Nugget #8 - Organize Your Castle

[ShibuyaCloth]

Many take time to design a nice looking dominion. It is not always easy to do it properly. You suddenly figure out that you have too few or too much space left for what you wanted. To ease a little the burden, here a little tool that can help you! Sketch your future Queen- or King-dom.

http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-CaslteDesigner.png

It is a not a complex & fancy tool, but it helps place what you want before overhauling the map.
 
Example
In the designer tool my old kingdom would look like this:

http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-CaslteDesigner-Morgor.png
 
Which translates into (nearly)...

http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-Morgor-2015.03.jpg

Usage
The tool is made in MS Office Excel 2010 format, thus usable on any MS Office version 2010, 2013, 365, or above. Save the file locally on your hard drive where you can find it. Open it with Excel (or any equivalent spreadsheet application). Once in Excel, you need to "Enable Editing" before starting your layout, button in the yellow warning box on upper part of the screen.

Once in the Tool, the only worksheet of interest is the "Layout" tab. The map is divided into plots the same as the Caste Story Map (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?77377-Nugget-2-Expanding). Each plot is a 4x4 cells area that you can populate with your objects. In each cell, you can only put items from the pop-up list. A detailed legend is available on the right of the layout map. The "Scope" column indicates the objects related to a given type. Those pop-up lists have no effects; they are just for information.


Downloads

Nuggets (http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/CastleStory-Nuggets.pdf) (PDF)
Designer Tool (http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/CastleStory-CaslteDesigner.xlsx) (Excel)
Layout Map (http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-CaslteDesigner.png) (Image)
Castle Story Map (http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-ExpansionsMap.png) (Image)



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[queentina3]

That is really neat! I think I'm going to use that as I'll be doing another redesign soon!

[ndtrance]

This is amazing, thank you for sharing it with us! I have a tiny kingdom but like a lot of people I want to redesign when this event is over.

[reliquary]

This is RAD!

I'm just bummed that the diagonal angle of the squares does not allow you to make a decent circle with trees.
My star is forever wonky because of this. And it won't allow a 5 pointed star.....
I do a lot of planning and finding angles before moving ALL the trees...this is perfect. thanks:)
& I cannot wait to redecorate after the event!

19336

[ShibuyaCloth]

This is RAD!

I'm just bummed that the diagonal angle of the squares does not allow you to make a decent circle with trees.
My star is forever wonky because of this. And it won't allow a 5 pointed star.....
I do a lot of planning and finding angles before moving ALL the trees...this is perfect. thanks:)
& I cannot wait to redecorate after the event!

19336

Well there is a small trick to have round trees, I can used predefined round icons but limited to 3 colors. Maybe in my next version. Ans yes this is RAD and not intended to be detailed. The goal is to be able to see the overall footprint of objects.

[aldalin]

I had to log in just to thank you for this, and express my amazement at the amount of work that must have gone in to making it. This is so awesome. Thank you! :cool:

[ShibuyaCloth]

Happy to see that it has any use. Have fun designing!

[reliquary]

Well there is a small trick to have round trees, I can used predefined round icons but limited to 3 colors. Maybe in my next version. Ans yes this is RAD and not intended to be detailed. The goal is to be able to see the overall footprint of objects.
Na, your graph in squares is Awesome!
It's the actual game board tilted at the perspective angle that makes it wonky...if that makes sense...lol

I have a negative space(open meadow) that I like to experiment w/ different geometry....and every.single.outer.space filled in with trees.
The open meadow was in a heart shape w/ the point in the SE and it looked pretty good...but I had to go and change it...lol!
I'm gonna use your graph to see what else is possible:)


19357

[meme1098]

Na, your graph in squares is Awesome!
It's the actual game board tilted at the perspective angle that makes it wonky...if that makes sense...lol

I have a negative space(open meadow) that I like to experiment w/ different geometry....and every.single.outer.space filled in with trees.
The open meadow was in a heart shape w/ the point in the SE and it looked pretty good...but I had to go and change it...lol!
I'm gonna use your graph to see what else is possible:)


19357

I like the design you have now. The star with the glittering glimmerdust troves makes it look as if the star is twinkling. :)

[reliquary]

I like the design you have now. The star with the glittering glimmerdust troves makes it look as if the star is twinkling. :)


Aww thanks!
When I do start a rearrange....it is a royal Pain to move all those trees...lol!
This chart will make it soooo much easier

[dragon2046]

Thanks, Nice map now I'm just trying to decide if I want to face storing everything and rearranging my kingdom. Maybe when I have a couple hours to spare. Expansions would be helpful too cuz I like to have two of everything out. Lol. :)

[queentina3]

 
Which translates into (nearly)...

http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/CastleStory-Morgor-2015.03.jpg


Ok, this has been bugging me but I've never got around to asking, but....How in the heck did you get your whole kingdom into one picture like that? Did you take multiple pics and piece them together or could you REALLY zoom out that far? In Castle and Fairytale I can't zoom out that far on my old iPad 2 or my newest iPad Air 2, though I can in Farm, RS1, and was able to in RS 2 as well, but never in Castle or Fairytale.

