Enhancement requests: Scenario Editor

[Sparatacus]

I have had a go with the new terrain and it appears to me that the 'canal' terrain piece isn't working properly with a map I started before the update. It actually blacks out the tile leaving nothing but river tiles! Which was what I had there initially. Had a couple of goes at it and I don't think I'm doing any thing dumb!

I also did a quick test scenario to try it out and an infantry unit was effected like it was a river tile i.e the unit took a turn to cross it but it wasn't visible as a canal just a standard clear tile. I tried generating tiles as well and it didn't generate any canal tiles just made them clear tiles.

Any ideas?

Thanks

P.S really liking the new desert terrain and I hope this is right thread for this question!

[Bombur]

Neutral countries that could join one or another side, by events.
Different weather zones

[EuroBoss]

Please add:
save current overlays
save overlays

So when generate terrain is used it does not wipe out any user placed overlays.

[Rudankort]

Please add:
save current overlays
save overlays

So when generate tiles is used it does not wipe out any user placed overlays.

As of 1.13, the editor does not replace any user-placed overlays. If this is not the case for you, it must be a bug.

[EuroBoss]

Yes its buggin out for me generate terrain then generate tiles (current layer) and then terrain does not show tried switching all possible views?
If i try just generate tiles it wipes overlays and terrain finaly shows up

[4p0int]

Howdy, anyway you can update this topic and give us a list of what has been Suggested and what is possible with a summary, 1 thru ###! Lot of info here, from over the years! Don't want ask about something that's already listed, nor do I have the time,to reinvent the wheel and have to go thru EVERY one!
Thanks

[the_iron_duke]

It would be good if there were options to:

1) Clear the map (but keep the units).
2) Clear the units (but keep the map).

[Razz1]

Show:
count of units in each class and cost


Fix the special exit and entry hexes. They do not work for airplanes

[the_iron_duke]

Show:
count of units in each class and cost

I was also going to suggest this - I think it would be easy to implement as the units are already divided into the various categories and it could be added to the Show Statistics sheet.

Also, add aircraft carrier to the Red Team/Blue Team sides as it's the only naval class missing.

[4p0int]

How about being able to put a Fighter and a Bomber in the same hex over a target, ( City, airbase, radar, victory hex, ect) That way the Bomber would still engage the Fighter, but the survivors would still be able to drop their bomb loads.
Also, if when on the Bomb run itself, if the bomber "passes thru" a fighter, it engages, then fly's on to it's designated hex.

[Molve]

Neutral countries that could join one or another side, by events.

You can still make this happen manually.

* Say you start out with "dark" territory (the out of bounds hexes). Mark all hexes with a zone, say zone 22.
* Then you devise a way for that country to make up its mind. (This could be something as simple as a random chance, but would probably be more interesting if you let the user's actions influence the decision: perhaps if the player abstains from taking a vital town, chances increase for a later pay-off when the neutral joins the player's side. But anyway)
* When the country stops being neutral, you use hex action to switch its hexes (zone 22 in this example) to regular (open) ones.
* Prepare two sets of the neutral country's military forces. Set the trigger for one to the tag "joinsaxis" and the trigger for the other to "joinsallies". These units could start out at half strength, or have a random trigger so not all units show up fully combat-ready on that first turn; to mimic surprise and confusion often plaguing the mobilization effort of WWII minors (that often did not mobilize ahead of being attacked in the vain hope they would escape the war).
* Then, when the country drops its neutrality, you add either tag. Or both, if you want to simulate civil war!

Of course, other options include being able to violate the country's neutrality, and perhaps have that as the trigger for it to join the war (presumably on the other side). Then you'd obviously skip the "dark" territory, perhaps delineating the border some other way (perhaps the most obvious one would be to use a string of flags. However, this would inject a fair amount of prestige into the scenario, so perhaps better options are using marker overlays such as "Zone A", or reusing the "wire" graphic from Afrika Korps, or perhaps something as simple as using a distinct river as the border)

In this latter case, you would need to take care so the AI-controlled enemy doesn't blunder into the neutral territory... unless you the scenario designer wishes it to!

