Editor Gripes

[Narcan]

WARNING: This is a largely stream of consciousness rant. It's meant to be constructive criticism, even if the tone seems a bit shrill. I would really like to see some of these issues addressed in future patches.

#1 No LOS Tool

I have to playtest scenarios just to check LOS. Making sure setup zones can't be seen by the enemy is annoying enough, but it's much worse when I'm trying to figure out reasonable waypoints for the AI.

#2 Units

I'm working on a scenario in which I wanted a dismounted squad to start with a Javelin. I added a Stryker, went into the deployment phase, moved the squad into the Stryker and... There's no acquire command.

Beyond that, why should I have to remember that setting equipment quality before I purchase a unit has a different effect than setting it after? Why can't I just bring up a "Unit Properties" menu and adjust all the unit variables (e.g. weapons, ammo, fitness, etc.) on the fly?

In another scenario, I placed two Syrian bunkers. When I play it, they're gone. Okay, I'll place them outside the setup zone. Same thing... Maybe if I set them to be immobilized... Nope. We really need to be able to lock the placement of specific units. Especially because the AI kept moving the bunkers to really stupid positions.

#3 Buildings

Why can't we have the aforementioned properties menu for buildings? A series of pull-down menus with things like window type and texture would be much less aggravating than trying to remember if I want Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Ctrl-Shift, Shift-Alt, etc. (And, of course, if I hit the wrong combination, there's no undo option.) If I could right-click the side of a building and get a pull-down with wall types, that alone would be a huge improvement.

How come we can only put doors on the first floor? It seems weird that I can make a stair-stepped building, but can't add a door leading onto the roof.

#4 Flavor Items

Really? I really have to pick an item based on a meaningless number, go into 3D mode and do this RSI-inducing hold-a-key-and-click dance? Why can't I place and position these objects the same way as a vehicle? Why can't I key-click an object in 3D mode and change the model? Right now I find myself placing every object in a category, then deleting all except the one I wanted.

I'd also love to see a toggle option that would draw the locations of flavor objects on the 2D map, even if they're non-selectable. I'm getting tired of eyeballing the distance between power poles.

#5 Overall

How come the editor interface is designed like we've all got three keys and one mouse button? There are no hotkeys outside of the 3D preview, and even then it's a nonsensical jumble of Alt, Ctrl and Shift. Frankly, I find it a little bizarre that the in-game interface refuses to allow any key combinations at all, and yet the scenario editor relies solely on very cryptic ones. The game itself is much more intuitive for me after the hotkey patch, I'd like to see some attention given to the editor's interface too.

There's also a lack of "direct access" to units, much like in the QBs. Was this due to time constraints, or is there some fear that we'll create scenarios with 36 snipers and no HQs? Or that we'll replace every AK on the map with an RPG? I'm afraid that the forces in each scenario will have a cookie-cutter feel, and we'll miss out on more nuanced missions. Ideally, a scenario designer should be able to start a unit with on-map casualties, half of their ammo and no working smoke launchers. Can something like that be approximated now? Sure. But will the designer be spending his time on the mission itself, or on clever workarounds?

[Sergei]

Thanks for sharing your gripes Narcan, I think all your wishes are well-reasoned.

Ideas of what improvements can be made for the editor are useful, no doubt about that, although there is understandably some limit to how much time Charles can devote to working on the editor vis a vis the actual game itself - actually he's called the editor 'the second game' in the sense of how much effort it has taken. There will be improvements to it, but at this point the 'first game' features have priority. Now, I'm under NDA so I won't specify, but I shall just say that many of your points are on the To Do list already. So things will be better, but please don't put your scenario designing on hold until that!

[Guest]

The flavor objects thing kills me too. Show me a dot (with a mouse-over to let me know what it is later) on the preview screen so I don't end up pushing these things around in 1-meter increments... and a small picture of the object instead of the 1-9 buttons would be great.

Good list and good post.

[SlowMotion]

#2, about those disappearing Syrian bunkers:

I also had problems with those. When I started playing they appeared in one corner of the map, not in the deployed position. Then after changing their position on the map several times, then finally they started appearing where they were supposed to.

[Narcan]

I also had problems with those. When I started playing they appeared in one corner of the map, not in the deployed position. Then after changing their position on the map several times, then finally they started appearing where they were supposed to.

I have even tried assigning an AI group number to each bunker, then painting their setup zones in the AI plan. I'll try placing them again and see what happens.

Thanks for the tip.

[birdstrike]

If you want to put the bunkers in a fixed position, you shouldn't paint an AI setup zone at all for the group they are in. If there is a valid AI setup zone for a Group, the game will put these units into the selected zone, no matter where they are on the map, even if they are outside of a common setup zone. This is different from the limitation that units cannot be moved when placed outside a common setup zone for a human player.

(Too many types of setup zones, sorry. I hope what I said makes any sense.)

[SlowMotion]

In my case there were no groups, so that was not causing it. But I noticed that if you first place a bunker to terrain tile where a bunker can be placed in Deploy and then accidentally change the terrain type to for example Marsh, the bunker moves from that tile to the map corner. I had my setup zone also in map corner.

[GDog]

I'd really like the camera position to remain intact as I switch back and forth from 2D editing screen and 3D preview...

As it stands, I have to reposition the camera every time I go back and forth to get a good look at the adjustments made while making a map.