ACR Creator
ALFA has in its core content a custom implementation of the DM Creator. The ACR Creator serves the same broad purpose as the default NWN2 creator, allowing DMs to create objects for use in play on the fly, but the ACR Creator puts emphasis on providing better information about the things to be spawned, making it easier to organize the items as they appear in the creator, improving the performance of the creator, and improving the stability of the creator.
Contents
Creator Tabs
The ACR creator does not use a tree control to display spawnable items to DMs. Instead, the primary interface is a list box and the contents of that list box are controlled by the tabstrip that lines the top of the creator.
Classification Structure
Naming and Organization
All classifications inside of the ACR Creator are organized into the toolset style of classification structures, which may be an arbitrary number of levels deep. Classification structures are made deeper by delimiting the Classifications defined on the object with pipes.
- Example: "Humanoid_Goblinoid" will appear inside of a single classification named "Humanoid_Goblinoid". "Humanoid|Goblinoid" will appear inside of a single classification named "Humanoid". If there are also creatures with classifications such as "Humanoid|Orc" then both the Orc and Goblinoid classifications will appear inside the Humanoid classification.
If any classification names contain a colon (:), then that colon will be replaced with a minus (-) as the character is required by the ACR Creator to indicate that a list item represents a classification. There is no need to update existing classifications to this end, as the performance impact is trivial and executed on a background thread at server startup.
Objects without any classification appear in the root classification.
The ACR Creator is opened as the DM Creator used to be. By default the comma (,) key opens the ACR Creator. However, this can be configured per user by opening the Game Options menu, selecting Keymapping from the resulting tabbed menu, and DM from the nested tabs therein. The key mapping for DM Creator controls the ACR Creator on servers which use the ACR.
In addition, the DM Creator button in the DM toolbar (the leftmost button, depicting a male conjuring something with his right hand) will open the ACR Creator on servers which use the ACR.
A DM may view the contents of a tab by clicking the tab. Icons on each of the tabs have mouse over effects to indicate when a click will be interpreted as navigation.
A DM may view the contents of a classification by double clicking the row that lists it on the DM Creator. He or she may view the classification's parent by double clicking the ".." row at the top of the list. If the list does not contain a ".." line, then the currently-viewed list is root classification and it has no parent to view.
At server reset, a DM will begin with every tab set to that tab's root classification. Thereafter, use of the ACR Creator will be remembered by the ACR Creator. Every tab will remain in the classification it was viewing last, and the ACR Creator will open to the last-focused tab.
Clicks which are not interpreted as spawning or navigation are valid for use to drag the creator. As with all UIs, individual game clients will remember the last location of the UI element. DMs who use multiple computers may notice the Creator placing itself in different locations on each of the computers, even though changes to tab and classification focus would persist across the two.
The close button for the ACR Creator is placed on the top right corner of the ACR Creator. It may also be closed by pressing Escape.
Spawning
Objects may be spawned from the ACR Creator by double clicking the item that one wishes to spawn. When the object is ready to spawn, your pointer will turn into a targeting UI, as if you were to cast a spell. If the object to be spawned exists at a single point, such as a creature, item, or placeable, then the UI will be a small circle that is roughly the size of a PC's clipping radius. If the object affects an area, such as a trap, the targeting UI will resemble the size and shape of the area to be affected.
When an object is spawned from the ACR Creator, the server will process the spawn and recycle the targeting UI to allow multiple spawning. The targeting UI may be dismissed by right clicking.
Sorting
The ACR Creator is not currently capable of sorting on more than just object names. All objects appear alphabetically by name, sorted by classification structure. While this may be changed in the future, it is reccommended that the newly-afforded nesting of classification structure be used to make objects easy to find.
Searching
The ACR Creator provides a search bar, listed above the resource list and indicated by its light gray bounding box. This field accepts any text entries. When an entry is completed, pressing enter executes a search against the text which has been entered into the field against the current contents of the resource lists and its sub directories. This process typically only takes a couple seconds after the enter key is pressed. No attempts to parse multiple words are made, so a search like "b a" will not find "Bill Anderson", but will find "Bob Anderson".
When the results of a search are no longer needed, a ".." classification link is present at the top of the resource list, which returns to the classification which was focused before the search was run.
Searches will attempt to match on the contents of any displayed field in the resource list, so searching on "Hostile" in the creature tab will return all creatures of the Hostile faction inside the current classification and its sub classifications.
Searching on "5" will collapse all current subclassifications into a single list.
Creature Tab
The leftmost tab, and the default tab.
The Creature tab on the ACR Creator displays the name of the creature to be spawned, the faction that the creature will have by default when spawned, and the creature's CR. Creatures will by default spawn only one at a time, facing the same direction as the DM who spawned it.
Item Tab
The second tab from the left.
The Item tab on the ACR Creator displays the name of the item to be spawned, the value in gold of a single instance of the item, and the minimum level of a character who might potentially own such an item according to the current wealth guidelines. Items spawn one at a time, except for ammunition, which spawns in stacks of 50 when an object with an inventory (such as a creature or a chest) is targeted and single instances when placed on the ground.
Items may be placed in a placeable or creature's inventory by targeting the object to carry it. If an object with no inventory is targeted, the item will appear on the ground at that object's location.
If an object with an inventory (such as a creture or a treasure chest) is already selected when the item on the creator is double clicked, that item will be placed directly into that object's inventory without providing any further UI.
This tab also contains a button to open the ACR Loot Generator.
Placeable Tab
The third tab from the left.
The Placeable tab of the ACR Creator displays the name of the placeable, if the placeable is locked or trapped (and the DC of the lock and the trap if they are), and whether or not the placeable has an inventory. Placeables will spawn only one at a time, facng the same direction as the DM who spawned it.
Trap Tab
The middle tab
The Trap tab of the ACR Creator displays the name, the DC, and an approxomation of CR for the trap. Traps placed from the creator have the size and placement of the UI when it is clicked, and may be detected from 5-8 meters outside its outer border by default, with larger traps having a larger detection radius.
All modules are given a "Standard" classification, which contains the damage-doing default NWN2 traps, as adapted to the ACR Traps system.
- It is important to note that traps are invisible to DMs once they are spawned. The tick in the spawning UI when placing a trap is the indication that the spawning has happened. DMs can verify the presence and location of traps by removing the filters on persistent areas of effect in the DM Chooser and double clicking any object which they wish to look at. This will cause the DM Avatar to jump to the location of the trap.
Visual Effects Tab
The third tab from the right
The Visual Effects tab of the ACR Creator only displays the name of the placed effect that it may spawn. Only one placed effect is spawned at a time, facing the same direction as the DM who spawned it.
Waypoint Tab
The second tab from the right
The Waypoint tab of the ACR Creator only displays the name of the waypoint that it may spawn. Only one waypoint is spawned at a time, facing the same direction as the DM who spawned it. These waypoints, when spawned, are not recognized by systems such as the ACR Spawn system currently. However, waypoints that define custom traps will not appear on this list. They will instead appear on the Trap tab.
Light Tab
The rightmost tab
The Light tab of the ACR Creator displays the name of the light that it may spawn, the brightness and radius of the light that will result, and the opacity of shadows cast by the light.
It is important to note that shadows are additive-- so if two lights cast overlapping shadows at 50% each, the overlap will be at 100% shadow. The second light will not make the previously-50% shadow into a 25% shadow. DMs seeking to light an area should attempt to use relatively-few sparsely-placed lights.
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