[Prefabs] ZZTong's Custom POIs

[zztong]

6 minutes ago, kydyr said:

Thanks for the info. I tried using your ZZTong-Prefabs using KingGen and none of them are showing up on maps I make. Just letting you know. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I been adding prefabs to the prefab folder and those work. Just can't get yours to show up on the maps I create.

 

KingGen only really works with A19 for making a complete map unless you're prepared to really dig into it. There are some people who are into really-involved map crafting that still use KingGen for things like heightmaps. If you're going deep on KingGen, trying to make it work with A20, then you're going to have to make your own configuration files for KingGen to find my POIs. Then, you'll still have issues as KingGen doesn't know about Tiles and Parts, which were new features with A20. I don't recommend KingGen for A20 users, but it should work great if you're playing A19 and grab an A19 version of my modlet, which is available in the archives on Nexus.

 

Right now, with A20, your only "painless" map generator is A20's RWG.

Edited February 14, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[zztong]

 

15 minutes ago, zztong said:

I been adding prefabs to the prefab folder and those work.

 

I just noticed this part of your message. I don't suggest messing with the game's Prefab folder, at least not with my modlet. My modlet includes XML changes to make new Tiles available, add biome decorations, and add custom blocks. If you only copy POI files into the prefab folder you won't get all of the content.

 

For my modlet, your choices are:

• Install the modlet in your Mods folder.
• Get to know the modlet really, really well and break it apart for integration into your own project.

I recognize that many other POI designers just give you raw POI files and that the path of least resistance seems like putting them in your game's Prefabs folder. The best place for those is actually your "LocalPrefabs" folder.

 

If you need assistance in finding those folders, let me know.

[kydyr]

On 2/14/2023 at 10:09 AM, zztong said:

 

 

I just noticed this part of your message. I don't suggest messing with the game's Prefab folder, at least not with my modlet. My modlet includes XML changes to make new Tiles available, add biome decorations, and add custom blocks. If you only copy POI files into the prefab folder you won't get all of the content.

 

For my modlet, your choices are:

• Install the modlet in your Mods folder.
• Get to know the modlet really, really well and break it apart for integration into your own project.

I recognize that many other POI designers just give you raw POI files and that the path of least resistance seems like putting them in your game's Prefabs folder. The best place for those is actually your "LocalPrefabs" folder.

 

If you need assistance in finding those folders, let me know.

Found your read me file inside your prefab download. Tells me everything I need to know, as in not going to work with KingGen.

[zztong]

There's an incompatibility between this modlet and Undead Legacy.

 

I have a custom block that includes a reference to the Vanilla lootgroup "dyes." Undead Legacy seems to be removing that lootgroup. This will result in the game failing to parse my modlet's loot.xml file.

 

EXC lootgroup 'dyes' does not exist or has not been defined before being referenced by lootcontainer/lootgroup name='zztongBookcaseNoBooks'

 

If you want to use this modlet with UL and you're getting this exception, you have to edit Config/loot.xml in this modlet and remove the following line from the "zztongBookcaseNoBooks" custom block:

 

<item group="dyes" prob="0.1" count="1"/>

 

The heart of this incompatibility is a difference in goals between UL and this modlet. This modlet is trying to be Vanilla compatible and UL, being an overhaul, desires to deviate from Vanilla.

[zztong]

Related to Undead Legacy, iV7Z has made a compatibility modlet that applies the patch discussed above. It appears to contain some XSLT originally written by @bdubyah and posted on Discord. You can find iV7Z's compatibility modlet here:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/7daystodie/mods/2765?tab=posts&BH=0

[zztong]

Release A20.7-ZZ014 is now available.

• 6 New Tiles.
• 17 New POIs.
• 2 New Decorations.
• Tons of bug fixes.

[zztong]

Signaling future plans for those working "downstream" of this modlet:

• A20.7-ZZ014 is the last A20 release, barring some unforeseen bug that requires immediate attention.
• The 8 "Destroyed" POIs will be removed from this modlet starting with A21 releases.
  • The CompoPack will likely retain, maintain, and distribute those "Destroyed" POIs.
• The current custom Gateway Tile and supporting assets will be reimagined in A21 depending on whatever A21's Gateway Tile support is.
  • The A20 version of my Gateway was a kludge. I want to do things properly if the option presents itself.
• Parts will continue to be used because they're just too cool not to.
• I've become fond of custom blocks (XML variety) and now placeholder blocks. Expect them to be embraced more fully.
• I want very much to use custom 3D assets. Look for more experimentation with, and perhaps adoption of, those in A21.
  • I'm aware this can make those working on "downstream" applications of this modlet nervous.
  • I agree, it may be "too early" to go there until the game (hopefully) includes stronger modlet/Steam Workshop integration.

