Unread postby Grumpy Old Wizard » 20 Oct 2007, 09:33
Since the thread is only 4 days old and came out during the work week I'd say give it some more time.
Below is a consolidated list. This list was last edited at 6:32 AM on Oct 20, 2007.
Consolidated Editor Wishes and Fixes from the Celestrial Heavens and Age of Heroes Community
A. Objects
1) Some objects (such as rails and fences) rotate on their own after being placed and the map being saved. Fix it.
2) Bridges are difficult to place. It should be easier to add bridges.
3) Give us a way to easily change the positions objects on the map (or add/subtract them) to allow us to dynamically alter the terrain (e.g., open up and close off areas) from the script. Currently, there is a problem(s) with moving blocking objects on the map that we wish to later move again. Right now, it seems like we have to hide an object someplace on the map and move it into a blocking position for a certain passage and move back into hiding to unblock the passage. This process completely fails for bridge objects since they levitate out of position when you move them. And, for other objects such as walls, while they effectively block a human hero, the AI hero can ride right through them if the original position was not blocking. Not to mention that we have to change an obscure object property "isRemovable" from false to true to make an object movable, which is not intuitive.
4) Make it easier to create new classes of objects from existing classes.
5) Definitely give us more decorative objects for the maps. For example, give us a set of signs that point in both directions and fit different types of terrain (that bird looks silly in many places), and a set of flowers that is actually usable like we had in H3, and so on
6) Make the object properties (names and possible values) consistent across classes, and omit properties from a class that cannot be set or read by the script (e.g., the Owner property for the Dragon Utopia).
7) Add a property to objects such as the Dragon Utopia that can be visited but not captured so that the script can tell if the player has visited them.
8) Make the effects of all buildings editable. For example, make it possible to edit the faery ring to give +3 luck (or even +5 morale) instead of having the standard effect.
9) Adding a "base-color" property to almost all objects that we can change with the editor like we can change the color of the point lights. This addition would allow us to easily customize the appearance of object that we have customized behavior of. For example, we could change to color of the wagon-cover of the Artifact Merchant wagon from green to orange if sold slaves instead of artifacts, or a mighty dragon could be red instead of black, or have a mage with a blue robe, etc.
10) Allow us to sort the map objects list by Owner.
11) Give us an alternate subterranean entrance that looks like a cave entrance we can place on the map and have it morph according to the terrain (e.g., sort of like the gold mine or something).
12) The HoMM3 editor used spheres for random elements (treasures, monsters) on the map, HoMM5 uses all cubes. Since artifacts and monsters have the same darkblue color, it can be sometimes hard to distinguish the monsters from the artifacts at a glance. My suggestion is to either use different colors (probably easiest), or make one of the two a sphere instead. Since artifacts are rotating during the game, my suggestion would be to make the random artifacts spherical while editing (and remove the option to rotate them while editing, since this is a useless condition for artifacts anyway).
13) I'd like to see the option to completely customize the properties of all objects and creatures - names, stats, guards, rewards etc. Say, a quest hut that looks like an outpost or a dragon with 10,000 health. It worked great in WoG (with ERM though). Such options would enable creating RPG maps, which this sequel needs badly.
B Placable Events and Placable Random Objects
1) Placable events (aka HOMM4) that can have the same name would be nice. Often there are events that need to be repeated and it would much more convenient to have placable event markers rather than having to create new regions/scripting for every placable event.
2) A) When placing random monsters, the user should have more control over what the player will face ingame. There is quite a difference between a Tier-1 unupgraded stack and a Tier-1 upgraded stack, when both have same numbers; the latter is much more difficult. I would suggest to have an additional option for random monsters, with three possible choices:
- Stack has no upgraded creatures
- Allow for a mix of unupgraded and upgraded creatures (default)
- Stack has only upgraded creatures
3) When placing Creature Dwellings, you have a selection of Military Outposts. The pre-set Outposts (one for each faction) allow further modification, where it can be set which of the Tier-4 through Tier-7 creatures can be purchased. However, when you place a Random Military Outpost, you can only opt for one specific Tier (and no others). A Random Military Outpost should be added that can produce Tier-4 through Tier-7 at the same time (as set in the objects' properties).
4) It is possible to set the Random Type of Creature Dwellings to one of the following: "Full Random", "Random As Player X", and "Random As Town At location X, Y". You cannot do so for Random Monsters. Monsters should also be able to receive the option to be a random of the same type as some other object.
5) In light of point 4), it would be useful to add another option, namely "Random As Creature Dwelling At Location X, Y". This would make it possible for instance to have a Random Creature Dwelling, with the corresponding creature guarding it.
