University Campus

[Deverezieaux]

Per @stallionsden 's suggestion I will be making a large university campus POI. It will have a full dungeon path and other features like all my POIs. I used the measurements of the stadium POI as a basis, and the working area here is about 165 by 130 blocks. Question; is a POI this large going to cause problems? Should I decrease the working area to make it function better? I like to try and keep them as functional as vanilla POIs. I'm there are larger POIs, but I'm not sure if the have issues due to size.

 

Some additional detail: it will have three main buildings, including a more traditional university building with a clock tower, science/technical building and humanities building. There will be a quad out front, parking areas, and a play field (maybe two) in the back area. The buildings will only be 2 to 3 stories each, and they will all have dungeon paths connecting them.

 

[Gouki]

3 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Per @stallionsden 's suggestion I will be making a large university campus POI. It will have a full dungeon path and other features like all my POIs. I used the measurements of the stadium POI as a basis, and the working area here is about 165 by 130 blocks. Question; is a POI this large going to cause problems? Should I decrease the working area to make it function better? I like to try and keep them as functional as vanilla POIs. I'm there are larger POIs, but I'm not sure if the have issues due to size.

 

Some additional detail: it will have three main buildings, including a more traditional university building with a clock tower, science/technical building and humanities building. There will be a quad out front, parking areas, and a play field (maybe two) in the back area. The buildings will only be 2 to 3 stories each, and they will all have dungeon paths connecting them.

 

 

Hi Deverezieaux

First of all thanks for all the new prefabs that you have shared, I already have them in my new map and they are great.
Regarding if a large POI causes performance problems, in my case if (only if several are generated), I currently have the Big Hotel in Stallionsden (3 were generated) and I have noticed that the performance drops a lot, at least for me, my pc is not last generation but it knows how to defend itself with other prefabs, I also just installed the Woodbury Jail and it is also very big, I have not seen it on my map yet to know how much performance drops, but whatever you do this prefab , it will look great.
Regards

[Deverezieaux]

Hopefully by keeping the university buildings somewhat simple I can keep performance from dropping too much. It's a delicate balance.

 

I'm glad to hear someone is using my prefabs already. I'm hopeful they'll be in the next CP. As you're playing them let me know if they need any fixes or if you notice any problems.

[Deverezieaux]

Just a brief progress update. It's going slow as I'm having trouble laying out some of the buildings. Dropping some pics as I always appreciate the encouragement and ideas I get here.

 

 

 

 

 

[stallionsden]

On 4/27/2021 at 6:16 AM, Deverezieaux said:

Hopefully by keeping the university buildings somewhat simple I can keep performance from dropping too much. It's a delicate balance.

 

I'm glad to hear someone is using my prefabs already. I'm hopeful they'll be in the next CP. As you're playing them let me know if they need any fixes or if you notice any problems.

They will be in the next cp 🙂

5 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Just a brief progress update. It's going slow as I'm having trouble laying out some of the buildings. Dropping some pics as I always appreciate the encouragement and ideas I get here.

 

 

 

 

 

Looks great. Re: the library have some empty and grab some book piles and place on ground here and there.  Mix the good random book cases with poor as well. Just don't use the random book piles at this stage as it isn't hooked up as yet.

 

If you need to go bigger,  go bigger dont be afraid to utilise the size a poi can be. My hotel is big over 300 blocks it requires a non rwg map gen to spawn in also. But rwg handles some big pois just keep it within chunk sizes and don't have to go that big either.  You could probably double the size and it still be within. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by stallionsden (see edit history)

[Deverezieaux]

Need some advice, or a reference to something to sample. I'm trying to build a large, realistic dome on top of the science building for an observatory. I don't think the correct blocks exist in game to do this without making it look blocky and unconvincing. This is as far as I've gotten. It seems like there aren't enough wedge corner block types in game to make this look right. Does anyone have advice or know of a POI that has an existing dome shape I could "borrow" and rework for this purpose?

 

.

[Gouki]

7 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Need some advice, or a reference to something to sample. I'm trying to build a large, realistic dome on top of the science building for an observatory. I don't think the correct blocks exist in game to do this without making it look blocky and unconvincing. This is as far as I've gotten. It seems like there aren't enough wedge corner block types in game to make this look right. Does anyone have advice or know of a POI that has an existing dome shape I could "borrow" and rework for this purpose?

 

.