Point is: only your imagination sets the limit (and not editor shortcomings )

[Molve]

It would be good if there were options to:

1) Clear the map (but keep the units).
2) Clear the units (but keep the map).

Those tools are slightly problematic I believe. The official scenarios are marked in some special hidden way as belonging to a certain campaign, to prevent a user from playing content he or she hasn't purchased (patches push the pzscen's of Afrika Korps and Allied Corps onto your hard drive even if you do not have those stand-alone expansions). This unlike scenarios you create from scratch.

So if you were thinking of using a certain scenario as the starting point for your own scenario, you would run into problems when you share it with the world (as a singleplayer scenario, perhaps part of your user-created campaign. Not discussing MP now) - it would be quite possible for a user to get an inexplicable content package error.

For instance, take the starting North African scenarios of Allied Corps. Nothing in those scenarios (that feature desert, italians, etc) suggest a player with, say, Afrika Korps, shouldn't be able to play your scenario, but since you didn't start from scratch (but "scrubbed" an official AC scenario of its map or units) it would still be invisibly marked "Allied Corps only".

And oh: while #1 isn't part of the editor, #2 have been present from the start: the editor already has a menu choice to let you clear all units off the map.

But try holding down SHIFT when you paint a terrain. You should find that it is actually pretty easy to "wipe" a map (make it all water, or all clear etc) even without a dedicated menu function for that purpose.

[Molve]

Howdy, anyway you can update this topic and give us a list of what has been Suggested and what is possible with a summary, 1 thru ###! Lot of info here, from over the years! Don't want ask about something that's already listed, nor do I have the time,to reinvent the wheel and have to go thru EVERY one!
Thanks

I heartily agree! It would be very useful to start a new thread, bringing over only those ideas that haven't already been implemented (or shot down!)

[Molve]

Yes its buggin out for me generate terrain then generate tiles (current layer) and then terrain does not show tried switching all possible views?
If i try just generate tiles it wipes overlays and terrain finaly shows up

Not sure what you're saying... but try this:

1) Make a new map.
2a) Make it all clear (SHIFT-click a hex with clear terrain selected. The whole map fills with your chosen terrain)
2b) Add at least two city hexes.
3) Press G to generate. Your screen fills up with green grass, and a few cities. Right? (Press SPACE to toggle between overlays and no overlays).
4) Now select Overlays.
4a) Begin by right-clicking on of your city hexes. You should see the city overlay disappear. You have deleted the overlay tile on that hex.
4b) Then choose the fourth overlay from the top. It's a "nothing" overlay, just below the first few forest overlays. Click another of your cities with this. The city disappears, much like in 4a.
Note: Be sure to left-click to add a tile; unlike in 4a where you right-clicked, deleting a tile.
4c) Then select something from the list that stands out well from all that grassy green; that first forest tile perhaps. Paint a few clear hexes with that overlay.
5) Press G again (not "current layer only")
6) If you use 1.13 or later, you should find that:
6a) the city overlay you merely deleted is re-generated,
6b) the city overlay you manually painted over with "nothing" is not changed in any way,
much like
6c) your manually added forests are not erased or modified either.

In summary: the editor invisibly keeps track of which hex overlays are added manually by you.

Note: the hex in 6b still works like a city hex in every way except appearance. It still provides entrenchment and allows unit purchases etc. Similarily, the hexes in 6c remain clear hexes despite you making them look like forests.

M

PS. Even if you can't see it, the program knows which hexes have no overlay or an "automatic" overlay, and will generate one (with various degrees of intelligence; coasts work superbly while escarpments fail miserably). Meaning that if you change the underlying terrain of your two city hexes into something else, mountain maybe, you will see 6a turn into a big rock (because its overlay way automatic) and 6b remain featureless (because your manual addition of the "nothing" overlay is kept).

