Scenario Editor ?

[Charly G]

The question is in the subject title.

[Tom Proudfoot]

It's in.... we waffled for a while because it's undocumented and needs some drastic cleaning up overall but we ended up leaving the button in for the brave.

[Granfali]

What we can do with the editor then? [&:]

-Select units for battle
-Change units parameters (FP, movement ...)
-Designing new scenarios
-Design new campaigns
-Use existing maps
-Create new maps...


Please give us complete information about the editor features. This aspect is vital for many of us to buy the game or not.

[z1812]

ORIGINAL: Tom Proudfoot

It's in.... we waffled for a while because it's undocumented and needs some drastic cleaning up overall but we ended up leaving the button in for the brave.

That does not sound very promising. With the Length of time it has taken to get this to a releasable state one must wonder how much longer it would take to have the editor working properly and not only for the brave.

As it stands now, for me to buy this, it would need to be really good and ship with a lot of scenarios.

[Tom Proudfoot]

The priority has always been the game itself. Not everyone uses the editor. But all the scenarios in the game were made with this editor and you can do everything with it that isn't hardcoded in (which is mostly events, and, from that previous question, # of campaigns). I hope to clean it up at some point but it basically works and there have always been more important things to address.

The main reason I say it is extra complicated and scary for LnL because of the LOS rules. On most hex types, LOS is determined by a combination of the terrain that the hex is flagged as as well as the background art. For example, LOS going through a 'building' hex can actually go cleanly through the hex if there is a gap in the building art for it to pass through.

The background art for the maps are a single image, and you indicate on the map where the art blocks LOS by drawing little polygons on top of every hex. This is ... tedious. The end result is pretty cool, and I'm not sure if there are any other hex-based computer wargames that actually do this, but it is does take a while to set up.

That said, this has already been done for all the existing map panels, you just go to a screen where you plop them down in a 3x3 grid however you want and that stuff is already all set. There are 29 of those panels, as well as a snowy version of a lot of them.

Unit parameters like FP and whatnot is not on a per-scenario basis. That stuff is all in a .csv spreadsheet used by all scenarios. If you only ever play by yourself, nothing is preventing you from changing or adding more units to the end. But for multiplayer sync reasons, this spreadsheet needs to match between players.

[rgb07460]

Hey Tom. Is there a manual for the editor? Just in case I missed out. Once again--great job.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Tom Proudfoot

The priority has always been the game itself. Not everyone uses the editor. But all the scenarios in the game were made with this editor and you can do everything with it that isn't hardcoded in (which is mostly events, and, from that previous question, # of campaigns). I hope to clean it up at some point but it basically works and there have always been more important things to address.

The main reason I say it is extra complicated and scary for LnL because of the LOS rules. On most hex types, LOS is determined by a combination of the terrain that the hex is flagged as as well as the background art. For example, LOS going through a 'building' hex can actually go cleanly through the hex if there is a gap in the building art for it to pass through.

The background art for the maps are a single image, and you indicate on the map where the art blocks LOS by drawing little polygons on top of every hex. This is ... tedious. The end result is pretty cool, and I'm not sure if there are any other hex-based computer wargames that actually do this, but it is does take a while to set up.

That said, this has already been done for all the existing map panels, you just go to a screen where you plop them down in a 3x3 grid however you want and that stuff is already all set. There are 29 of those panels, as well as a snowy version of a lot of them.

Unit parameters like FP and whatnot is not on a per-scenario basis. That stuff is all in a .csv spreadsheet used by all scenarios. If you only ever play by yourself, nothing is preventing you from changing or adding more units to the end. But for multiplayer sync reasons, this spreadsheet needs to match between players.

That does sound like an interesting approach for LOS. But I'm glad to hear it's handled this way. And thanks for including the editor, regardless of it's current state.

Thanks!
Rick

[Charly G]

We are many to wait this game, but for a wargame with this scale level (squad), it is necessary to have some new scenarios after the release of the game. If the editor is too complex, there will be a very big difficulty to hope to see a new content. Wait and see.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: Charly G

We are many to wait this game, but for a wargame with this scale level (squad), it is necessary to have some new scenarios after the release of the game. If the editor is too complex, there will be a very big difficulty to hope to see a new content. Wait and see.

The editor is a bit difficult to learn, but once you have done it a couple of items it's pretty easy to use.

[undercovergeek]

ORIGINAL: Tom Proudfoot

It's in.... we waffled for a while because it's undocumented and needs some drastic cleaning up overall but we ended up leaving the button in for the brave.

youre really selling the editor function to us!

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: Rick

ORIGINAL: Tom Proudfoot

The priority has always been the game itself. Not everyone uses the editor. But all the scenarios in the game were made with this editor and you can do everything with it that isn't hardcoded in (which is mostly events, and, from that previous question, # of campaigns). I hope to clean it up at some point but it basically works and there have always been more important things to address.

The main reason I say it is extra complicated and scary for LnL because of the LOS rules. On most hex types, LOS is determined by a combination of the terrain that the hex is flagged as as well as the background art. For example, LOS going through a 'building' hex can actually go cleanly through the hex if there is a gap in the building art for it to pass through.

The background art for the maps are a single image, and you indicate on the map where the art blocks LOS by drawing little polygons on top of every hex. This is ... tedious. The end result is pretty cool, and I'm not sure if there are any other hex-based computer wargames that actually do this, but it is does take a while to set up.

That said, this has already been done for all the existing map panels, you just go to a screen where you plop them down in a 3x3 grid however you want and that stuff is already all set. There are 29 of those panels, as well as a snowy version of a lot of them.

Unit parameters like FP and whatnot is not on a per-scenario basis. That stuff is all in a .csv spreadsheet used by all scenarios. If you only ever play by yourself, nothing is preventing you from changing or adding more units to the end. But for multiplayer sync reasons, this spreadsheet needs to match between players.

That does sound like an interesting approach for LOS. But I'm glad to hear it's handled this way. And thanks for including the editor, regardless of it's current state.

Thanks!
Rick

It does sound good, it sounds almost like they way we played SL back in the day with a piece of thread or a rubber band from hex center to hex center. Anyhting crosses the line, LOS is blocked. Terrain elevations do muddle things up a bit.

[madDdog67]

Hopefully, some folks who are smarter and more talented than me (a low bar to be sure ) will figure out the editor and drop a bunch of scenarios for the rest of us.

[toddtreadway]

"The Guards Counterattack"

K, someone get to making it! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you missed out!

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: toddtreadway

"The Guards Counterattack"

K, someone get to making it! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you missed out!

You want scenario 1, 2 or 3? A version could be done.....

[Blond_Knight]

I played with the editor during the beta. The editor GUI is a bit minimalist, but Its not hard to understand guys. Don't panic over the lack of documentation.

[Meroka37]

Three scenarios I've done

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pm3c2kvyqzwz0 ... narios.zip

[Charly G]

ORIGINAL: Meroka37

Three scenarios I've done

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pm3c2kvyqzwz0 ... narios.zip

Thanks Meroka37.
Could you please post it in the Mods and Scenarios topic in order every player can see the three available scenarios. I think it's more easy for players looking for new content.

[MikeAP]

So can we import custom maps?

[Blond_Knight]

Yes you can. IIRC the "map" is just a bmp file. Then you add polygons in the editor(walls, hills, buildings, etc) to tell the AI how to act.