GC2:Builder (Unofficial GC2 Map/Scenario/Campaign Editor)

the gc2 builder has not been updated in 2 months and the forum is dead too, why to make advertisment for a "dead" project?

I would guess it's due to the questions coming from people about setting up custom scenarios .. over and over.

Yep. Probably pointless but there's still a post asking about an editor once a week... hopefully this'll point them in a useful direction.

The map editor is basicly complete in my opinion. I don't think the scenario editor has been tested much though and is probably lacking some needed features too. Don't think the campaign editor is even available. I've already been given permission to try to keep the site alive, but the forum wasn't very active even when releases were coming out frequently.

I downloaded it a while ago, but I've never really used it. If it could generate a map with randomly-placed stars/planets and let me edit the results, it would be a lot more useful (for me). As far as I can tell, all I'm able to do is create a map one star and one planet at a time.

I agree with mikeswi. In fact one of the last posts indicated a script for doing exactly that was in the works for the next release.
I think that was maybe the last official post. Unfortunate really.

Cheers!

Actualy you can create complete starsystems with 1 to 5 planets, with range of 3 to 5, defined by the star and planet section, the randomness is given by your setting, but I still have a problem with the builder. It keeps creating way too many habitable 10+ worlds and too many pq1-4 worlds, there is like 99% of the galaxy habitable, thats boring. Second problem, custom planets are not random with the planet graphics. All habitable worlds are terran like, are 0 worlds are jupiter like, there is not such a versality like on random maps. Thats why I stoped uising the builder.

Second problem, custom planets are not random with the planet graphics. All habitable worlds are terran like, are 0 worlds are jupiter like, there is not such a versality like on random maps.

Is that a problem with gc2builder or a problem with custom maps themselves?

custom maps themselves, I edited a map in an text editor giving it some special attributes like in the customplanet.xml and it seemed to work, but the builder cant do that

the main issue is still the problem with too many habitable worlds. Im sick of adding class 0 worlds to the map, to add planets with moons and rings as the editor cant create them randomly.

dont misunderstand me, the gc2builder is a nice editor, but its far away from being complete, there is way too much stuff that is missing and that have to be edited by hand. I rather play on bad random maps then to waste some hours creating a good custom map.

Fair enough. The project is on hold for now. http://www.gc2builder.com/sutra-431.html#431
The star system tool was one of the newer addition/changes. The bug of having to use the planet tool to change the setting of the star system tool will probably be fixed. That same bug also affects moons and rings (using the moon/ring setting from the planet tool). Leaving feedback about this stuff on the gc2builder forums would be the best way to let exzachly know what to change/tweak/add/fix/etc for when he can devote time to the project again.

I got no response to my question about gc2 in 2 months, so I think the guy abandoned his own project

I don't know whether anyone still cares about an editor, but since GC2:Builder seems like it's not going to be updated I decided to finish an editor that I started a while back. I'm hoping to have an early version posted either today or tomorrow.

As it stands now, it is more limited than GC2:Builder, but I'm hoping to have it at that level before too long. That said, there are a few things that I think my editor does better than GC2:Builder. Most notably, I have a full 3-D display, and the ability to simply click and drag objects in order to move them.

At the moment, it is purely a map editor and has no tools for scenarios or campaigns, although they are intended for future release.

The major areas I will be focussing on for future improvements are as follows:

Scenario/Campaign capability

Using the game xml files rather than hard coded data (ship placement will probably implemented until this is done)

Random map generation


Of these, my first priority will likely be either random maps or better xml use/ship placement. Also, since there were a couple things that I was learning as I went along (especially directx), I am going to have to go through and redo a lot of the old code. After that is done, I will go ahead and release the editor's code.

Anyways, just giving you a heads up. Look for this somethime over the weekend.

Go ahead and release the map editor animal--there are still those of us that would love to use it

UPDATE: There was a problem with the first verion I posted which prevented the maps from saving correctly. The problem is now fixed. If anyone downloaded this before 5:00pm central on 8/8/06, you should uninstall that version and download the current one.

Ok, here is a link to he download: link="http://www.geocities.com/rar3333/Galciv2MapEditorSetup.zip"]Link">Link
The program uses some textures and models from Galciv2, so you have to have it installed before you can use the editor. It should ask you for your galciv directory when you first run it. Let me know if it doesn't.

I've only tested it on two machines, so let me know right away if you run into any problems. The only thing I've found so far is that you need a fairly recent version of Galciv2. For some reason the older versions make the models show up really small.

why can't I create campaigns? they said it's a campagin builder also right?