SE 5 Editor
 

Just as an FYI, I'm currently working on an editor for the SE5 data files that should help a lot with modding. I'm starting with facilities, but plan to do most of the data files eventually. Progress has been very good so far and I expect to have a very rough alpha version done in another day or two.

Here's a screenshot of what the facilities editor screen looks like so far:

http://www.devnullsoftware.com/img/s...es_editor1.png

When I get the facilities editor done, I'll start on the components editor. I'm doing this in C# using .Net 1.1, so it should be pretty easy for most people to install and use. We'll see. I'll post more as I do more.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

That's completely neat!

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

You might want to add some sort of built-in formula builder to help the less mathematically-inclined. It could include presets for all sorts of different effects, like exponential decay for diminishing returns. If you make the app do work for the modder, it will be a lot more useful than just being a "visual" editor, in my opinion.

Also, might want to have a way to move facilities around in the file, for better organization.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

Looks nice, looking forward to the release.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

The little ? buttons next to each formula textbox are intended to be a formula wizard and will show values at various levels.

Looking into a generic formula parsing algorithm now, in fact.

Hmmm, hadn't thought about moving them around in the file. Could be done relatively easily, but would make the sorting I do in the list-view a bit harder. I'll have to think about a good way to do it. With a good GUI, I'm not sure why you'd care about the order in the text file, honestly.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

Great idea. Hopefully you can avoid the pitfalls of the SEIV Component Modder application. It was fairly useful at times, though a bit tricky due to bugs and weird "features".

A suggestion: a weapon damage calculator for the component modder section, to assist in balancing weapons vs each other.

I think there is already a damage calculator out there, maybe see about integrating it?

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

cool that will help alot of us http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

Yup, I'd definitely planned on some weapon damage charts, but haven't thought far enough ahead about how to integrate them. Definitely something I want to do though since I think the weapon damages could definitely use some tweaking.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

Devnullicus said:
With a good GUI, I'm not sure why you'd care about the order in the text file, honestly.

Because it makes a massive difference to gameplay. A poorly sorted (eg: alphabetized) list makes it take forever to design ships.

Could be done relatively easily, but would make the sorting I do in the list-view a bit harder.

How are you doing it? You can just tie an ArrayList into the list view object to handle it automatically.

Re: SE 5 Editor
 

All I have to say is YAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!