nicked on 13/1/2014 at 08:55
I've just created a new in-depth beginner's tutorial that takes you from installation of Dromed through to publishing a mission.
Part One here: (
http://nickdablin.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/absolute-beginners-guide-to-creating-a-thief-2-mission-part-one/) http://nickdablin.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/absolute-beginners-guide-to-creating-a-thief-2-mission-part-one/ with links to the next parts at the bottom.
I'd love to hear some feedback, both from veterans who may spot something I've failed to mention, or from anyone following the tutorial - was it all clear? Any parts that don't make sense?
fibanocci on 13/1/2014 at 10:04
Thanks. I'd like to have this as a pdf.
Yandros on 13/1/2014 at 12:49
If you go to the webpage in Chrome, just go to print it (Ctrl-P) and it will offer to let you save as PDF as one of the Destination options.
Daraan on 13/1/2014 at 14:08
Ok I'm right reading through the text and just write down the thought that came up. They are just my thought and you can follow them or not.
Page 1
- Great a tutorial:thumb: Your so cool:D
- Really dark screenshot. I don't mind if it's dark it's thief but it would be cool if you could see a bit more details.
- Link to the Editors guild
-
Toolkit 1.10!
- Good that you go through the config settings.
- In the TP's dromed.cfg there are 4 afterdigits standard. In my opinion 3 are more than enough. 4 is extremely tiny. Don't know what others think about it
- There are other things to tweq the interface maybe leave a line that they should feel free to test the others out as well.
Page 2
- Keyboard: There is a key missing the 2 it unrolls the camera. Maybe with the hint: Use it when anything feels strange about the camera movement.
- Adding textures:
- I think: Textures > Add Thief 2 Family A-N > Core 1 is the easiest and the standard way to add families and should be mentioned first.
- There is a another option: right clicking in the texture palette: Load > Family. Advantage is that it lists every folder inside fam and you don't need custom menu
- Think if you really want to mention the console command option since add family is exactly this. I'm not sure what I would do but it's just a thought.
- Maybe mention that you can also select the default texture by right clicking on the texture > Assign as Brush Default
-
Saving It's important:D
Quote:
Make sure you're saving it into the same folder that Thief is installed to.
hmm. Can not really agree with that because it doesn't matter as long the normal gamesys is used. A new folder for maps would keep the root folder clean. When you change the gamesys later .cow format should be used (if you do it at all if not maybe mention it.) and then the root folder is obsolute anyway. Only when you go for real mission testing (without fmsel) you need the root.
Quote:
It's a good idea to save regularly, and under different filenames
Saving often and under different filenames must become ingrained. I can't remember how often I had to look back at older saves or dromed crashed. I would formulate it much stronger.
It's important to save regularly do it every 15 minutes and always under different filenames for example with consecutive numbers yourmap1.mis, yourmap2.mis....
Remember the reader about saving like you did on page 3. Do it one every page at least once. At the start 15min might be a bit much. The crashing chance is pretty close to 0 but anyway later you will be grateful if you have lots of points you can jump back to because something went wrong.
Page 3
Nothing to say here. ;)
Page 4
Quote:
More Objects
Go to Editors > Object Hierarchy
Go to Editors > Object Hierarchy (F5)
Quote:
Click the Console and type find_obj sword guard then press Enter.
Use F3 much faster.
___
Suggestion: Add arrows, lockpick, zulz as well. Explain the StackCount property and let the player save the progress twice. One standard one and one as template when he then starts to build his own mission(s) he just have to load this template.mis.
___
Quote:
The U and V boxes control the placement of the texture on the face - you can either type in a number, use the < and > arrow buttons for precision adjustments, or slide the texture by clicking and dragging the U or V buttons themselves.
Using mousewheel is also an option and it's good for fine tuning for example when placing the moneybox on the next page.
Page 5
When making the TrolPoints you could explain the feature Tool>Link Group AiPatrol. Note after using it the last selected Marker get's normally selected and can be used straight away to link with the next TrolPoint which makes Paths very fast to link.
Page 6
I couldn't open TOW with Windows 8. Did others experience the same? At least my Windows 8 lacked some VisualStudio files which I downloaded from microsoft and then could use it. (was not so easy than this sounds).
I could write a short troubleshooting if it's wished for.
Page 7
I don't know what the guys at windows think about removing the extensions by default. Windows 8 it's View: file extension (not sure whats the exact english text)
Consider non english users they have to make a different folder in their language.
