[Superseded by version 2.0] Map and mission Editor v1.4: Full of improvements and new features!

[Klofkac]

[UPDATE 1.7.2020]: Version 1.4 was superseded by version 2.0. Downloads in this topic are outdated. Go to this thread for more information and download of new version: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28802-map-and-mission-editor-new-major-version-20-pre-release/

Hello all!

It's finally time for a new release of D2kEditor!

It's been more than a year since I made the last release (v1.3). After some time of rest, I saw Warcraft 2 snowy tileset made by Cm_blast which inspired me to work on the program further. I wanted D2kEditor to be more friendly with custom tilesets, and ended up with plenty of ideas and improvements I made in order to make the program more powerful and yet easier to use.

I already showed preview of most of the new features in the other thread (https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28518-d2keditor-v14-new-feature-preview-new-tileset-research/) so you should be already familiar with most of them. But during last days, I worked intensively on even more bug fixes and new features that came into my mind, and here it is, really rich changelog.

Download (OUTDATED, take Release Candidate 3 please)

Changelog:

Added: Smooth spice rendering. Thin spice and thick spice is now drawn exactly how it appears in game.
Added: Save minimap image feature
Fixed: Outpost and Modified Outpost are visually distinguished by antenna turn direction.
Fixed: The "Maximized" window property is now preserved for all dialogs when you close and open program again.
Fixed: The last used directory for various open/save dialogs is preserved independently for each dialog.
Fixed: Scrolling map with arrows will always work
Fixed: Some key shortcuts (i.e. Ctrl+G) will no longer select a preset
Added: You can use Shift + mouse wheel up/down to change brush size
Added: You can hold Ctrl + click to map to easily and quickly switch to Select mode and start a selection 
Added: Select structures only mode. You can set the checkbox "Structures" next to "Select mode" radio button to
       third (grayed) state, which means select structures only. Useful for copying or moving a base layout.
Added: Area type in Select mode. You can make a selection only of tiles of specified type, which makes possible to
       select more precise non-rectangle areas. If you hold Shift, the selected area is erased, which makes possible to
       easily move the area around.
Added: Using "Reopen map" immediately after starting program will open the map which was open last time.
Added: New dialog window to change a tileset. When you start new map, this dialog will open so you can select a tileset.
Added: Reload tileset option. Useful when you modify tileset .ini file.
Changed: In D2kEditor.ini file, the default tileset is not specified as tileset index, but as tileset name 
         (setting was renamed to "DefaultTilesetName"). 
Added: Editor will load contents of custom TEXT.UIB file, if it is specified in mission .ini file.
       The "Test map" feature will automatically launch game with custom TEXT.UIB file.
Added: Preset Helper feature (accessible from "Open tileset" window). Here you can easily design a block preset and copy
       its code to tileset .ini file, or directly use that block in terrain editor.

Three major new features and changes:
1) Merged TileAtrEditor program into D2kEditor, so D2kEditor now has built-in Tile Attribute editor. 
   TileAtrEditor became obsolete and no longer needed.
2) Significant improvements related to creating maps using custom tilesets. 
   Creating maps using custom tilesets is now much easier and faster.
3) Major changes in tileset configurations (tileset .ini files) related to new features and improvements.
   You will need to update your custom tileset .ini files to make them compatible with this version of program.


Ad 1)
- Tile Attribute editor is now available from main menu under Tileset.
- You can edit the current tileset used by current map. Swithching tileset would change it for current map too. 
- You save map and tile attributes independently. When you save attributes, changes will apply immediately to your map.
- There is "Test in-game" feature (F8) that would save attributes and launch current map in game.

- You can now edit all 32 game attributes. Previously only 7 attributes (which were present in original TILEATRx.BIN files)
  were editable, but according to latest TILEATRx.BIN research, it was discovered that the other attributes are internal
  attributes used by game during gameplay for various purposes. You can achieve various effects using those additional
  attributes, for example place a real working concrete on a map.
- Editor attributes (special attributes used only by the editor to recognize which tile is sand, rock, dune tile etc.) are
  no longer part of TILEATRx.BIN files, because they conflicted with internal game attributes. You no longer need to 
  distribute two separate versions of TILEATRx.BIN files: one for game and one for editor.
- Editor attributes are stored inside tileset .ini file and editor saves them into .ini file automatically.
- TILEATRx.BIN files are no longer distributed with the program. The program loads these files from game folder.

- Added more flexible ways how you can filter tiles by attributes. Added "Filter tiles having any of attributes" mode,
  as well as "Filter tiles by rule" mode. Removed "Mark infantry-only" mode as this was just a specific case of a rule.
- "Filter tiles by rule" is the most advanced mode, where you can specify which attributes tiles need to have (either
  all of any of them) and which attributes tiles must not have (basically combination of all three previous filter modes).
  In this mode you can easily design your rule and then use it in your tileset .ini file.
- Added new view modes: "Draw minimap colors" and "Draw fill area groups" mode. These modes can help you design minimap
  color rules and fill area rules in your tileset .ini file, as you can easily and immediately see the result here.
- Added "Edit tile hint text" mode. Tile hint text is a text that displays in game when you move mouse cursor over that
  tile. In original tilesets this is used only on spice tiles.

Ad 2)
- In Terrain editing mode, there are now 4 common paint groups and 8 tileset-specific paint groups (12 paint groups total).
- The 4 common pain groups are reserved for Thin Spice, Thick Spice, Concrete and Void. The latter two are not commonly
  used in maps, but are potentially usable for new designs, or in custom tilesets. For example concrete can be used for
  decoration (in original tilesets it cannot be built on it), but it can be made buildable using specific tile attributes 
  and used as real concrete in for example Dune 2 tileset. The Void could be used to make non-rectangle maps, or it is 
  useful for indoors tilesets (i.e. Heighliner).
- The 8 paint groups can be used for any terrain types. The original tilesets use no more tha 3 types (Sand/Rock/Dunes) 
  or 4 types (Ice), however, in custom tilesets you can use all 8.
- Improved "Auto-Smooth edges" feature (Shift-Click) and made it more flexible and configurable for custom tilesets.
  You can take advantage of this feaure for any terrain type in custom tilesets, it is not strictly limited for
  Rock and Dunes edge in original tilesets.
- Added "Restrict painting" feature, which will let you paint specific tiles only on specific terrain type (i.e. spice and
  dunes can be painted only on sand, concrete can be painted only on rock). This can be turned off in Settings menu.
- Added support for block presets with "blank" tiles. You can now have presets of any shape (not strictly rectangle shape).

