AH64_Jimbo

Alpha 20 has already introduced an alternative to the nerd pole in the form of Customizable Blocks. Since you can now change the shape of almost every place-able blocks, you can turn Frame Shapes into ladders and just go up. You can even place ladders on stable ground and carefully climb up to the sky!

Since the introduction of questing back in Alpha 17, I've always thought it would be nice to have more descriptive, player-friendly names when getting quests from a trader. For example, instead of having a clear quest at "skyscraper_01" a trader would send you to "Dishong Tower" or instead of a fetch/clear quest at "factory_03" the trader sends you to your doom at the "Pop-N-Pills Factory". It would be nice to have an "alias" attribute assigned to each POI XML file. Then the traders could call the POIs by their alias, and not the unique file name. This would also mean that duplicate aliases could be used; So whether you head off to "store_grocery_01" or "store_grocery_02" the trader will send you off toward "Shamway", because there is always a Shamway up the road that you can try looting.

Well, now that I have finally released my airport map & POIs, you may be able to see how I put them together in the World Editor & Level/Prefab Editor. Feel free to look into it, take it apart, try to make your own airports, etc. This may give you some more ideas where to go with random gen. I still like the idea of a grid system. There is an XML attribute called RotationToFaceNorth in pretty much all prefabs. I believe there is a way to lock that rotation, which would be the key to having straight runways and runway ends that face the correct direction. This is pretty much how I would like to see an airport generated. They already do have the right codes, called 'Zoning' but that's mostly for POIs and not placing RWGs I think. The trick would be to lay out the RWG tiles correctly, and then the rest will follow.

Exactly! I modified a pre-gen map with manually-placed prefabs first, in order to work out the kinks and also give you folks a chance to playtest the airport POIs that I designed. The goal is to eventually have randomly-generated airports. Plus more prefabs to explore. I wanted to generate a framework first, though, with which we can add more to it. I could definitely use help figuring out the best way to randomly generate airports, as the vanilla random gen wouldn't support such an endeavor. If you want to take a crack at designing new prefabs to place in and around the airport, then have at it! The more content the merrier, right?!

You are right that smaller municipal airports would fit well into 7 Days To Die, but I made a Regional Airport anyway. It is about the size of a small town (minus the runway/taxiway environment) If you want to play my pre-gen map, then check out my other post. @Laz Man @Aldranon @Doomofman @Vintorez Your wait is over! Check out my pre-gen map with a Regional Airport.

I figured it out. I was looking in the wrong place the whole time; Turns out that some of my non-quest-able "remnant" POIs had QuestTags in their XML files. Probably happened inadvertently when I was doing some copy and pasting. So the 'Object reference' error was most likely the Trader not finding a Rally Marker at the POI Troubleshooting steps taken; Removed all of my POIs except RWG tiles Saved the world and started a new game Quested with the trader just fine, indicating that the problem indeed was with one of my POIs One-by-one added a POI back, started a new game and quested until I satisfactorily reached the appropriate level for the POI Repeated the above step until the game broke and threw the same error When it did, it clued me in that it was my NON-ques-table POIs (i.e. remnant or burnt aircraft) This prompted me to look into those XML files and make changes As you could imagine this process took a very long time. Still it is finished, and the airport looks great! I have shared it here

I figured it out! Some of my "remnant" POIs had leftover QuestTags data in the XML files. Must have happened when I was doing some copy and pasting. Once I knew what to look for (which took and excruciatingly long time to find!) it was a simple matter of correcting the XML files. After that, everything seems to work just peachy. Thanks again for your help! Your tutorials on YouTube are fantastic, by the way!

@Roland @saoron666 @Riamus @zztong @Tallman Brad @Naz @canadianbluebeer @Jason Tamosiunis @8_Hussars @Rotor @paulj_3 et all It is done! I have solved the critical issues and have distributed the map with the airport named Navezgane Regional Airport Download it, and try it for yourself! Remember that you'll have to unzip the files and place them in your 7 Days to Die user folder (Windows) typically found at C:/Users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/7DaysToDie