So, what's the secret ole' guru, ole' wise one, as it's bugging me greatly that I can't do that! :p

[ShibuyaCloth]

I make multiple shoots and stitch them together with a photo tool (Corel PSP). A bit tiresome, but once a year it's OK.

[queentina3]

I make multiple shoots and stitch them together with a photo tool (Corel PSP). A bit tiresome, but once a year it's OK.

Ok, that's what I figured, but how do you get the distance? When I try to zoom out I'm still so close to my queen's court that it doesn't look anywhere near as far as yours does. You do such an amazing job you can't even tell that it is more than one picture.

[ShibuyaCloth]

1) Zoom out as much as you can
2) Scroll to the point you will use as a center
3) Use the photo tool of the the game to take a pic
4) Scroll the screen in one direction no more then 2/3 of a screen (stitching is easier), take care not to change the zoom factor
5) Upload the pics on your computer
6) Use a picture tool to stitch them togeter

It is a little puzzle work, but once you get the trick it goes fast.

[Medhba]

This is amazing! Thank you ☺️

[zyfazix]

A lot of neighbours can use this tool. Out of the fifteen I visited today only one had obviously worked on organizing everything (Shout out to Atlantis, your kingdom looks great)
The rest was just a mess. Everything placed together, a dozen marketplaces, another dozen conservatories. No roads, nothing grouped in a logical way. made my creative eye cringe.

I personally like using a 3D modelling tool because of the freedom of having an object with set dimensions that can be dragged around, effectively turning the layout into a puzzle.
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Only downside is that I sometimes get carried away by recreating the models when I get bored, as shown by this unfinished mermaid pond model
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[ShibuyaCloth]

Great work. I used excel as most people have it, even on iOS. It must be lightweight and portable. But it has limitations as well.

Like you I like a well organized dominions, but for performance reasons I had to scale down. Now it looks like a HUGE empty green pasture. Which in return offer some other pros.

[jao1961]

I'm a level 26 ATM. I'm in the middle of construction of a few buildings and some tree quests wood rock. I need an expansion badly! Working on that to lol. But right now mine looks like Fred Sanford lives there. It was nice and pretty. But as soon as I start building a lot it gets quite messy . Wear your safety gear when visiting lol

[Sandybellee]

This is great! I remember starting out and organizing my small dominion nicely with roads and everything. The cottages looked very pleasant to live in with just a short walk from the well and trees in the garden. You could almost hear the birds singing looking at it all, so peaceful and organized...

Now everything's just a big mess and construction site. I need to expand a lot to be able to fit things in better (and having to build and demolish or store tens of buildings for quests doesn't exactly help). It's a wonder I have any citizens left, lol! :D

[roguebee]

That's why you have the food shelter, to feed all your dispossessed citizens...

[ShibuyaCloth]

That's why you have the food shelter, to feed all your dispossessed citizens...

Mine went directly into storage. I have fat and silly knights that are coming back from adventures with tada.... a few coins, sometimes gems. I have also decided to have a minimal map, just have out the buildings I need at a given time. That leaves me with a huge space to populate with experiences :cool::
http://www.portailsmm.com/cs/pics/CastleStory-UnofficialGoals-RG-34.png

[BuddyB111]

Thank you for sharing such a seriously great piece of work. :cool:

[Em_storm]

Wow, talk about horse sense!

I'd like to give this tool a go, I love a great design. But it seems like ever since the Baron passed the Random Obligatory Kingdom Redecoration Act all I ever seem to do is move things in and out of storage for events.

[Jagger517]

What's the story behind all those horsies, ShibuyaCloth?

[ShibuyaCloth]

What's the story behind all those horsies, ShibuyaCloth?

Just having fun :p

More seriously, I was also interested to see if the board item cap (999) could be hit, which I did not manage, I have less then 999 items on the board.

[thisismykingdomchildhoodgame]

Hi there,
Since the absolute beginning I've loved the fact, that everything in this game can be moved around and you have a lot of detail!The graphics are very cute as well. That's the last rearrangement that I did. I hope you like it and find something that you can use at your kingdom! :)
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