Suggestions for Map Editor:

posted on April 11th, 2010, 11:14 pm

Clearly Boggz iz aware that map editor functionz are not on the highest of priorities as several races are getting redoes and such, but seeing as I and a few others are beginning to push the boundaries of what is possible in maps right now I thought I would create some suggestions for features that would be very useful for both campaign-building and custom skirmish building.


1:  Ability to set the numbers on derelicts more easily.

  At the moment there are lots of things able to be adjusted, but I've found that many times if I try to disbable a system on a derelict ship it ends up in-game not actually being disabled.  There are a number of the functions in the details window for ships and objects that don't seem to function properly.

  Being able to set the Life Support / Engines / and Weapons of a vessel at disabled with 50% missing would mean that actually snagging it and holding on to it would take some work.  You couldn't just run in and grab a derelict with a single scout and run off to have it repaired and recrewed.  Having it's engines and Life Support disabled would require a person to actually make a concerted effort to begin manning derelict vessels. 

  Technically the ability is there, it just doesn't seem to work right .

2:  Setting a patrol path for a nuetral or NPC vessel (friendly or unfriendly).

  On "Rain" I had originally wanted to have a pair of Ferengi Mauraders patrolling the divide just as eye candy.  I had even set up what I thought were "paths" using the starting point functions stretched out over some distance.  Maybe that is in fact possible but I just couldn't quite figure out if there was a system of triggers or not.

  The fun of that would be, of course, being able to attack and capture a Maurader to make use of it's engine disabler, as well as just enjoying the fact that there is an NPC running willy-nilly about doing Ferengi things .

  Perhaps this is already possible and I just didn't know how to relate the triggers?

3:  The Ability to Raise and Lower Planet's / Other Objects further up and down on the Y-Axis (and still see them).

  Again I don't know if this is possible, so if the Devs mention that it's just a flaw in the game engine that cannot be fixed, that's the end of that .

  I recently made a gigantic map modeled after an actual Star System (albeit quite smaller ) with the intention of creating as close to a "real" map as I could.  Thus the moons were only located as true moons around planets that I had placed.  In order to actually make the planets look big enough and not look silly by being so far down on the Y-axis I pulled them a good ways up.  Of course, when you do that they disappear in game as I found out.

  I had also stumbled upon the idea of "sinking" nebula down on the Y-axis to create a patch where you can go without having the affects of the Nebula, but cannot build because it still thinks that the area there needs to be "off limits" to building.  Thus I was able to make a pretty cool looking Blue planet ringed in Blue nebula all at about -800 units down the Y-axis.  Looked neat and it also meant you could only build in certain "spots".  I liked that.

  Again though .. it doesn't work because all the things end up disappearing in game.

 
  I'll see if I can add some screenies to show you what I'm talking about.

posted on April 12th, 2010, 8:13 pm

Good ideas, all I think 

posted on April 12th, 2010, 8:20 pm

Yeah, All sounds good, though I thought for sure that you could partly disable a ship.  I have done it before, but if I can remember right, it doesn't work all the time

posted on April 13th, 2010, 3:51 pm

I'd like the ability to equip behaviors. Some examples are:

Guard:
The Commander is just sitting there, keeping the ship in place, waiting for something to get in range, and then attack it when in range and chase it until it is so much distance from his 'post' and then returns.

Erratic:
This is like making things instantly under Maquis Control, erratic maneuvers as well as unpredictable behavior.

Bounty Hunter:
This is the scariest one, it searches for a specific ship that the computer thinks is important to a player or AI. It hunts it down and attacks when able until it dies. Ships with this attitude can at times attack a constuctor on its way to build an expansion.

Ferengi:
This is for Marauders only, basically they will try to patrol the area and look for derelicts. It will however not bring them to the end of the map. Instead it will pile them all into a cluster of other salvage it found.

posted on April 13th, 2010, 4:07 pm

those are actually cool ideas, but I think they won't be possible unless using megatriods mission thingy.