Map editor

You won't be able to much of anything in the Map Editor if you don't have a mouse.  Place and select objects for instance.  Or zoom, like you've already pointed out.

This is as good a place as any to start gathering Q&A for the editor...

I guess placing the 'Ascension Crystals' doesn't do anything yet?

What does 'Prestige' do in the planet properties?

why can't I find the editor?

It's in the Galciv2 folder under \GalCiv2\Twilight\Tools\GC2MapEditor

Another question. How do I load a custom map in the game?
I assumed saving a map to \CustomMaps would place it in the map dialog in TA. Doesn't seem to work though.

You can also get to the mapEditor via the "Editors" button on the start-up gadget.

To get to the start-up gadget, right-click on the game (in SDC) after you update and select "Run Application"

I saved my map to \CustomMaps as well, and the 'custom maps' dialouge box is still empty.

Actually I can do everything but zoom. I'm usig a wacom tablet and the pen doesn't have a wheel. If +/- worked like in the game i wouldn't have a problem.

Prestige is the base influence of the planet.

I had disabled custom maps for the beta because I didn't want to debug problems caused with custom maps and it didn't occur to me to re-enable them now that we released the map editor.  It'll have to wait for next week to be enabled.

Well then maybe I should have said "You can't do much of anything if you don't have a pointing device." 

I was picturing you trying to do everything via the keyboard when you said you didn't have a mouse.   

Oooh, so many editors to be released. I also had a question, how exactly does the "Allow Homeless players" button work? Does it mean if a players last planet is taken, they can wander as nomads and take another world (provided they have transports) or is it there to allow events like pirates?

No, it means that you can plop down some ships and set them to be owned by a race that doesn't have a home (ie. own a planet).  So when the game loads this map and "allow homeless players" is set to true, (theoretically, IIRC) then it'll allow those ships to in fact be owned by that "homeless" race when the game starts.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the response.

That might make some very interesting scenarios possible.




That's what I thought. Don't worry though, I think we have enough to play with during the weekend.

Ow..  :NOTSURE: 

OMG I love it. Thank you for all your hard work! Ahhhh I will be exploring the editor for a little bit...(next day) Well that wasn't a BIT...

I actually just remembered ok for the planets is it possible to have both a ring and a moon for satellite. Just wondering...

So that will be 9am Monday then?  .... and we all thought you guys work 24x7

The first time I opened the Map Editor I quickly ran into ran into problems.

I double-clicked the titlebar to resize the window from fullscreen however I could not double click it to make it fullscreen again and I cannot use the fullscreen button in the top corner.

When I used the top buttons to minimize to taskbar and then brought the window back up it is blank white and I have to restart the program to use it again.

Also after a few seconds a window popped up saying my direct3d device could not be restarted and the program had to close.

same here minimizing window and bringing it back causes d3d error

What about a small minimap? since we cant zoom out all the way a minimap would be very useful.

And an extra thing maybe later.. a more detailed randomizer where you can set things like tight clusters or just random, average number of planets per star, total number of resources etc.

So because I use a laptop and dont have a wired mouse i cant zoom in or out? That prevents me from using the editor at all.

Ok so I just want to make sure. We can create the maps for now, but we can't use them untill monday correct? I'm not trying to complain or anything I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong. I mean I know how to get the editor up and make the maps now I just cant load it. So I have untill monday to create the galaxy of my desire? I have alot of work to do then

the map editor totally lags my system out. hardware is not an issue, or shouldn't be as it is all top of the line. software? chances are as i'm on XP 64. i can post\pm full system specs if it helps.

First I want to thank you guys (a lot) at stardock for the map editor and all the hard work on the beta.

Here are some things I noticed about the map editor
1) Randomizing planets seems to only generate uninhabitable planets. They can be re-flagged, but thats a lot of re-flagging
2) I do not see a way to set parameters on the generation like 'Loose Clusters' 'Common' 'Rare' and the like which could be helpful

I was also wondering if it would be possible to see the resource color when zoomed all the way out as it would make it easier to build the map at larger sizes.

All that being said - I think the job you guys do is fantastic and these are minor issues/requests

And the map editor so far seems to run fine on Vista Ultimate x64

????

Startup gadget? I'm not sure what you are talking about. When I first downloaded the update, I couldn't find it so I made a quick look in the TA directories and made myself a desktop shortcut.

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Although the map editor looks interesting, I do have a few problems.

1. When placing something on the map I have no means to move. I have to place the object first, maybe delete, and them move into position.

I have two solutions:
A. Give the keyboard basic movement controls: using the arrow keys to give us up, down, left, and right. You could maybe give us the zooming functions using "page up", and "page down" keys.
B. Give the mouse the ability to use one button to move, and another to place.

2. When starting up the program, give us the option to open an existing map instead of generating a new one.

3. Allow us to select a planet, edit a few details, and then maybe move around to select another one without having to close the window that allows us to edit details.

4. Maybe give the editor a function that copies solar systems, planets, or maybe even sectors (possibly allowing us to rotate or even mirror when moving them around for symetrical maps).

5. Special place holders. For instance, I might want a map to import a civ's home solar system when they particiapate. For instance, the Thalans would import their class 15 homeworld, and the Terrans would get Earth and Mars.

Other stuff could in theory be added into those place holder possitions as well. Does any one reading this post have any ideas?

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Thats it for now. I'll come back to comment later.

Can`t Place planets more the 3 tile away form Star (sun) ??? what`s up with that ??? :NOTSURE: Is the editor done ??? if it is not the never mind,... if it is Done,.. hey what`s up ???
I have more questions but i want to make sure the editor done first!!

if it is in Beta ok !!!

was able to open CustomMaps in DA