6) To allow for more control over just how random Towns, Creature Dwellings and Creatures can be, the Random option should get another option: "Random As From Sub-list", with a small listing that has an "add" and "remove" button. The possible selections are the various factions, where any and all factions can be selected. For instance a map may be set up as part forest/grass and part desert. The random monsters appearing in forest/grass could be randomly selected from Haven and Sylvan creatures, while the Creature Dwellings in the wasteland area are randomly selected from the Academy and Inferno factions (with matching creatures guarding them). Underground areas might have Towns randomly chosen from the Inferno, Dungeon or Necropolis factions.
C. Fills
1) The editor has a "fill" option for a certain marked area, but the amount of fill options are limited (only Dirt trees and a selection of Grass tree sets). Several suggestions I would make here:
- Allow the user to set a "forest density" (or "object density" or "fill density") with which the editor fills the area. Rather than fully planting it as it does now, it could also have a lighter spread. Several different densities should be available ("sparse", "medium", "heavy", "all", or so).
- More fill sets available. Besides trees, there are also things like bushes and grass objects. It would be useful to have a fill set that randomly picks from any of the available Dirt bushes, for instance.
- Allow the user to specify his/her own fill subsets, which can be used to fill an area.
2) When an area has been marked for filling, the editor should remember this area instead of forgetting it, once it performed a fill operation. The same area can be used for more than one fill operation (bushes, then trees, for instance - with a different density, perhaps).
3) Currently the editor will not accept it when an area to be filled has a hole in it, or when the area to be filled is actually comprised from several disconnected areas. The functionality should be enhanced so that it no longer refuses to fill multiple disconnected areas (just treat them as individual areas and repeat the fill operation on each area separately with the same settings) or areas with a hole in it.
D. Passability
1) Correct the passability feature, as it currently has a bug. When you display the passability of a map and hover an object over a land-based tile that is impassable, the red marker of the tile vanishes - quite annoying when you're trying to correctly place one or more objects. The red impassibility marker remains on water surfaces, however.
2) Correctly calculate the impassability of (dense) forests. Right now it often misses squares where trees or other objects are definitely blocking the hero's path. I have resorted to simply putting a mask over all of my forests to prevent all movement through dense forests.
3) Allow the user to toggle active impassability calculations on or off. While calculating the passability of an entire map may be somewhat cumbersome and taxing the CPU, the user is usually just editing small areas at a time. To keep those updated properly is trivial.
4) Correctly mark the textures of sloped terrain red when it's impassable. In the current implementation, a lot of sloped terrain is marked red, but the red marker disappears below the terrain texture instead (you can usually see the edges though). Makes it sometimes hard to see if the terrain can be traveled through by the hero.
E. Heroes
1) Please add the ability to create neutral heroes.
2) Everything having to do with a heroe should be editable.
3) Allow combat scripts to be attatched to human controlled heroes.
F. Creatures
1) Add the ability to create a custom creature. For example, the ability to create (and name) a dragon with 10000 hit points.
G. Artifacts
1) Add the ability to create custom artifacts.
H. Effects/Boosts
1) Scripting temporary boosts to morale/luck result in permanent boosts. Fix it.
2) Ability to replace fog of war would be nice.
I. Working with Scripts and Text
1) Make it easier to put text into the game, e.g., more how we enter text for signs now.
2) Give us a message box with script-defined choices (i.e., a set of 1 to 8 radio buttons instead of just OK and CANCEL) so our scripts can accept more player input.
3) Text boxes for messages and quests are too small.
4) Make it easier to import script code from other maps
5) Provide a set of high-level canned functions to handle common tasks (e.g., rollover events) that can be used by folks who wish to write simpler scripts but cannot master LUA.
6) Make it so that map regions that don't have an active trigger or are logically excluded from triggering a function DO NOT HALT the progress of a hero that passes through them. These mysterious hero-halts are very annoying to the players.
J. Editor Tools and Functions
1) Add the ability to create, import, and export custom brushes.
2) Add an undo function.
3) Within the script editor, we have a text search (CTRL-f), but we need a search-and-replace as well.
4) The PWL custom load screen addition function does not work. Make it easy to add custom load screens.
5) We need the ability to turn animations on/off in the editor. This would also be a nice option for game play and would make extra large maps playable for more folks.
6) Editor error comments are useless. Make it useful for syntax errors at least.
K. Console
1) Put scroll bars on the console screen so we can see more past history.
2) Since you cannot write a script without using the console, make it easier to enable from inside the game instead of a series of arcane steps to modify your profile files
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
Haven't played around with the map so much, so maybe there is one, but I feel like I'm braindead when I use the editor. I hate it.