Ad 3)
- Changed the way how rules (minimap color rules, fill area rules) are specified. Rules are now specified in this form:
  $attrubites_tile_must_have
  -OR-
  $attrubites_tile_must_have;$attrubites_tile_must_not_have
  If $attrubites_tile_must_have is negative, it means tile must have ANY of specified attributes.
  To design a rule, you can simply use specific filter on Tile Attributes editor and just copy the rule specification.
- Fill area rules now have names. The names correspond to area types in Select mode.
- You can specify up to 12 paint groups in [Paint_Tile_Groups] section.
  Groups A,B,C,D are reserved for thin spice, thick spice, concrete and void.
  Groups 1-8 are tileset-specific groups you can use for any terrain type.
- The list of tiles used by a paint group is no longer specified by marking those tiles by editor attributes 
  (Paint type 1-4), but directly as part of paint group specification ("GroupX.paint_tiles"). You can specify same tile
  number multiple times, which would increase probability of that tile being randomly selected.
- The block presets used by "Auto-smooth edges" feature (Shift-click) are specified with "GroupX.smooth_preset_group" and
  "Group2.smooth_presets" properties. The presets are specified as list of keys on keyboard. There are two different modes
  of "Auto-smooth edges" feature:
  1) 20 presets mode: used by original Dune2000 tilesets. Uses 12 1x1 blocks and 8 2x2 curved blocks.
  2) 12 presets mode: uses only 1x1 blocks (4 straight blocks, 4 corners, 4 inner turns).
- Added paint group restruction rule, which can be specified as "GroupX.restriction_rule"
- The [Spice_Settings] section was completely removed. The spice minimap colors are now specified as additional minimap 
  color rules. The thin/thick spice name, tile and restriction rule is specified as part of paint group A and B.
- Spice is now also specified as separate fill area group.
- Changed way how custom block presets (= blocks consisting of tiles not continuously arranged in tileset) are specified.
  You no longer need to specify them under separate [Custom_Blocks] section, but directly under [Block_Preset_Group_X]
  section along with standard blocks. To distinguish custom blocks, the width and height must be negative.
  You can utilize "Preset Helper" feature to easily design a block preset, and then copy its code and paste to .ini file.
- Normal block presets are represented as "width.height.tileset_x.tileset.y", but you can newly specify them also in
  simplified form "width.height.tile_index"
- Added "default_paint_group" under [Basic] section which is used to fill a new map. If not specified, group 1 is used.

Just try it out and I hope you will like it.

Note that this is still a Release Candidate, so in case you find any problem or bug, or any other idea comes into your mind, you can tell me and I can still add it into the release before it will get officially published on D2K+ website.

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

This is interesting, avast warned me; not being a dangerous .exe but "we are going to interrogate him and giving you an answerd in 40 minutes", although was mostly 40 seconds, already told me it's safe; but it is weird, doesn't happen with the previous version.

There is plenty of stuff to try, test and use. I guess that with the bins out I no longer need to have two copies not even for custom, just one into the game's folder and that's it; and after that, with the .ini game will load the correct.bin itself.

I think I already said it, but I have a new computer, so I found recently (just opening the editor a bit to see if was still working) something that still happens here: about windows being maxed, with my current new resolution: 1920x1080.

I found that the missions settings have a bit of trouble if I click on "maxed", dissapear a bit from the bottom entering the taskbar.

 <--- the grey bottom it's the windows taskbar; you can see that the bottom arrow it's varely visible.

If I don't use "max" and simply resize it doesn't happen.

 

But I can see that the editor now remember the position of the windows so, I don't mind if I need to have the window a bit resized, since I am going to do it only once and not everytime I open the editor. So as far as I am concerned, not need to change the "maximiced" windown, which I guess on other resolutions looks fine; but in case I leave the comment.

However, the main windown it's much more problematic:

 <--- The bottom part it's too much into the bottom, and this happen either I use the window at "max" or not.

Again, my resolution it's no longer the one I had some months ago, now it is 1920x1080, slighly taller that it was before; the previous editor's version doesn't have any problem in this regard.

 <-- all enter perfectly.

I think this happens because before there were 2 lines between all the tiles and the "paint mode" text, but now there are 4. Three with tiles, but the "paint mode" text also takes one.

The Structures tab works fine, almost indentical. It's just the terrain one that I cannot select the presets at the bottom.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Feda]

Hey, looks like a pretty big update. Will definitely get my hands on it soon and continue my campaign. Thanks for the update!

[Klofkac]

13 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I found that the missions settings have a bit of trouble if I click on "maxed", dissapear a bit from the bottom entering the taskbar.

Well, it seems that Windows will maximize the window even over the task bar so the bottom of window gets hidden behind the task bar. On my end it works as intended, the window maximizes only till the task bar. Not sure if I can do anything to fix this, seems to be rather behavior of Windows.

13 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

<--- The bottom part it's too much into the bottom, and this happen either I use the window at "max" or not.

Again, my resolution it's no longer the one I had some months ago, now it is 1920x1080, slighly taller that it was before; the previous editor's version doesn't have any problem in this regard.

You say your resolution is 1920x1080, but that is not right. From your screenshot I can see, your vertical resolution is 750 pixels.

The minimum needed vertical resolution for all controls to be visible is 768 pixels, and on my old laptop where I'm developing the editor I have 1366x768 and all the controls just tightly fit. I don't expect anyone would use any less resolution.

Maybe you could recheck your resolution? Check especially scaling, you might have scaling bigger than 100%.

7 hours ago, FedaYkin said:

Hey, looks like a pretty big update. Will definitely get my hands on it soon and continue my campaign. Thanks for the update!

Yea, you should definitely try this out. I believe mapping will become even more fun!

[Cm_blast]

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

Maybe you could recheck your resolution? Check especially scaling, you might have scaling bigger than 100%.

It's that, I have scalled to 150%.

This monitor it's not specially big, didn't have too much room in the table; I also tried with multiple resolutions, but even the ones that are suppose to be in the same proportion (but smaller) I found that the icons looked a bit blurry; so I simply left the recommended resolution and increase to 150% to make things bigger enough to not hurt my eyes trying to read too small words.

Can be possible to add one of these scrolling buttons?

 <--appearing to the right  just like this (but better done) --> 

If not possible then it's I need to turn to 125% while terrain edition and then I can come back to 150% for any other purposes: placing buildings and scripting has no trouble. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

2 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

If not possible then it's I need to turn to 125% while terrain edition and then I can come back to 150% for any other purposes: placing buildings and scripting has no trouble.

Well, this looks quite unfortunate, by scaling up you basically get much less resolution, even less than the minimum required 768 pixels vertical resolution. Then it's probably much  better to have something like a "cheap" 1366*768 monitor of same physical size rather than FullHD one.

I'm sorry but I don't think I can do much to "fix" this, adding scrollbar would just be too much complicated. I can only recommend you to switch to at least 125% scaling, as an advantage you will see more part of the map you are editing. Or other possibility, with 150% scaling you can still reach the invisible buttons by F1-F4 key shortcuts, did you know that? You can also try to set task bar to automatically hide, then you will gain slightly more room.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

Well, thanks for trying at least. as with most of other things new for me with this computer I will think of the best solution and will adapt, either it is turning to 125%, using the shortcuts, or even I may use both editors, except maybe for custom tilesets if they won't work the same way; or maybe there is a specific combination of X resolution with X scalling that I have have clarity and big enough. I'll adapt.

