Improved and simplified Mission Editor?

[gossamersolid 155]

Did I mention the ticket I have for adding the feature/function which is to make all highlighted units/groups playable at once versus

what we have now which is you have to edit each unit be it a single unit, or a individual units in a group.

How can we add to this function when you highlight, like what else would you want to be able to do when you highlight individual or groups,

other then making them all just playable?

Also copying and pasting a playable unit should make that new unit playable still. I hate having to manually go change those new units to playable.

[pathetic_berserker 4]

If by 'simplified' he meant 'more user friendly' via the addition of a 3D editor and script editor, then yeah.

But we already know thats highly unlikely at this stage.

We also know that its something BIS wants to do, but it has higher priorities.

[iceman77 18]

Also copying and pasting a playable unit should make that new unit playable still. I hate having to manually go change those new units to playable.

Yeah that's a pain. I usually copy & paste from mission.sqm to mission.sqm. Unless I need totally different units types, then it's still a bother :(

---------- Post added at 20:39 ---------- Previous post was at 20:35 ----------

One thing I wouldn't mind is a scaleable editing UI. Init boxes should be scaleable etc.

[igneous01 19]

a debugger would be best feature to add imo. Some way to list all objects/scripts/setVars so you can figure out why something isnt working.

[chortles 263]

Well who knows?

The devs said that they won´t include the 3D Editor because of lack of tme. Now that A3 was postponed....

They have bigger fish to fry -- I wouldn't be surprised if the development 'order of steps' pipeline doesn't change except for "get Ivan and Martin back", so a full-fledged 3D editor (past Alt+E) is probably still not going to happen.

[maddogx 13]

They have bigger fish to fry -- I wouldn't be surprised if the development 'order of steps' pipeline doesn't change except for "get Ivan and Martin back", so a full-fledged 3D editor (past Alt+E) is probably still not going to happen.

Remember that BIS is still a company like any other that relies on income, with employees who rely on a monthly paycheck. They surely won't just be sitting around for months, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for things to get back to normal so they can start working again. Business goes on, even under such unfortunate and difficult circumstances. Long story short: the devs are certainly doing something.

My take on the matter is that the additional Arma2 CO sales generated by the DayZ mod have probably given them a lot of financial breathing room, so they can invest more time into the development and polishing of their upcoming games. The current radio silence is merely out of respect for their friends, not because nothing of note is happening behind the scenes.

With all that said, it's entirely possible that some more "nice to have" features will make it into the game, for example a 3D editor.

[arziben 23]

I think there should be an "easy" editor mode, for beginners, as an exemple I was thinking about the il-2 mission editor which is actually pretty intuitive and easy to use

[aammooss1122 1]

My opinion of editor is arma2 has already have a intact editor . The stuff what we need is a 3d editor , which have entire feature of 2d editor .

[iceman77 18]

I think there should be an "easy" editor mode, for beginners, as an exemple I was thinking about the il-2 mission editor which is actually pretty intuitive and easy to use

Depending on what you want to do exactly, the editor itself is pretty easy to use. Some things can't be done with the editor, but rather external scripts. Which is where the actual difficulty will begin (DOE), and there will never be enough time to learn everything anyhow. Grab Mr. Murrays editing guide. Spend some spare time in the editor, along with the guide. After a couple/few days you'll get the hang of the editor, as it really isn't that bad, but rather simple actually.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Iceman77

[cuel 25]

Things I'd like to see, probably mentioned already;

- Keyboard click to switch units between playable and not

- 3d Editor where objects can be placed, their height and angle / rotation be changed, and saved.. What we have now is almost good enough, it just needs minor improvements to stop stuff from being re-located when saving etc.

- init.sqf and description.ext auto-creation when saving mission for the first time (minor)

- Larger or resize-able init-fields inside editor (objects etc). Maybe add possibility to make new lines etc for easier overview of code

- Fix crash to desktop when missing #includes and similar stuff.

- No popups when "could not find image\ blabla", "could not find cfgWeapons\blabla" force it into showScriptErrors or something similar. It's annoying when you're in combat and you get one of those popups.

- Please don't name objects, parts, animations or any other stuff in Czech language ( probably don't have to mention this :) )

[WhiteArcticFox 1]

Things I'd like to see, probably mentioned already;

- Keyboard click to switch units between playable and not

- 3d Editor where objects can be placed, their height and angle / rotation be changed, and saved.. What we have now is almost good enough, it just needs minor improvements to stop stuff from being re-located when saving etc.

