Question, will the Unit Editor also be in the "Modding Section"?

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from Elemental Forums

Question, will the Unit Editor also be in the "Modding Section"? What I mean by that is will it be accessible from the "Title Screen" or "Modding Tools/Tool Set" part of the game as well as being accessible from the in game unit designer like it is now?

Before anyone says it, No, I don't think this is redundant. As a skinner I'd like a quicker way to be able to see how my skins look on a model in the Game Engine without the need to run a full game, build a town, and then work my way up to get the techs needed to build the troop with the skin being shown that I want to see or test (like if I'm testing a skin for a sword or armor type). Having it be accessible from both the tool set and from in game is no different then the way they had the "ship editor" in GalCiv 2 both on the title screen and from in game when you made a new ship design. When I was working on the ships I was building for use by my custom factions I did this from the "ship editor" on the title screen.

For Elemental's case I think there should be a button on the title screen/main menu that simply says "Tool Set" or "Editors" or "Mod Tools" which when you click it takes you to another menu where all the tools are listed, I.E. Map Editor, Tile Editor, Unit Designer, Quest Maker, etc etc.

 

elemental
3,144 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, there will be an item editor in the workshop, and since a "unit" is just a combination of your faction looks (also in the editor), and items, that should be all you need, no?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 1
Well, there will be an item editor in the workshop, and since a "unit" is just a combination of your faction looks (also in the editor), and items, that should be all you need, no?
End of Annatar11's quote

Possibly. I think the "Item Editor" is something they're holding off on though, something about their "Master Forge" or something that might not come along until an expansion. As long as units/soldier models are shown and I see what a skin or texture will look like when applied to something (like a particular weapon held by the soldier) without the need to fire up a full game I'd be happy.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't think they'd hold off on that. As far as I understand, the "Forge" stuff is for in-game item creation/enchanting/whatever. This item editor would be for creation of out-of-game resources that you can use in quests, research, whatever? I dunno, we'll have to see I guess.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 3
This item editor would be for creation of out-of-game resources that you can use in quests, research, whatever? I dunno, we'll have to see I guess.
End of Annatar11's quote

Yes and no. Say I make a new skin and texture for basic Chain Mail. Now I want to see how my created Chain Mail Skin will look applied to the chain mail and worn by a soldier. If the "Unit Designer" was available to me without me having to get in game, I can fire up the designer and design a unit wearing the chain mail. Now I can see what my re-skinned chain mail looks like quickly and easily. If it doesn't work like that then I either have to have the proper converters to pull up the in game model in 3DsMax or I have to fire up the game, found a city, play until I have the tech to make chain mail, then design a unit wearing it, all so I could see what a skin looks like when applied to a model. See what I'm getting at now?

Since there's a tile editor and all those pieces, if I were to re-skin those pieces, all I'd have to do to see my changed skins is fire up the tile editor. A unit wearing chain mail though isn't really classified as a "tile" nor as a "item" I don't think. If we get a "Item editor" though as you're thinking then perhaps I can simply fire up the editor and it will show me what the item (being chain mail in this case) will look like, whether on a soldier or not.

I know a week or two ago someone brought up "item creation" and Frogboy distinctly said that the "Master Forge" was something they kicking around for an expansion idea. Honestly this leads me to think we wouldn't get a visual item editor until then (which I think is a bad idea considering everything else we'll be able to mod from the start). I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it works first. I could be wondering/worrying for nothing.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Raven, reply 4

Quoting Annatar11, reply 3 This item editor would be for creation of out-of-game resources that you can use in quests, research, whatever? I dunno, we'll have to see I guess.


Yes and no. Say I make a new skin and texture for basic Chain Mail. Now I want to see how my created Chain Mail Skin will look applied to the chain mail and worn by a soldier. If the "Unit Designer" was available to me without me having to get in game, I can fire up the designer and design a unit wearing the chain mail. Now I can see what my re-skinned chain mail looks like quickly and easily. If it doesn't work like that then I either have to have the proper converters to pull up the in game model in 3DsMax or I have to fire up the game, found a city, play until I have the tech to make chain mail, then design a unit wearing it, all so I could see what a skin looks like when applied to a model. See what I'm getting at now?

Since there's a tile editor and all those pieces, if I were to re-skin those pieces, all I'd have to do to see my changed skins is fire up the tile editor. A unit wearing chain mail though isn't really classified as a "tile" nor as a "item" I don't think. If we get a "Item editor" though as you're thinking then perhaps I can simply fire up the editor and it will show me what the item (being chain mail in this case) will look like, whether on a soldier or not.

I know a week or two ago someone brought up "item creation" and Frogboy distinctly said that the "Master Forge" was something they kicking around for an expansion idea. Honestly this leads me to think we wouldn't get a visual item editor until then (which I think is a bad idea considering everything else we'll be able to mod from the start). I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it works first. I could be wondering/worrying for nothing.

 
End of Raven's quote

RavenX,

I'm pretty positive from just watching vids of Brad doing modding that once you have the model made, and say you were working on tile creation.. building some tile for the world, you could then access the library of models and just "Add" that model to the tile and adjust it, and there you would be able to see how it looks. Think of it like the Ogre camp he designed. He picked the pieces that he wanted, of which included two bone-ogres, and added to them. I figure that would be the speed of appearance your looking for to see how the model appears in the tile editor.

So in short, there's at least that for you.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gorstagg, reply 5


RavenX,

I'm pretty positive from just watching vids of Brad doing modding that once you have the model made, and say you were working on tile creation.. building some tile for the world, you could then access the library of models and just "Add" that model to the tile and adjust it, and there you would be able to see how it looks. Think of it like the Ogre camp he designed. He picked the pieces that he wanted, of which included two bone-ogres, and added to them. I figure that would be the speed of appearance your looking for to see how the model appears in the tile editor.

So in short, there's at least that for you.
End of Gorstagg's quote

True, I'm thiking more specific "items" though. I don't know if a "long Sword" or "chain mail" are items that can be placed on a tile. It wouldn't really make a lot of sense to me that they would be, but, if it works as you describe that should be enough for me to see how my skins look an a object. Notice he could place monsters or creatures, like the Ogres, but not the club in the Ogres hand. I guess we'll have to wait and see. We should know a whole lot more after today's beta release :)