For those exciting chases/escapes/scouting trips through a conveniently enormous air conditioning system--
Service Ducts is a very small tileset based on the tiles from the Virtual Reality tileset that was first offered by geekfiend in 2004:
Link Virtual Reality was incorporated by the D20 Modern team in their large hak offering of 2007. Updates of that hak are here:
Link The texture of the "rugs" was from Starship Interiors by stacy_19201325, also in the Modern hak, and the other textures were my creation.
The rounded rooms have been reskinned with metal sheets and sparsely furnished with large vertical duct pipes and metal boxes featuring vents, mysterious grills, and service access plates. The corridor has been reskinned with flexible metal tubing and the dead end has a large fan. Minimap and light nodes now added.
There are two new tiles to provide things to hide behind. The puddle effect is gone and replaced by metallic footsteps. Light nodes are added to the rooms. The interior model names are now more systematic.
This hak contains the models, dds textures, .set and palstd.itp files. It is non-overriding, and can work with the Virtual Reality tiles because the "duct" opening is the same basic model as the "corridor."
Thank you very much! This is one of a number of special model and art projects I've done lately, but most are too special for general use. That's why there isn't a door--I have to admit also that so far doors don't generally do what I want. Maybe I could make a model if someone else could make it work.
Posted by Graymaster at 2008-03-02 08:47:30 Voted 10.00 on 03/02/08
VERY useful and like with any good tileset, nicely adaptable for a variety of applications beyond its intended purpose. For one thing, there is a dearth of adequate interiors accompanying the modern tilesets and this, sans the ducts themselves, works admirably for stores, shops, etc with the D20 & Suburban sets. I mentioned this to Chandigar for his Suburbia, in fact. I realize it's something of an imposition, but I would greatly appreciate it if the future, you could be persuaded to add even a single regular door of some type. It's not that alternatives can't be found -- areas of transition and so on -- but my, a door would be nice!
Dr. Hoo, I actually downloaded a module of yours a while back and found it most entertaining and of high quality, so it is my belief that your new Tileset is going to be on par with your other various projects, exceptional, hopefully I will be able to test it and return for a proper rating and give feedback. _________________________ @===============================================@
Vinchenzo made a post here.
Plz check out my entries. I'm currently making a few simple modules, designing 3 special characters, and hope to someday be good this stuff.
This is Vinchenzo, finishing his post with the following advice:
Don't use Latin improperly (Lupis means grey, Rufus is red, Canid is dog, so on.) Furries annoy me with their improper usage of such. And I'm a furry!!! Ugh...
Don't vote for Beta things unless told they are finished, unless posted specifically by the author.
Don't abuse the vote and post function, don't vote for your own/friends stuff just to get a high vote. Don't flame vote either just to be an ass.
There is a voting system for how the points are used, even I forget, but we should follow it (and tattoo it to our forehead, lol)
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I've just finished using your service ducts tileset for the construction of a space station docking bay. As it has no edge tiles that fade off into the distance, by having one wall 'open' to the area's edge and putting the 'Wildspace' wraparound skybox on the area, and a few spaceships parked in it, I have the perfect docking bay.
Having little idea of what to do with a walkmesh except growl suspiciously at it, I appreciate your efforts in examining the whole area of unfortunate head/ceiling social interactions... As you say, the work involved in altering the walkmesh so very slighty isn't really worthwhile...
I've gone over areas in my current module where I used your service ducts and I still say it's a good little tileset. Just be sure to run in a straight line down the ducting!
After much testing I have to conclude that there is no way to completely prevent characters from occasionally rising through the top of the duct. This is why:
1. The duct is only about 10 feet high, lower than the height of a "large" creature like an iron golem or a balor. They don't have any stooping animations and will poke up through a lower ceiling.
2. A walkmesh, which determines where you can and can't walk on the tile, can't overlap itself, nor can there be two walkmeshes on one tile. In the ducts it is impossible to put "no walk" over the "walk" part to keep the characters down if they bounce up.
3. Apparently it is also impossible to make a placeable which floats at ceiling height without its "no walk" information extending down to the floor.
So there you are. The characters are going to hit the roof if it's a low one and that's that. The most that can be done by adjusting the walkmesh is to draw the sides of the duct a little closer and make the character conform a little better to the contour of the duct. Truthfully it's hardly enough improvement over the present version to be worth it.
Plush Hyena of Doom--
Thank you for the appreciation.
I am not one to stand idly by when I can be obsessive about something--I've already made the walkmeshes as good as possible, made a little informative graphic about why it is impossible to completely eliminate that elevated feeling with walkmeshes alone, and almost finished with a little idea which I hope to post by tomorrow, then the experimental types can try it out with whatever party they dream up and see if it works to stop pop-ups. :)
The rooms are fine (higher, I guess)... As to the ducts, it's simply when you stray onto those rounded walls... mind you, one of my main PCs is a Gnoll anyway, so it serves her right for being excessively tall... That said, human sized characters can do it too... It'll teach me to run in a straight line better! Anyway, I've now made use of your service ducts for actual areas in the module I'm working on currently and the NPCs moving around the ducts (so long as you get the waypoints just right) don't have a problem... Not that it's anything more than an aesthtic quibble anyway really...
So, regardless of occasional cephalatory barrier osmosis (heads going through walls) thanks for a nice little tileset that came along at just the right time for me...
Thanks for the feedback. I did not change the walkmesh in the ducts from the originals, but if your characters are popping through the top, I believe I can fix that problem. Did this happen in the rooms? Can't do too much about the ceiling there because of the round walls.
Have now constructed two quick test areas. For such a small tileset, this looks like having quite a few uses and should prove of great value to anyone producing modern or time travel or just plain weird modules, lending itself to laboratories, factories etc as well as good old fashioned service ducts. I'll certainly be using it...
One small point, Doctor... The rounded duct corridors look very nice but if your PC walks up the sloped area, as is easily done, you can find your head sticking out through the ceiling. I staged a couple of fights in a duct and both combatants kept sticking their heads through the roof every time they tried to circle one another... A very small quibble but I thought I'd mention it...
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at 2009-07-05 17:08:03
