The Courthouse/Town Hall

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

Plural. As meaning several sizes.

Once I get a basic layout set, I can grow or shrink them accordingly.

sizes

  • 5x5 ‘close to city’ cemetery that sits outside a city
  • 4x4 ‘woods’ cemetery. These are more reclusive and likely traditional. Older cemeteries tend to have churches on-site and be well-maintained, usually, because of the affluence of its denizen’s families.
  • 3x3 ‘city’ cemetery. A cemetery built to go into a city. Larger cities.
  • 2x2 small cemeteries. some in the woods in disrepair. You can find them out there in rural-land, being old and decrept.
  • 1x1. old, old cemeteries, private backyard cemeteries, pet cemeteries, etc.

I want them to be mundane enough. I know what the ones in my area look like and feel like, but I also want opinions and ideas.

In my area especially, many cemeteries are ethinical. Theres italian cemeteries and irish cemetries, some religiously maintained ones (usually with beautiful stone walls), and some more pragmatic ‘general’ cemeteries.

The ‘public’ ones will have divisions along time-period and social-strata, with older stones either in the center-ish or off to one side. There will still be uncany ethnical divisions (not that I know how I’d even try to implement that particular bit), and there are usually public mausoleums with nice glass walling. I say mausoleum, you inture bodies into a public building and/or put your cremated loved ones in. Picutres stay out of the rain and so on.

There are (generally older) mausoleums for private or, more rarely, whole family use. Some new ones have windows, or bars, or doors. You can walk into a few like they were pavilions!

There are monuments, the old ones being more phallic than the newer ones. The newer ones also have a nice granite or marble sheen.
Statues are fairly common, though lessso for the newest generations. Angel, symbolic insignia, etc. But they arent overly so.

And some gravestones are massive. The size of single ones can get to be about half my height, and twice as thick. Family ones could be slept on if you turned them on their sides. others are diminutive, but most are a little more than knee-high.

Many modern cemeteries are ‘gridded’ so that making a 24x24 region for them is easier. Older ones may meander more, but are straight-lined too, respect for the dead being what it is.

So, I started making this, and then realized I have a lot to cover, even if it is mostly spacious ground. somebody :v already put in a hearse, so I can safely scrap mine.

2

[
{
“type” : “terrain”,
“id” : “t_rock_smooth_h”,
“name”: “smoothed rock”,
“symbol”: “-”, “//”: “use pillars, ‘t_column’, for the corners”,
“color”: “white”,
“move_cost”: 0,
“flags”: [“NOITEM”, “SUPPORTS_ROOF”, “WALL”],
“roof”: “t_rock_floor”,
“bash”: {
“str_min”: 120, “str_max”: 400,
“sound”: “crash!”,
“sound_fail”: “whump!”,
“ter_set”: “t_rock_floor”,
“items”: [
{ “item”: “rock”, “count”: [6, 12] },
{ “item”: “material_rocksalt”, “count”: [0, 1], “prob”: 10 },
{ “item”: “socks”, “count”: [1, 2], “prob”: 2 }
]
}
},{
“type” : “terrain”,
“id” : “t_rock_smooth_v”,
“name”: “smoothed rock”,
“symbol”: “|”, “//”: “use pillars, ‘t_column’, for the corners”,
“color”: “white”,
“move_cost”: 0,
“flags”: [“NOITEM”, “SUPPORTS_ROOF”, “WALL”],
“roof”: “t_rock_floor”,
“bash”: {
“str_min”: 120, “str_max”: 400,
“sound”: “crash!”,
“sound_fail”: “whump!”,
“ter_set”: “t_rock_floor”,
“items”: [
{ “item”: “rock”, “count”: [6, 12] },
{ “item”: “material_rocksalt”, “count”: [0, 1], “prob”: 10 },
{ “item”: “socks”, “count”: [1, 2], “prob”: 2 }
]
}
}
]

