The Decorator's Resource (Guides and Links)

Discussion in 'Norrathian Homeshow' started by Afista, Nov 11, 2012.

  1. suka Well-Known Member

    btw, have you noticed that when you make a 'flavor npc" - the mob that doesn't aggro in the dungeon maker, you can't put any flavor text on them that works? it only works if they aggro and these don't so none of the flavor text works. another subject, but still, i sent in several bug reports on it.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  2. Rotherian Well-Known Member


    There are items that work in houses that give pop up messages. The signs that can be purchased from the vendors during the City Festivals have this effect (which is known as Magic Mouth). An example of one of these signs is the Freeport Sign from the Freeport City Festival (not to be confused with the player-craftable item with the same name).
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  3. suka Well-Known Member

    ahh- thanks- i didn't know that so i will have to grab the signs at the next festival.
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  4. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    I think they've got some sort at each Festival, but I can't remember if it's only Freeport and Qeynos that do the "talking" ones. :-/

    Uwk
  5. Jazabelle Well-Known Member

    The Gorowyn sign (the next city fest to come up) does indeed have a Magic Mouth component. "This sign is enchanted with a Magic Mouth spell, which calls out a message to anyone who approaches."
    suka and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  6. Afista Well-Known Member

  7. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    In case folks are wondering why I keep harping on this (usually every time I meet someone on the forums or in chat channels who insists, "Oh, these houses are so wonderful, but I can't do this because I can't use the Layout Editor! Oh oh oh!"), it's not because I hate JesDyr or his program (which I might actually be able to use now with my Uber-System, but the U-S doesn't like to have any other program and EQ2 up at the same time without screwing up my mouse...it freaks out enough with Notepad), but because it drives me crazy that people think so little of their abilities that they don't look for alternatives for Do It Yourself-ing. The new in-game Decorator Mode helps, but for me, there's a lot of things I don't like about it (the whole airplane-simulator oversensitive controls are a biggie)...it's like using Wikipedia for an important paper to write: good place to start, but unless you know exactly what you're looking for, it's not the place to finish. I have yet to make an "important" move in the in-game mode without backing it up going into Notepad and getting the exact numbers I need.

    The Notepad method does include the same numbers as the Layout Editor; the main difference is the unique ID numbers for items are on the left in Notepad rather than the right. Other than that, and the inability to do really cool things all at once, I'll admit (Domes, perfect Circles and Spiral Staircases, etc.), you can do virtually anything in Notepad you can do in the Layout Editor, and the learning curve is, IMHO, less steep. It's a good stepping stone, if you're wanting to use the Layout Editor but something's scaring you off it for now (if it's math anxiety ["Scary numbers! Scary numbers! Ahhhhhh!"], you WILL learn math this way, or at least, a little geometry ;->). Once you get the Notepad method, the Layout Editor will probably be easier for you. :)

    Uwk
    who's asking for the Notepad Editing Method link to be stickied, or mentioned up in the front page here
  8. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    Not sure what the rest of that post is all about but .. Send a message to Radarx and ask him to add the link to the OP of this thread under layout editing. The thread itself should not be stickied.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  9. Cyliena Well-Known Member

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  10. Kamoj Well-Known Member

  11. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    One thing that I and others have suggested over the eons: could we get a link up above in the first post to a really good tutorial/suggestion on how to do screenshots? Goodness knows it took me forever to learn how to do it; while it's easy in retrospect, it's not terribly intuitive. :-/

    Uwk
  12. Kamoj Well-Known Member

    Roof helper!!!! I found a right angle calculator - tinyurl.com/roofhelp

    I used this to make a roof using tall dividers, so...

    1.) I put the dividers scale into 'side c'
    2.) I put the amount that my divider was rolled (pitch would work too) into 'Angle A or B'
    3.) Changed the 'Decimal Places' drop down to 'Maximum' and hit calculate.
    4.) Then I took the numbers they provided, and moved my next divider 2x that amount - 'side b' is the horizontal amount and 'side a' is the vertical movement.

    I used this and got a seamless roof! Hope it helps someone else!
  13. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    The layout editor has a function to do this .. it is called "Build Row" (sometimes Build From). Its job is to seamlessly place items next to each the original item. Originally I made it to make seamless walls out of tiles that due to texture reasons you needed to use Pitch to stand them up. I touch of this in one of my tiling tutorials on Youtube.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  14. Kamoj Well-Known Member

    Heh, i've never sat down and tried to figure that tool out - well, maybe this will be helpful for some!
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  15. Layla Littlenymph Member

    It's kind of a pain that you can't really preview a market item in this game, so thanks for the link(s) to actual pictures of SC furnishings and items. It's nice to be able to see something before you buy it; Even if it is something you are buying with in-game currency.

    Any chance I could get the same for the actual houses? I would like to get an idea of what they looked like BEFORE they were decorated.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Well, you can Tour them, be they regular or Prestige (go to either southern Freeport or southern Qeynos, depending; look for a weird li'l pedestal item that looks like a flying sailing ship), but Lera also has a tab for them in EQ2Furniture.com, if memory serves. ;)

    Uwk
  17. Layla Littlenymph Member

    Thanks for the tip, Uwkete.

