep alterations in the grade where a street ends. My town has 4 bases at the far end for a PvP complex. Bases do a constant "flattening out" of the area and thanks to that and a few other factors the load time in and around there is deplorable. If I had to go through that whenever I passed 2 homes I'd never get anywhere in the game within a reasonable amount of time.


On top of latency issues there is also just plain common sense. Do you really want to have your town mowed down and made into a blank barren field? I have several hills and slight valleys in my town as well as a great POI archway right out of the Agrilat that would simply dissappear if this where the case. While true the trenches unique to Corellia are a bit of a pain from time to time I've been able to work with them and create somewhat natural streets as well as simply used the ridges and bumps as natural display areas for statues and founts. If these where all wiped away to create a dull thoughtless level field my city would lose all of it's originality and appeal. The aesthetic would simply go with who has the best overhead map urban plan not who has the best FPS view urban plan, and symmetry would be preferred entirely over the use of the grade to accentuate the structures especially considering there would be no difference in the grade from one point to the next.






The ping may or may not be an issue depending on how it is coded. Most NPC structures do not cause the problem you described (take the Lake Retreat for example). Player structures should be designed to work more like these NPC versions to avoid the problem you described. And we're not necessarily talking about a mandatory flattening of all features as part of placing a city... what we want is the "option" to remove certain things that are in our way... or place certain features where there are none.


Maybe somepeople are satisfied with randomly spreading out structures in the middle of a grassy field & calling it a city, but I am not. To me, building a city means, building a city... I want the ability to landscape, pave roads, build fences & sidewalks, plant trees, create waterfalls, develop parks & housing developments, build walls & bridges, etc. All these objects already exist in the game... All I want is the option to use them.


Message Edited by ToppDog on 01-18-2005 11:30 PM

PsychoticChipmunk
Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:41 am
#11






ToppDog wrote:

The ping may or may not be an issue depending on how it is coded. Most NPC structures do not cause the problem you described (take the Lake Retreat for example). Player structures should be designed to work more like these NPC versions to avoid the problem you described. And we're not necessarily talking about a mandatory flattening of all features as part of placing a city... what we want is the "option" to remove certain things that are in our way... or place certain features where there are none.


Maybe somepeople are satisfied with randomly spreading out structures in the middle of a grassy field & calling it a city, but I am not. To me, building a city means, building a city... I want the ability to landscape, pave roads, build fences & sidewalks, plant trees, create waterfalls, develop parks & housing developments, build walls & bridges, etc. All these objects already exist in the game... All I want is the option to use them.




Those NPC cities aren't considered temporary, your city is. Those NPC cities are hard coded into your software and don't get altered unless the developers give the town a facelift on the servers and you download this completely to have easy access to it. Your town won't be in the game as long as Coronet has been in the game and that is understood. It isn't a part of the game in teh same sense of the word so it is treated differently. Because of this it would have the lag problems that I"m talking about.


I'm not just making this up, walk into an area with a lot of bases where the ground wasn't too flat. It'll take you awhile to load the alterations and will look insanely awkward because of the new false plateaus. That is what you all are asking for because that is what is available. We can't rewire the game to make 2200, 2200 to 2230, 2230 Naboo - Chilastra flat but the same location on Naboo - Bloodfin is a slight incline into a ravine. It would be nonsensical and simply overly complex for a very minimal gain.


I want my city to look like the metropolis it is as well, I have used what I have available to me to this end and would gladly do more. However I'm not going to make impossible demands to reach this end. We will get methods and items to make the city seem less wild (however part of a city is having nature incorporated into it) but landscaping will never be a part of it. It is literally impossible with the way the game works. TH has said so several times now and Pappi linked to it multiple times as well.




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ToppDog
Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:45 am
#12






mzf5c5 wrote:


I just wish the whole city diameter woudl just level as you went, would solve a lot of issues.





Yes, especially since this is already being done for NPC spawned structures. When a camp or compound spawns, it usually flattens out all the lotspace it takes up & then blends into the rest of the geography beyond that. Player placed structures could be made to function the same way.
ToppDog
Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:15 pm
#13

I get what you're saying & I don't think anyone is making demands. It's a discussion of what we'd like to see come to be... in this or any similar game. This is how these kinds of things are created... a bunch of people sitting around saying how they'd improve this or fix that... & eventually some of those ideas get worked on & become a reality. Who'd of ever thought we would see a MMORPG like this one? I can guarantee you that some people were sitting around thinking of something like this while others were saying you can never have a1st/3rd personmultiplayer game with more than 32 players on at a time.


Do I expect any of this stuff to really happen in SWG, no. But we can all dream...
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