Would you like to explore an airport in 7 Days to Die? Well now you can! DOWNLOAD this new Pre-Gen map with Airport and Aircraft themed POIs (A21) from Nexus Mods 7 Days To Die Mods Mirror HERE Featuring Fan-made 8K modified vanilla generated map named Circling Vulture Valley Full Terminal with concourse and aircraft parked at the gates Crashed aircraft that can be found throughout the Wilderness Twelve quest-able POIs Three Tier 1 POIs Three Tier 2 POIs Two Tier 3 POIs - Of which there are 3 duplicates of a Hangar, but each with their own unique aircraft inside Two Tier 4 POIs - back-to-back placed Concourse-halves which make up a whole, contiguous concourse Tier 5 POI - A Huge Terminal which is about 50% larger than Dishong Tower! (But not taller - Dishong Tower still holds the record for tallest vanilla POI) Tier 5 POI - A Jumbo jet surrounded by emergency vehicles, left on the runway where it came to an ominous halt. Two Runways, taxiways and tarmac Dozens of various parts, RWG tiles and remnants for you to explore! Download Instructions for Windows 1. Download the zip file to a known location 2. Unzip the file and place the contents 7 Days to Die Airport Folder in your 7 Days to Die user data folder typically found at; C:/Users/<YOUR USERNAME>/AppData/Roaming/7DaysToDie/Mods Note: Alternately you can serach using %appdata% to find the App Data folder 3. Start A New Game (SP) Start 7 Days to Die and select New Game 4. In Game World, find the map Circling Vulture Valley 5. Customize the settings as you like and START a new game! Happy Hunting, Survivor!

@Tallman Brad @paulj_3 You guys seem to be the map Gurus, so I have a question about a map that I am modifying; I have modified a vanilla-generated map to include a new Trader Bob as part of a new 'town' (Really an airport, which you could check out here) with some of my own custom POIs. Everything seemed to be working fine during playtesting until moving up to Tier 2 quests with this Trader Bob specifically. Inevitably, at some point when trying to get a Tier 2+ quest or trying to turn one in, I won't be able to talk to Trader Bob and instead get this error; 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.609 ERR [XUi] Error while updating window group 'radial': 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.613 EXC Object reference not set to an instance of an object. More details on that error in this post Sometimes Trader Bob works fine, and I have even been able to play through quests for my own custom POIs, but Bob always throws that error sooner or later. I cannot figure out for the life of me how to fix this. Question is, Do I need to do anything special to my POIs or map files in order to get the new Trader Bob to get them to work correctly?

This is my thought exactly. Take note of the exact name of the house that is being given for a quest. If this keeps happening at that same house (whether the exact same one, or another one just like it) then it is definitely the POI. Not much you could do on a MP server, except avoid quests from that house in the future.

Absolutely I will share it! 😁 Just gotta work out a few issues.

The game itself fixes the issue of a shoddy-looking runway. I used concrete terrain (not the concrete cube blocks) for the runway and low and behold, the game added debris relevant to the biome itself! Same with the taxiways, which I used asphalt; It treats it like roads, and places garbage (including dead cars) that you would find on any other road. That's not to say that other wilderness POIs couldn't be placed on runway RWG tiles, or that the runways themselves could also be cratered. As far as long runways go, I placed this on a large, flat plot of empty desert, so nothing was really lost anyway.

That's actually exactly how I made my terminal and concourse. It's actually made up of 9 individual but inter-connected POIs sitting on two RWG tiles. For example, see below my airport_concourse_01_b POI. Together with the concourse_a, all six gated aircraft (or aircraft remnants) together with the terminal they make up the entire concourse and terminal. I should have been more specific; When hypothetically unpacking the airport, the program would have to lay out the RWG tiles in a specific way. Once the correct RWG tiles are in the right place and the correct orientation, then it's just a matter of placing the POIs, which can be controlled by the RWG tiles (i.e. Zoning). FYI, the tarmac, runways, taxiways, and hangar bases are all made up of 150 x 150 RWG tiles.

Something occurred to me while I was laying out the airport that it might be easier to have pre-defined airports. Instead of having a completely random layout, a few airport designs (reusing the same tiles and POI's) could be defined and sequentially unpacked in a specific order and rotation. That way we could get the exact airport we needed without any random weirdness . . . if any of that makes sense.

@zztong @Riamus Well, I done it. I've modified a map to add an airport!

@saoron666 You want an airport? You got it! I've nearly finished adding an airport to a vanilla-generated 10K map. Featuring * Dozens of new prefabs including; - Two types of crashed aircraft that can be found in the wilderness - Runways and taxiways with appropriate markings - Two Tier 1 POI aircraft - Two Tier 2 POI aircraft - One Tier 3 POI aircraft - One Hangar POI, of which there are 3 placed instances on this map - Remnant Hangar - Remnant Aircraft - Back-to-back connected Concourse-halves, each half being a Tier 4 POI in their own right - A Giant Tier 5 Terminal POI that is about 50% bigger than Dishong Tower (Though Dishong Tower still holds the record for tallest POI) There is a hitch; I've run into a game-breaking problem where the nearby trader stops giving quests. More details on that in this post. I'm working on getting the issue sorted, though. In the meantime, enjoy these screenshots!

