I have an idea on expanding on the Decorator function of the Server, if anyone wants to take it on ;)

The thought is, having a command target, target any typical static item placed in game (same things one would expect to be allowed to Freeze to Static Files) and the item would be entered into a text file that the [Decorate command would read from.

You could essentially decorate a blank server of your own, then save all of the decorated items to your own text file. Now you never need to worry about your shards deco again.

The target should have standard targeting item, and an area target, for easy use. I would think having its own [Decorate command name and text file/folder location... Custom, if no better name.

This would also allow the community to submit decorated worlds, and also share easy as well between each other.

I think it could even be more elaborate a system with some imagination, too :) Support for working doors, teleporters and such?

thoughts?
 
Oh, and it would need ability to continuously add (and remove?) items on the fly in game to the text file.. so maybe Xml would be best, I dont know.
 
I know the ultima live mod allows you to delete and more static items and actually build a custom map inside the game itself. I've not played with it too much but im sure it kinda works with the aspects your thinking about. It saves the files direct to the muls which don't need patching to view the changes because as the name says its a live mod.. Maybe Praxxiz could give you more information on how this works or you could play around with it yourself..

Worth looking into tho
 
Well, that turns the items into an Addon script, right? That creates a deed to place as an addon.. I mean just deco items for shard deco. As in the [decorate command.
 
I think you guys misunderstand.. Think of the [Decorate command. It places random OSI like deco around the world, taken from a file that holds the items and where they go.

Now that was manually created as far as I know. But consider a way for us to decorate random areas around a shard (that is blank ideally) and export those items to a file that can be imported later to another shard.
Or even single town buildings that get decorated for game play, exported to a file to be shared to other shards.

Not player Addons, but just world decorations.

I have a system that does this actually, but it will not handle interactive items like doors and teleporters.. it only places items as you would with [add static xxxx So if a door is there, it will be imported as just a static ItemID item, not usable.

Making more sense?
 
That may be.. The idea came about from my conversion to ServUO. Already having a pretty well established world setup and now having to start over from scratch. If I used all OSI maps, I wouldnt be so concerned. but with a custom map, things like DoorGen, TelGen and others just do not work for my map, and need hand placed. As well as things like Vendor building chests, spinning wheels, etc, etc.. that are placed in game, unmovable for town deco..

Then occurred to me, if there was a way to create a custom Decoration.cfg file by in game targeting items, the new custom deco items could be saved and reused over and over.. even shared between shard owners.

Maybe I am just not explaining correctly before, I dont know.
 
I get what you are saying now. Could probably adapt the addon gen to do this. Will probably need it to export to an xml file and then have the command pull from the xml.

Sounds cool to me, but no time to do it right now, lol.

Actually would be cool to make this similar to that change to the wipe command we talked about. It would give you a listing of the items in a gump and you pick the ones you want to back up to an xml file.
 
Yeah absolutely :)

I am buried as well with other things, so can not really take this on myself right now.. thats why I threw it out here. Thought someone else might like the idea.

I have a system that does this already somewhat, but its strictly for world building with Freezing said items to Static files. So it ONLY handles the basic Item props. So if a door was in the list, Importing those items again would only place that door as its one ItemID like a wall piece.., not a working door.
If anyone remembers back in the day of World Forge, it used a *.wsc file to import/export world map items.. that is what my system uses for a format to the items.
Also, mine does not add to a file, it would overwrite the file if it exists already, rather than allowing to continue adding item entries to any given file.. But it might be a good base.

But ultimately, it would end up being able to decorate one town building, target the area to import your deco to file. If the building got wiped for any reason, a simple [Decorate BritEastMageShop.wsc (or xml or whatever) and blap, your deco is placed right back there.

Or you could deco an entire map starting from a blank world save, export the whole maps deco to file to be used again later for emergency, share with the community a custom decorated world map.. whatever.

I'll probably work on it if no one else does, but it would be awhile. Hard to say how much interest there really would be for it either.
 
That may be.. The idea came about from my conversion to ServUO. Already having a pretty well established world setup and now having to start over from scratch. If I used all OSI maps, I wouldnt be so concerned. but with a custom map, things like DoorGen, TelGen and others just do not work for my map, and need hand placed. As well as things like Vendor building chests, spinning wheels, etc, etc.. that are placed in game, unmovable for town deco..

Then occurred to me, if there was a way to create a custom Decoration.cfg file by in game targeting items, the new custom deco items could be saved and reused over and over.. even shared between shard owners.

Maybe I am just not explaining correctly before, I dont know.
Since you're using a custom map, I mean this would be a pain, but it can be done....

Create a folder with your map name, create a cfg file and add deco entries, then add that cfg file under the Decorate command in Decorate.cs
The entries themselves are easy enough:
# stone wall
Static 0x0063
1517 1670 20
You just have to watch for things like doors because the way the code is setup, it looks at the tiledata file for the open and the close itemID. For example: 0x684 is a doorID closed. The tiledata file is setup so that doors appear in a set (open/closed) and the code "automatically" knows that the doorID two slots prior is the openID. I had to figure this out by trial and error when I added custom doors and walls to my shard. So you have 4 openIDs and 4 closeIDs for each door style and direction, but split into groups of every other one. Its confusing as Hell and if I just made it worse I'm sorry lol

Anyway, bottomline is, you can create your own cfg file just by using the itemID and the location and adding it to the Decorate command.
 
Yeah, thanks tass, that is what got me thinking of everything I posted here though. Rather than entering the items manually in a new cfg file, doing it in game with a character :) So if you target a door, it would recognize the door ID, closedID/openID for instance. There wouldnt need be that many items beyond the typical prop'd items. The Decorate.cs really already has a lot of code for item specifics for placing.

Its probably more work to create than the usage or interest it would end up getting anyways.
 
Yeah, thanks tass, that is what got me thinking of everything I posted here though. Rather than entering the items manually in a new cfg file, doing it in game with a character :) So if you target a door, it would recognize the door ID, closedID/openID for instance. There wouldnt need be that many items beyond the typical prop'd items. The Decorate.cs really already has a lot of code for item specifics for placing.

Its probably more work to create than the usage or interest it would end up getting anyways.
Well I mean if you consider all the effort that went in to creating a lot of the commands we use in-game already....its easily worth it. Think about something as simple as the ChampGen command. It just places the champion altars around the world with the proper champ assigned to it, but think about how long it would take you to do that by hand...
 
how is the progress going on this idea. I think it would be nice to have for seasonal decorations.
Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, and all of the other holidays for the numerous cultures.
 
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