SETTING UP AN INSTANCE PORTAL Overview This document will walk you through building an instance portal configuration for a server. For the purpose of this document, we are using version 6.2.0. The goal is to place a Base with a portal block on a spawned playfield. This will lead to a temporary playfield. You will need to determine both endpoints. First is the location of the source playfield. This will contain a Base with a Portal block. It should have an admin core to ensure NPCs or PCs cannot destroy it. The destination playfield will be created only when a player steps through the source portal. Base Creation In Creative mode construct a base. Save the structure as a blueprint with Right Alt + O. Bring up the blueprint with the F2 key. find and doubleclick the blueprint. Set and Document the values for the blueprint. Below is a summary of the settings. 1) Group Name. Can be used in the source playfield's yaml at creation time. More on this later. 2) Spawn Name. This will be the name of the structure when it is created. 3) Ground Offset. This is how high/deep the blueprint will spawn. 4) Flattens Ground. If set, this will level the ground around your structure to the specification of the Ground Offset. Refer to the image "Source Portal Blueprint Settings.jpg". If we want to spawn this with the planet is built, we will use the group name PortalTestAkua in the playfield's yaml. When the building is created, it will have the name PortalTest. Do the same process to create a destination portal. The settings we are using for this test are in the image "Destination Portal Blueprint Settings.jpg". Portal Strings Now that both are created, interact with your source portal's block. A dialog box will be displayed. You will need to enter a string specifying the portal's destination. This will be in the form of block@structurelayfield. The block name can be pulled from the structure's control panel. The structure's name is defined in the blueprint settings we did earlier. That playfield is defined in your sector.yaml. Let's setup the source portal. The string is Portal@PortalTest:AkuaInstance. To restate how this is created look at your blueprints. for the source portal's string, we have to look at the destination settings since that is where the portal will lead. So go to your destrination portal base and double check the name of your portal block's name. Mine is called Portal. The spawn name (shown in "Destination Portal Blueprint Settings.jpg") is PortalTest. The planet name is going to be called AkuaInstance. this will be setup later. For now just write down your names. Putting all this together, we get "Portal@PortalTest:AkuaInstance". Once you have the source portal string set, re-save your source Base's blueprint. We need to set the destination portal's string as well. to set this we are going to be be looking at the source Base's settings. The block name in this case is AkuaPortal. The base's spawn string is PortalTest. The planet name is Akua. So putting them together, we have "AkuaPortal@PortalTest:Akua". Set the string and resave the blueprint. For this test, I set a third base that will portal to Omicron. You can just copy the it from the attached zip file. Playfield Yamls We need to do some work on the instance's playfield yaml to make it an instance. We are using Akua, so make a copy of the Temperate yaml. In this test is is called "TemperateInstance". create the folder and drop in the yaml. Open the yaml in a test editor so you can make the require modifications. For each instance you will need to add the following string. Place it after the Seed and UseFixed settings. These define your instance values and are what do the real magic for creating temporary playfields. The are self documented. You can tweak them later since these do not create a permanant playfield. I would recommend while testing, to turn down the Time field to a very low value like 5. This lets you go in and make changes. When you get finish, the instance should be close to closing. Once you push it to production, set it to the real value. Now scroll down to the POIs: section. Under the Random: header, add your destination blueprint. The one I added looks like this: Make sure to fix your SpawnPOINear and/or SpawnPOIAvoid keys. If the group it references does not exist, the structure will not spawn. You might want to avoid Drone base and hostile POIs like I did. The alternative is people will have to dodge turret fire. I imagine if you wanted to be evil you could use SpawnPOINear for the drone base but you'll have ticked off users. Your destination yaml is set. Now fix your source yaml. You do not want to put in the Instance settings. Only put in the second part with the GroupName. This is assuming you are spawning in a fresh playfield or it is a new server start. Alternatively you could just spawn your blueprint with the console command spawnanyblueprint (sbp). Sector Yaml We are almost done. Open your sector yaml. Create a new sector for your instance(s). The test one is below. Just focus on the items after the Playfields: tag. We have a space playfield to house our instanced planets. the earlier thread states you do not need this. I spent around 6-7 troubleshooting and it turned out to be this was missing. According to Eleon you do not need it. If you want to avoid a massive headache, just go ahead and add it. Then add your instance playfield. The Name (AkuaInstance) needs to match your portal strings. The template (TemperateInstance) needs to match the playfield.yaml template we modified. If you done this right, it should work. As a reference, you can look at the attached zip with the examples referenced in this thread. Notes 1) You do not need a destination base portal. You can create a base with a teleporter. You can also be evil and not have a way back. But if you exit the game while in a portal you will be outside the portal when you log back in the game. 2) You cannot leave the playfield by flying. Once you try to enter orbit, it will kick you back. 3) If you enter a second portal, the first one will reset. This is why my example contains dual portals to an instanced version of both Akua and Omicron. You can flip flop between them and the old one resets. I am not sure what happens if you are in a group and try to go in a second portal while the group is in a seperate instance. I's suspect you are kicked out of the first one and cannot join your friends until they exit. 4) You can place multiple instances in one sector. The downside is players will see the other planets in the sky. But the cannot travel to them (See note 2) I hope this answered questions. Hopefully it does not confuse you more.
Just for confirmation the “source portal” is the first one correct? Because I am trying to interact with it and am getting nothing
Are you in god mod invisible? GM's is not enough. Just realize this guide was built several revisions ago.
If you made a new guide, it might be the first since you made your last guide. It might also be looked at by me. I've been looking everywhere for how to set these instances up, but I'm determined to have my hunting grounds. "You want farms? No. You are hungry? Here's a portal. Go hunt some raptors."
Would like this guide updated to include some additional details: 1. How to handle the new galaxy stars and whether it must be rigidly defined per the A12 notes 2. How to handle teleporters with multiple entry/one exit, how to configure an exit portal to return you to the portal you entered? 3. How to understand reading certain dialogue states like getInstanceTicket and getInstanceTicket(playfieldName) when you get one or more instances going 4. Taelyn implied there was some way to pass data through instances, is this possible through dialogue? If so, can it be explained here?
Just an observation when looking at the POI examples provided by Eleon; some are so dated it seem the portal blocks they use are broken. Try remove/replacing the portal block and then using the f to set target. For new portals, I've never had an issue.
