Universal Forum Archive

I'm new at all this stuff but i want to make a world. The buildings editor has me confused at the moment because i can't work out how to change the list of available buildings or change the properties of each building. I also don't know how to place buildings on the map. I'm stuck at the stage where i'm just walking around on the map, a heightmap which i downloaded, and wondering what to do next. The guides i have found seem to assume a basic knowledge of the world owner tools which i don't have.
Could someone plz tell me how to change the list of available buildings and change the properties of each building? And how do i place government owned buildings on the map? AND how do i change the point at which a player spawns when they first visit the world?



Actually i think i'm just asking someone to tell me where the best noob guide to setting up a world is. The one on the world resource pages is baffling me.

I'm not an expert, and perhaps I'm misunderstanding your difficulty, but isn't it as simple as:

Run the Buildings Data Editor
- Add Building
- double-click the building you added
- change its properties to whatever you like
- save the bdat file
?

Properties include changing the type of building (this is a fixed, but long, list) and 'description', which lets you call it whatever you want. Is that what you mean by changing the list/properties?

Once you've got some buildings defined in your bdat, use the buildings editor in the server to assign models and textures to them.

Then, to put buildings on the map, you simply stand where you want them to go and use the build menu (Ctrl, or mouse, to access it). There are a whole bunch of settings that determine whether or not you can build somewhere (eg, you can make it so anyone can build anywhere, or just sysops, or building restricted to certain zones etc) but on a default new world you ought to just be able to build stuff, as owner.

Spawn points are also settings-based and surfaces-based. Eg you can spawn in towns, or in defined spawn points, etc. Too complicated to go into here. Get some buildings working first :)
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Thanx, i now know how to use the building editor. I think i may have been a bit hasty to post a whine about how complicated it is. It's actually a nicely put together thing. I'll post my next problem in this thread to save on topics, lol.


Edit : Ok, heres one. Where do i type commands like *makesysop or *grantitem ?
I tried it in the 'world chat' window but that didnt work. Should there be some sort of prefix displayed before my name in the game like op]Jazzocaster or something? I joined my world, typed *grantitem Jazzocaster 1 Vehicle 1 and nothing happened.

commands like *grantitem are typed in the normal client chat window when you're on your world.

If they're not working, check your universal folder for ServerConfig.txt. Open it up and make sure the name next to Owner= is the same as the one you're logging in with.
(if not, change it, then restart the world)

p.s. Sorry bout lack of docs.. we've all been doin it so long its quite hard to remember and document all those things that we take so much for granted.
the http://monkeycollection.com/FirstWorldGuide.html (is that the doc you were referring to?) is intended to cover as much as that initial stuff as poss.. obviously i still need to fill out the buildings bit.. :/

Thank you, that worked.

Edit : I hadn't seen that page before (the link you typed). This is all going a bit more smoothly now. I'm much happier about the whole thing than i was yesterday. The next problem i have shouldn't be for a while...

btw, any chance i can somehow get hold of Leigon's heightmap for Gyruss a while ago that looked like a map of Britain? It was about a year ago...

Edit again : Ok, Balloon World is beginning to look pretty good now. Not long till it's finished. One thing, how is anyone supposed to a) Know where it is. b) Get there. ?

Maybe when you click on the finite imp drive in space, the list that shows up could include non-registered worlds with the registered ones appearing at the top of the list. The list would be longer so you'd need to be able to scroll up/dn etc but it seems like it's not that hard a thing to add. (me with my 0 tech knowledge)

http://monkeycollection.com/ukheightmap.bmp

...The list would be longer so you'd need to be able to scroll up/dn etc but it seems like it's not that hard a thing to add

Its not technically a problem to do that (the list is defined in a configurable text file on the servers now) - indeed a full list of all the servers was how the game originally worked a long long time ago - but its not done like that now for gameplay reasons..
Exposing all the servers to a brand new player to the game made it confusing and more likely that a new player would end up on an incomplete, bad-looking or badly run island.. and then they'd be put off the game nd not come back.

Additionally, with a full server list we always ended up with lots of worlds with very few players on each - the limited finite drive list helps keep the central worlds more populated. I appreciate this does limit the potential of non-finite drive worlds, but its more important to have a game setup that encourages new ppl to play.

The finite drive list is therefore intended to show only the best, most stable worlds available, so that the game experience is as good as possible for new players.

As said, the list can be changed easily serverside, so as new and good worlds appear they can be added. (As bong's world has been). As the games general population changes, the number of places on the finite list can also be adjusted accordingly.

To get there tho.. you need to prove that your world is playable and stable in the long-term. (90% of the people who start up and intend running a world give up after a few weeks - hence why theres so many 'dead' worlds littered about - so i'd want to see it running regularly for a good while longer than that..). Some stats are recorded on the gal server about how long and how regularly each world is online for, and i listen often to player's discussions about the various worlds - so keeping the planet online and impressing your visitors will get it noticed eventually.

For now, get people to play & test it by using their infimps to get there. (assuming you have given your world a location in the gal? if not.. see.. (http://theuniversal.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3281) ) You can alert people to your world's name and location using the 'world ad' forums or posting some news about it - and by helping em get their infimps if needed. (the game benefits by having helpers encouraging ppl to play, and your world benefits by having more ppl travelling around the gal)

Balloon World is now pretty much finished. Sometime between christmas and new year i'll try that unknown planet thing. I've never seen an unknown planet, probably because i don't fly around in space much i just go to the worlds. If anyone can give me any tips as to where there's a good unknown planet and how i get there, please let me know.

Bunford5 wrote:Balloon World is now pretty much finished. Sometime between christmas and new year i'll try that unknown planet thing. I've never seen an unknown planet, probably because i don't fly around in space much i just go to the worlds. If anyone can give me any tips as to where there's a good unknown planet and how i get there, please let me know.

can someone tell me how to get the world editor to work, I downloaded it and clicked it and a screen with and island showed up for a second but the it dissapeared and nothing else came I tried restarting the computer and re installing the world creator and all of the patches but it wont open and neither will the island thing that I unzipped can someone please help. acually i got the editor to work but now when I go and open up that weird screen thing that asks about terrain numbers and water elevation i dont know what to do and it wont let me into the world it say ajust from 32 bit to 16 bit which i did and it says the same thing. thank you please help

Bunford5 wrote:Balloon World is now pretty much finished. Sometime between christmas and new year i'll try that unknown planet thing. I've never seen an unknown planet, probably because i don't fly around in space much i just go to the worlds. If anyone can give me any tips as to where there's a good unknown planet and how i get there, please let me know.

Hrm. M-383. Use a lv.24 stardrive from Cirrus/Tau or use a infinmp and type Gyruss.