[Klofkac]

One small new feature I implemented today: Named tilesets!

Now you can specify a tileset name in .ini file, and that name would display on the tileset selection window. Looks much better, doesn't it?

Ini file example (BLOXCRFT.ini)

[Basic]
name=Warcraft 2 Snowy
tileatr=TILEATRC

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

I saw you added a 8x8 limit when selecting tiles from the whole tileset. After selecting anything bigger than 8x8, the program just simply reduce to a 8x8.

I have a reason for I would like to have that feature back, and it is because when doing a new tileset, I tend to copy and paste the whole tileset.
It's true that the first reason was to know the X and Y position for the .ini to create the group of blocks and the assigned keys. Since your editor do it on his own I guess I won't need to do that anymore.

But there is another thing I used to do with the whole tileset pasted into the map: knowing which tiles I had already assigned and which ones not... or simply using the middle button to pick the tiles and try to match them (it took me a while to find the good way to match the warcraft walls. Whatever a tile it was already assigned to a key (Q it's the top-left) I write it into the .ini and save, but after switching bewteen tilesets (so it updates) to know if I did right, the next it's marking that top-left-corner-tile with a black square.

This way I know that that tile it is already assigned to a key and focus on the rest; which help if the tiles are scatered, like the Red alert ones, just having most in Black squares help me later when it is only left to assign water tiles for example; easy to spot by looking at the map directly.

Sometimes the tileset has several versions of an specific tile, and there aren't always together, having marked the ones that I have done and seeing "oooh, I missed that one". <-- if you check the Red alert interior, some keys have like 10 tiles different, it's crazy.

I hope I am explaining myself good. Here an imagen to illustrate.

I still don't have the .ini from custom tilesets there, so it only shows bloxbgbs, but you can see that to the left I have the whole tileset pasted and to the right my testing on how the tiles match each other and things like that.

EDIT: I saw another change you did.
On version 1.3, If I click on "windtrap", and I use the keys, I could move up and down on the units or buildings, but now if I use the keys the map moves. probably you though that moving the map with the keys was more important that selecting the options while in terrain mode, but when I build an AI base, I tend to choose windtrap, and place them or simply start placing other core buildings first. So I hit the "down arrow" and think where I place the Construction Yard, hit "down arrow" again and place barracks and so on.

With the change to build a base I need to click on the construction yard, then go into the map, place it, then go with the mouse to the right and click on barrack, place a barrack, then again into the middle of the mpa, then again for an outpost, a light factory and so on... With the keys I can select all the buildings withouth moving the cursor too far from the site that I am designing the base (which changes all the time to adjust positions or alter a bit the rock available or other details added).

To not remove that feature (moving the map with the cursor), maybe you can add an option into the settings sub-menu to behave one way of another. But if not, I would prefer the old behaviour; adding Ai infantry, trikes and tanks it's the same deal. Selecting the units it's more faster if I don't need to keep clicking on them individually; at least this is for me.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

15 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I saw you added a 8x8 limit when selecting tiles from the whole tileset. After selecting anything bigger than 8x8, the program just simply reduce to a 8x8.

There is kind of technical reason for this, I added the "Preset Helper" feature where you can design your preset and easily copy all the numbers into your .ini file. In Preset Helper you can design block of maximum size 8*8, so I added the limit in order to prevent Preset Helper from breaking. I did not expect anyone would ever copy any bigger block from tileset, so I assumed this limitation would not mind anyone.

I can see you are copying whole tileset to your map. This can be achieved by just having a saved "map" with placed all tileset, and when you need it, you just open that map and do your stuff, or simply select all the "tileset" from your existing map and copy and paste it.

15 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

But there is another thing I used to do with the whole tileset pasted into the map: knowing which tiles I had already assigned and which ones not... or simply using the middle button to pick the tiles and try to match them (it took me a while to find the good way to match the warcraft walls. Whatever a tile it was already assigned to a key (Q it's the top-left) I write it into the .ini and save, but after switching bewteen tilesets (so it updates) to know if I did right, the next it's marking that top-left-corner-tile with a black square.

This way I know that that tile it is already assigned to a key and focus on the rest; which help if the tiles are scatered, like the Red alert ones, just having most in Black squares help me later when it is only left to assign water tiles for example; easy to spot by looking at the map directly.

Sometimes the tileset has several versions of an specific tile, and there aren't always together, having marked the ones that I have done and seeing "oooh, I missed that one". <-- if you check the Red alert interior, some keys have like 10 tiles different, it's crazy.

Well, I hope I understood correctly what you mean there. So I want to tell you, that you most probably did not know about "Check block preset coverage" feature, which is doing exactly what you describe there! Just look:

So the tiles are marked with colors this way:
Blue = Tile is included in a paint group in paint mode. The number is number of paint group.
Green = Tile is included in a block preset only once.
Red = Tile is included block presets more than once. Red color can be seen on some trees and rocks tiles, that's because you included some pre-fabricated presets for trees/rock of different sizes. On the picture these are presets on the first row.
Purple = Red + Blue
Cyan = Green + Blue

I made the Check block preset coverage feature for myself when I was designing ini files for original Dune 2000 tilesets and also some custom tilesets, and hoped this would be useful for you and did not know you actually missed this.

Another thing to remind, when you do some change to your ini file (add a preset or anything) and save, you can reload tileset (Ctrl+Shift+R) which will reload the ini file and display the changes immediately.

16 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

EDIT: I saw another change you did.
On version 1.3, If I click on "windtrap", and I use the keys, I could move up and down on the units or buildings, but now if I use the keys the map moves. probably you though that moving the map with the keys was more important that selecting the options while in terrain mode, but when I build an AI base, I tend to choose windtrap, and place them or simply start placing other core buildings first. So I hit the "down arrow" and think where I place the Construction Yard, hit "down arrow" again and place barracks and so on.

With the change to build a base I need to click on the construction yard, then go into the map, place it, then go with the mouse to the right and click on barrack, place a barrack, then again into the middle of the mpa, then again for an outpost, a light factory and so on... With the keys I can select all the buildings withouth moving the cursor too far from the site that I am designing the base (which changes all the time to adjust positions or alter a bit the rock available or other details added).

To not remove that feature (moving the map with the cursor), maybe you can add an option into the settings sub-menu to behave one way of another. But if not, I would prefer the old behaviour; adding Ai infantry, trikes and tanks it's the same deal. Selecting the units it's more faster if I don't need to keep clicking on them individually; at least this is for me.

Well, I might try to solve it the way, that when your mouse cursor is over the map, you would use arrows to scroll map, but when you move cursor over the building/unit selection part, you would scroll the list. Right now, it works exactly this way with the mouse wheel: when you scroll mouse wheel up/down and your mouse cursor is over map section, it would scroll map, but when you move cursor to the right, you would scroll the building/unit list. Just try it out if you did not know that.

