How to create CEP placeables

Recently I've been trying to build a player house, and thinking that this would help me better learn building in Aenea, so as to maybe build some areas for here. But I've never built any modules before that used the CEP, as the last PW I was at for many years did not use CEP.

So I've gotten the entire house interior terrain created in the Elven Interior Pasilli tileset, using all those tiles under the Paint Terrain/Standard tab. But in starting to try to lay down the placeables, I've noticed that for some special placeables that I've seen here in Aenea and am trying to find, especially water (to fill up the pit in the Elven tileset temple), their categories seem to be under the Custom tab, and are marked with asterisks which I take to mean that they are CEP content. There are also a few custom pieces of furniture that I can't find in the Standard Placeables, one being a certain tansu kitchen cabinet in Crideas' sanctum.

But as far as I can see, these CEP placeables have no blueprints under their categories, so I don't know how to use them. When I right click on the category, like Placeable Objects/Custom/Parks&Nature/Water,Snow,&Lava, about the only option it gives me is New. If I try to create something New, which is obviously a blueprint, then it starts off from scratch looking like an armoire and I can't even find any appearance option to make it look like a pool of water, and have no idea how to fill out all the Properties specifications.

I've scanned a few sites and manuals for this, but so far this is a mystery to me. I also asked Kefrem, the builder of Crideas' sanctum, who answered a couple of other points about that tileset, but I'm not sure that my question made sense to him on how to create a CEP custom blueprint for these empty categories, especially as regards water to fill this space. So can anyone point me to where I can find this information, or clue me in a little? Perhaps using the example of how to fill that pit with water might be the most helpful to me right now.

Thanks!

You don't really need a custom blueprint for a placeable, it's enough to right click an existing placeable and click the "Edit Copy", this brings up the properties menu. In that menu you can change the appearance (and anything else you wants) to fit what you need.




1) Go to the Placeable Menu and drop down a[ny] placeable. Right click that placeable and select the Properties option in the drown down menu, it will bring up the properties menu in a new window.

2) The Appearance type menu, this is one of the most important sections in this window. Click it and it brings down a menu where you can scroll through the various appearances available in your module.

3) Should be done by that, but you can change whatever else as you fancy. (I like to change name, tag (and maybe resref, but I only create new blueprints for those placeables for which I know I need to use multiple times over several areas), description (if the placeable isn't static) to fit the appropriate appearance type I used--makes it prettier to look at. XD)

Yeah, drop any placeable down and edit the properties to match.... I believe last time I looked the "water tiles" are part of the floor coverings section in the drop down list...

Typing the first letters of something in the box will also take you to the *next* available match in the list....

And a good thing to remember is you CAN use standard windows shortcut keys in the Toolset to copy/paste placeables (and collections of placeables)... helpful if you've spent ages writting the description of itemxxx and want to fill a room with the same thing (most commonly I use it for placing chairs around large/inn-like rooms)....


The other benefit with editing the properties is it doesn't add to the module resource list at all, whereas a new blueprint will... if you could force things to behave as per their blueprint name 90% of The Rising Sun Clan House would turn into "arrow-filled-corpse" placeables.... ... ...

Yes, for building a player house for Aenea, there's no need to create even a single new placeable blueprint. I wouldn't import them into the module anyway. The same for any other type of blueprint (item, creature, trigger, etc.) or script.

Just follow RustyDios' example...place any existing blueprint down, right-click it and edit it's properties. Use the appearance drop-down to pick the look you want (there are many!). Make sure the little box called "Static" is checked (unless it's a chair you want useable, or something you want the description to be viewable, like a piece or art or something).

I'm in the process of modifying the player build module to include a lot more placeable blueprints, all pre-tagged as "static" (which you need to do for most for a player house anyway). I'm trying to make it so that pretty much every placeable appearance available (and decent looking) has a blueprint for building with. I've made hundreds of such blueprints so far, with hundreds more to go. At least the things don't need descriptions.

Okay, one just uses any random blueprint to edit copy, to make things for those CEP categories. So, doing that, I wonder if some of the item properties would be inappropriate. But I guess not, if it's just a static object -- arrow-filled corpses, eh? I'll use an original somewhat close to my intended result in any case.

And I see now that the water tiles are under Floor. Such a long list of Appearances, I missed it.

Thanks a bunch, everyone! I'll get to experimenting with this.


P.S. - Looking forward to that new Player Build Module, ! So I guess that every Area and Item that one has already built will have to be individually Exported out of the old module and Imported into the new module?

Ramana Jala wrote:Okay, one just uses any random blueprint to edit copy, to make things for those CEP categories. So, doing that, I wonder if some of the item properties would be inappropriate. But I guess not, if it's just a static object -- arrow-filled corpses, eh? I'll use an original somewhat close to my intended result in any case.

And I see now that the water tiles are under Floor. Such a long list of Appearances, I missed it.

Thanks a bunch, everyone! I'll get to experimenting with this.


P.S. - Looking forward to that new Player Build Module, ! So I guess that every Area and Item that one has already built will have to be individually Exported out of the old module and Imported into the new module?

No need to "edit copy"...that'll just create another blueprint in the palette you probably don't need. Just paint down a random placeable, right-click on it (in the area display panel where you see your area), pick Properties, and change the appearance there. Also make sure the "static" box is checked. Click "OK". There, you have a new placeable for your house. If you need more of that same placeable, click on it and hit Ctrl+C (copy), then Ctrl+V (paste)...and you suddenly have a new copy of the one you just changed (with your changes).

With the new player build module, you can either export your areas/items and import them into the new module, or you can export all the new placeable blueprints and import them into your current build module.

