Blueprints

Dantheman · 2013-10-16 07:52:04

So, is this feature out for good as far as we know? It seems like a shame. It must have taken some effort to code.

What if there was some way to bring it in again partially?

For example, what if maps could be made by players actually walking around and exploring houses. You could scout out a house, then go back to your home, and review the blueprints while considering what tools to buy.

If there was some kind of market made available you could even sell maps. I imagine that detailed maps of high value houses could be quite a hot item.

jasonrohrer · 2013-10-16 08:54:17

Blueprints were brought in as a way to handle 20-bit combination lock type houses.

They had the side-effect of making almost all house designs unviable---only houses with very tricky electronics could stand a chance in a blue print world.

They were removed, and 20-bit-combination lock houses are now vulnerable to an infinite backpack instead.

In general, I REALLY like games that make you take notes on paper outside the game.... drawing maps, etc. So, I wouldn't want to build that kind of function into the game as an automated thing.

Yes, blueprints did take a lot of work to implement. :-)

dalleck · 2013-10-17 02:07:37

I still think you should use blueprints in build mode, it makes perfect sense. You can keep the current build mode and add a toggle to go into blueprint mode.

jasonrohrer · 2013-10-17 07:28:49

Well... yeah, that would look pretty, but other than that.... :-)

dalleck · 2013-10-17 08:25:46

jasonrohrer wrote:

Well... yeah, that would look pretty, but other than that.... :-)

...it does server a practical purpose as a quick and easy alternative for house building, because you would no longer be constrained by your avatar. I can see players flipping between the two when they build, rather than choosing one or the other.

jasonrohrer · 2013-10-17 12:43:30

Oh, yeah, you're right.

However.... there's something about the physically-constrained aspect of building that I really like.

YES, I get that it's a pain in the ass, and no other building game has had this constraint (that I'm aware of) for very good reasons. It's a horrible, crazy design decision on my part.

But I want you to be able to paint yourself int a corner and have to chisel your way out. Also, by "walking around" your house during the daytime (building mode), this is the main non-conflict interaction that you have with your family and pets (the only time when your own wife isn't trying to shoot you, for example).

I kindof feel like it's my job to make horrible, crazy design decisions that would never survive a single committee meeting.... just to create aesthetically unique experiences that no committee would ever create.

jere · 2013-10-18 07:20:57

I kindof feel like it's my job to make horrible, crazy design decisions that would never survive a single committee meeting.... just to create aesthetically unique experiences that no committee would ever create.

Yes, please continue.

I'm with you on the house building aspect. Walking around your house and building really makes it feel like your house as opposed to just some game mechanic.

On the other hand, blueprints were really interesting and I can certainly believe they took a lot of effort. Returning them partially has so much potential. You can't automatically expose the secrets of all homeowners; obviously, that was too brutal. But you could turn them into a risk/reward mechanic. Examples:

Homeowners could offer blueprints of their own house for sale. These blueprints could be partial (e.g. 1/9 of the house) or complete. They get revenue, but open themselves up to increased risk. On the other hand, the blueprint might even lure more robbers to their deaths.
Homeowners could permanently offer a blueprint on their house in exchange for a lump sum.
Alternatively, partial blueprints could become available as the bounty on a homeowner increases or their home has killed so many robbers.

I came up with another wacky idea: blueprints could be snapshots instead of realtime maps. Imagine you're robbing a house and you have a complete blueprint. You've figured out how to get to the safe and there is a sizable stash. But wait! There's a number on the blueprint that indicates the distance (i.e. number of edits) between the blueprint you hold and the current house. You see there are 2 edits. Has the safe been moved? Has the path been rerouted?! Are there more dogs? This would offer a whole lot of trickery and some epic oh crap moments.

As I've said before, I feel like there are not enough ways to make a deadly part of the house feel "safe"... this would definitely do it (e.g. wired floors that are totally disconnected in the blueprint, but connected and dangerous in the current house).

Last edited by jere (2013-10-18 07:41:29)

ukuko · 2013-10-18 08:34:20

I really like the idea of house owners selling their own blueprints. It's kinda like laying down the gauntlet.

jasonrohrer · 2013-10-18 10:24:59

I worry that it's another layer that isn't really needed....

I think that many of the things you are talking about could be accomplished within a house design already (you can already change a house out from under someone who has been scouting, for example).

It's kindof like the idea about whether to just reach the vault as the success condition or have to reach the vault and get back out again. Wouldn't houses be deeper and more interesting if you had to get both in and out? But I realized that you could emulate that style of house design already (imagine having to go into the center of the house to push a button and then coming back out to access the now-reachable vault).

My design sensibility is to distill the design down to the most basic atoms and have nothing else there. Let everything else bloom out emergently from there. Thus, the set of house tiles are like a bare minimum, with no overlapping functionality between tiles. There's no spike pit, there's no flame wall, there's no logic gates. Electric floor works differently than a door, which works differently than a trapdoor.

Bare bones. What can you do in this game? See a list of houses and pick one from the list to rob. That's the entire functionality of the main game screen.

Kyrah · 2014-07-11 17:04:24

I realize this is a massive necro but i didn't want to open a new topic. Have you considered bringing back blueprints with the restriction that it would only contain walls? It would not unveil the inner workings of a house but would still allow you to take strategic decisions, such as potential location of the vault, where tunneling might reveal something interesting, what are clear dead ends or doggy doors (laziest house design IMHO).

Is the blueprint code still in the game source?

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2013-10-16 07:52:04

Blueprints

#2 2013-10-16 08:54:17

Re: Blueprints

#3 2013-10-17 02:07:37

Re: Blueprints

#4 2013-10-17 07:28:49

Re: Blueprints

#5 2013-10-17 08:25:46

Re: Blueprints

#6 2013-10-17 12:43:30

Re: Blueprints

#7 2013-10-18 07:20:57

Re: Blueprints

#8 2013-10-18 08:34:20

Re: Blueprints

#9 2013-10-18 10:24:59

Re: Blueprints

#10 2014-07-11 17:04:24

Re: Blueprints

Board footer