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

I can see you are copying whole tileset to your map. This can be achieved by just having a saved "map" with placed all tileset, and when you need it, you just open that map and do your stuff, or simply select all the "tileset" from your existing map and copy and paste it.

So opening a map, copy the whole map (the left part, at least), and then opening a different map and paste it; that's your solution.
I guess I cannot be done that if the "preset helper" it's marked, limit the 8x8 but if not I am free to choose, right?

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Well, I hope I understood correctly what you mean there. So I want to tell you, that you most probably did not know about "Check block preset coverage" feature, which is doing exactly what you describe there! Just look:

I made the Check block preset coverage feature for myself when I was designing ini files for original Dune 2000 tilesets and also some custom tilesets, and hoped this would be useful for you and did not know you actually missed this.

That's totally usefull.

By the way, the imagen with the tree tiles it's a key assign you did or because you updated the .bin the values on the .ini mess up so it needs to be redone?

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Well, I might try to solve it the way, that when your mouse cursor is over the map, you would use arrows to scroll map, but when you move cursor over the building/unit selection part, you would scroll the list. Right now, it works exactly this way with the mouse wheel: when you scroll mouse wheel up/down and your mouse cursor is over map section, it would scroll map, but when you move cursor to the right, you would scroll the building/unit list. Just try it out if you did not know that.

That doesn't solve the problem.
The idea it's not moving my cursor just to change a building or a unit; I will show you easily with these two videos (bottom of the post).

Ignore the crap quality, I recored just to take as small megas as possible. 
On 1.3, I can do a base and units fast, with the 1.4 it is much more tedious.

Of course, for this example the rock was to the very right, just to reduce the size of the videos, but now imagine if I need to do it at the opposite site.

Also, this imagen: It's going to be level of "open the tileset per every different tile" kind of tedious before the key assigned was created.
Just imagine moving the cursos 30 times all that distance to keep choosing windtraps, turrets, walls, and... everything.

It's just that I cannot imagine designing an insane base like this having to move the cursor to the right part of the editor in order to change a building, when I keep swithing from windtrap, wall, building, wall, building, windtrap, wall, windtrap, building. 
 <-- this is a map I did long time ago.

There are plenty of times I move or even remove buildings because I didn't like the position after I placed another building and realize that the factories were too closer... or too far... or whatever, so I'll redo half of the base and walls and reposition windtraps and walls again. 

And, since with the middle button you can move the map itself, it allows to have a 3 on 1: scrolling the map with the middle button, switchin structures/units with the arrow keys and still keeping the cursor in the desirable area, will minimal movement.

EDIT: I figure out the .ini thing with the trees not placed in the order it should be.
Version 1.3 uses 4 values for the blocks.
X size - Y size - X - Y.

Version 1.4 uses only 3.
X size - Y size - Position (on the tileset).

This may be the reason why my trees are in the wrong way (I checked the updated version you upload and the .ini has 4 values), and this may be the same reason why the Fey tileset had all the stuff bad positioned too.

I guess you changed the 4 values for 3 on purpose. There is an actual benefic of doing this? Or it is because your preset helper only understand the overall position of the tile from a tileset and not the X and Y values for that tile. It's that, right?

Edited April 12, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

1 hour ago, Cm_blast said:

By the way, the imagen with the tree tiles it's a key assign you did or because you updated the .bin the values on the .ini mess up so it needs to be redone?

Not sure how much you tried out the stuff I provided in this thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28603-tileset-ini-files-fine-tuned-for-d2keditor-14-warcraft-2-snowy-tileset/

I mentioned the changes I did, especially in this point: "- Reorganized Trees and Rocks block presets more logically and in same pattern as other block presets were organized, creating trees and rocks is much easier"

1 hour ago, Cm_blast said:

That doesn't solve the problem.
The idea it's not moving my cursor just to change a building or a unit; I will show you easily with these two videos (bottom of the post).

Ignore the crap quality, I recored just to take as small megas as possible. 
On 1.3, I can do a base and units fast, with the 1.4 it is much more tedious.

Of course, for this example the rock was to the very right, just to reduce the size of the videos, but now imagine if I need to do it at the opposite site.

Yes, I'm totally getting your point. So I can make it the way, that in structures mode when you select buildings or units, you can use arrow keys to change a selection of building/unit on the list (as it was before). In terrain mode you would scroll map with arrow buttons (as it was changed in 1.4).

By the way, not sure if you noticed, you can start typing the building/unit name on your keyboard to quickly select that building/unit. For example, you're placing buildings and you want to quickly swith to Heavy factory. So on keyboard it's enough to press "H" and it will quickly select Heavy factory. If you want to select Harkonnen palace, press "H" and "A" quickly. You can take advantage of this too.

2 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

EDIT: I figure out the .ini thing with the trees not placed in the order it should be.
Version 1.3 uses 4 values for the blocks.
X size - Y size - X - Y.

Version 1.4 uses only 3.
X size - Y size - Position (on the tileset).

This may be the reason why my trees are in the wrong way (I checked the updated version you upload and the .ini has 4 values), and this may be the same reason why the Fey tileset had all the stuff bad positioned too.

I guess you changed the 4 values for 3 on purpose. There is an actual benefic of doing this? Or it is because your preset helper only understand the overall position of the tile from a tileset and not the X and Y values for that tile. It's that, right?

In 1.4 I added possibility to define block presets in simpler way with 3 numbers, as "X size - Y size - Position". But there's still possibility to define presets the old way "X size - Y size - X - Y." for backwards compatibility. The benefit is basically more simplicity.

You need to download the latest 1.4 version of editor I provided in this thread. With version 1.3 or earlier preview versions of 1.4 this will not work and presets won't display.

[Cm_blast]

3 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Not sure how much you tried out the stuff I provided in this thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28603-tileset-ini-files-fine-tuned-for-d2keditor-14-warcraft-2-snowy-tileset/

I mentioned the changes I did, especially in this point: "- Reorganized Trees and Rocks block presets more logically and in same pattern as other block presets were organized, creating trees and rocks is much easier"

Oh wait, my .ini was one old for some reason, even although I had a folder called update separated from my last version; I download it again just to be sure.

Still, I feel the position you chose was a bit weird, there are too many tiles that repeat itself, taking too many letters and separated while doing the same.
I marked here Blue ones and green ones just as example.

On my composition you can create a full rectangle just with these, except the 3º on the first and last row, but with those you can do the edge, and then painting the middle, well, now even with your painting automatic tool. I could be swap the two columns position.

As you can see, I simply based on the same formula from the original tilesets, where the basic rectangle it's there, while the other details that are used less often are to the right,

In my case, those groups of 2x2, 2x3, 3x2... of trees added just to have a quick composition of basic tiles. But if we go strick those shouldn't even been there, that's why those are to the very right part of the group. If you want a composition to be done quick (or you struggle to do it yourself) one of these can be used. Same formula for the rock ones.

