Using game editor while not 'cheating'

[ElanaAhova_slith]

Shared discussion on using the in game editor while not 'cheating.'

I use it several ways.

First. I rename home planet, and significant places in home system. My flavor.

Second. Around home planet, etc. I edit in several small moons. I delete all resources from said moons. I shrink them to 30%. These serve and anchorages. They are close to planet. I can station defensive fleets here - and not suffer the clutter of having them 'on' the planet. Also allow me to easily see the two or three different fleets there. I'm a visual learner, and long lists of 'data take longer for me to process.
Besides, I my mil doctrine has fleets stationed, not patrolling. Saves gas, cuts down on refueling. Patrolling a system has no advantage over a fleet stationed there.

Your tips for editing?

[rjord2021]

The editor is a great tool for playing the game differently and as such is not cheating .....well not unless you start adding in capital ships in your system when your home world gets attacked.

With my Star Trek mod one of the things people will do .... when it is released..... is use the editor to make a world quarantined.... eg Tarsus IV.... or to set up No Go Zones using an idea I was thinking about yesterday.

Along the Klingon and Romulan neutral zones I want to have the ability to deploy a new type of ship.... a monitoring station ..... which will be placed via the editor once one of your ships arrives there. A line of monitoring stations will be built along the edge of the Neutral Zone. You will know when a Romulan or Klingon crosses the Neutral Zone as they will attack the nearest monitoring station. You will receive a notification at the top of the screen that one of your monitoring stations was attacked and can zoom to the location to see what ship crossed into your space.

[Cauldyth]

I'm colourblind, and I use the editor to change the colour of AI empires if they are too close to each other (or to me) for me to distinguish. [:D]

I also use it to "cheat" and see which empires are in close proximity to me, to ensure that it'll be an interesting game - not too many friendly ones, and not too many hostile ones.

[Hattori Hanzo]

I consider myself a "purist" and so I DON'T use the the game editor in my games.

it would ruin both the pleasure of galactic exploration and the feeling of "deep immersion" in the whole strategic situation.

I conceive the game editor only as a tool for creating new scenarios or mods.

[rjord2021]

When i go into the editor I don't want to see the location of other Empires before I meet them.

What I do is zoom in close to the area of the explored system I want to edit and then use the editor to do whatever I wanted to do.

Example.... in my Star Trek mod I might find myself close to Klingon space which would be somewhere in the direction of the top right of screen. In order to make sure Klingon ships don't enter my space I want to setup 3 monitoring stations on the border of our system as shown by X's below.

Before I go into the Editor I zoom in close to the area of what I want to edit. As long as you do not zoom back out you are not going to see where anything else is on the map.

[Retreat1970]

I like messing with the editor but not in games. The only thing I will do is change the homeworld name then I will faceroll a password so I can never go back.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: rjord1

When i go into the editor I don't want to see the location of other Empires before I meet them.

What I do is zoom in close to the area of the explored system I want to edit and then use the editor to do whatever I wanted to do.

Example.... in my Star Trek mod I might find myself close to Klingon space which would be somewhere in the direction of the top right of screen. In order to make sure Klingon ships don't enter my space I want to setup 3 monitoring stations on the border of our system as shown by X's below.

Before I go into the Editor I zoom in close to the area of what I want to edit. As long as you do not zoom back out you are not going to see where anything else is on the map.

in my opinion the above Monitoring Stations should be built by Construction Ships as usual not by the "Magic Wand" of the game editor: just my two cents.

ps: anyway, very interesting the idea of zooming before to open the game editor to preserve seeing unknown locations.

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

in my opinion the above Monitoring Stations should be built by Construction Ships as usual not by the "Magic Wand" of the game editor: just my two cents.

Monitoring Stations will now be Deep Space Stations such as K-7 from Trouble with Tribbles and will be separate to Starbases and will be built by construction ships.

[ElanaAhova_slith]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

ORIGINAL: rjord1

When i go into the editor I don't want to see the location of other Empires before I meet them.

What I do is zoom in close to the area of the explored system I want to edit and then use the editor to do whatever I wanted to do.

Example.... in my Star Trek mod I might find myself close to Klingon space which would be somewhere in the direction of the top right of screen. In order to make sure Klingon ships don't enter my space I want to setup 3 monitoring stations on the border of our system as shown by X's below.

Before I go into the Editor I zoom in close to the area of what I want to edit. As long as you do not zoom back out you are not going to see where anything else is on the map.

in my opinion the above Monitoring Stations should be built by Construction Ships as usual not by the "Magic Wand" of the game editor: just my two cents.

ps: anyway, very interesting the idea of zooming before to open the game editor to preserve seeing unknown locations.

I think the star trek mod maker is using trying to set the stage for the scenario - with an already established neutral zone. Birth of the federation (Archer) would have the neutral zone as a future event - and possible goal in that game

[Rising-Sun]

I did the same thing, considering not cheating, but I really wanted to rename the system and the planets I started in. For example, using I, II, III, IV, etc instead of numbers for my planets.

[ElanaAhova_slith]

I'm with rising sun - it is not cheating.

I rename the planets, moons in my home system. And any systems I have colonies. On the lists, its sometimes hard to find colonies on moons, etc. If I send a ship to... the drop down list can be confusing. So...
I rename colonies as (example) "Sol 3 PRIME." On all data lists, easy to find the colony. If the colony is on a moon - don't you love the default moon names? "Bx327" So... Colony on moon orbiting say, Jupiter, Sol system: "Sol 5 <pick a name for the moon> PRIME" or... "BETA" if its secondary colony.

Same with fuel stations. Add "FUEL" to end of planet / moon name. So if I am sending a ship to be refueled, and I don't want it cluttering up the space port, (cause the refuel order seems to always select the planet's port) I can send it to, via drop down list, the planet with the gas.

All done by editing with the console.

[Hattori Hanzo]

about colonies, they can be renamed directly in game without need to use the game editor.

[Retreat1970]

The only reason I would care about how anyone uses the editor is if it affected our multiplayer game... oh wait carry on do whatever.