Can we REALLY push BIS for more user friendly tools?

[daringd 2]

I was just having a little play around on FarCry3 and noticed it had a sort of, built in map editor.

Checking this out was the single biggest mistake I have made during my short map building career, because the tools are bloody amazing, everything works, the road painter they have is vector based and just stretches the road line you drag out to fit, also adjustable after it has been laid, very fine tweaking. it previews as 'in game' non of this problem with no clutter, and it was just a joy to use, I at no point felt that anything was beyond possibility. I know that the Cry Engine is run by a completely different kind of company with a completely different business model, but surely BIS would benefit from making this shit easy for us, I've just spent the last half an hour sat here wringing my face at how awesome the Cry Editor is, and imagined if Visitor 3 was such a breeze, just how much more I could have achieved.... al of these things are the reason I think I made a massive mistake in checking it out because I think the next time I am using Visitor it's going to be a case of "AAARGGGHHH this would be simple if I was modding something based on the Cry Engine!"

Who's sick do we have to duck to get something like this rolling?

Surely they must see that better tools = higher quality and more user created content, which in turn means many, many, many more hours of gameplay from any given game, more popularity, accolades, awards, fast cars, speedboats and big houses along the Riviera....

I can't explain just how crazy this has made me right now.

PLEASE BIS!!! I'll do anything!

D

[dinoboy123 1]

somethings, like roadpainting, annoy the hell out of me because we are dealing with issues unique to arma, not mod design in general. However, I enjoy the fact there is stilll some complexity to map making/modding in arma as it forces me to think outside the box and use programs like autocad and c++ which are good skills to have in the real world. Its also nice to keep out an onslaught of 12 year olds releasing poorly thought out/developed content ( take a look at the dayz reddit to see what i mean). I recently tried map making with the Unreal Development Kit, and surprisingly many of the things I learned from modding arma translated reasonably well for UDK, so in that sense its nice to not have some simple gui map making tools that teaches almost nothing to the user.

Thats just my 2 cents at least, I'm probably trying too hard to justify 6 months of work lol

[daringd 2]

Now I have calmed down, I completely agree, too easy = lots of terrible content to sift through, you know with Arma at least that most of the UCC you find is of a decent standard, because you have to divorce yourself from every other hobby you have just to wrap your tiny mind around how it all works.... I've really calmed down, though I would love the addition of a tool to rotate objects through all axis though.... that's all.... BIS... ya-hear! (weep)

D

[dinoboy123 1]

from what i've seen you post it looks like you're almost done or at least have a great foundation, i still have at least a month to put out an alpha release and I know it will be far from perfect, but i just want to focus on porting my map to arma 3/ dayz standalone

[kroni 10]

I wish you luck with your porting, it might be tricky, i know d has already discussed with me about hes going to port to, when there is an ability to do so, i doubt however that it will be any easier for us, so prepare yourself:P

[meshcarver 12]

Jeez... Just reading this is freaking me out as I've committed to about 2 years dev time for my island lol..!!!

Hopefully we'll have better tools soon with the release of ARMA3 though?

daringd, how is your project coming along anyway mate?

[MissileMoose 10]

Hopefully we'll have better tools soon with the release of ARMA3 though?

I really do hope so. User friendly tools will definitely increase the longevity of the Arma series, in my opinion that's a good enough reason to invest money into them. While they're unlikely to develop something to compete with Cry Engine tools, in-depth written guides and work-load tweaks would help.

[BusStopWilly 1]

The FC3 Editor is even a SIMPLIFIED version of the Cryengine editor which has more awesomesauce added. And getting models into it is a doddle too.

A3s 3D Editor has potential, but the interface is even worse than the 2D one. User friendly it is not.

I think the closest I've come to decent building was that addon that Mondkalb made for A2?, where you could lay down doors and walls and build stuff to a limited degree in person, in game. Having a massive hanger door at each end of Pobeda Dam is a blast :D.

So, there's your answer I think! Kindly ask him to rewrite that addon, (which I think is based on a Arma2 construction module or something).

It would be amazing to be able to lay down buildings/walls/props and build a clan HQ or a multiplayer Deathmatch game location made from buildings, stairways, wooden walkways and such. And be able to save all the locations without having to resort to text positioning and guesswork.

BSW