Some small ideas about editor and map making

[Experix]

First, three things which I think are small bugs:

- I wanted to place an elemental on lava to protect some item placed there, but it isn't possible.
- If I have eight neutrals placed on the same spot and click on them, I can see only seven of them.
- When using bigger than 1x1 paint tool, the shorline does not display properly.

And secondly, some possibilities which I would find useful for editor to be more friendly to map makers and players or which I think could a little improve variability and balancing of maps:

- copy settings of some city to another
- option to choose what to select on certain position, like you have in game screen, so that you don't have to, for example, remove units and items placed on the income site just to change or see its settings
- some button for "select all units for production", such that it places all the units in the box on the right; so if you want only to forbid production of one certain unit, you don't have to select and click all the rest of units one by one
- something like "select the city/ruins settings randomly from a given set"; for example something like "select randomly city production from heavy cavalry, giant, wizard" or, for a ruin, "5 skeletons or 3 ghouls, 500-700 gold or Titans adament or Infernal cranium"
- more possible setups for starting cities for certain game type; ie., for example, on 8 players maps you can choose three or four distinct doubles for starting cities for a 1:1 game, and the game is set randomly with any of these doubles
- possibility to select a starting position, at least in melee games
- some tool which could somehow emphasize the cities where the production of certain unit is available; so, if you are, for example, eager to buy red dragon, you don't have to click all the cities in the editor one by one to find out where it is possible
- some pop-up window which shows income, walls and production when you mouse over a city, similar to the one in game screen

[Experix]

One more:
- using arrow keys to scroll the map in editor

[SnotlinG]

First, three things which I think are small bugs:
- I wanted to place an elemental on lava to protect some item placed there, but it isn't possible.
- If I have eight neutrals placed on the same spot and click on them, I can see only seven of them.
- When using bigger than 1x1 paint tool, the shorline does not display properly.

All 3 fixed in version 0.9 version of the mapeditor.
Thanks for reporting those, I hadnt noticed them until now.

- possibility to select a starting position, at least in melee games

Not sure I understand this one?

I think it is too late to add any of those suggestions to the 0.9 version as I am just busy wrapping up the last few things in the mapeditor, but suggestions are always welcome and will be saved for next round if they make sense

[KGB]

- possibility to select a starting position, at least in melee games

Not sure I understand this one?

I believe he means in simultaneous games. So instead of having the game assign a starting capitol to each player, the player selects which capitol he wants from the ones available. So for example on an 8 start map like Bullrun you could select any of the 8 start spots instead of being forced to use the 2 the map maker assigns for a 1v1.

KGB

[Jeremy]

In Scenario games, you can already select exactly the position you want. Very nice option for my maps where each position plays quite differently.

[KGB]

Jeremy,

But only if you fill up the Scenario with all the players. For example if I want to play a 2 player game on your Britain map I can't do that in scenario mode since it forces 5 players and you have to take 3 AI's.

KGB

[LPhillips]

We could add some more mapmaker options to cover that, but the specific purpose of assigning spots in map creation is to allow games with less than the max number of players to be balanced. It will never be fair, for example, to allow players to pick spots on some non-mirror maps. At most this would have to be enabled/disabled by the map creator.

The main thing missing currently is the ability to set multiple options for certain settings. If I want to allow people to play 1v1 games with all 4 mirror positions on Crescendo, I'd have to create 4 different maps. We need to be able to set and save several options, and then the game creator needs to be able to choose one specifically. This should be quite doable with an updating thumbnail showing active starting positions whenever you select an option from the dropdown menu (pretty much what we have now, where it shows a picture of the map you've selected with active cities colored). That should cover the desire to use different spots on the same map with no risk to game balance.

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to select top vs bottom, right vs left, or anarchy settings on Crescendo? (No, it wouldn't, because current game mechanics turn top vs bottom into a crappy stalemate, but it's bound to be a great option on some maps!)

[Experix]

In Scenario games, you can already select exactly the position you want. Very nice option for my maps where each position plays quite differently.

I meant just this, if you would have, for example non-symetrical map for 8 players, I'd like to have option to choose one particulary position you want to play; (it would take pretty long testing how does each of 8 starting position plays, if they were assigned randomly

[SnotlinG]

See latest News post for what changes/improvements are coming in the mapeditor for 0.9

[Negern]

Will you add a "redo" button? Clicking "undo" to many times can be confusing...