 

Hi Deverexieaux

 

There is a prefab in the CompoPack called Dregora_ObservatoryBig, maybe it will be useful for you.
Regards

 

 

[stallionsden]

7 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Need some advice, or a reference to something to sample. I'm trying to build a large, realistic dome on top of the science building for an observatory. I don't think the correct blocks exist in game to do this without making it look blocky and unconvincing. This is as far as I've gotten. It seems like there aren't enough wedge corner block types in game to make this look right. Does anyone have advice or know of a POI that has an existing dome shape I could "borrow" and rework for this purpose?

 

.

Also if you load up the McDonald's by wseigal in the compopack. Look at the big M sign and click your middle mouse button to copy the block and see if that what you are after.

 

But yes as gouki mentioned the observatory poi has a dome top be great for your purpose.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by stallionsden (see edit history)

[Deverezieaux]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I think it turned out pretty well.

 

 

[stallionsden]

7 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I think it turned out pretty well.

 

 

Very much so, awesome work and design. 

[Deverezieaux]

This POI is turning out to be a real chore. I need some ideas for different rooms in the arts building. I have a theatre with dressing rooms, a painting classroom, sculpture classroom, some basic classrooms with desks, but need a few more unique rooms. Ideas are welcome.

 

 

 

[stallionsden]

1 hour ago, Deverezieaux said:

This POI is turning out to be a real chore. I need some ideas for different rooms in the arts building. I have a theatre with dressing rooms, a painting classroom, sculpture classroom, some basic classrooms with desks, but need a few more unique rooms. Ideas are welcome.

 

 

 

A storeroom for art supplies.

 

A films room. Film is part of the arts.

 

What I can think of

[stallionsden]

a mold room - clay and timber

a room to show case attendees works. Like they held a open day there as the apocalypse occurred. 

rehearsal spaces

 dressing rooms

 a scenic shop

 control rooms

outdoor amphitheater

[Deverezieaux]

Hi all, here is the base University Campus POI. This is not finished. Before I dungeonize it and add sleepers, quest items, etc. I'd appreciate if folks to take a look around and see if I've missed any details. I'll be adding more decor like garbage, bodies, etc. when I dungeonize it but I want to make certain the base POI is good, it's been a lot of work just to get this far. Thanks in advance.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/115nTXaAnLxPMX9hxyMfGBPJAnfJ_2Isv/view?usp=sharing

[stallionsden]

1 hour ago, Deverezieaux said:

Hi all, here is the base University Campus POI. This is not finished. Before I dungeonize it and add sleepers, quest items, etc. I'd appreciate if folks to take a look around and see if I've missed any details. I'll be adding more decor like garbage, bodies, etc. when I dungeonize it but I want to make certain the base POI is good, it's been a lot of work just to get this far. Thanks in advance.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/115nTXaAnLxPMX9hxyMfGBPJAnfJ_2Isv/view?usp=sharing

Will take a look shortly at it for you and let you know.

[stallionsden]

one suggestion as i was walking thru it probably needs a fence around it. But going thru it it looks good nothing much to add. clutter around the ground like trash dropped bags but sure you will add that anyways so no need to say.  the rooms are good sizes. and plenty of activities for the player to once he/she has killed the zs... 
 

[Deverezieaux]

I actually started building a wall around it early on to funnel the player into the campus, but felt that there would be so many openings for driveways, walkways, and the ball field that I didn't think it would have much of an effect. I think as long as I fortify the buildings appropriately and signpost the dungeon path well enough I should be able to keep players on track.

[stallionsden]

15 minutes ago, Deverezieaux said:

I actually started building a wall around it early on to funnel the player into the campus, but felt that there would be so many openings for driveways, walkways, and the ball field that I didn't think it would have much of an effect. I think as long as I fortify the buildings appropriately and signpost the dungeon path well enough I should be able to keep players on track.

Yeh definitely look forward to it as with the community. 

[zztong]

I do like the observatory. It looks great.

 

I've thought some about how best to make a University as a project, and concluded that my preference would be to make each building and things like pedestrian greens their own POIs and then hope that some RWG tool would allow a group of POIs to be defined. I'm thinking of like Nitrogen where a "farm" designation on a POI gets it selected for "farm" placement, typically four farm POIs together.

 

When I tried to conceive of one as a single POI, I kept ending up with something more like a small community college. Of course, my perspective could be off. I work at a University that has over 100 buildings on the main campus.

[stallionsden]

1 hour ago, zztong said:

I do like the observatory. It looks great.

