Savefile Character / Map Editor v1.0.1 (April 15, 2014)

Ask questions, share hints or chat in general about Eschalon: Book I.
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

Post by SpottedShroom »

xolotl wrote:I found that the click-and-drag function on Fedora 13 is crazy slow. The map scrolling lags behind the mouse pointer by quite a bit, and then slowly catches up. Basically I want to know if anyone else encountered that, at some point, and if so, if you were able to figure out some way to make it Not Do That.
No, it works great here on Ubuntu 10.04. Any reason in particular you're using Fedora for your testing?

Anyway, this was also my first time trying out the editor. Great work! You've clearly put a lot of time and effort into this. Has anyone thought about creating new maps for the game? It seems like it might be possible to make some interesting additions to the game and share them with other fans. It might help to have some better documentation on how to use the items, scripting, etc. but I could probably figure it out on my own.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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SpottedShroom wrote:No, it works great here on Ubuntu 10.04. Any reason in particular you're using Fedora for your testing?
I had actually tried both Fedora and Ubuntu. I prefer Fedora for the default install just 'cause I tend to prefer Redhatalikes to Debianalikes, though I'm by no means fervent about it. :) We use a lot of CentOS+RHEL at the place I work, which helps skew the preference slider over that way. In the end, btw, I think it was just some weird AGP-related hardware issue on my end; you can read a bit about it here. I've had plenty of other Fedora folks say that it worked fine for them, too.
Has anyone thought about creating new maps for the game? It seems like it might be possible to make some interesting additions to the game and share them with other fans.
Yeah, that's honestly what still excites me the most about the project, though I admit that the editor isn't really ideal for that yet. The forthcoming version should help with map design; it's got the ability to drop in more complex "objects" like chests and doors and creatures and stuff, without having to go fiddle with all the values manually. Perhaps in another version or two it'll be Awesome. Of course, if BW releases his own tools along with Book 3, as he's hinted, I expect those would quickly obsolete my own imitations. :)

Anyway, if anyone does create something cool with the tool, I'd love to see it, of course.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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xolotl wrote:...The forthcoming version should help with map design; it's got the ability to drop in more complex "objects" like chests and doors and creatures and stuff, without having to go fiddle with all the values manually. Perhaps in another version or two it'll be Awesome. Of course, if BW releases his own tools along with Book 3, as he's hinted, I expect those would quickly obsolete my own imitations. :)
I'm not sure that'll be true, actually - I suspect the Eschalon editor that BW releases will be for Book II/Book III-type maps (which are of higher resolution), and not Book I maps.

For the latter, I suspect your editor will be the only game in town (or, at least, for those interested in editing Thaermore maps!). :)
xolotl wrote:Anyway, if anyone does create something cool with the tool, I'd love to see it, of course.
I may and try to get your editor working on my Mac, if you report that editor is to the point that you are satisfied that your mapping tools are quite robust... ;)
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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IJBall wrote: I'm not sure that'll be true, actually - I suspect the Eschalon editor that BW releases will be for Book II/Book III-type maps (which are of higher resolution), and not Book I maps.
For that matter, is there a version of the map editor for Book II? I seem to recall seeing a screenshot of an XP machine using the model for the computers from Talushorn level 4 - or was that just done by hand?
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Announcement time, again! Version 0.7.0 of my Eschalon Utilities is now available from the usual place:

http://apocalyptech.com/eschalon/

There's two major new features in 0.7.0:
  • First, this includes full map editing for Book 2 (at least, as full as its Book 1 editing is), which I imagine might excite some folks. Head over to the relevant Book 2 thread for some information about some extra dependencies if you're not on Windows, for Book 2 Map editing
  • The editor can now place more "complex" objects with a single click, such as doors and chests and monsters and the like. Instead of having to go through and edit ten different values to put a lot of common things down, you'll be able to just choose them from a list and then click away. I think that this should make the editor far more useful than it was previously; I'd welcome any feedback about it. This is supported on both Book 1 and Book 2 maps
And of course there's a gaggle of other more minor bugfixes and changes, which you can read about in the Changelog if you so choose.

As always, be real careful and make backup copies. As far as I can tell, things are stable, but caveat emptor! Remember that map files have an associated ".ent" file which would need to be backed up along with the ".map" file itself. Let me know of any bugs you find!
SpottedShroom wrote:For that matter, is there a version of the map editor for Book II? I seem to recall seeing a screenshot of an XP machine using the model for the computers from Talushorn level 4 - or was that just done by hand?
Heh. There is now! That screenshot was done on my local development version of the editor.
IJBall wrote:I may and try to get your editor working on my Mac, if you report that editor is to the point that you are satisfied that your mapping tools are quite robust... ;)
Cool cool. I'm likely to remain at least publically skeptical about the robustness of the editor (how Midwestern of me!), but should you undertake that effort, I'd love to hear how it goes. Let me know if I can do anything to help, if you decide to do that.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Jedi_Learner wrote:Very good map editor, haven't come across any problems. Thank you xolotl for releasing the editor, and to Basilisk Games for allowing this topic.
Wicked cool stuff, JL! Keep up the good work!! :)

(It actually looks like you're well on your way to setting up a player-designed scenario!... :mrgreen: )
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Jedi_Learner wrote:Funny. I email you about narrative scripts and get a response straight away. I ask you something here, you don't respond. Are you ignoring me xolotl? :P
Heh - just whatever window/desktop I happen to be looking at, at the time. :)

Although actually the reason I hadn't answered re: permission is that I don't know. I had basically assumed it'd be fine. When I asked BW about permission to access the data inside the datapak, it was in the context of supporting a map editor, so I'd assume that the subtext of that would be that people might make their own maps and post 'em to the boards here.

