Anthology of hard-to-find CS tips

[Razorwing]

I thought we could have a thread where we share miscellanous tips and tricks we uncover in the Construction Set, which might be of help to other modders here. Little things that we want others to know, but are too small to make a whole new thread about.

I'll go first, shall I. :elk:

When you create a greeting for your NPC you'll want to AddTopic all the topics you want the NPC to be able to talk about. When you see the list of topics you can add, did you know that you can hold down CTRL to select as many topics as you like? That can save you up to a minute for each NPC greeting you set up.

[sandor]

Good tip (CTRL and the topics), great Idea (for this thread). :yes:

[Siegfried]

Is there a way to get just the grass ground texture, but no static grass spawning on top of it?

[Razorwing]

Thanks sandor

Originally posted by Siegfried
Is there a way to get just the grass ground texture, but no static grass spawning on top of it?

Sometimes it is. In the Landscape Edit Settings window, click the ID tab to get it to list alphabetically, then leftclick-and-hold to drag the vertical bar between the ID and Used tab further to the right. Near the top of the list you'll see the "CH..." texture set, which I personally I use a lot in town. Among the choices are:
CHTerrainGrass01
CHTerrainGrass01NoGrass

They are identical except the first texture will spawn grass sprites, but the second one won't. These types of texture pairs can be found elsewhere in the list too. Personally I use the "NoGrass" version under and near houses, sidewalks, rock formations and so, because it looks so bad when grass grows into a rock or halfway into a house.

[dn@]

don't know if this is common sense knowdlege, but i found it useful: while pressing z, x or y, u'll inly move the selected elements in that axis.

[Siegfried]

Thanks.

[sandor]

How to move AI packages (change their order of appearance).


Use the left and right arrow keys.
Look at the screenshots.

From the left to the right.

Start (we're going to move the aaaDefaultHome...).
Press the left arrow twice.
Press the right arrow once etc.

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

Hmm, what can I submit?

Remember when toying with Child and Parent Worldspaces. The land is directly connected. If you change the land in a child worldspace, it will change that same land in the parent worldspace. And when land is changed in a parent worldspace it affects the rest of the child worldspaces. Basically put, you change one, you change them all.

Creation of new NPC's. If you are creating a new NPC by changing an old one, remember to remove the AI or the new NPC will follow the old one's schedule and go where they go. This also can disrupt schedules in case the origional's one becomes interrupted because there clone just needs to eat lunch at the same time in the same seat.

Beware of using gross havok placement. Using Havok to place all of your objects is bad. it is good once in awhile for sloppy objects, but every time you use it in that way, the object will float. I have seen a few mods where everything is floating nad it looks very sloppy. if you do use havok for objects, remember to push F.

[Zarf]

Thanks, IATE! One day, in the year 2045 when I get in to interior design, I'll have to remember that Havok bit. Now, if you cause an item to fall down with Havok, then you fine-tune it's position without Havok on, will that cause the object to float?

[sandor]

Originally posted by Zarf
...that cause the object to float?

No.