Is it not scaling? Rats, thought I fixed that. I will look into it. I'm not sure what you mean by not showing the copies of the starting planet correctly?

[0.5 Release]

0.5 Release

• Added Entity Duplication
• Added Level Dump in editor

Only two updates but I've been messing with them a lot and I think they are really nice additions. Being able to duplicate entities is an obvious improvement, but being able to quickly look at how the level will be generated is a lot nicer than saving and tracking down and opening the ini.

Just as an update, this project hasn't died already. I've made a number of changes, but I am going to try and space out the updates a bit more as to give me more time to work on other projects and nobody likes having constant updates making the application they downloaded an hour ago obsolete.

I've also noticed a couple maps being put out using the editor so it's really cool to see some results.

[0.4 Release]

0.4 Release

• Added ability to remove Rift coordinates
• Made the planet size dynamic by its baseproduction value
• Changed it so if a planet's startpriority is greater than 0 it will be blue
• Changed planet graphics to use the game sprites
• Entity name is stored in a field named editor_entityname so it can be retrieved on load
• The selected rift's line will be colored red to help see which you are working with

Added to the list. I have a couple more of the enhancements nearly finished. Hoping to wrap them up sometime this weekend and releasing an update.

Chris:
I'll prefix any fields with editor_<fieldname> to remove any possibility of clashing.

Kumlekar:
Yes, that was an option but from a design perspective and writing my own parser I really didn't want to use comments for anything but as a comment. Luckily it won't be an issue now.

Good point, I considered this but since I am not in control of the file format decided against it. I could use the comments section but if possible I'd rather keep comments as comments and have a field specifically for this use.

Chris, if I added a field such as entityname will this be a problem?

I also added the ability to rename entities in the enhancements list as I am sure it will come up sooner or later.

Yes, yes....you would think with the ability to add you would naturally get the ability to remove. Will fix in the next release. Kind of a pain but if you really need to remove a set you can save the map out to a file, open it in a text editor, remove the set, and then reload it in. Slightly annoying, but at least you are not stuck with a worthless set.

Also, Chris, if you happen to swing by... It seems that you can't download the editor unless you are registered. Not sure if that is how you want it, but I did catch that you allowed maps to be downloaded so not sure if zip files need to be explicitly added or what.

Hehe, I enjoy your subtle hints that you are on to them and their odd attempt to save face by saying they will tell people it is a phishing site if they ask... What a saint.

[0.3 Release]

0.3 Release

• Fixed Rifts not rendering to same scale as planets.
• (hopefully) Fixed issue where opening a file would cause a crash due to a missing .net 3.5 assembly
• Added support for adding coordinates to rifts. (Right click on rift to add coordinates)
• Added support to load in rift data from file

[think]

Chris:
Ah, good times, thanks! I originally was using one of the planet graphics and then threw in the cheesy green planet. As far as the name I plan to have the name provided used as the default name via an option to click while creating. I didn't want to do it automatically because I figured people wouldn't want entity 1, entity 2, entity 3 by default for all their planets if they didn't bother typing a name.

Kumlekar:
I am pretty sure I have both issues fixed but I had already started implementing Rifts more fully so I'll be holding it off a day or two until that is finished.

I think I have a clever way of handling zooming that I might try to sneak in as well as I hate how much scrolling is required. I'm also adding a new enhancement to the list: a mini map.

er, odd. I thought I compiled down to .net 2.0, but this is claiming 3.5. I will look into it.

As far as the rifts, dang, yes you are right. I changed the draw code on the planets last minute to make them closer together and forgot to update the rifts. Will fix both momentarily.

[0.2 Release]

0.2 Release
Small update since this was easy to fix now that I realize what they are.

• Fixes the bug where comments in the file (lines that start with ';') causes them not to load properly.

Thanks for the comments!

Prez:
I experimented a lot with drag and drop and figured out that I am going to have to wait until I build a proper control for the rifts until I implement it so getting rifts fully implemented is my first priority beyond the smaller bugs. Guidelines is a good point, though. Someone else also suggested a way to tell the distance in turns from one planet to another. I'll throw it up on the enhancements list.

Minus:
Consider it requested!

Chris:
-2 points to me for not properly researching ini files. I ended up building my own parser since all the classes I could find didn't support multiple sections with the same name, so I'll have to make sure to get all the checks in. Please, do let me know what you think.

Kumlekar:
Displaying the current data dump of the file is an interesting idea, I'll add it, however I'm not sure what you mean about until a graphical interface could be made? The planets and rifts should be displayed in the black area to the right, although you may need to scroll a bit to find them.

Also, I tested all the official maps and a few of the custom board maps and with the exception of those with a comment they all loaded for me. What happens when you try to open a file?

Jp:
Thanks, it is nice to have someone around to knock ideas with if I get hung up so feel free to chime in. Yes, it is in C# as using a full on graphics library felt a bit like overkill, plus I'm sure Chris can/will build a much better editor inside the game proper, so no reasons to go through the bother.

[Releases]

Hallo. I've been working on a map editor for the past few days. I know Jp made a post mentioning making one but I didn't see any updates since early December so I decided to give it a go. I want to heavily stress this is still in beta and there are a couple known issues that I will be working on, so before downloading and getting mad because some obvious feature isn't there or it is crashing please read the issues and planned enhancements sections.

Releases
I'll keep a couple versions back online since I know some people are fans of that, but otherwise I'll keep version history local so if for some reason you really want an old version that is not available let me know and I can upload it.

• 0.5 (Beta)
• 0.4 (Beta)
• 0.3 (Beta)
• 0.2 (Beta)
• 0.1 (Beta)

Issues

• None of the property values are currently validated so typing anything but a number for properties such as x, or y will cause the program to crash. Be careful!
• Rifts are not fully implemented yet so bare with the basic functionality that is there.
• None of the sections from a map are heavily validated yet on load so trying to load a map with unexpected properties may cause the application to crash.
• With that, required fields such as a name for the map is not validated to make sure it is entered so be careful if you plan to test a map in game.
• When you add a planet it will default in the center of the map, out of sight, so you may need to scroll a bit to track it down.

Planned Enhancements

• Fully implementing Rift support
• Adding validation all over to make the application more stable.
• Better map layout options. Possibilities include drag&drop moving planets/rifts around, zooming, etc...
• Guidelines, turns from one planet to another
• Mini map
• Ability to rename entities
• Clicking on an entity from the list should center it on screen

Other Gotchas

• Commotion requires the .NET Framework 2.0, which most computers these days has installed, but if not you can get it here: .NET 2.0 Download

Please post any other issues you run into and feedback and suggestions are welcome.