After completing Tier 1 quests and moving up to Tier 2 quests, talking to Trader Bob will sometimes throw an error when trying to get a new Tier 2 quest, or when trying to turn in a completed quest. Here is the error when I try to talk to Trader Bob: 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.609 ERR [XUi] Error while updating window group 'radial': 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.613 EXC Object reference not set to an instance of an object. A bit of background: - Running Alpha 20.6, Single Player (SP) Client - Verified Steam files with no problems found - This is for a modified vanilla-generated 10K map - No Mods running apart from MapToolz for map editing - This instance of Trader Bob has been placed (not generated by the RWG) as part of a new 'town' (Really an airport) - All other Prefabs in this 'town' have also been placed by me, including Random World Generated (RWG) tiles, parts, remnant buildings and quest-able POIs - Some of these Prefabs have been created by me, including nine quest-able POIs; * Two Tier 1 POIs * Two Tier 2 POIs * Two Tier 3 POIs (Three instances of one of them; airport_hangar_01) * Two Tier 4 POIs * One Tier 5 POI * Over two dozen other prefabs including RWG tiles, Remnants and Parts seems to work fine - All of these prefabs that have been created by me work in the Editor/Playtest just fine - The rest of the placed Prefabs are all Funpimps generated, from the Prefab library - Most of my player-made POI's quests work via Trader Bob, but I will always encounter the above error at some point or another * Some Tier 2 POIs (both mine and Fun Pimps-made POIs) worked just fine, too, before Bob throws an error - Through a combination of console commands and advancing quest Tiers via other instances of Trader Bob, Tiers 3, 4, and 5 have also been tested; * Same error is encountered for Tier 3 and 4 as well as Tier 2 quests * Tier 1 and Tier 5 quests seem to work fine, again including those Tier 1 and Tier 5 quest-able POIs created by me - I have tried 4 separate playthroughs, each with a new save (as well as deleted and regenerated Region files for each save) * Have always encounter the same error at some point when getting Tier 2+ quests from this player-placed instance of Trader Bob - Other RWG-placed trader Bobs (3 more on the map) as well as other traders in other towns on the map seem to work just fine Full Log Files for the latest playthrough here; https://justpaste.it/c14cr

I'm experiencing a similar problem, but in the vanilla game, not Darkness Falls; After completing Tier 1 quests, and moving up to Tier 2 quests, talking to Trader Bob will sometimes throw an error when trying to get a new Tier 2 quest. Here is the error when I try to talk to Trader Bob: 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.609 ERR [XUi] Error while updating window group 'radial': 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.613 EXC Object reference not set to an instance of an object. A bit of background: - Running Alpha 20.6 - This is for a modified vanilla-generated map - No Mods running apart from MapToolz for map editing - This instance of Trader Bob is one that I have placed (not generated by the RWG) as part of a new 'town' (Really an airport) - All other Prefabs in this 'town' have also been placed by me, including RWG tiles, parts and quest-able POIs - Some of these Prefabs have been created by me, including nine quest-able POIs; Two of which are Tier 1, and Two of which are Tier 2 - The rest of the placed Prefabs are all Funpimps generated, from the Prefab library - I was able to successfully complete quests on my player-made Tier 1 POI's via Bob - Some Tier 2 POIs worked just fine, too, before Bob throws an error - Thus far I have been unable to test Tier 3+ POIs for this 'town' on this map - Playtesting my player-made POI's in the Level/Prefab editor was completed successfully for all of my POI's - I have tried 3 separate playthroughs, each with a new save; I always encounter the same error at some point when getting Tier 2 quests from this player-placed instance of Trader Bob - Other RWG-placed trader Bobs as well as other traders in other towns on the map seem to work just fine Conclusion: There may be one or more Tier 2 POI's (either mine or the Funpimps) that I have placed in the world that are incomplete or have errors when Trader Bob tries to populate a list of quests. Perhaps in Darkness Falls, a non-Funpimps created POIs may be causing a similar issue. Though, this is just a guess. I would really like to hear more insight that you all may have. FYI here is a more complete excerpt of the Error from the logs; 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.609 ERR [XUi] Error while updating window group 'radial': 2023-02-03T11:02:58 529.613 EXC Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at QuestEventManager.CheckForPOILockouts (System.Int32 entityId, UnityEngine.Vector2 prefabPos) [0x00029] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at DynamicPrefabDecorator.ValidPrefabForQuest (EntityTrader trader, PrefabInstance prefab, QuestTags questTag, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] usedPOILocations, System.Int32 entityIDforQuests, BiomeFilterTypes biomeFilterType, System.String biomeFilter) [0x00051] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at DynamicPrefabDecorator.GetRandomPOINearTrader (EntityTrader trader, QuestTags questTag, System.Byte difficulty, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] usedPOILocations, System.Int32 entityIDforQuests, BiomeFilterTypes biomeFilterType, System.String biomeFilter) [0x00038] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at ObjectiveRandomPOIGoto.GetPosition (EntityNPC ownerNPC, EntityPlayer entityPlayer, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] usedPOILocations, System.Int32 entityIDforQuests) [0x00159] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at ObjectiveRandomPOIGoto.SetupPosition (EntityNPC ownerNPC, EntityPlayer player, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] usedPOILocations, System.Int32 entityIDforQuests) [0x00000] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at Quest.SetupPosition (EntityNPC ownerNPC, EntityPlayer player, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] usedPOILocations, System.Int32 entityIDforQuests) [0x00010] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at EntityTrader.PopulateActiveQuests (EntityPlayer player, System.Int32 currentTier) [0x0022f] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at EntityTrader.OnEntityActivated (System.Int32 _indexInBlockActivationCommands, Vector3i _tePos, EntityAlive _entityFocusing) [0x00069] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at XUiC_Radial.handleEntityCommand (XUiC_Radial _sender, System.Int32 _commandIndex, XUiC_Radial+RadialContextAbs _context) [0x0000b] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at XUiC_Radial.CallContextAction () [0x000b8] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at XUiC_Radial.Update (System.Single _dt) [0x0011f] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 at XUi.OnUpdateDeltaTime (System.Single updateDeltaTime) [0x00131] in <ffc99a688d2b435db53bb46aed82ca49>:0 UnityEngine.StackTraceUtility:ExtractStringFromException(Object) Log:Exception(Exception) XUi:OnUpdateDeltaTime(Single) XUiUpdater:Update() XUiUpdateHelper:LateUpdate()

