Design Concepts and Guidelines
Yeah, some ground rules need to be set.
Players and server operators need to be able to rely on the content not throwing the game balance out the window, and to some degree know what to expect when and where. We all know what happens when designers can go crazy.
I already know without having a cheat sheet in front of me when too much is too much, but well you know, there's always going to be that guy. Anyways, I'm really hoping other people chime in on this and over time we can refine it. I can't think of everything and part of the reason I started this whole shindig was because I know the community at large is capable of some really awesome shit. I just have the resources and the know-how to set up this project and give it the space it deserves. The rest is going to depend on anyone/everyone else choosing to participate and throw passion into it. I know I'm going to give it my best shot.
Without further adieu, loosely, and at this stage kind of unorganized. But here it goes:
“Quality Over Quantity”
Quantity. Bigger or more is not always better. In the wrong situations it can impede performance. The wilderness category, unlike cities, towns and rural areas, doesn't have a hard limit on the size of a POI/prefab when it comes to the RWG.
General Vanilla Sizes:
Extra Small: 25x25
Small: 42x42
Medium: 60x60
Large: 100 x 100
Rural areas can go bigger at times, so: 150x150.
Wilderness is any size. ←- Our sweet spot!
Now hold on there, cowboy, this doesn't mean we want to design prefabs that exceed the above limits. What it does mean though is that we aren't limited to a 25x25 or 60x60 grid, but instead can easily make ones that are 10x15, 20x60, etc. We do need however to classify them for packaging purposes since the players and server administrators are going to want to pick and choose which ones they want to include in their generated maps at times. So, part of the package structure will definitely have them separated accordingly.
Something else to consider is that when randomly generating maps you typically have a few hundred wilderness POI locations to play with. This is why it's going to be far better to have many unique and randomly sized prefabs than a handful of monster 150x150 offerings. People can design what they want but honestly I feel making larger prefabs just for the sake of making them larger is a waste of time and doesn't necessarily mean that the prefab is going to be popular with the crowd.
My personal focus and emphasis is going to be on what you would really expect to find out in the wilderness during the Apocalypse. Think about it. which brings us to the next section..
“The Quality Part”
A majority of the vanilla prefabs are very well done and well thought-out. You can tell. This isn't going to mean throwing down a campfire, a bedroll and a few random scattered pieces of debris and calling it good. Some of those are definitely needed but far less than a camp or compound that someone put effort into and may or may not be currently occupied. People are out there trying to survive and a backpacking tent and flashlight on the ground isn't going to cut it.
There are hundreds of available blocks and prop elements available and all you need to do is really place yourself in the apocalypse with the understanding that someone or something decided this location was worth setting up shop at and put effort into it, so I expect designers to do the same.
“Difficulty”
Point blank, we know the different biomes have associated difficulty levels that affect loot stage and enemy spawn. We need to stick to that, but also take into consideration that players and server operators may have their own preference and play style that can either make those two boring or exciting.
This is where at the onset I intend to keep the different prefabs categorized so that people can pick and choose to their heart's content without having to root through hundreds of DIYs to remove ones they don't want. This will be further explained when I get to the package structure explanations.
Loosely, in order of expected difficulty: Forest, Desert, Snow, Wasteland.
When designing a prefab you may conceptually place it in the forest, or only expect to find it in the worst possible area like the wasteland. The tag system within the design tool is there for a reason and it's going to be up to you to think about this while you are putting things together. It's going to be up to you to make those decisions and if you think about it, more possibilities are opened up because when traveling from one location to another we don't want to find just a repeat of something you found yesterday. Having unique biome specific prefabs also allows people to set up story-driven campaigns or set up unique events in their game.
"File Name Structure"
TWP01-FDSWM-VE1-5Descriptor
The above looks confusing doesn't it? it's not really and it's going to make a lot of sense in the long run as the project grows. let me break it down for you.
TWP (The Wilderness Project)
01 - variable and unique to each team designer. This alleviates the need for potentially long names of designers included in the file name. Team members will have a number associated with them and if for whatever reason they leave the project will not be recycled.
FDSWM - Forest, Desert, Snow, Wasteland and Multi. Pretty much self-explanatory, is it a biome specific prefab or able to be used in multiple.
VE - Vanilla or extreme? This classification is there to give its consideration choice to the players and server operators who wish to emphasize on balance.
1-5 - Tier designation for questing purposes.
Descriptor - Camp, bunker, or what have you.
Using the system can give us an easy to understand, shorter file name and at a glance we can tell who, where, and what.
As an example:
TWP01-FV1-Camp1
So at a glance, I can say this is one of mine, it's found in the Forest biome, Vanilla and Tier 1 difficulty, and it's version 1 of a camp I made.
TWP01-ME5-Bunker3
And this one, of course mine again, it can be in multiple biomes, Extreme and tier 5 difficulty, and it's a version 3 of a set of bunkers I made.
...(To be Continued)
I hope it makes sense and I really think this system is going to grow on people. I know I'm going to be using it regardless from here on out even if work I do isn't in The Wilderness Project specifically.