However, the heighliner new composition you made was better, grouping groups from color platforms if I remember well, which it's more likely I will focus on the corners, lines, and so on from the blue platform that having to jump from group to group depending if I need a corner, a wall or anything else.

3 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Yes, I'm totally getting your point. So I can make it the way, that in structures mode when you select buildings or units, you can use arrow keys to change a selection of building/unit on the list (as it was before). In terrain mode you would scroll map with arrow buttons (as it was changed in 1.4).

Oh yes; nothing wrong with that, on terrain mode the cursor moving the map it it's much better that seeing the paint mode, select mode, block mode... being selected. 

3 hours ago, Klofkac said:

By the way, not sure if you noticed, you can start typing the building/unit name on your keyboard to quickly select that building/unit. For example, you're placing buildings and you want to quickly swith to Heavy factory. So on keyboard it's enough to press "H" and it will quickly select Heavy factory. If you want to select Harkonnen palace, press "H" and "A" quickly. You can take advantage of this too.

Yes, I notice it, I think I started to use this on your first version, where all the structures and units were placed together.

Nowadays I still keep writting "Combat" even when I know that "C" it's enough; but, you know "Constr yard" was before xD; hard to brake a habit. I also write "dev" most the time; "d" it's enough and "dev" doesn't even place me on the devastator if that's the unit that I wanted, but nothing than pressing the down arrow key cannot fix.

3 hours ago, Klofkac said:

In 1.4 I added possibility to define block presets in simpler way with 3 numbers, as "X size - Y size - Position". But there's still possibility to define presets the old way "X size - Y size - X - Y." for backwards compatibility. The benefit is basically more simplicity.

Good, I like both being accepted.
custom blocks require the -X, -Y always, right? and, as I see, they are placed now together with the rest of the group, much easier to look after. Just a question. Those need to be at the bottom or can be placed in whatever place I want?

For example:

Quote

[Block_Preset_Group_5]
Z=1.1.87;1.1.113
1=-1.-2.107.109
A=1.1.88;1.1.114
2=-1.-3.107.108.109
3=-2.-2.89.92.109.109
Q=1.1.89;1.1.115
W=1.1.90

This still would work or those really needs to be at the very bottom?

These questions referencing tilesets are oriented at that part you said: "backwards compatibility".
BLOXTD, BLOXTEM, BLOXTEM and BLOXINT require to update the rules, which well... if it has to be done I'll do it. But if I can keep the presets as they are the better. The tilesets are not mine and I already spend enough time on those.

But anyway; creating a new tileset with the preset helper seems really easy and quick to use; so thanks for that feature.
and the custom blocks, the way your program goes picking tile per tile and forming and imagen it's really cool.

3 hours ago, Klofkac said:

You need to download the latest 1.4 version of editor I provided in this thread. With version 1.3 or earlier preview versions of 1.4 this will not work and presets won't display.

I started creating a new single mission using the 1.4 version, but maybe it's the previous one; either way, I started with a regular arrakis map so, so far all goes well except for those small problems about the arrow keys not moving and so on. I don't have applied custom tilesets or the naming, that was a good idea.

And any tileset question goes because I could focus on the 2 tilesets that are actually mine and I won't mind changing things, but when there are involved 4 more tilesets that I didn't create the less amount of work I need to do of them, the better;.
I will work on then at some point, so I hope the new single mission hook me into updating the others tilesets.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

7 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Still, I feel the position you chose was a bit weird, there are too many tiles that repeat itself, taking too many letters and separated while doing the same.
I marked here Blue ones and green ones just as example.

Nope, you are not right. It's actually very hard to see, but all the tiles are really different. Here I'd like to demonstrate how it is supposed to be used.

Just for reference, here's how presets are organized in the Snow/Ice group, where it is very well visible:

And here is the Trees preset group. Notice that the presets between letters Q,T,Z,B are organized exactly same way as Snow/Ice (except for D letter there are no tiles for Trees group). So for example W, R, X, V presets are respective inner turns.

The presets between Y,O,N,> are specific only to Trees and Rocks. Here is demonstration how it is supposed to be used:

And, similar pattern for Rocks:

So I hope now you get why I organized the presets this way.

In fact, I helped myself looking into the Warcraft 2 Wasteland tileset, where tiles are organized in the same order, but it is much better visible here:

8 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

custom blocks require the -X, -Y always, right? and, as I see, they are placed now together with the rest of the group, much easier to look after. Just a question. Those need to be at the bottom or can be placed in whatever place I want?

They can be placed at whatever position you want. It is not needed to have them on bottom.

 

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Nope, you are not right. It's actually very hard to see, but all the tiles are really different. Here I'd like to demonstrate how it is supposed to be used.

The problem with your composition, it requires 2 hands or moving the hand all over the keyboard to pick the tiles scatered; I simply use 1 hand, enough to hit "S", and if ever that tile it's not a 100% match (a tree bight sligthy taller on the other) then press "S" again, to me more easy kwnoing the position of the 8 tiles that requiring to press 20 different keys.
on snow, ice, water... the main tiles are also in the left part of the keyboard, so after editing with snow, then dark snow, then ice, and then water, for trees and rocks my hand will go first at the same keys, and not going as far as "O" just to pick a position I can switch easily by pressing one of the "main" keys (left side) a second time.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

The presets between Y,O,N,> are specific only to Trees and Rocks. Here is demonstration how it is supposed to be used:

I don't see why I should use OL over  O <, if both versions match perfectly, the only difference... the tree at the bottom-left are more cramped which may affect the next set of tiles around, but those 2 specific still looks good to me.

I guess all you did was about perfect match, or either the trees will look a bit taller one from the next and things like that.

Maybe it's possible to have something in bewteen?
for example, "A" and "Y" together, and "F" with "R" or things like that, trying to group the most of them, the ones that looks really similar.

Because for example right now I tried to use "Y,U,I" witch you placed together as suppose to be "match" but the trees don't even match at all. look

YUI letters are next to each other, but the trees looks a bit wrong, like missing pieces and well, you see yourself.
In fact, if I use "YWI" it matchs much better, but you placed W to match with the Q instead, so I don't ever know which group of tiles "U" are suppose to match and if doesn't match with "YI" then why it's next to them.

So I don't really now if your composition has the perfect position either.

Edit:
By the way, here I wrote something more on your editor.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27863-release-heighliner-tileset/?do=findComment&comment=398758

Edited April 13, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

Well, the main reason why I needed to rearrange the trees and rocks presets in your tileset was to make the auto-smooth edges feature working. This feature requires that each tile (left, right, top, bottom edge, 4 corners, 4 turns) is separate preset under different key. So as you had many different tiles under "S" key, it simply could not work like that. Otherwise you would need to give up the auto-smooth edges feature and place the trees tiles manually as you were used to, which is against the main purpose of D2kEditor 1.4 and why I did all this work. Just try thinking the new way and forget about the old way.

