SE 5 Editor

Fyron · #1 October 25th, 2006, 11:03 PM

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.

pujal · #2 October 25th, 2006, 11:07 PM

Looks nice, looking forward to the release.

Devnullicus · #3 October 25th, 2006, 11:07 PM

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.

Shadowstar · #4 October 25th, 2006, 11:21 PM

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?

Ironmanbc · #5 October 25th, 2006, 11:23 PM

cool that will help alot of us

Devnullicus · #6 October 25th, 2006, 11:25 PM

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.

Fyron · #7 October 26th, 2006, 01:24 AM

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.

Kana · #8 October 26th, 2006, 01:31 AM

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

Phoenix-D · #9 October 26th, 2006, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Devnullicus said:
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.

In case Fyron's response wasn't clear enough: the order in the text file determines the order in-game (at least when alpha sorting is off).

Devnullicus · #10 October 26th, 2006, 02:05 AM

For facilities, the "Facility Group" seems to control the order within the game. Within a particular Facility Group, I would guess the order to be the same as in the file, but I haven't verified that.

For components, I would guess that the "General Group" field works similarly to "Facility Group", but again, haven't verified that.

As for how I'm doing the sorting, it can currently be sorted in ascending or descending order by name or by facility group. I'm using some slightly modified code I found on Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319401

But yes, now that I think about it, alphabetical sorting doesn't make as much sense. I think I'll modify it so you can drag the facilities to whatever order you wish and get rid of the alpha-sorting.

Or maybe I'll just add some info to make it know what order to put it in the file, because the alpha-sorting by name or facility group is actually kind of useful as well. Will have to think a bit more on this one.

Thanks for the suggestions!