Home For Builders Introduction to the Aurora Neverwinter Toolset Intro to the Toolset - Part 3

Intro to the Toolset - Part 3

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Build It And They Will Come

5. In order to make this area more interesting you need to paint down specific Tiles to make this an area the Players can explore. Also note that a Start Location has been automatically set down. When your players start this module they will appear around this Start Location.

6. Under the Palette you will note that there are two sets of buttons. The upper left green button is the 'Paint Terrain' button and the upper right is the 'Paint Start Location' button. These are the two basic things you need to include in your module. You need some sort of terrain area for Players to move around on and you need to place that Start Location arrow somewhere where Players can stand.

7. Paint down some terrain for your first area. You will notice in the Palettes section a wide variety of individual tiles to use in your area. These tiles change from one Tileset to another. We are using the City Interior Tileset so we should have Tiles like Kitchen, Living room, Barn and so on. Paint a few Tiles down to give some shape to your area.

Tool Tip:
The Toolset can fake the end of your area by putting in an endless repeating tile into the distance. This, however, can be pretty jarring for a Player. What is recommended is to put down Tiles that a Player cannot move into such as walls, deep water, pits or whatever is available to you depending on the Tileset you are using. With these 'borders' in place you area looks much better.

8. Look through the Tiles to see what sort of things you would like to put down in your area. We are making the interior to an inn so I can put down Inn, Inn Room, Kitchen and so on depending on big of an inn I want to make. You will notice that when you put a room down a few things come with that room (tables, torches, rugs etc.). You can right click when an area is highlighted to cycle through the different looks of a single tile.

9. How do I rotate a Tile? Left click on what you want (say a Kitchen Tile) you will notice that a ghost image of the Tile is attached to your mouse pointer. When you find an area where you can set this down (you will see a green box appear around your Tile) right click on the Tile and it will rotate 90 degrees. When you have found an orientation that pleases you left click and the Tile will be painted down.

10. Take note of a special feature within some of the Tilesets called Raise/Lower. This allows you to raise up some of the terrain you have created making a hill or valley.

Tool Tip:
The Tiles have been engineered to fit together very well and look great. If you grab a specific Tile and the Toolset shows a red square where you want to put it it's because that specific Tile is not designed to go in that specific area. Try rotating the Tile or choosing a different Tile.
If you right click on a specific tile you will bring up a Properties window. From here you can manually change the lighting within a specific area. Every Tile has Main Lighting and some have Source Lighting (such as a torch) both of which can have their color changed. Some Tiles have animated parts such as the Smithy in the City Interior Tileset, which can be set as on or off.

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