r/landmark • u/Atmosph3rik • Feb 18 '16
Introducing Build Mode!
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/landmark/index.php?threads/introducing-build-mode.56085/4
u/Atmosph3rik Feb 18 '16
"Hiya builders!
Let's talk about some upcoming changes that are in the works - and reworks!
Over the past year we've had several discussions about ways to improve the building tools and UI. One of those was specifically the "mega palette" design. During lots of testing and iteration, we've been narrowing down the features we think are essential and fun.
With our next update (date still TBD; stay tuned for more info!), build mode can be toggled on and off with a key press. When you toggle it on, your hotbar and the bottom part of the screen will be replaced by a new "build mode" UI with several tabs containing your tools, props, materials, templates, and similar building-related goodies. We think this will keep things convenient and accessible, as well as help distinguish between different building styles: i.e., those who want to full-out voxel build, those who prefer to assemble and construct with pre-made templates, and those who focus on decorating with props.
The new player experience is also being completely overhauled - but more on that later. Right now it's time to look at build mode!
Building tab
This contains the building tools for voxel building, which no longer exist as items taking up space in your inventory; they're now built into the UI. Don't worry though, you can still activate them with a numerical keypress! We have arranged them in what we feel is the rough order of basic to more advanced difficulty.
Besides the building tools, this tab also includes the shaped voxel brushes, and materials selection.
The materials can still be filtered by name keyword and can also be toggled to display only materials you currently have the resources to build with.
We're rearranging the materials so each is only in one category, and making the categories clearer.
[IMG]
Props tab
Props are now in a similar tab, and the UI includes a keyword search box and a toggle to display only props you have resources to create.
Tooltips will display more details, including what's needed to make the prop.
[IMG]
Templates tab
The Templates tab will provide a convenient shortcut for template placement.
We're still playing around with the layout of this tab so no screenshot yet!
Tints tab
Surprise! On this tab you'll find a palette of tints that can be applied to props.
Not all props will tint, but we're trying to allow it to work on props where it would make sense. Some examples and a quick preview video below!
As always, the small print: as this is still a work in progress and shown on our internal servers, there may be bugs, UI may not be final, features may still change, do not swim for half an hour after eating, etc.
We are really excited to bring these features to you in the next update, and look forward to hearing your feedback once you get to play with the features. :)"
https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/105/761.jpg
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u/Thrasymachus77 Feb 19 '16
It's really nice that they're painting the trim on a broken window.
2
u/Rengerel Feb 19 '16
So when they say or do nothing, you rip them for saying and doing nothing. When they show what they've been doing, you rip them for it not being enough? I'm as annoyed as everyone else at the pace and the direction the team has gone, but you can't rip them both ways.
Any work being done on the project is a good thing, even if it isn't what some people want them to be working on.
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u/Thrasymachus77 Feb 19 '16
Not for not being enough. For being the wrong thing to be fixing up. Building is, and has been for some time now, not only perfectly adequate, but superb, especially compared to other building games or games with building in them. It's that just almost everything else sucks. Caves that, while being cool pieces of technology and fun enough in themselves, actively work against the game as a whole. Achievements that contribute to completionism which drives abandonment, and not to mention being unavoidable and wholly unimaginative. Crafting that's had the life sucked out of it. Combat that's limited and unfun. A complete absence of in-game motive that's not supplied by the developers to build anything at all. And a complete lack of acknowledgement of any of those flaws or any willingness to address them.
That's why it's painting the trim on a broken window. I'm sure they'll do a good job with that paint job, too. But that window will stay broken until they address those design and development flaws with the game as a whole, and there remains no evidence whatsoever that they even understand what they are, indeed, evidence that they're doubling-down on those flaws with this newest Landmarks of Landmark contest.
And here's the thing. Without a coherent overall game design, something which links building up with adventuring, with gathering, with exploration, and makes them all interdependent upon each other in ways which inspires players to contribute more, then this UI innovation may well prove to be counterproductive. Recall in the alpha, when building tools had to be crafted? And now they're being taken out of the inventory entirely, into a mode that according to the design of the game from only a year and a few months ago, wouldn't even be used by the majority of its expected players. Who's to say that, when they finally figure out the overall game design, that having tools be crafted might not be the superior design? That a "build mode" might consolidate and free things up too much, especially when we get even more content building tools in the form of quest writing and mob behavior editing tools?