    That sounds like a rather convoluted way to preview an item, especially if it is an item I am paying sc for. It is not something a novice player would ever think to do. It truly amazes me what little effort SOE makes to promote it's virtual products, after spending so much time, effort, and expense in designing them. I owned one of every lot in Free Realms, and with the exception of TCG lots, was able to preview them easily before buying. I complained at one time that the building aspect of Free Realms was not very user friendly, but it was a piece of cake compared to what I have run into in EQ.

    I will go ahead and check EQ2Furniture.com, to see if I can view them in one stop.
    After losing my investment of sc spent while playing FR, I am a little reserved when it comes to investing here. Granted, EQ2 has a proven track record as compared to FR, but I'm not sure how the introduction of EQN, and EQNL will effect that. Considering they are "sun-setting" four games in order to push the EQ franchise, it makes me wonder about the continuation of older aspects of the EQ franchise; Older aspects such as EQ, and EQ2. I may just wait and see before investing again. I lost quite a bit of investment in FR, and was offered zero compensation for my lifetime membership, and four years of daily play there. I would hate to make the same mistake twice.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  18. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    I wouldn't worry too much about that, but I can understand your reluctance; none of the EQ games have ever been known for being over-intuitive. :-/ But EQN Landmark is "just" a building game, rather like Minecraft, up to and including, apparently, added monsters at some point (it's in Alpha now). I really don't want them to do that, or if they do, to make two versions like Minecraft has, or two play modes: one With Monsters, for those that like having to fight off things trying to rip their buildings down or when they're out trying to harvest, and one Without, so we can actually not be bothered while we're trying to get something accomplished. Seriously; in EQ2, I can get a prestige place and make something from scratch like in Landmark, or just decorate a place in one of the cities, and not have to worry about being bitten in the bum every time I turn around to hang a lamp. >:-/

    Plus, just about everyone I read in these forums is going on and on and ON about how much they detest the art they've seen so far, how much it sucks and they're never going to play either version of EQ3 (I will call it that until they slap a restraining order on me: this game exists, I like it, and I'd appreciate it if the Powers remember its existence), just because. I don't have any issues with the art; what bothers me about EQ3 The Real Game is its mechanics, since they're going to "try something NEW!!!! Won't that be lovely? Hmm?" (read that out loud in Marvin the Martian's voice for a smile ;->) Frankly, from what I've been hearing, there are no levels, no progression, no nothing, and you have to interact with every single plant, animal, sentient, etc. to see if it'll be your friend or bite you in the bum while you're lamp hanging or offer you a quest, and I keep wondering who has the time or patience (depends whether you're an adult or kid, I guess) for all of this. Not to mention, it seems like ALL possible monsters/bum biters/etc. will be like the Shadow critters for the Channeler quest: you can't tell who or what's going to be an opponent until it's too late for you to shoot first or sneaky backstab. Bye-bye, Scouts (and Mages going solo: "No more Root 'n' Rot for you!"). And since everyone can get a different result, and everyone can mess up any map by altering the landscape, then those lovely, helpful 3rd party help sources, like Allakhazam and Wikipedia and, oh, I dunno, GUIDE BOOKS that SOE could license and bring in more revenue that way, will probably be useless. :-/

    So, I don't think this game is going away any time soon (if Landmark is any indication, not many folks with anything under than a Cray computer capability will have a chance to play it [though they may lower the specs for Landmark once they have things "set in stone"]), though they did make noises that there'll be house-owning, decorating, etc. in EQ3...on the other hand, there'll also be an expansion of PVP, possibly (feh; keep that to the servers of them's as like that!). Houses in the hinterlands and PVPers who can affect the landscape...what could possibly go wrong? :-/

    Uwk
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  19. Afista Well-Known Member

    Hey Layla! It's nice to see you giving EQ2 a chance :)

    I'm a little confused on the first statement. The EQ2 marketplace has two tabs when you have a SC item selected. The first (default) tab shows the item information, but if you click the second "Preview" tab, you are able to see the item in a dressing room before you make a purchase.

    [IMG]

    As for previewing SC houses, as Uwke stated you'd have to go to the Prestige Housing Portal in the actual world to click "tour" to view an empty floorplan in order to view it before purchasing. There was an option introduced to "tour" a SC house directly from the Marketplace when the SC Housing Layouts were in testing, but that system has been put on hold for now, so no telling when/if it will still be implemented. It is, however, an easier way to view a Prestige home without hoofing it to the portal entrance. There are both Default prestige home images as well as decorated home examples HERE though.

    I'm sorry about FR, but I do hope you will enjoy spending time in EQ2! Let us know if we can help you with anything to get started :)
  20. Layla Littlenymph Member

    Thanks for the info Afista. :)

    I noticed the preview tab for the sc items. My comment was mainly in regards to non-sc items, but I did not word that very well in my original post. Sorry for the confusion.
    One of my friends was kind enough to point out the "Dressing Room" feature to me that allows the preview of non-sc items. Although it does not work for ALL items, it works for the majority of them, and has been a big help. It is especially helpful when creating an item at the crafting table.

    I confess that I am still a little miffed that FR and three other games were sacrificed to the altar of EQN, but I have always felt that EQ2 is a good game in and of itself. The only reason I have not played it more in the past is mainly due to time constraints, but I would have put more time in if the game was more intuitive, or came with better instruction. It amazes me that the devs for this franchise could do such a great job with its construction, yet completely fail at providing good instruction on how best to make use of it. I am very thankful for the existence of forums, and the helpful players that contribute to them.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.