Weedy

Heya guys! Some more screenshots from the tests with L2Homage capabilities :) Bumble just added a feature within L2Homage to add default attribute stats to items, here's a quick example: It is extremely easy and fast to add those parameters to the item, as well as change things like name, description, stats, etc. (and actually multiple defensive attributes can be added at the same time to one, just no visual support in UI. You can see the stats change on the left with only 1 attributed item equipped). Some other things that can be done: Populating spawns, for example changing orcs and goblins to unicorns right under Elven Village: In spawning tab, there is even a drop-down menu with selection of which npcs you wish to add to the spawn, so it goes fast and simple. Quickly adding an NPC to the starting zone (within existing spawn with Nerupa and Newbie Helper): One more mini-video from testing custom sets: https://i.gyazo.com/6ea7ded4e198bec20be68c7de04ff5de.mp4 So it's quite convenient and user-friendly, and I am personally enjoying using and playing around with it. TBH, @Bumble is a freakin genius, and that tool is one hell of a thing for modding :P Super excited for more things to come and very happy to be able to help with testing!

Thanks, Bumble! So cool :) I have also a question, if am I understanding it correctly, that those spawn areas are the ones specified as; territory_begin npcmaker_begin npc_begin npcmaker_end So, if we are looking at EG, as on the screenshot above, let's take mandragoras, for example: territory_begin [dion02_2122_19] {{41756;149052;-3894;-3094};{41136;151006;-3894;-3094};{40160;151658;-3894;-3094};{38625;151563;-3894;-3094};{36644;150004;-3894;-3094};{36000;148753;-3894;-3094};{40615;148333;-3894;-3094}} territory_end npcmaker_begin [dion02_2122_19] initial_spawn=all maximum_npc=6 npc_begin [mandragora_sprout] pos=anywhere total=2 respawn=35sec npc_end npc_begin [manadragora] pos=anywhere total=4 respawn=35sec npc_end npcmaker_end Meaning that the spawn consists of 6 npcs max with 35 sec respawn time, 4 of which are standards and 2 are sprouts; and then the spawn area is identified by coordinates as the corners between which the spawning happens? And when you mention allowing users to create zones themselves, do you mean creating these spawn areas, as above?

All right, here we go! :) Npc Pos Maker: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dzxjzP2b-d5pd3x8gkWBxFSv0Q15ruT2

Also, found one utility, not sure if it is available somewhere here on MC, called NpcPosMaker. It has several features plus a radar which helps with the visualisation/finding the value for the direction NPCs are facing. If it would be of any help, I can share it here.

I think % value there is a chance that an NPC will spawn on each of the specified pos={. It has 5 values, 20% each, 100% spawn rate total. Other NPCs that have this % value, also have a total sum of 100% depending on the number of coordinates. E.g. Uruka: npc_ex_begin [uruka] pos={{3075;-10966;-3650;0;30%};{5202;-11331;-3650;0;30%};{5225;-8439;-3550;0;40%}} 3 values with 100% total. About respawn_rand, I found this topic on L2Shrine with replies from @eressea: https://forum.l2shrine.com/topic/1622-respawn-of-world-bosses/, where she describes it in more detail and with a formula! :) There are also other options mentioned there, and I saw a couple of other ways it may work on different servers; but I think it can also depend on whether it is java or off platform. Now, dbname=[ , not so sure... Looks like some specific NPC ID, bosses and NPCs such as siege units have it mostly; monsters spawning on a certain territory don't usually have that. So a bit hard for me to say for sure to what and where it references to.

Agreed, Discord channel for such discussions would be cool! Or maybe Slack, depending on what is easier to set up/maintain. And cool progress, Bumble! Any screenshots to share? :)

True! Hopefully it will really help in saving many man-hours in the future for people working with it, this is the best that can happen. Those things would really help to provide some new depth or variety to gameplay. I am also super excited to see the future editing of skills and classes, since I think there are actually many cool things that can be done to make the game more dynamic and skill-based, for example, by playing with skill settings and establishing new unique classes and combos. And yes, I would be very glad to take my time to help with the testing. But I would need some help with setting up the server environment myself (Eressea's latest extender and GF chronicles, as I understood), as I am not very familiar with that, but would really like to get into it. Yep, I mean something like, let's say a more common feature for modded servers, an RvR-system on the server, changing the concept of the game from focusing between interactions of clans and alliances to clashing races against each other. Or changing the way primary stats work, e.g. providing different bonus(es) from levelling your STR or WIT. Most likely those types of changes require more in-depth coding knowledge, but I am sure it can also be learnt as a developer skill. There are indeed many wide systems already that can be re-used and re-purposed (like droplists, monster locations, iteming, etc), making gameplay fresh and unique, and without which creating a modded server is not really possible - so L2Homage as a tool for that sounds like exactly just what the doctor order, tbh. :) Yeah, you are right. Any sorts of guidelines, prerequisites, possibly more documentation for setup and different features, especially as a free and/or open-source project is always something that people who would get into the modding would greatly appreciate. Understanding the scale of these projects and scalability is also maybe something that is better to be understood and considered on the first stages of modded L2 world/server development, to be able to estimate the effort and time needed to go into the project. And in turn, yeah, it helps to create the tools to shape such projects with. As I have been thinking more about it myself past several weeks, and now finding your topic, I can also try to think of some possibilities I could be of hopefully any help with these, if it can support the project, and see whether I can come up with something. Let me know if there are any specific things you have on your mind! :)

Hi, Bumble! I've stumbled upon your topic several days ago, and wanted to share my thoughts here! I'm more of a lurker on maxcheaters for half a year or so now, occasionally reading some topics, but your project has really interested and impressed me, so I decided to register and join the discussion :) I think the idea behind L2Homage is awesome and it can easily become a very valuable tool for any person creating custom Lineage 2 server. And by Custom I really mean something new and unique - new concept of the game, new goals, new motivation for playing the game, new things to explore. I agree with your words in the first message, there are definitely ways to rebuild and reshape L2 world into something unseen before! I think in that way L2 can be seen as a "canvas", which can be shaped into something special and different than what the original game offers; we have pretty much a prepared and crafted world with an extremely wide variety of character/NPC/item models, ready interface, icons, animations, mechanics, etc. It is possible to manipulate all these things into a new concept, and I salute you for taking the initiative to create a tool to allow this to happen - it's amazing! I would really love to help with a project like this, however I don't have programming skills myself, unfortunately; even thouh I work in a gaming industry, I am involved more with game design, economy and balancing, live operations of games, QA, sometimes marketing and analytics, and other related to that areas. I am not sure if it is possible to create a completely unique server concept by modding files and without any programming involved (please tell me if it is!), but surely this tool would in any case help with a HUGE portion of work that would need to be done to make it happen. Over past 13 or so years, I played on some modded servers, like the Russian BSFG and several others that are more about the RvR idea (I guess BSFG was one of the first ones, it's beta was around 2006-2007 as far as I remember), and for them to make it happen, for sure they also had to put countless hours into modifying files. Streamlining and optimizing it, making it a lot more error-proof and user-friendly, is totally a noble effort, and I do hope it would help cool new projects to emerge :) I would love myself to also work on a new and unique server like this, more so with the help of L2Homage. Even though I cannot help directly (but if I can do something, let me know, I would be glad to participate), I hope this small note of motivation can help with going forward with the project. Looking forward to reading future updates!