- init.sqf and description.ext auto-creation when saving mission for the first time (minor)

- Larger or resize-able init-fields inside editor (objects etc). Maybe add possibility to make new lines etc for easier overview of code

- Fix crash to desktop when missing #includes and similar stuff.

- No popups when "could not find image\ blabla", "could not find cfgWeapons\blabla" force it into showScriptErrors or something similar. It's annoying when you're in combat and you get one of those popups.

- Please don't name objects, parts, animations or any other stuff in Czech language ( probably don't have to mention this :) )

Undo / Redo button, we can't forget that.

[iceman77 18]

Things I'd like to see, probably mentioned already;

- Keyboard click to switch units between playable and not

- 3d Editor where objects can be placed, their height and angle / rotation be changed, and saved.. What we have now is almost good enough, it just needs minor improvements to stop stuff from being re-located when saving etc.

- init.sqf and description.ext auto-creation when saving mission for the first time (minor)

- Larger or resize-able init-fields inside editor (objects etc). Maybe add possibility to make new lines etc for easier overview of code

- Fix crash to desktop when missing #includes and similar stuff.

- No popups when "could not find image\ blabla", "could not find cfgWeapons\blabla" force it into showScriptErrors or something similar. It's annoying when you're in combat and you get one of those popups.

- Please don't name objects, parts, animations or any other stuff in Czech language ( probably don't have to mention this :) )

I'd also like to be able to choose initial weapon loadout from a drop down menu for each unit. The available loadouts would ofcourse depend on which unit type is selected.While the conventional way would still be used for totally custom equipment, this would be really handy.

[chortles 263]

Remember that BIS is still a company like any other that relies on income, with employees who rely on a monthly paycheck. They surely won't just be sitting around for months, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for things to get back to normal so they can start working again. Business goes on, even under such unfortunate and difficult circumstances. Long story short: the devs are certainly doing something.

I believe this too -- just that I believe that BI is probably still having the same development priorities as before, so I would expect "expanding the 3D editor" at this point to be an afterthought.

[metalcraze 290]

I'd also like to be able to choose initial weapon loadout from a drop down menu for each unit. The available loadouts would ofcourse depend on which unit type is selected.While the conventional way would still be used for totally custom equipment, this would be really handy.

There's a much better alternative already in existence. You just drag'n'drop stuff into slots/gear list. In fact you can create your own unit classes with custom names and loadouts right here in the editor to be reused in any other mission instead of the current PITA in ArmA with constant copy pasta.

Edited January 11, 2013 by metalcraze

[b00tsy 28]

I think BI needs to look at the editor the devs of FarCry made. I know it is comparing it with apples and oranges, but still it gives an idea about how easy and intuitive (thus creative) an editor can be made. With ArmA every little thing takes ages to do, not to mention you constantly have to search the BIKI, ask questions on the forum, try stuff out 10 times to see if it works, if everything is placed properly. Even simple things as custom gear takes a long time to do or placing some simple respawn points, every little thing has to be done manually with script code, it can be a real drag to do. The easier and intuitive the editor gets the more people will create (quality) content, meaning a bigger selling point for ArmA. I btw also would like to see an easy map creator, without the satellite image you need to use. Give us a flat empty map and a bulldozer, the option to create hills and roads, placing buildings and props, etc, on the go, again like FarCry.

---------- Post added at 05:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:33 PM ----------

Well who knows?

The devs said that they won´t include the 3D Editor because of lack of tme. Now that A3 was postponed....

It is a matter of priorities. I mean ArmA basically floats on the user made content so logic dictates that it should be a priority. I myself played the official campaign and scenario's like 2 hours, after that I only played user made missions/mods of the 1500+ hours total. I really don't care about the BIS campaign they will add to ArmA3, I am mostly interested in the maps and the editor and the user made content that will emerge from it.

[iceman77 18]

There's a much better alternative already in existence. You just drag'n'drop stuff into slots/gear list. In fact you can create your own unit classes with custom names and loadouts right here in the editor to be reused in any other mission instead of the current PITA in ArmA with constant copy pasta.

Yeah. I'm talking about the default game (unless that is infact part of A3 vanilla). Obviously, you, me or anyone else can get just about any feature we desire through a 3rd party.