{
“type” : “furniture”,
“id” : “f_grave_head”,
“name”: “headstone”,
“symbol”: “_”,
“color”: “lggray”,
“move_cost_mod”: 1,
“required_str”: -1,
“flags”: [“TRANSPARENT”, “SHORT”, “NOCOLLIDE”, “ALLOW_FIELD_EFFECT”, “MOUNTABLE”, “PLACE_ITEM”],
“bash”: {
“str_min”: 50, “str_max”: 150,
“sound”: “crash!”,
“sound_fail”: “thump!”,
“items”: [
{ “item”: “rock”, “count”: [2, 4] }
]
}
},{
“type” : “furniture”,
“id” : “f_grave_stone”,
“name”: “gravestone”,
“symbol”: “^”,
“color”: “dkgray”,
“move_cost_mod”: 2,
“required_str”: -1,
“flags”: [“NOITEM”, “TRANSPARENT”, “MOUNTABLE”, “ROUGH”, “PLACE_ITEM”],
“bash”: {
“str_min”: 60, “str_max”: 160,
“sound”: “crash!”,
“sound_fail”: “thump!”,
“items”: [
{ “item”: “rock”, “count”: [8, 14] }
]
}
},{
“type” : “furniture”,
“id” : “f_grave_monument”,
“name”: “obelisk”,
“symbol”: “$”,
“color”: “black_white”,
“move_cost_mod”: 2,
“required_str”: -1,
“flags”: [“NOITEM”, “SUPPORTS_ROOF”, “WALL”],
“bash”: {
“str_min”: 80, “str_max”: 180,
“sound”: “crash!”,
“sound_fail”: “thunk!”,
“items”: [
{ “item”: “rock”, “count”: [18, 30] }
]
}
}

Right off the rip I have some new stuff I want to introduce. The smooth stone could be usful anywhere, so I expect to see it happen.

3

What’s the deal with socks in stone?

Smooth rock could be constructible from the non-smooth one.

Don’t use the old _v and _h terrain designations. Check out brick wall in data/json/terrain.json - it has automatic symbol selection, which means no duplicate entries that only differ by the symbol.

Split them up when PRing, preferably starting with the small ones and item groups.

4

I looked for hair. but alas :frowning: Socks are forcing it a little.

What do you mean constructed from? how do? or how to prepare that so somebody can do it?

5

I really like this :smiley:

It doesn’t really seem to be a frivolous addition to me for several reasons:

[ul][li]It could help convey to the player on how zombies were created. Perhaps some evidence that slime had seeped into the graves.[/li]
[li]Some of the smaller cemeteries could have a chance to have a eldritch theme to them. Perhaps evidence or presence of cultists or nether beings.[/li]
[li]Could add an undertaker profession that starts in a cemetery. Totally old zombie movie vibes. One man and his shovel against an army of the dead.[/li]
[li]I really want to play as a schizophrenic graverobber.[/li][/ul]

6

Except dead things don’t come back to life if they weren’t infected by the blob before they died. :stuck_out_tongue: As a matter of fact cemeteries are probably one of the safer places to be in the cataclysm; due to the fact that they had relatively little living people present at any given time on top of their naturally defensive construction with fences around them.

(The other ideas are pretty cool though).

7

Yeah true, forgot about that.

Though it would be nice to see evidence on certain coffins that people were buried alive >:)

8

They would be staffed like the rest of the game. People who often visited cemeteries would wander there as zombies, and wildlife would spawn there.

Im not against the idea of occultism and such there either. There places have a store of (concrete encased) bodies and seclusion. And a bit of civilization in the form of shelter and buildings and it would theoretically be easy to run a generator inside a crypt.
<.< >.> And if I were to a add a cyborg guarding a stash of weapons, a crypt is where Id do it.

So, small cemeteries would be easy enough. I might add in a ‘decreped headstone’, something old and crumbly. They would be tacked onto cathedrals if I could do so. Or 2 of them could be.
2x3 isnt too much for a cathedral. And spoppy too. Can we add mudmen from RtCW?

2x2s are, as Ive said, smaller well to do cemeteries. This is where I expect to find small churches, and its seclusion would be where I’d expect to also find any cultists. They are back from the city, attatched to smaller cities, and even in the woods.

3x3s are you standard ‘public’ cemeteries. Practical affairs, with perhaps a few masauleums and maybe a large central complex for above mentioned cremated remains and plaques, or anything of the sort.

4x4s are large woodsland cemeteries, the most opulant ones.

5x5s are going to be city-side.

Im going to lay out a 2x2s first. A church, a drive-way, a small dirt path, and some trees along its stone half-wall borders. No real mausaleums, and a reduced number of headstones. Id like to make at least 2 of each kind, so 2 of this and then maybe 1 or 2 ‘old, forgotten’ cemeteries fo 2x2.

Connecticut, where I am, is southern, industrialized NE. We dont get moose, and we have boatloads of old cemeteries and even some civil-war era stuff. Even my city has relocated some early 19th century headstones for display.

120 000 people in my city. And we have a plaque and bell on display on our original town green from well over 100 years ago. We also have some abandoned factories from 40 years ago, so maybe all historical landmarks arent th best ones.

9

I tried the XOXO bit.

HAO5la9.png537×561

Gonna have to relook at that.

This is a prototype for the 2x2 cemetery. yes, no?