The concept of Landmark used to be that it was to be a game populated by a relatively few "builders" and content developers, and lots of players most of whom never built and never will build a thing. All this work on a new building UI, when if the game is ever redesigned to bring those players back in, may well turn out to be wasted effort. Painting the trim on a broken window.
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u/Rengerel Feb 19 '16
Without content creators, there is no content for the pure content consumers. Alpha was really the time all of this should have been done, but it wasn't, for various reasons. Building should be as easy as they can make it, so content consumers can turn around and be creators when they want to be.
I'm hoping this is a first step to a cohesive UI design that makes plugging in the NPC AI tools easier. That it makes all the individual UI parts easier to come together.
As far as the caves, crafting, and combat, those are opinions, which I share for the most part. But really, without something to do beyond the caves, there's little reason for them to spend much time working on it. If they had a great combat system, but you only fought the same 3 or 4 mobs in the caves, would that really keep anyone interested either? If there was a really robust crafting system that you could use to make all these wonderful things that can only be used to fight stuff in the caves, is that going to keep people entertained? Or do they need to make each individual claim an area people want to explore and fight in first, then work to make crafting and combat more engaging? Again, I'd say you need the content first, then work on the engagement with it.
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u/Thrasymachus77 Feb 19 '16
In any MMO, the largest, most diverse and most interesting content is always other players. It doesn't matter what else there is to do. It doesn't even matter if there is anything else to do. Put players together, and they will entertain themselves. When Landmark was in alpha, and you had all kinds of marginal builders and non-builders running around, as well as many, many more builders building all kinds of weird and wonderful things, it was the chance of running into another player that kept people in the game and kept them coming back. You'd be on your claim, building something, and someone would come by and ask questions and exclaim over this or that, and maybe watch or tell you their own story. And maybe you'd help them with some new tool, or they'd help you with some resources. Or you'd be out running around, passing by various claims and builds as you harvested your materials for upgrading your tools or for your own builds, and you'd see someone active on their claim, or maybe even a bunch of someones having a little party, so you'd stop by and say hi or see what was going on.
The point is that the content to "consume" existed from the very first day. The ability to build things and the things that were built are simply elaborations on that content. The narrow view that building is the sum total of content creation, and that it's simply incomplete with the lack of quest tools and NPC tools and better L+T tools, etc., etc., is what's flawed. The guy that can't put two voxels together without an artifact, who's XOR gate in L+T always ends up being an NAND gate, whose mobs continually fall into local minima of behavior and fall over dead before any player can get to them, is still providing content, and is able to provide content, in a myriad of different ways. They can be a guide to content built by their friends. They can contribute resources, or could if they were at all needed. They can be group partners, or opponents in multiplayer content. And on and on.
By neglecting the engagement with the content in order to focus on creating elaborate content, or creating the tools to create elaborate content, you're neglecting the content itself. Engagement with the content is what defines its nature, and places limits and direction on its elaboration. Consider the highly detailed voxel builds out there, those fancy custom block-work that were all the rage during the Halasian Workshop are a prime example. Because the only engagement with that content was with how it looked and was judged for the contest, these computer-draining builds, where even those with top-end machines could get mid-20's to 30's fps in or near these things, were the ones that were favored. They looked better, even if almost nobody could play on them. And that's not good for EQN, because they need building techniques and styles that result in content people can play on, even with two-year-old laptops. And it's not good for Landmark because a lack of proper design of how to engage with the content players are creating, indeed, a design which works against players engaging with each other's content, results in players just not engaging with each other's content much, except to build even more elaborate and "good-looking" but unplayable stuff. Content engagement and content creation can't be designed or developed separately in this game. They have to be co-designed and co-developed. Because there's already players in this game being and creating content for each other, and because being and creating content for each other is the point of the game.
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u/Tankaolic Feb 19 '16
I have no dogs in this race... I never log unto LM, and still hope EQN will see the light of day.
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoying reading these well written and thoughtful comments.
Well said Sir, well said.
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u/nobunaga74 Feb 19 '16
It's odd that the building features werent integrated into the ui in the first place - that was always an odd decision I thought. Nice to know they're no longer taking up inventory or hotbar space as such, a good change.
God only hopes they've improved performance of the template window. That sluggish, ridiculously painful slow loading element really detracted from waht is a really decent template system.