Editors

from GalCiv2 Forums

OK Twilight of the Arnor is finally here.

But what happens with the editors? They are not what expected.

1. Map Editor : It crashes very often and it's maps are not always playable in the GCII which they crash the game..
Minimizing at the taskbars and restoring it back it often causes a D3D error.
Creating a map with pre-defined home planets for players crashes the game. And I dont know havent checked yet but the names on custom maps are not the normal ones like in game but names like...  Planet [1,1].[17,25]

2. Tech Editor : Its more like a program that manages the tech_tree.xml rather creating new techs or entire tech trees. Of course its possible to create your own tech tree but you should remember or write down all the available techs and spend hours to create one. However it wont be available in the game. When I created a modified tech tree under a different name it was not available in the game. It was saved in the same folder in TA like the other tech_tree.xml

3.Ship Editor : Or the right is Ship Component Editor. Thats definetely far from what expected. Its not a ship editor where you can create your own ships out of the game but an editor like tech editor which you can edit the current ship components and create new ones probably with different values.

I have to add also that in Tech and Ship Editors someone who has no idea about the xml files will find difficult how they work. There is no indication what to do with the editors. "Ok I opened it. Now? I see a UI but dont know what to do with it!"

And there is a missing editor. Not necessary but it would be helpful. The race editor.
When I create a race in game Personality tab is not available so you can't make it your race evil, good or neutral.
In some cases when you edit your custom race xml file then Tech tab is not available either or Super Ability.

So far for me editors have zero value in expansion since they dont work right or they are not what expected. And that was the reason for me I bought the expansion.

Further.. About the game I havent played the final release only the last betas and what I have seen when I was playing (immense maps) is that AI was not working so well. Most of races if not all were expanding normally but.. most of the planets were not developed they had no buildings or very few of them I assume they could not afford to build them which it turns them very very slow, when I had the half galaxy colonized and my planets developed they were still at the beggining.

At least on this one I hope its fixed in final release.

7,531 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I let the map editor randomly create a 8x8 map. In playing on it I noticed that a lot of the planet were "special" colonies (radiated, barren, etc.). It seemed like a more realistic galaxy then to have all these colonizable planet laying around. It does give the races capable of colonizing them a good advantage.

Is there a way to change the backround in the map editor? I'd rather have a light grey or generally lighter color in the backround.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am haveing touble with the ship editor too. I was making a recreation of the Battlestar Pegasus when all of a sudden the ship starts reacting badly to extra pieces and systems. If I add anything, the ship's appearance gets screwed up. When I say "screwed up" I mean parts of the ship getting distorted, or becoming invisible. Can anything be done about this?
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I haven't done as extensive testing with ship components as others have, but I do know that custom capacity modules (colony and troop modules) will not launch from a planet. They otherwise function normally.

You may want to make a list of parts and stuff that doesn't work, and why it doesn't. Once the list is made, try to present it to the devs. They are going to be working on version 2.0 at some point.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
XML is the easiest, crappiest, most readable, easy-to-understand plain english format outside of .lua. If someone is seriously confused by this they should go back to their Xbox. I think a certain amount of baseline intelligence is expected for an EDITOR. Not every retard can just open Hammer and make an HL2 map either.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My main problem is when I use the TechTree editor it wants me to add new techs by ID. What? I was expecting like, a list of all the techs to choose from or something.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The tech ID is just the name the game engine uses. It's different from the display name. You can call it whatever the hell you want (as long as it's not using illegal characters for XML).
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Note that the tech ID can be the SAME as the name, but whatever you use for it has no bearing in-game (as long as you have them assigned right).
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is NOT the problem. The problem is the editor just asks for the ID. Well, how the hell should I know what any of the IDs for techs are? I presume that's in some XML file somewhere, and if I wanted to dig through those, I'd be using an XML editor, or Notepad or something.

When I click 'Add New...' I should get a list of techs to choose from, and double-clicking should add it to the tree. THAT would be a Tech Tree editor. What we've got now is just a fancy XML editor that has a better GUI.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi all!

Same to mehere! I am a big, a very big fan of GCiv and Stardock! But the editors are very disappointing! No manual, no tipps ... nothing! I thought to create unique planets with unique improvements - i don´t no how! Is this possible or not?

So, don´t get me wrong - but a little help or explanation is very wellcome!

Sorry for my bad english.

Jochen