The second and very important reason was to make proper use of each tile, like how it was designed by the game designers. You are right, that the tiles look VERY similar to each other and if you use a wrong tile here and there, the players would most likely not even notice that at all. And you are also right, that some tiles, even if used the right way, do not even graphically match perfectly, I noticed that myself too.

BUT, imagine this situation. Let's say you make more Warcraft 2 tilesets, for example the Wastelands tileset. In wasteland tileset, the different trees tiles are more visually distibguishable, I mean, it can be better seen if you place wrong tile. Here is the demonstration how is the keys layout when used on wasteland tileset:

And basically the tiles in snowdy tileset are in the same order.

So I wanted the key layouts to be same between different Warcraft 2 tilesets (in case you would make more in future) so that you can easily exchange tilesets without having to go with different key preset layout.

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

The problem with your composition, it requires 2 hands or moving the hand all over the keyboard to pick the tiles scatered; I simply use 1 hand, enough to hit "S", and if ever that tile it's not a 100% match (a tree bight sligthy taller on the other) then press "S" again, to me more easy kwnoing the position of the 8 tiles that requiring to press 20 different keys.

One idea that came into my mind that might (or might not help): move the O,L,> presets slightly to left to be at Y,H,N position. Then you would not need to ho with your hand to right side that much in order to reach these presets.

But the main idea behind this layout is, that you would actually not use presets between Q,T,Z,B manually at all. These are there mainly for the auto-smooth feature. So for 90% of time, you would just paint some trees in paint mode, and with shift-click, everything is done automatically without manually drawing the edge tile by tile. Then just for fine-tuning and extending the corners, you would manually use the presets between Y,O,N,>, which can be done pretty easily with one hand staying on that position. I tried it myself, it's pretty easy. I need to say it again, please start thinking the new way and forget the old.

EDIT: I tried to reproduce the same trees layout in the original game. Here is the result:

You can clearly see, that EVEN in the ORIGINAL game, the tiles do not match perfectly! Here are some examples of graphical tile mismatch, which you showed in your post:

So I'm just trying to make this 100% accurate to the original game, althrough the game itself is not perfect...

Edited April 13, 2020 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

Well, the main reason why I needed to rearrange the trees and rocks presets in your tileset was to make the auto-smooth edges feature working. This feature requires that each tile (left, right, top, bottom edge, 4 corners, 4 turns) is separate preset under different key. So as you had many different tiles under "S" key, it simply could not work like that. Otherwise you would need to give up the auto-smooth edges feature and place the trees tiles manually as you were used to, which is against the main purpose of D2kEditor 1.4 and why I did all this work. Just try thinking the new way and forget about the old way.

The second and very important reason was to make proper use of each tile, like how it was designed by the game designers. You are right, that the tiles look VERY similar to each other and if you use a wrong tile here and there, the players would most likely not even notice that at all. And you are also right, that some tiles, even if used the right way, do not even graphically match perfectly, I noticed that myself too.

BUT, imagine this situation. Let's say you make more Warcraft 2 tilesets, for example the Wastelands tileset. In wasteland tileset, the different trees tiles are more visually distibguishable, I mean, it can be better seen if you place wrong tile. Here is the demonstration how is the keys layout when used on wasteland tileset:

Call me dumb, but I forgot the auto smoth feature once again.
You know, at this point I may not even care at the position of the tiles anymore, if you are 100% sure that the auto-smooth works the way it's intended, then I won't bother to check the tiles, the position and what's not.

It could be the first time that I actually use that feature. In Dune 2000 normal tileset I didn't make use of it because it contain other kind of tiles (the ones at 2x2); that and it's not usually that I create a big rock area smoothed, but mixing clifts with flat edges. So, at the end, I keep not using it and I always forgot it exist.

I really need to start using it; if it goes well then I won't bother to check positions or doing manually unless I need an specific part, like imitating this specific set up:

 Your auto smooth cannot do it, but I can do it manually and shouldn't take long even with the tiles moved.

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

But the main idea behind this layout is, that you would actually not use presets between Q,T,Z,B manually at all. These are there mainly for the auto-smooth feature. So for 90% of time, you would just paint some trees in paint mode, and with shift-click, everything is done automatically without manually drawing the edge tile by tile. Then just for fine-tuning and extending the corners, you would manually use the presets between Y,O,N,>, which can be done pretty easily with one hand staying on that position. I tried it myself, it's pretty easy. I need to say it again, please start thinking the new way and forget the old.

You are 100% right, I totally forgot the autosmooth feature.
I won't move anything specific then; I'll let the editor to do the work, as I see it's working fine, even when I mess up "only 1 tile wide of trees", he won't smooth that, but when I add a second tile of trees it does.

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

EDIT: I tried to reproduce the same trees layout in the original game. Here is the result:

You can clearly see, that EVEN in the ORIGINAL game, the tiles do not match perfectly! Here are some examples of graphical tile mismatch, which you showed in your post:

So I'm just trying to make this 100% accurate to the original game, althrough the game itself is not perfect...

Alright; see? When I was doing it I had trouble to full match the trees, and they looks really similar, then you rearrange and I was "well, maybe it was a true way to match then", but no. Let's blame blizzard then.

Good job, if I ever remembered the autosmooth early this won't even be a problem from the beggining.

Now I only need to add the cursor pointer; there is something more that it needs to be done that you didn't already? I think all the color rules were fixed by you.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Cm_blast]

I didn't know that there is a feature to move structures/units and not the other parts of the terrain; that's really nice. 

I was about to ask about this but then I found you can click multiple times into the structure buttom to switch those options; That's going to speed when I need to redo a part of the terrain.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

15 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I didn't know that there is a feature to move structures/units and not the other parts of the terrain; that's really nice. 

Yea, I actually mentioned it in D2kEditor 1.4 changelog:

On 3/17/2020 at 10:26 PM, Klofkac said:

Added: Select structures only mode. You can set the checkbox "Structures" next to "Select mode" radio button to third (grayed) state, which means select structures only. Useful for copying or moving a base layout.

And in the D2k Mapping manual as well:

Quote

With the Structures checkbox, you can select whether you want buildings and units to be included in your selection, or you want to select terrain only. With the third checkbox state you can select building and units only (without terrain), which can be useful to copy a base layout.

Probably you missed it somehow or did not read through the changelog or manual precisely.

If you did not do that yet, I'm suggesting you to read through every point I mentioned in v1.4 changelog one by one, and then confirming and trying it out by yourself immediately in the editor. This way you can get familiar with every change I made into editor and take advantage of it, possibly make a comment to me about it. Same with the manual, there might still be some function or feature you did not know about.

[Cm_blast]

I will read all everything again. I read the manual, and besides a couple of things I already knew most of it, or I forgot about that option as possible because I do not use it often.