As always, I value your feedback. You do influence the future directions of this modlet.

Edited April 15, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[wanderinpaladin]

I gotta say great work. I'm playing Rebirth with your pois in it. I just ran across "base ruin 01" immediately loaded the world to find the name. It was a blast stumbling across this poi. What tier is it if you remember.

[zztong]

7 hours ago, wanderinpaladin said:

I gotta say great work. I'm playing Rebirth with your pois in it. I just ran across "base ruin 01" immediately loaded the world to find the name. It was a blast stumbling across this poi. What tier is it if you remember.

 

That's Tier 4. Players of Rebirth like that POI because it has some rare things that Rebirth lets you recover.

 

Trivia: That POI is inspired by the A19 "Community Center" (shared base) found on the "Not-a-Gamer Gaming" server at the time.

[wanderinpaladin]

As my brother and I were running around it I was saying "this has to be a tier 4 at least" 

[swmeek]

Can't wait to see what you come up with for A21 ! 

[zztong]

4 hours ago, swmeek said:

Can't wait to see what you come up with for A21 ! 

 

The first cut is just conversion:

• BlockConvert Tool - Done
• ModInfo Update - Done
• Tile Rotation Change - Done
• Revise Parts - Done
• Revise Decorations - Done
• Revise Tiles - Done
• Revise POIs - In Progress: 10/148

Opportunities seen so far:

• More variety for Country (Gateway) Tiles
• Open to Suggestions

[zztong]

All POIs have been updated to A21. Testing of the modlet is in progress and I'm considering a little bit of new content depending on what worlds look like. I suspect more Country Tiles are needed for RWG. I feel like I'm on track to release something maybe over the July 4th weekend.

Todos los puntos de interés se han actualizado a A21. La prueba del modlet está en progreso y estoy considerando un poco de contenido nuevo dependiendo de cómo se vean los mundos. Sospecho que se necesitan más Country Tiles para RWG. Siento que estoy en camino de lanzar algo tal vez durante el fin de semana del 4 de julio.

Traducido por Google

[zztong]

Release A21.0-ZZ015 is now available.

• Converted to A21
• 3 New Gateway Tiles.
• All POIs updated to use new blocks.
• Some POI improvements.

Note: Starting with this release, there's a dependency on the "Custom Blocks Pack" modlet which comes bundled with this modlet. You have to install both.

 

Note 2: The Teragon properties file has been updated, but please keep in mind Teragon does not yet have support for A21, so if you're planning to use Teragon's A20 version you need to know what you're doing and be willing to look under the hood at your maps.

Edited June 30, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[Sullen Skulls]

I am finding that when using this, RWG tends to leave a few empty squares/blocks in city generation in the middle of bigger cities/towns.  Not sure if this is due to it trying to place an object/POI that it can't find, or if it's to do with any changes to wrappers, or something else.

It does seem to be that all of the generated towns/cities are a little bigger than vanilla RWG creates, so again, not sure if this is just leaving gaps in order to make a bigger city, or.....  Let's be honest, I don't know enough to know what could be causing it.

I was wondering if anybody else has noticed this, and if there's a solution/fix, or if it's just a quirk of the game/mod.

[zztong]

23 hours ago, Sullen Skulls said:

I am finding that when using this, RWG tends to leave a few empty squares/blocks in city generation in the middle of bigger cities/towns.  Not sure if this is due to it trying to place an object/POI that it can't find, or if it's to do with any changes to wrappers, or something else.

 

I observed RWG doing this without my modlet, but perhaps it becomes more obvious with my modlet. I know others have seen this.

 

My hypothesis is that RWG sets out to build a city using a certain number of Tiles, say 20. Then it starts laying it out and when it gets to 20 it hasn't managed to fill in all of the Tiles it expect to, so they go unfilled. After that, it wraps the city with a district of something like rural Tiles.

 

You may find that Country Towns are larger with my modlet because I add some configuration to wrap them with a Rural district. It could be that the "wrapping" is responsible for this, in which case you'd see it happen with Country Towns using this modlet, but not see that in RWG because the default configuration doesn't wrap a district around a Country Town.

 

You shouldn't find Towns and Cities are larger because the only thing I change there is which district wraps them. I make it so that a Town can be wrapped by either rural or residential, and make it such that Cities are wrapped by residential instead of rural.

Edited July 6, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[Sullen Skulls]

Yeah.  As I said, it could easily have been just a quirk of the changes this mod makes or a possible missing file/POI, I couldn't tell. 

