Allow mappers to set chest content

[Kanachi]

Hiya, I’m in the process of making a map and a while ago I asked on the map forum if it was possible, as the designer of the map, to somehow specify the range of random items which can appear within each specific chest across the map.

This would afford the map designer a far greater amount of power to present their map in the way they had intended it.

I’m no coder so I’ve no idea how complex this would be or if there is another alternative which could be implemented to achieve a similar result.

thanks!

 

[Demanter]

This is not possible.

The Survival Games plugin makes all chests random.
You cannot choose what will be in them.

 

[Kanachi]

This is not possible.

The Survival Games plugin makes all chests random.
You cannot choose what will be in them.

I'm confused, are we not making suggestions here for things which should be edited within the survival games plugin itself? Is the plugin something which cant be altered in any way?

It just seems like such a shame if no one can control what items are spawning and where. Items determine the pace and play style of a map. It seems like a huge oversight not to include a way to manage them in any way.

 

[CandyFTW]

This is not possible.

The Survival Games plugin makes all chests random.
You cannot choose what will be in them.

This..

 

[Kanachi]

Sorry I'm obviously being very stupid here or fail to understand. Are you saying its impossible to edit the plugin in any way? If so why is this?

 

[Parakoopa]

Sorry I'm obviously being very stupid here or fail to understand. Are you saying its impossible to edit the plugin in any way? If so why is this?

I don't think it's impossible. As far as I know the plugin CAN already change the content of chests (speaking of corn chests etc. now)

 

[Hyrulekid]

I'm confused, are we not making suggestions here for things which should be edited within the survival games plugin itself? Is the plugin something which cant be altered in any way?

It just seems like such a shame if no one can control what items are spawning and where. Items determine the pace and play style of a map. It seems like a huge oversight not to include a way to manage them in any way.

Imagine you, a first time player, on your map.... Elite-Player (Let's call him B) joins.
B knows there are X chests with diamonds at place Y and Z.... Player A (aka first time player) does not have this unfair advantage.
Nuff said.

 

[NeatNit]

The point is you shouldn't worry about chest contents. The devs decide on this, not the map designer.

 

[Kanachi]

Imagine you, a first time player, on your map.... Elite-Player (Let's call him B) joins.
B knows there are X chests with diamonds at place Y and Z.... Player A (aka first time player) does not have this unfair advantage.
Nuff said.

This is not what I’m talking about at all. You would determine a range of items which could randomly appear within each chest. You would not select specific things obviously, that would be poor map design.

To be honest I think the mapper would in general have a much greater initial understanding of their map and the item balance appropriate to that map than any dev would for quite some time. This is entirely logical… a mapper would be expected to have such knowledge simply by the virtue of having made it and thus having a far greater feel for its terrain. It would take quite some time for any dev to gain that same understanding and start from the same base.

Obviously as time moved on it may prove necessary to make alterations. This would be the devs role.

I don’t think it’s such a crazy idea at all to be honest, if you look at any level design software for almost any other game (quake, half-life, star craft, skyrim, civ, etc) the key to success is to give the designer of the map as much power as possible to realise their vision… not a dev later on down the line.

The mapper chooses where to put a gun (or other item) in Worldcraft (for example), not a dev. Its basic element of the game/level development process.

 

[Parakoopa]

This is not what I’m talking about at all. You would determine a range of items which could randomly appear within each chest. You would not select specific things obviously, that would be poor map design.

That is possible and the feature is already in use on map 2.

 

[Kanachi]

That is possible and the feature is already in use on map 2.

I had a feeling that it must be.

Maybe a mapper could simply submit a list in a text document, detailing what they believe each chests random range of items should hold and then the Devs would impliment this. The main thing is getting this power (on an initial level at least) shifted from the Devs and towards the map designer.

Once the map has been more rigourously tested its item distribution may well change, but its initial design should be as the mapper intended and the mapper should have imput into how it evolves.

 

[Kanachi]

The point is you shouldn't worry about chest contents. The devs decide on this, not the map designer.

The mapper should have a much better idea of how the map should be balanced (at least as an initial starting point) than a dev would.

A well designed map would reward the players more intelligently than some of the current maps do. Though obviously all chests would still require an element of randomness in their nature.