FYI MapToolz fixed the issue! Thanks again!

Thanks, Paul! Played Far Cry 4, yes . . . modded, no.

I appreciate all the insight, as this is really out of my comfort zone! Good idea! @Tallman Brad Do you have any insight as to why editing & exporting a splat3 file would lead to all the topsoil looking like desert?! @paulj_3, do you happen to have a current link to download MapToolz? I can't seem to find one that works. This has almost nothing to do with the biomes.png, as it appears that the biomes are working correctly; This only happens when I try to export the splat3 file. Also, the only thing is that changing is the ground (the topsoil), as the trees, grass and bushes all remain the same for whatever biome I am in. I do believe that you are correct that this has something to do with the Alpha channel as that is about the only thing that is changed (apart from editing some roads, of course) Yep! I did that. I also preserved the original splat.3png so that I can revert back to it when I have to. Again, this is what the edited splat3 file looks like in-game: And this is what happens when I restore the original, unaltered splat3 file (with the Alpha channel intact): As you can see, the topsoil is restored, but also changes to the road are gone. I am quite sure this has to do with the Alpha channel, but I don't how to fix it. Again, thanks for the help! I am keen to get this map sorted out, because then 7 Days to Die can have an airport!

Thanks for the advice, @paulj_3 but unfortunately it didn't work; I still have desert ground covering the entire map. I deleted all layers except invisible prior to exporting, but I came up with the same results. Even exporting an unedited version of the original splat3 file yields the same results. Reinstating the original unaltered, unedited splat3.png HAS restored the ground correctly to the correct biomes, however. So I am forced to conclude that the problem lies somewhere in trying to export the splat3 file. Here are the steps that I am taking; 1. Open splat3.png in Gimp 2. Select spat3 layer 3. Select channels 4. Uncheck the Alpha layer (the eye) 5. Go back to layers 6. Select New Layer from Visible 7. Uncheck eye from original splat3 layer* *I have even tried deleting the splat3 layer entirely 8. Select File and Export As... 9. Select Load Defaults for export options 10. Export the splat3.png 11. Run the game, hoping for different results Attached is a screenshot of the export options

I am trying to edit a base-game (vanilla) generated map, and I need to add and remove some roads. Thanks to Tallman Brad's tutorials I was able to successfully edit and export the original splat3.png file. However, the problem is that the entire map is covered in desert ground. It appears that the games knows where the biomes are, based on the foliage (trees, bushes, etc.) and ambient sounds; It only seems to affect the ground. This happens in both the World Editor AND when I start a new game using the map. I would like to know what is causing this, and more importantly how to fix it. Thanks!

Admittedly, an airport like this would have made a better proof-of-concept than the monster that I have been making. Oh well! However, with your Grid idea, it would be more than possible to generate a smaller airport like this, or a larger one like I am making; After all, there are different sizes to the various towns that are generated in RWG.