 

From what I have seen from just a few test runs and dev mode fly-throughs, I am really liking the natural/simple vibe that a lot of these POIs seem to fit, so overall loving the mod so far.  I also like the fact that this re-introduces quite a few non-pathed POIs again, certainly feels more natural to my playstyle.  Don't get me wrong, TFPs POIs are often amazingly well designed, but having lots of buildings to just run into and loot naturally feels more normal/realistic, which I like.  So, I'm looking forward to working through some of your larger designs on a proper playthrough.

 

Keep up the great work, and thanks for the response.

[zztong]

6 hours ago, Sullen Skulls said:

I also like the fact that this re-introduces quite a few non-pathed POIs again, certainly feels more natural to my playstyle.  Don't get me wrong, TFPs POIs are often amazingly well designed, but having lots of buildings to just run into and loot naturally feels more normal/realistic, which I like.

 

I'm glad to hear it and thank you. I too admire TFP's quality POIs.

 

I'm not a player that clings to dungeon paths, so they've not been a priority for me. Given that I throw my "hobby" time at the modlet, and that my main goal is addressing variety across the world, my preference is to use the time to make another POI or Tile.

[Sullen Skulls]

Having now started a proper playthrough, I want to add a huge amount of Kudos to the amount of tiny little wilderness deco's that this mod adds.

 

I just had a cool little story-telling moment that you just can't get in vanilla.  This mod, combined with Improved Hordes.  I was heading out into the forest for a buried treasure quest, having just got my bicycle as quest reward.  I come across a bear and 2 wolves sprinting across the map at 2 zombies.  @%$# myself (obviously), turn around and ride far enough away to calm down a bit.  So, I then circle around slowly and try to head back towards buried treasure, and come across a well/pit with spikes and an animal carcass at the bottom, and about 30m away is a 2x2 stack of wooden blocks with a campfire, sleeping bag and storage chest on top, and a corpse leaned up against it.  I also see on the ground a zombie corpse (presumably killed by one of the animals from before), before hearing the bear's roar off in the distance behind me.  I jump on the bike and sprint away without even looking, feeling both horrified and impressed by the narrative of this whole situation that my brain instantly formed from just these few tiny little additions.

 

Fantastic.

[zztong]

If you're ever in the desert and come across a large concrete arrow, or a tall black monolith, those decorations are based on real things that have been found out in AZ deserts. They should be really rare. Other than testing, I've only seen the monolith once.

[Riamus]

On 7/7/2023 at 7:48 AM, zztong said:

If you're ever in the desert and come across a large concrete arrow, or a tall black monolith, those decorations are based on real things that have been found out in AZ deserts. They should be really rare. Other than testing, I've only seen the monolith once.

Heh.  I just assumed the monolith had something to do with 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I haven't seen the arrow.  Personally, that monolith is the one thing I don't really care for.  Maybe it is realistic to something found in Arizona but it just looks out of place to me.  But I definitely love the rest of the decorations.  They really help to make the wilderness feel like people had been there before.

[zztong]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

Heh.  I just assumed the monolith had something to do with 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I haven't seen the arrow.  Personally, that monolith is the one thing I don't really care for.  Maybe it is realistic to something found in Arizona but it just looks out of place to me.  But I definitely love the rest of the decorations.  They really help to make the wilderness feel like people had been there before.

 

The dimensions and appearance that I used more closely resembles the Arthur C. Clarke 2001+ monoliths. I'm not sure the dimensions of the monoliths found in California, Utah, and Romania were the same.

 

The concrete stuff had to do with early aviation and flight paths over the desert.

[MrSamuelAdams]

I forget, does this mod work with just placing the file into the mods folder? Or does it have to be placed into the appdata and/or another location as well. 

 

Can't wait to try it in a21! Thank you! 

[zztong]

8 hours ago, MrSamuelAdams said:

I forget, does this mod work with just placing the file into the mods folder? Or does it have to be placed into the appdata and/or another location as well. 

 

Can't wait to try it in a21! Thank you! 

 

Yes, as a modlet, it is designed to go into the Mods folder, wherever you've arranged for that to be located.

 

For most people the Mods folder is something like %AppData%\7DaysToDie\Mods -- the default location on Windows. It used to be a folder people created with the Game's files, but that practice changed with later A20 updates. If you start getting into overhaul mods, or multiple game installs, ModLauncher, running a server or even just a deep interest in giving the game runtime options, then I lose the ability to predict where that Mods folder is located because you have infinite configuration options.

 

I hope you enjoy it.

[MrSamuelAdams]

Definitely. 

Thank you. 

Yeah all my modlet are in the mods folder. 

Only reason I asked because I remember awhile back things like combopack had to be installed in several locations like the prefab folder etc. 

 

I know as of recently most mods are okay with functioning in the mods folder. 

 

I hate using the mod launcher personally. 

 

But, thank you so much! Can't wait to try it later! 😊😊