 

I've thought some about how best to make a University as a project, and concluded that my preference would be to make each building and things like pedestrian greens their own POIs and then hope that some RWG tool would allow a group of POIs to be defined. I'm thinking of like Nitrogen where a "farm" designation on a POI gets it selected for "farm" placement, typically four farm POIs together.

 

When I tried to conceive of one as a single POI, I kept ending up with something more like a small community college. Of course, my perspective could be off. I work at a University that has over 100 buildings on the main campus.

In nitrogen it allows you to make settlements. A cluster of pois together. Tho there either gravel or asphalt roads inbetween. Could be good for your thoughts. 

[Deverezieaux]

Hi @zztong, I also work for a University system with campuses throughout NYC, and some campuses are older and relatively compact, consisting of just a few buildings, whereas others are quite large. I've also gone to school & worked at universities with sprawling suburban campuses with dozens of buildings like you describe. You could go a lot of different ways with this concept. For a continuous "Dungeon" style POI that could be used for quests a smaller campus just made sense for me. That's not to say it's a small POI, compared to many dungeon style POIs in 7 Days, it's pretty big. That's why it's taking me so long.

[zztong]

22 hours ago, Deverezieaux said:

Hi @zztong, I also work for a University system with campuses throughout NYC, and some campuses are older and relatively compact, consisting of just a few buildings, whereas others are quite large. I've also gone to school & worked at universities with sprawling suburban campuses with dozens of buildings like you describe. You could go a lot of different ways with this concept. For a continuous "Dungeon" style POI that could be used for quests a smaller campus just made sense for me. That's not to say it's a small POI, compared to many dungeon style POIs in 7 Days, it's pretty big. That's why it's taking me so long.

You're certainly correct that there are some small campuses with a few buildings. The university for which I work has branch campuses that are as small as 1, 2, and 4 buildings. I didn't mean to suggest what you propose isn't realistic, just that I didn't see it as a way to implement what I had envisioned. Quite frankly, what I had envisioned really doesn't fit the game's "scale" and the campus I work at is bigger than most 7D2D cities. Your goal/vision is a better fit.

Edited June 15, 2021 by zztong (see edit history)

[Deverezieaux]

Hi gang, I am almost done with this POI. Quick question; can someone confirm there is no empty wooden bookshelf block? Not the black shelves used in stores, I know there's an empty version of those. I'm using the random helper bookshelves, but there are so many it will be an incredibly valuable POI for books. I wanted to fill out some of the shelves with definitely empty ones to cut down on the number of books the player could get.

 

That said, the library is near the end of the dungeon path, and it is already an extremely hard POI, I would make it a tier 7 if I could. I'm thinking I could just make the library fight very hard to make sure the player earns all the bookshelves they'll get access to.

[stallionsden]

50 minutes ago, Deverezieaux said:

Hi gang, I am almost done with this POI. Quick question; can someone confirm there is no empty wooden bookshelf block? Not the black shelves used in stores, I know there's an empty version of those. I'm using the random helper bookshelves, but there are so many it will be an incredibly valuable POI for books. I wanted to fill out some of the shelves with definitely empty ones to cut down on the number of books the player could get.

 

That said, the library is near the end of the dungeon path, and it is already an extremely hard POI, I would make it a tier 7 if I could. I'm thinking I could just make the library fight very hard to make sure the player earns all the bookshelves they'll get access to.

There is you must have dev blocks on for it to be shown.

 

Other ways is use a half block and paint the book texture on it as well. 

[Deverezieaux]

That was a slog, but here it is, the complete, dungeon pathed and sleeper volumed University Campus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/115nTXaAnLxPMX9hxyMfGBPJAnfJ_2Isv/view?usp=sharing

 

I'm going to do more playtesting, but it's a solid prefab and I think feedback from players can help identify any tweaks.

 

A few notes:

• It's tough and long, I used stacks of ammo playtesting. The fights toward the end are large and challenging. It's probably faster for me since I know the path already and what to expect.
• It has great loot, particularly books, even though I did cut out a lot of bookshelves.
• I've tried to make the entry point as obvious as possible, and the path clear. There are a few spots where you'll need to double back, and a couple of alternate paths. For clear quests it will require some poking around to make sure you've got everyone. This is by design.
• The open areas including the ball field and parking lot are not part of the dungeon path but do need to be cleared. I've tested and they will be marked if missed in a clear quest.

There's more, but I'll let folks play and figure it out. Have fun.