Moogie:
I don\'t think it\'s very realistic to expect people to buy a professional software package like 3DSMAX that costs thousands of euros, just to build their own buildings... I can imagine you guys don\'t want to code your own 3D modelling software. Blender would indeed be a nice alternative.
But what would be needed in order to allow people with limited 3D skills to create their own buildings, is a planeshift toolkit: A set of high-quality building pieces (textured meshes which fit to each other) which anyone who has done a basic tutorial in a 3D modelling program is able to piece together. Such as the morrowind CS provides. Of course, these premade meshes could be provided for blender too.
By the way, to the people who would like to build their own buildings ingame: I would prefer that over an editor any day, but that would be extremely complex to code. It would of course be possible to sell housing parts ingame, but that would hardly be realistic or even better than an editor. I find it hard to imagine a more realistic approach...
If people just uploaded, it would be mas chaos. Think of it. Soeboy is bound to try to add a 50 story tower
That\'s why I propose to allow players to build structures out of premade blocks: for instance a tower, a domed structure, a piece of wall, a window, a bridge, etc. That will limit the exterior size of structures easily enough, and has the essential advantage that you don\'t need to download entire meshes and textures when you enter an area: You just need to download a references file to meshes already on your harddrive, packed with the game. And to prevent that someone builds a 50 storage building through abuse of building blocks anyway, there could be a maximum height included too.