---------- Post added at 10:43 ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 ----------

Also, another feature I'd like to see in the editor is a module for the GUI Editor. Instead of having to download the GUI Editor to use be able to use it.

[metalcraze 290]

That's the default editor of VBS2 which is currently on ArmA2's engine. Shouldn't be too hard to port it into ArmA3 or at least create a similar one based on it.

It even has dedicated sliders for each skill like courage or precision of each soldier in the field, not just 'skill' like in ArmA2.

Compared to ArmA2 it's so detailed you can even change longitude and latitude of the map right there which affects day/night cycles and the star map you see at night.

[iceman77 18]

wow that does sound pretty outstanding!

[Johnson11B2P 3]

I'm one for making things easier but if BI makes it to easy I feel that all the hours I spent learning the language would go to waste, kind of like a hacker giving hacking tools away to noobs. I feel if you really want to me a good mission maker take the time to learn it.

I have spent countless hours, trial and error to be adequate with the 2D editor. From learning the language and usage of scripts. But the 2D editor needs several tweaks in my opinion and most of these you guys have said it and I totally agree.

1. Multiple units editable at the same time so they can be set to playable.

2. Make units spawn with a trigger instead of using the 3D editor to write the script.

3. Be able to place units on roofs instead of using the 3D editor.

4. In game document writer so I could write what I need without alt tab or having the game in windowed mode.

5. The API either installed or accessible in the game.

6. Make setting tasks easier. All that writing is annoying and time consuming. But hey if I didn't get a team together I would totally not include tasks in my missions.

The 3D editor in my opinion only needs a couple enhancements and I think it will greatly improve missions.

1. Change the way the units are selected. Instead of scrolling the entire unit list make it like the 2D editor so we can find units easier.

2. Be able to group units like in the 2D editor. Creating a crap load of groups just to spawn one individual unit is a hassle.

[wipman 1]

Hi, something with the shape of that ArmA Tactics would be a good 3D editor IMO, if it had layers, so you can place units, groups and objects on top of objects/buildings and also inside, with a transparence on the above layers of the level where you're working on or placing things on. Let's C ya

[MxJames 1]

A 3D version woulb be cool

[John1000 10]

I love the ‘Editor’ as it is, if they made it more complicated I wouldn’t mind, I live in there most of the time...:p

It would be Great if they could improve the stability of the Editor ,so if it CTD ,it will had made a "Restore Point",just like WinUpdate

does and Restart automatically and check Six website to make sure you have all files in order and could "see" the most common problems like a missing reticule error message, or can download and install missing or needed files as needed.

A mod sometimes owerwrites some file or make changes to the main gamefiles or is not working well with them.

---------- Post added at 03:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:42 PM ----------

A mod sometimes owerwrites some file or make changes to the main gamefiles or is not working well with them.

Use Heitman Artifical Commander from the start. We paid big bucks for the game ,we should be able to demand a

game that can give us at least a experience of some kind challenge.

Give us at least something like MCC Sandbox meny (UI) and lots of Syntax to make our game work well.Like in TOH game or some kind of Stand Alone program that can insert game code/logic when it sees that the mission makes it CTD.

It could be of importance if we could be able to make design changes to hardpoints on planes /choppers using

simplified Menus/UI/Picture of an airplane with this kind of symbology : " ¤ " for weapons/bombs in this game.

It`s the number 4 with the Shift+4 keys.

It`s how aircraft designers would write it out on a blueprint.

[chrisb 196]

It would be Great if they could improve the stability of the Editor ,so if it CTD ,it will had made a "Restore Point",just like WinUpdate

does and Restart automatically and check Six website to make sure you have all files in order and could "see" the most common problems like a missing reticule error message, or can download and install missing or needed files as needed.

Regular saves as you build your missions will help that, however yes, a good suggestion a ‘restore point’.

There is soo much they could do with the 'Editor', I just don’t want them to spoil what we have at the moment..

[iceman77 18]

In any form of preview, (SP/MP) get rid of auto saving. You should be staring at the editor UI promptly after aborting/suspending, instead of having to wade through menus to get back into the editor.

[Tonci87 163]

Regular saves as you build your missions will help that, however yes, a good suggestion a ‘restore point’.

There is soo much they could do with the 'Editor', I just don’t want them to spoil what we have at the moment..

Simply having CTRL+Z would help a lot!