If you want to do a mass-resource export, go to File > Export. You can select many blueprints at the same time, add them, switch to another type, add those to the list, etc. Then all of the files will export at the same time.

It may be a while still until the new version goes onto the Vault for downloading. I know I've got at least a few hundred more blueprints to make. I'm setting them up so that I can add to and remove them from the full Aenea module as I'm building, so that I can use them myself without loading up the live module's resources list (and without putting them in a hak).

Fixed the phrasing of my post to say what I meant to say in the first place, but didn't for some reason--way to distracted at the time I guess? ...

I see, , you want me to edit the Instance of the Placeable, as this won't create another blueprint.

Okay, I started with a Floor Design instance, to make a Floor Symbol of Jewel. Looks good. But I have question as pertains to this specific placeable. I went to choose a Portrait, and I couldn't find any of the Aenea god symbols. Do they exist, and in which category under the portrait selection would I find them?

Thanks!

Many of the placeables that I've made that won't be "useable" (such as the floor symbols) don't have their own portraits.

I haven't actually made any portraits of the holy symbols...maybe something to add to the suggestions section of the forum?

Okay, then I'll make a list as I create placeables. In the meantime I guess I'll put a blank portrait or something close. Thanks!

Oh, I just realized the implications of what you said, that placeables that aren't 'useable' you haven't made portraits for. This must mean that those placeables that merge with the landscape and so their descriptions can't be viewed, don't really need portraits.

Ramana Jala wrote:Oh, I just realized the implications of what you said, that placeables that aren't 'useable' you haven't made portraits for. This must mean that those placeables that merge with the landscape and so their descriptions can't be viewed, don't really need portraits.

Any placeable marked with the "static" flag will merge into the background. So yes, the above is correct. Static placeables don't need descriptions or portraits, they can't be examined by a player. 90% of your household furniture should be marked as "static". It's better for the server, for loading times and to reduce lag. Unless it's something that a) does something b) needs to move/be moved or c) needs to be interacted with/examined then check it as "static".

It's a good idea to get into the habit of checking things with the "plot" flag too.. unless you want some powerhungry-aoe-witch to blow up half your house. Even some static items get blown up by aoe spells, evident in the OC too. I'd say chairs/tables/interactable should NOT be plot, ie if you can use it you can break it. Anything that can be read but should not be destroyed (hanging artwork, large history-of-PC books, statues, alters etc) mark as plot but not static. Everything else static and plot.

Don't forget doors can be hacked to bits too, unless you mark them plot. Any door (openable or locked) can be examined (there are no static doors!) so they make a good point for telling a player what room they are about to enter/exit. If you want a door to appear to go "further into the house" make an empty archway that leads to nowhere. Fill it with a door. Set plot. Set Locked. Set DC to max. Set requires a key. Set keytag field to "aueihfhsdhfjusbhgfidshngbaseudccihfkbjfpolldofnzhb" or similar (ie something no key is ever going be tagged as). Set descriptive text saying of the huge wine cellar etc. Voila, you just doubled the size of your house in a players mind without adding a thing.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate this very useful information which I will certainly need to incorporate into my placeables!

I decided to overlay new flooring in a section of my house, and went through the CEP floorings to create a few placeables to see what I could do.

I found that the marble and tile floorings that were less than a room in size were hard to match seamlessly, even if I overlapped them (which brought clipping issues that were impossible to solve even with tweaking the z placement).

So I decided to use the huge 4x4 floorings, which worked really well except that the flooring extends off the sides of the entire house area. My question is, does this matter? When the area is compiled into the module, will these extensions still be visible, or will they become invisible past the edges of the area?

If this will be a problem, is there a trick to seaming floorings accurately?

And another question: If I have to raise the flooring z placement a few microns to entirely cover the substrate, will character feet sink into it, and be walking relatively on the substrate and not on top of the flooring? (I've discovered that I need to make the flooring at about .02 higher than the substrate for no show through. I don't know how deep a character's feet may sink into this, until I try the module.)

Have you ever noticed how far you sink into the floor in the craft room of the rising sun ? ... z placement at 0.02 ...IIRC

Thanks for the feedback, Rusty, I checked out the floor in that room. Not hardly noticeable, especially when the char has shoes on.

I think that multiple layerings could get tricky, like a mosaic on top of a tiling. Better to use just one layer of flooring and then a rug on top of that, because sinking into a plush carpet is normal.

And after looking at your floor, I've decided to try seaming tile flooring again, I'll just see if I can do it well enough.

Though I'm still curious as to whether those huge floorings that hang off the sides of the whole area will be invisible when the area is compiled into a module?

They shouldn't be visible beyond the walls of an area.

Test it...

Add in a player start location (red circle, blue arrow... top right corner of the toolset-ish).... and play the module (f9) yourself to see what it looks like in game. If it works for you, then it'll likely (likely=99%) work in Aenea too.

There is a section of a 4x4 grass tile in the rising sun that you cannot see at one part unless you open a different door. I think as long as the "centre point" of the tile is in a "visible" location (ie mapped on the minimap at least once) then the tile will show.... if not it appears as a blank black void... ...

If it is off the edges of the map the placeable tile will not show off the map, but the original floor will (unless a wall exists at the map-edge, and for player housing I think it should)..... the old Calithia used to be a good place to demonstrate this concept with the old sand coverings in one of the wards, now I'm not sure where to point you for an example....

Thanks, for the infos and tips!

BTW, I had wondered how the extended landscapes were made that are visible beyond an area, thought that might be because of this phenomenon.