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Dungeon Alchemist
Cheat Codes:
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Submitted by: David K.
Building Tips:
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I have just completed one hundred hours using DA. I think I have about a
dozen building floors I have constructed in the program, most at the size
of an 8.5×11 (A4) sheet of paper. I have probably made more bedrooms than
anything else, but that will change as most assets become available. I want
to pass along my best lessons learned so far to help others build building
floors with Dungeon Alchemist.
I am a bit fussy about how the final product looks. So you may find that
some of my techniques are unnecessary, but to each his own. It helps to
have some familiarity with how the program’s AI works and what assets are
available. To achieve this, I recommend that you turn the AI on and just
build a few rooms. You select the icon in the top left, select a room type
from the topics (castle, outdoor, tavern, mansion…) and fence out an area
on the grid. If the rectangular area suits you, click on the check mark and
the program thinks and drops in a room of the type you selected in the menu
on the left had side of the page. If you want to add to your rectangle, just
keep adding space and when you have the shape you like, click on the check
mark.
The program will think and fill up the area with a sample of the room you
wanted. Everything you see can be changed except the walls must be walls
(more on that later) and the room perimeter is fixed. If you can’t live with
either of these things you have to delete the room and try again. You may
create open arches in the wall along the edge of the room, but this is just
a disguise because within the program the “wall” is still there. You may
also place doors or windows anywhere you want along the wall.
Once you have your first room, you may place other rooms. You may place
them touching the existing room or not. You can fill in empty spaces later,
if you like.
So this gets to my first tip. I build the rooms one by one and think about
how I want everything to “fit together” before I go on to decorating the
individual rooms. I have been well into a build when I realized I needed
a couple squares to make things fit on one room or another. But now, to
fix it, I have to delete two or more entire rooms. You want to “see” this
before you have invested a great deal of time in filling out the details.
So first off try to get the room placement right before you go into the
details.
Now after you have familiarity with the program and the assets, if you
want things to be decorated “just so” you will do better to turn the AI
off when you start. The pause after you click on the “check mark” and
the room is filled in by the program, is when the AI is thinking about
how to decorate your room. If you’re going to change almost everything,
then this just slows you down. But initially it helps to show you what
assets are available and how the AI thinks they could be used. This is
helpful, and this is why I would start with the AI on. You get to see
what assets are available and some ideas on how to combine them.
With the AI off, room building placement goes quick. With AI on it slows
down while the AI figures things out. It seems the AI takes much longer
in a large room because the possibilities go up as a cube of the length
of the sides of the room. With bigger rooms, more possibilities must be
considered. It is not a linear relationship.
When building multiple rooms you will see the exterior wall is built room
by room. Therefore the exterior wall doesn’t match along the outer wall,
and I have to fix that. Usually I want a single type of wall around the
outside of the whole building. Sometimes, for the kitchen, I want a masonry
wall, but I want something else for the remainder of the building. So after
I place the rooms, my first item to “clean up” is the perimeter wall. The
wall menu is the third option down on the menu at the top left. It looks
kinda like an arch door in a wall section. Select that and then select the
top of the three options, Walls, Doors, Windows. Then from there you select
Wood, Stone, Wallpaper/plaster, Iron Bars. Then with the type of wall you
want, you can just point to a wall, hold down the left mouse button and
“paint” the whole wall by dragging over it to change it to your option.
Sometimes you accidentally touch an interior wall, which you may have to
go back and ‘clean up’, but I find that I change most walls to suit me
anyway. Now, the wall junction will appear with a sort of “pillar”. The
pillar type is defined by the wall type that was there first. If you get
the wrong type, you rebuild the walls that touch that junction in the
right order, and then it will switch to match the “first wall.”
After I fix the outer walls, I fix the inner walls. You use the same
process. While I am doing this I am deleting doors and windows I don’t
want. I generally use one window type on the outside of the building
throughout, but sometimes. like with a church, there are reasons to use
multiple types. After I fix the walls and delete the unnecessary windows
and doors, I place the windows and doors where I think they should go.
After I have the windows and doors fixed/placed, I decide what floor
covering I want in each room and I fix that. The floor covering menu is
the last of the menus in the top left. Select floors, and then select
wood or stone/tile, and then select the specific one you want.
Paint the floors where you want them by clicking and holding down the
left mouse button.
Now it is important to select the rugs you want and place them. You
do this because placing them later can be a problem. They can be large
or there may be plenty of furniture in your way. The menus for the rugs
is in the objects menu at the top left. Then you select the first group
at the top, and the rugs are the third option down. There are five
standard rugs at this time. A square one is the last option. Some are
longer and thinner, better used for hallway runners. Others are wider
and better for the basic rooms. I think they all have a maximum size so
you may not be able to cover a whole room floor with only one. There is
also a trophy bear skin rug in another menu. With the walls, doors,
windows, floors and carpets placed, you’re ready to get down to business.
Just remember, you can do these things in whatever order you want.
I have just found that this is the fastest way to avoid having to rework
some rooms later.
I always place the bed and the washstand in bedrooms first. I often
place a trunk at the foot of the bed. I usually place a table and one
or more chairs in a bedroom. For important people, I typically place a
desk or a vanity dressing table. I place shelves, books, candles, a
drinking cup and other things in bedrooms.
In a study I place a desk with a quill pen and a small water pot (used
to rinse the quill pen). I place parchment paper for writing, a few
books, a few scrolls and a candle on a stand near the desk. I usually
have extra chairs in a study for visitors. I often place a table with
2-4 chairs, a candelabra, and drinking mugs or chalices, along with a
pitcher for water or a wine bottle. I usually place a basket for waste
paper.
If I have a library I often cover the walls with book shelves. As with
the “wardrobe”, I reduce the height (width and depth) of the book
shelves to be about the height of the wall. This also eliminates some
conflicts with other objects.
There are so many different ways to decorate rooms, and there will be
so many new objects, that I don’t want to spend more time talking
specifics about that.
In summary, after you have experience with the program:
* Turn off the AI.
* Build each room to make sure they fit together as you want.
* Replace the outer walls with a single sort.
* Replace the inner walls as you like, while deleting the windows and doors.
* Place the windows and doors as you like so things are consistent.
* Place the floor covering as you like.
* Place rugs as you like.
* Begin building and decorating individual rooms.
* Consider saving as you go in case you want to go back and take a
different direction.
* Once finished, delete the temporary saves.
* Have Loads of Fun!
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