-The perimeter is a half stone wall.
-The blue # are fence posts. chains will maybe spawn there.
-The building is a little church with a little hatrack and a little font (statue) and and a few benches. The dark n by the window is a stone slab. I could take it out or try to merge that particular item.
-Im holding a cube of debugging, so you wont have that view in-game.
-the trees and shrubs are all randomly generated from a list. 3 different lists, actually. Sounds more intense than it is.

10

A resounding yes.

11

Layout looks very good!

But i dont think we need that many size variations of cemeteries it’ll probably be enough to have 2x2 and 4x4 as the two sizes. It’ll be better to do thematic variations of them, since otherwise I think they could feel boring to explore.

12

You also need to add the auto symbol flag

EDIT: And there should be a “connect_to” field that should help with those weird 1-tile walls that don’t connect to windows.

13

This stuff looks great! I am all for more and more and more building diversity. Would there be the possibility for descriptions or names on the headstones? Like, using the NPC name generator, and a random birth/death date, or something.

14

idk.

Signs can have things on them, but as far as I know thats a hardocded attribuite.

15

Wouldnt that work?

{ "x": 7, "y": 2, "signage": "Here lies <given_name> <family_name>" },

Assuming you make tombstones a variation of wooden signs.

16

This is looking more or less like the final iteration of the cemetery. Ill add in some variation in things like the parking lot and church.

Speaking of the church. Im worried too many coats might spawn inside. Im not a fan.

HH2Ruwp.png561×575

But here. Its the 3rd (plus 5) day of the apocalypse, and its drizzling out, and I just got done filling up my waterskins in a nearby river, and driving through a city, and theres swamplands all over. A very wet world, and the cemetery is a somber place when wet and foggy.
The shurbbery is all random, based on whatever list. Some of the graves are randomly generated, some are fixtures.

17

[quote=“John Candlebury, post:15, topic:11910”]Wouldnt that work?

{ "x": 7, "y": 2, "signage": "Here lies <given_name> <family_name>" },

Assuming you make tombstones a variation of wooden signs.[/quote]
That would work if I was okay with using wooden signs as gravestones.

I could try placing graves on top of signs explicitly, but Im not sure if the original signage would stay. Or if the sign would die. Im fairly sure it would get overwritten.

18

As soon as the first one gets approved/doesnt Ill begin on the larger ones.

In the meantime, Ive has a few early game experiences with the ‘religious cemetery’. They are very sparsely populated, if at all, and have the basics to provide for a survivor.

My naked alcoholic self, dragged out of a nearby 2 house city, found a cemetery nearby in the woods. I took shelter inside the church, and while waiting, smashed the benches to make fishing hooks and then a wooden needle.

I then cut up the coats and 2 sheets and crafted socks and footwraps, for the frozen winter ground was murder on my feet.
I made some basic arm/leg warmers, and dressed myself in a cassock. I put on what I found and made enough to keep everything but my head warm. I finished as thre sun came up. Really, the only thing I brought with me was a glowstick. And the rest was provided for. I even made a crowbar before I left, and found 2 steel chains by the entrance leaving.

I hope that the steel chains give later game characters a reason to go. I hear you need around 40 of them to make a tank tread, so a guarentted (mostly, they are 4 50% spawns, iirc) chain or two should attract people to them if they see them.

19

What about a midgame survivor, who doesn’t need both clothes and chains?
Maybe add a tool shed, every cemetery should have one, i guess, even if it’s already full, for maitenance too. A shovel, hammer, lawnmower, stuff like that.
A small(5x5) crypt or mausoleum would be neat. Locked with a metal door or bars, to block newbie survivors. With somewhat decent rich people loot. Fake swords, gold watches, very rarely a CBM. If you could butcher one, it makes sense that it would survive in remains.

20

Yea, larger cemeteries will have more buildings.

tbh, the one above is small, even for an out of the way cemetery. A 2x3 or 3x3 would be better. I just cant fit a shack, a church, a drive, and the cemetery itself onto 2x2 with any good aesthetic.

Its functional, and in my opinion reasonable. So.
:o one of the beautiful things about running my own mod is that I can put this into my mod even if it isnt put into the core game. Its a win-win no matter what.

For larger ones, I do want to include a ‘secret’ basement level. Rather, have one have a chance to spawn. Essentially, imagine a small crypt on the surface. Going up to it, theres a stairwell. Underneath, there is a, say 25% weighted chance to have a basement.
Id rig up a 300 weight Pure rock json mapgen, simulating the normal strata. Then I also have a 100 weight ‘basement’, where Id put in things like those manacles or maybe try to put in a dracula reference or something.