On 3/17/2020 at 10:26 PM, Klofkac said:

Added: Smooth spice rendering. Thin spice and thick spice is now drawn exactly how it appears in game.

This feature looks a bit weird now XD, I mean, it is not bad, it's just the years seeing the spice being squares but suddenly no, but yeah, this is very good, I have been asked multiple times "spice too blocky" when using screenshots.

Quote

Added: Using "Reopen map" immediately after starting program will open the map which was open last time.

This was interesting, when I click "reopen" by mistake I found the editor was opening my map; I tend to use the "recent files", so either way it works.

On 3/17/2020 at 10:26 PM, Klofkac said:

Added new view modes: "Draw minimap colors" and "Draw fill area groups" mode. These modes can help you design minimap color rules and fill area rules in your tileset .ini file, as you can easily and immediately see the result here

I am still not messing with the tileattributes yet, I am starting editing a regular mission first and from there I will see if I continue the mood to go into this other kind of stuff, but I want to point at something.

I don't understand what the color means (could mean nothing). But anyway, that's not important.
for the coloring rules, did you think on adding a button somewhere similar to that graphic that you click on it, it will show the color palettes, you pick one, and that will give you the color rule code.

I think, if I am not mistaken, that the borders around the tiles shows the color on the minimap, so that's why rifts are dark-brown, and dunes and sand two similar yellow.
so yeah, something like that, you click, it show the paletes, I click on "red" and, from that moment, that tile will be red on the minimap. Either directly or simply giving me the code, so I can copy-paste easily.

Sorry if you write somewhere that you can already can do this or something similar.
It is too much info, It's hard to track all the ins and out of the editor, the tileset, the .ini, Tibed, AI values and so on.

Oh, something more

On Show status (debug):
Did you think on adding in-game kind of bugs?

For example, the bloom limit it is 30, or 32 (there is always time to recheck all this info), so if the player place 40 blooms, on the show status debug you can show a line like:
number of blooms: 40 - Warning, the limit it's 30, some blooms may not appear on your map. (or something more simplified, just a "too many blooms", not indicating the number)

Same for number of units, number of structures, there were people that you press "play" and game crashed, and the error the game shows it's not a "too many units" but maybe a "outside range" or something like that, having on the editor a "too many units" or something like that.

This can cover other basic errors, like an AI active having a tech of 0 or money 0, which will trigger an error, although the game tells you directly the problem in this case; we can think on other errors that trigger in-game but the error itself it's not being told by the game.

Oh, this one.

Can this be rearrange too? just like events and conditions.

Sometimes I have
3 - timer (=5000)
5 - Flag ()

later I change my mind and change the 5000 for 9000 (different condition, 5000 will be used for other event), so it will become.
5 - Flag ()
4 - timer (=9000)

I usually keeps the flag at the bottom, so in this case I will delete flag 5 and readdit again, so it will fit the other 40 events I create that have flags at the bottom.

So I was wondering if you can make to rearrange these ones too.
I'll say the same for unit events. I keep placing first the tanks, then light vehicles, finally troopers, if later I add 2 quads more into the reinforcement or delivery, I need to delete all the trikes-troopers and adding them again just to have them in order (and in this case it's more important since while playing on easy AI only gets half the units, it gets units 1-3-5... so the order matters more.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Cm_blast

[D2k Sardaukar]

Feature request: use super random map! https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27824-map-and-mission-editor-finally-a-small-update-after-all-version-13-released/?do=findComment&comment=396039

😁

[Klofkac]

Good news for you: Release Candidate 2 released!

I made some new changes and additions, mostly based on your comments, suggestions and bug reports since I released the first 1.4 release candidate. This is most likely not going to be the very final release, as you will still get change to provide more suggestions and bug reports, because I want to make 1.4 a good and stable version that would again last for some longer time (or forever, who knows if there will even be v1.5 in future). I still have some ideas what more to into the editor, but I just wanted you not to wait for too long time for some very important requested changes and bug fixes.

Here you go: D2kEditorv1.4rc2.zip.

Here is changelog (only changes from previous release, full 1.4 changelog included in zip file):

Added: Scrolling map with arrows will always work in Terrain mode. In Structures mode, use Up/Down keys to select 
       building/unit in a list, and Left/Right keys to switch between Misc Objects, Building and Unit lists
Added: Named tilesets. You can give tileset a user-friendly name which will display on tileset selection dialog.
Changed: Editor will ask for saving changes to your map upon closing program instead of only confirming exiting program.
         This works for map and events modifications, does not work for mission properties and AI modificatios. 
Added: When starting editor for first time and it can't detect your game location automatically, it will prompt you to
       navigate to game location manually with a file open dialog
Added: Editor checks for more map errors that when saving map or launching map. It checks additionally for:
       - Spice blooms limit (30 max)
       - Total structures limit (1000 max)
       - 0 credits or tech level on player with active AI
       - Reinforcement or Starport delivery events with 0 units
Added: Tile Attribute Editor will warn and ask you when you attempt to save over original game's TILEATRx.BIN file
Fixed: Event and Condition notes will move position accordingly when you reorganize, delete or add events/conditions
Added: Buttons to move units and conditions up and down in event's unit and condition list
Added: New Deploy action "Stay" for Reinforcement and Unit Spawn events, renamed other deploy actions 
Added: Show key shortcuts option in Event grid and Condition grid popup menu
Added: Auto-smooth edges feature: Added support for two double-corner tiles used in Warcraft 2 tilesets
Fixed: It is again possible to select block of unlimited side from tileset (not only 8*8)
Added: Included D2k Mapping Manual in zip

I strongly recommend you to go through every change I mentioned there, and trying it out yourself to make sure it is working as intended and get familiar with it.

I tried to take into account all comments you wrote into various threads on this forum, but it's still possible I forgot or overlooked someting, in that case just let me know.

On 4/24/2020 at 10:39 PM, D2k Sardaukar said:

Feature request: use super random map! https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27824-map-and-mission-editor-finally-a-small-update-after-all-version-13-released/?do=findComment&comment=396039

Well, I would not mind adding this feature to the editor, but there are some implementation difficulties: implementing random map for Rock tiles does not go well with the implementation and system of the Paint mode, especially after I added better support for custom tilesets and defining tiles used by maint mode in tilieset .ini file. Addition of random map would complicate this system (it's a random map only for rock? What about other terrain types, especially those in custom tilesets). But I will still think about it.

[Cm_blast]

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Added: When starting editor for first time and it can't detect your game location automatically, it will prompt you to navigate to game location manually with a file open dialog

This is really good to not scare newcomers.

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

- Spice blooms limit (30 max)

I just recently asked Fey and he told me 32, I can't tell for sure (I know it's either 30 or 32). It may be 32 for the binary value (2^5).

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Total structures limit (1000 max)

I guess every piece of wall count as one. There is a map over there which mission 9 crashes the game, I will search it and opening with the editor to know how many structures it has (I know that's the problem because I removed 1 Ai from the game and worked); map it's not mine though.