Since we know that BW's aware of the editor and keeps up with these forums, I'd guess that it'd be safe to assume that it's okay, and if it turns out not to be, we'll be told. Or you could just ask him, I suppose. :)
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Jedi_Learner wrote:Are we allowed to release what we create, so long as we provide clear installation instructions and make it clear Basilisk Games are not responsible for any problems?
Yes, but under certain circumstances:
1) You cannot sell what you make; it must be free. This is pretty much standard for all mods for any game.
2) If you put your content up for download anywhere else, you need to have a link that jumps back to the Book I page here at http://basiliskgames.com/eschalon-book-i
See my ramblings and keep up with the latest news on Twitter & Facebook.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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BasiliskWrangler wrote:Yes, but under certain circumstances:
Thanks for the clarification! I've added that on the editor page itself, and I'll make sure it's in the README on any future versions as well. Thanks again...
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Jedi_Learner wrote:For anyone thinking about creating new maps you can do this with little fuss, but each time you leave and return all content (monsters, loot and map) will reset. This does not happen with maps that were created by Basilisk Games.
Huh! Interesting indeed. I'll have to play around with that and see if it's related to some of those "unknown" values I'm unsure of. I admit that I haven't yet tried creating any custom content of my own. Usually by the time I've gotten to releasing a new version of the editor, I'm in the mood to take a break for a little while. Then when I get the urge to play around, I just end up working on a new version instead. :) It's a vicious cycle!
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Jedi_Learner wrote:For anyone thinking about creating new maps you can do this with little fuss, but each time you leave and return all content (monsters, loot and map) will reset. This does not happen with maps that were created by Basilisk Games.
Is this true even if you travel from one user-created map to another, and back again?

Or does it only happen if you go from one user-created map to a BW map and back again?...
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Version 0.7.2 of the editor has been released, btw, and is available from the usual place:

http://apocalyptech.com/eschalon/

The single change in this release is a fix for this issue:
Jedi_Learner wrote:For anyone thinking about creating new maps you can do this with little fuss, but each time you leave and return all content (monsters, loot and map) will reset.
Book I maps store a "Map ID" which needs to be the same name as the filename, otherwise the state of the map won't get saved properly (and in fact could possibly overwrite the state of whatever map you had started with). When creating new maps in Book I, be sure to go into the global "Map Properties" dialog and update the Map ID accordingly.

I had toyed with the idea of just setting that value automatically, but I figure that could lead to unintended consequences too, if people are saving maps as backups or something; I dunno. Perhaps I'll end up doing that in a future version anyway. Regardless, for now just set the value and you should be fine.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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Another day, another update. I've just pushed out 0.7.3, available as usual from here: http://apocalyptech.com/eschalon/

This release clears up a few things which I probably should have done in 0.7.2 (instead of just rushing that one out so quickly with the editable Map ID). A couple of the notable changes:
  • The program will be more proactive about making sure that the Map ID field matches the filename. It'll prompt you to change it on a "Save As," if it doesn't match, and display a red warning in the GUI whenever it doesn't match.
  • Map editor now has a "New" menu item under File which will create a blank map for you.
  • The app will now prompt you first if you want to create a new map, and then go into the Load menu if you hit Cancel or escape, rather than going straight into the Load menu.
  • Deciphered an extra four bytes out of the Book 1 map file, including the flag which determines if the map is Outside or a Dungeon.
So yeah, have at it, if you want.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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... aaand there's yet another new version, at http://apocalyptech.com/eschalon/

Changes in 0.7.4 relevant to Book 1 (all in the map editor component) -
  • Added a "Fill" function to make fresh maps a little easier to deal with
  • Fixed an exception which could get triggered while drawing near the bottom of the map
So, a few useful bits in there. I swear I'll try to take it easy on the release schedule for a bit. :)

Oh, and it should be noted, perhaps, that the character editor component remains basically unchanged since 0.7.0, so if you're just editing characters, not much has been updated.
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Re: Savefile Character / Map Editor

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I'm guessing this will be of interest to some folks, so as a heads-up, I've put out a sort-of reference to scripting out on my page, which details all the scripting commands that I'm currently aware of. I'm sure there are mistakes and whatnot, and I'd guess that it's probably incomplete, but it should help regardless. Be sure to let me know if I have anything wrong, or anything missing.

Book 1 Scripting Reference
Book 2 Scripting Reference

Enjoy!
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