There is no way that I know of to quickly/easily tell which overlays are manually added, however.
This created problems with a previous version of the Hylan Oasis MP scenario. Previously not all jungle hexes matched the actual terrain of the hex (some hexes looking like jungle were open clear and vice versa). While this appears to be fixed now, I bet the problem wouldn't appear if, say, "Validate Scenario" could detect things like a clear hex having an overlay tile from the forests subrange)

[Molve]

I have had a go with the new terrain and it appears to me that the 'canal' terrain piece isn't working properly with a map I started before the update. It actually blacks out the tile leaving nothing but river tiles! Which was what I had there initially. Had a couple of goes at it and I don't think I'm doing any thing dumb!

I also did a quick test scenario to try it out and an infantry unit was effected like it was a river tile i.e the unit took a turn to cross it but it wasn't visible as a canal just a standard clear tile. I tried generating tiles as well and it didn't generate any canal tiles just made them clear tiles.

Any ideas?

Thanks

You mean "straits" right?

I would suggest you experiment first on a brand new map, to get a feel of how the editor handles straits hexes. Then you could always return and ask if you have any more questions

One thing: make sure the hexes you want to change do not have manual overlays. To make sure, select Overlay Tiles from the menu, and right click all your would-be canal hexes, and all adjoining hexes too. Obviously, double-check your terrain too (press SPACE)

Only then press G to watch what the editor makes of your new terrain, now that the risk of manual overlays interfering has been removed.

[Molve]

It would be good if there were options to:

1) Clear the map (but keep the units).
2) Clear the units (but keep the map).

3) Clear the map of all manual overlays

That is, remove any and all manual overlays so that when you press G, it can work on the whole of the map, with no risk of any previously placed manual tiles staying around.

Obviously, it would be still better if the tools menu allowed you to "highlight hexes with manual overlays", making them stand out in a clear way to allow you to spot them easily right away.

Obviously, it would be even better if "Validate Scenario" had information on which overlay tiles belong to which terrain types, so it could report on "mistakes" (deliberate or accidental) like a manual city overlay on a hex that actually is an airfield etc

[Molve]

Don't know if this has been reported previously, but please add "all zones" to the list of zones.

Being able to see all zones at the same time would be immensely helpful, in answering questions like "does this hex belong to a zone" or "have I used zone NN on this map".

Currently, I find that keeping notepad notes on the zone usage of any map I create is a must, since it is a pain to administer them from within the editor. (More than once, I have found myself selecting zone 1, hunting the entire map, then selecting zone 2, hunting again, then zone 3... )

The implementation could simply crudely overwrite the numbers on top of each other. Even if this makes the display in well-used hexes a blue garble it would still help out a lot.

[Molve]

Don't know if this has been reported previously, but please add a way in the scripts window to
A) reorder scripts (moving them up and down in the list)
B) copy/paste scripts (creating a second script identical to the one you indicate with a single push of a button)

As for A, it is useful to keep scripts that happen in the early turns of a scenario above scripts that are triggered later on. For instance, any scenario where you start out by immediately adding a tag you want this script to be the first one in order to keep things tidy.

As for B, you can copy/paste actions within scripts, but you can't copy a script. I have several times found myself recreating a complex script just because I needed two slight versions of the same basic idea.

Thanks!

[Molve]

The ability to edit units that have been placed in a tabular form. Currently, to edit placed units each one must be Shift-clicked to bring up their details - it would be much easier if the placed unit details could be seen and edited in a table.

The bane of every serious programmer - well-meaning but inefficient user interfaces... (If the scenario file were plain text files, perhaps coded in XML, and you could use your favorite text editor to edit a scenario, think of all the time you would save )

Anyway, a work-around you're probably already aware of (but worth mentioning for any other readers):
Instead of painstakingly creating a complex trigger for each and every unit you want to add in some way, just give them a tag trigger, and then use a script to add that tag at the appropriate time. This saves you from having to code your trigger in more than one place!

Pushing the boundaries: batch editing. e.g. Change all Wehrmacht infantry to Wehrmacht 43 infantry. Editing experience, entrenchment etc would be much easier in a table and batch editing make it even more so.

I understand this might not be what you want, but you could use the new Unit Action to change all Inf to 43 Inf with a simple script.

[Molve]

Limit access to (the better) switchable units.

Read more: viewtopic.php?f=147&t=47680