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Reinforcement or Starport delivery events with 0 units

Wow, even this? that's fine.

before you totally block the map for the bloom limit I need to call for @Fey.
I just recently ask him about the bloom limit and he told me it is 32, but besides that I am not sure how the game exactly behaves with more placed in the map.

I'll do some test with time, if the extra blooms appear on game (even if they do it occasionally) I'll say to let the game to launch, it can be used as a concept (sometimes they appear, sometimes don't, don't rely too much on them to harvest or they can be used as a slower version of a traditional bloom).

If having more than the limit they totally don't appear ever again, then It's fine to block the map.
I'll say more when I do the proper test (or if Fey has some knowledge on this).

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Added: Buttons to move units and conditions up and down in event's unit and condition list

Good; I like this, any chance the same shortcut (Pgup-Pgdown) as the events, conditions and stuff?

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Added: New Deploy action "Stay" for Reinforcement and Unit Spawn events, renamed other deploy actions

This is nice, I didn't ever know that a "stay" command would be possible. I even have a Butlerian campaign based on machines no controlled by anybody... with vehicles using carryalls that, the first idea was them to not move in guardian and only shooting units.

However, for "unit spawn", you should just merge in 1 single command, since the AI will always do the same. I think something similar as "free" that was before fits in: If the AI doesn't have enough defenses, they will go into their own base and protect it (wander around), but if it does, they will remain in the place and will be part of the next enemy wave, so unlike a reinforcements (that even when the AI already has enough defenses, if those are set to free those units will go into their own base first, even if after that movement they change into attack mode), an unit spawn it acts as a retreat, defense, attack or guard (if the AI doesn't attack not until 40.000 ticks, those units can stay in the place forever).

I also saw you added a few tilesets. Warcraft it's fine, Heigliner from Fey it's nice but outdated now, I guess.
Red alert temperate I don't know what that's its, I don't ever have the files the program ask; I guess I know which one it is, but you renamed files; did you ever did anything to that tielset at all? it doesn't have proper values oranything; I only did their .ini.
I'll guess you'll add them later based on what I did some time ago but with a different name.
And something may happen with the retro dune 2, rocks presets are mess up and you cannot paint spice at all.

by the way, what is it those ".in" files?

Ps: this was just a quick over the top look, don't get mad a me if I missed something obvious.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

4 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

This is really good to not scare newcomers.

It was actually my friend, to whom I sent my editor and he was testing it a bit. He gave me some feedback and suggestions. He experienced some problems getting tilesets to work when he used editor for the first time and asked me to add this. The second major thing he asked me about was prompting to save changes when you attempt to close the program without saving.

4 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I just recently asked Fey and he told me 32, I can't tell for sure (I know it's either 30 or 32). It may be 32 for the binary value (2^5).

Oh well... Indeed I tested this thoroughly in game to be 100% sure before I implemented this check. And the outcome was that only 30 blooms get spawned, never more blooms under any circumstances. I even tried to place a limited bloom that disappears after 7 explosions, and even after depleting the limited bloom, the 31st bloom did not start appearing.

4 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Good; I like this, any chance the same shortcut (Pgup-Pgdown) as the events, conditions and stuff?

Yes, I guess this could be added too.

4 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

However, for "unit spawn", you should just merge in 1 single command, since the AI will always do the same. I think something similar as "free" that was before fits in: If the AI doesn't have enough defenses, they will go into their own base and protect it (wander around), but if it does, they will remain in the place and will be part of the next enemy wave, so unlike a reinforcements (that even when the AI already has enough defenses, if those are set to free those units will go into their own base first, even if after that movement they change into attack mode), an unit spawn it acts as a retreat, defense, attack or guard (if the AI doesn't attack not until 40.000 ticks, those units can stay in the place forever).

Oh well, before adding this I actually tested Deploy action only with Reinforcement event. I did not try with Unit Spawn, as I thought it would work exactly same as for Reinforcement. So does deploy action for Unit Spawn work same way, or it always behaves as "Free", (or "Retreat") regardless what you set?

The reason I changed this, is that I actually looked inside game executable (DUNE2000.EXE) with hex editor and among many text strings stored in there, I found strings like "GUARD", "ATTACK", "RETREAT", "STAY", so these were obviously deploy action names, that behave exactly the way how the action is called. I.e. using Guard, units will stay on position and set to Guard mode. With Retreat. units will go back to base and wander around base, having potentially free assignment. This can be best seen when you set reinforcement outside player's base and set deployaction to Retreat, units will immediately go back to the base. With Stay, units will stand still and will not be set to Guard mode, however, if the standing unit starts shooting other player's unit because of being in range, then when the other player's unit attempts to run away, the standing unit will start chasing the unit. So this is still not 100% "Stand still and do not move at all".

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I also saw you added a few tilesets. Warcraft it's fine, Heigliner from Fey it's nice but outdated now, I guess.
Red alert temperate I don't know what that's its, I don't ever have the files the program ask; I guess I know which one it is, but you renamed files; did you ever did anything to that tielset at all? it doesn't have proper values oranything; I only did their .ini.
I'll guess you'll add them later based on what I did some time ago but with a different name.
And something may happen with the retro dune 2, rocks presets are mess up and you cannot paint spice at all.

by the way, what is it those ".in" files?

Oh no! The other tileset ini files were NOT intended to be included in the zip file! These are mine testing files I'm working with. Unfortunately I forgot to delete them when I zipped the package for release. Please disregard the other ini files like they did not exist there. I will need to reupload a new zip without them. In D2kEditor there will always be ini files only for the original Dune 2000 tilesets and nothing else.

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Ps: this was just a quick over the top look, don't get mad a me if I missed something obvious.

That's fine, just please to try test all new features and changes I did there if they work correctly and there is not any bug. I'm doing testing just for myself and it's easy to overlook someting or not count with unexpected way of usage by other people. And thanks for all the comments you wrote already.

[Fey]

6 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I guess every piece of wall count as one.

Not just structures, but units and certain objects like worm spawners and Spice Blooms too.

51 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

Oh well... Indeed I tested this thoroughly in game to be 100% sure before I implemented this check. And the outcome was that only 30 blooms get spawned, never more blooms under any circumstances. I even tried to place a limited bloom that disappears after 7 explosions, and even after depleting the limited bloom, the 31st bloom did not start appearing.

I'm inclined to trust Klof on this. Cm told me a looong time ago that it was 32, and I always remembered it since then, but if Klof has been testing and has confirmed it to be 30, then I guess we were both wrong! XD

54 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

I actually looked inside game executable (DUNE2000.EXE) with hex editor

Really prying open the game. I wonder if there's some way to find the other unit "reporting" dialogue sounds that can't be changed in tibed...

56 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

unexpected way of usage by other people.

Instructions unclear, Spice Harvester now stuck in mouth of worm. Halp remove pls.