Nothing thats addressed to you but the menu.cfg from the tookit 1.10 should have a NVDebug Menu like 1.0 had.
Page 8
I just nor realized that you didn't mention the toolkit or is it in TPatch. Well I would guess it's so but I'm not sure but it should really be used.
I have seen nothing more. Really great job and Thank you very much.
skacky on 13/1/2014 at 15:10
I don't know if you mentioned it (or I didn't see it) but you can resize DromEd's window so you don't have to squint your eyes on big monitors with the edit_screen_size command in dromed.cfg.
qolelis on 13/1/2014 at 15:30
I haven't read the whole thing (yet), but from what I've read (mostly the first two pages and then I skimmed the rest) I can say that I like your style; it reminds me of Komag's tutorial and I think your tutorial will inspire a lot of new authors, just as Komag's inspired me when I got started years ago.
This may be for the next level, but you might want to mention that FMSel can also be used together with DromEd through the whole process of development to organize things and keep FM specific files (and folders) separated from the original files, which makes it a lot easier when it's time to publish one's work, since it eliminates the "guesswork" of which files to extract. Using FMSel one can also easily switch between different development projects while still using the same Thief install and the files won't get mixed up.
Another thing you might want to mention is that most (if not all?) things can be done via a keyboard shortcut (instead of clicking in the GFH or using the menus) (for example cloning a brush can be done by pressing "Insert", which I think is standard). I hesitate on mentioning any specific ones, because I don't remember right now which are standard and which came in the DromEd Toolkit (old or new) (I've also added a few personal ones to further confuse the matter). Those new to DromEd and who want to know more can take a look at "Default.bnd" for the whole list (and maybe add the usual disclaimer of making a backup before editing it and that any editing is done at your own risk etc...).
Edit:
The most important thing to remember is that if when you fall asleep on your keyboard with DromEd loaded, things may have gone awry when you wake up. :joke:
fibanocci on 13/1/2014 at 16:29
I'd like to see a chapter about custom scripts (tnh/NV/KD-Scripts). At least, it should be mentioned as an alternative way to get things done.
nicked on 13/1/2014 at 21:13
Thanks everyone - a lot of good feedback here, especially the keyboard shortcuts. I tend to use the mouse menus for most things just out of force of habit, so there's a lot of shortcuts I'm not aware of or barely use, so I'll be adding them in for sure. I will look through it properly and update the tutorial as soon as I can.
R Soul on 13/1/2014 at 22:24
Very good tutorial. I have some comments:
1
I think there should be a brief explanation of NVDebug. Something like:
"This allows you to test the three difficulty levels. More on this later."
2
When you mention Portalize, I think you should mention Optimize too. "Portalize is fine for quickly checking simple architecture. Optimizing is better when things are more complex because you'll need to keep the polygon count down."
3
Komag put a useful tip in his tutorial about creating objects. This is it in my own words: "If you create the object in the Top view, it'll have the same Z coordinate as the currently selected brush. In the Right view it will have the same Y coordinate, and in the Front view it will have the same X coordinate. This is most useful with the Top view."
You mention zooming in to place the torch. "It's much easier to place the torch on the wall by using Edit > Wall Object. This command depends on the object's 'wall side' facing north by default. For an ElecWallLight, you have to spin it round by 180, use Wall Object, then un-spin it."
4
For finding archetypes, you should mention the new Filter box. It's easier because you don't have to know the exact name of what you're looking for.
The door frame would look better if there was a horizontal piece of wood across the top.
I don't think it's a good idea to use light brushes. They have no radius, and they shine through closed doors. OmniLightPoints are better. If they have radii. You should mention that a radius is a good idea for all lights. A value of 60 stops the light calculations getting out of hand without visibly cutting off the light.
5
Patrol Points: You mention reportalizing and rebuilding the rooms database. The latter should be 'Compute Pathfinding Database' because the terrain has been changed.
7
Instead of modifying an UnrolledScroll, it's easier to create a PosterScroll and add Book > Art: Parch if you want to go into book mode.
edit: But the other, longer, way might be better in this case because it introduces certain properties and scripts.
The Watcher on 14/1/2014 at 17:03
I've only skimmed it so far, but it looks like it'll be a good resource.
One thing though; I can't recommend advising the use of FMsel during mission development enough, even right from the beginning. It really helps keep your FM-specific content cleanly separated from the main install.
