Author Topic: Question from the devs: How do you want to gain access to the level editor?  (Read 7438 times)

Offline madcow

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Quick question about the editor (and levels in general)

Is there going to be scripting? Ie, for programming in events and the like.

Offline x4000

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Quick question about the editor (and levels in general)

Is there going to be scripting? Ie, for programming in events and the like.

Yes, that's how a lot of the game logic is handled.  I.e. the tutorials, and in-engine cutscenes and so forth.  The scripting language is simplistic but effective.  For whatever reason I patterned it a bit around BASIC.  It's very whitespace-aware, though.
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Offline madcow

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Cool!

Offline keith.lamothe

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It's very whitespace-aware, though.
Hmm, not sure if I'll ever touch that with a 10-tab pole ;)
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Offline x4000

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It's very whitespace-aware, though.
Hmm, not sure if I'll ever touch that with a 10-tab pole ;)

Pretty much.  It's a case of "this started out being for a couple of really simple actions" to "oh god, suddenly this is a whole language practically."  It doesn't conform to the semantics I myself look for in a coding language, scripting or otherwise.  THAT said it's wicked fast and to the point, and most scripts are indeed quite short in terms of numbers of lines.  So while it doesn't fit my general ideology when it comes to coding, it more than gets the job done for the purposes here.
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Offline mrhanman

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Any edits to the main adventure are likely to always remain unofficial and not hosted by us.

Does this mean there will be an in-game browseable repository of user made levels?  That would be awesome!

Offline x4000

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Any edits to the main adventure are likely to always remain unofficial and not hosted by us.

Does this mean there will be an in-game browseable repository of user made levels?  That would be awesome!

It's not planned per se, but we might package some into future updates, you never know.
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Offline LaughingThesaurus

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I don't disagree with you, Teal Blue. I actually am in favor of the editor being in from the start because of the fact that if people use it to cheat, then that's their responsibility. In my opinion, cheating typically is only going to ruin the game for you, or result in a less satisfying experience relative to how the game was meant to work. I completely acknowledge, for instance, cheating in AI War or playing with the debug options in valley 2 or whatever to have their own fun elements... but to play the game with those features, that'll ruin your experience. If you willingly do that to yourself just because it is an option that's in the game, you have no right whatsoever to complain... so any complaints on the topic that Chris could see would just not be valid in any way. I've seen this too many times, I've seen so many people who whine about exploits in single player games or who complain about having read a walkthrough spoiling the gameplay. Viewing the levels in the editor will do nothing but basically work like reading a walkthrough. People will probably complain, because that's kind of what they do. I was making the argument that complaining about some in-game way to look ahead is not valid at all.

Another major complaint, mouse control and Valley 2, I actually can see the other side and where it comes from. If the concern is that people will flip out like that again, I seriously doubt that they would. Me personally? I felt like Valley 2 wasn't perfect, and the controls actually made it play in a way that I just was not compatible with. I also could absolutely understand if somebody argued against the lack of mouse control. Compare this to Ratchet and Clank, which didn't include a strafing control for most of the game. That is a game that was made challenging because the controls were not at the generally accepted standard. While that isn't inherently bad, it is something that people can absolutely complain about.

The possibility of a player looking ahead and getting advanced cheaty scouting via level editors? Hey, you do that, that's on you. It isn't a bad design decision. In some cases it's the player's responsibility to allow the game to be a challenge. ;)
« Last Edit: March 07, 2013, 04:39:41 pm by LaughingThesaurus »

Offline Greywolf22

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I for one am glad you used BASIC (or at least modeled it after BASIC)...but then I'm old and I'm nostalgic for the days of buying a BASIC computer game book and typing them in  :)

Offline zespri

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I don't disagree with you, mr Teal Blue.
I thought she was a gal?

Offline LaughingThesaurus

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I had no idea.
ummmmmm


Okies, I'll fix it. Sorry Teal Blue, whoever you are! I thought that sentence could use more syllables was all.

Offline FroBodine

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I for one am glad you used BASIC (or at least modeled it after BASIC)...but then I'm old and I'm nostalgic for the days of buying a BASIC computer game book and typing them in  :)

Hahaha Greywolf!  I spent many, many hours typing in BASIC language games.  I bought this big book of games, all had to be typed in.  The premier game in the book was Star Trek.  What a great game that was, once I got all my syntax errors fixed.   :D

Offline x4000

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Bear in mind is not -really- basic, but it's more inspired by that than anything else. I got my start with qbasic, myself.
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Offline Teal_Blue

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Sorry LaughingThesaurus,
                                            I was really out of line. And I blab too much sometimes. Please accept my apologies.
I feel rather awkward now, but maybe if i didn't put my foot in my mouth I wouldn't feel this way.
Your explanation that you wrote was very reasonable and understandable and also very well written. I write sometimes, maybe a lot of times off the cuff, which of course leads to me saying things a reasonable person would take better care with. Thank you for the nice response though, it was very big of you.
Take care,
-Teal


Offline LaughingThesaurus

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Oh don't feel so bad, Teal. Anyone who knows me knows I don't get mad when people rationally disagree with me. I love disagreements, I love being challenged, messing up, being wrong (when there's no deadline involved) and the conversations that come from that kind of thing are always interesting. Further, in your defense, I'm going to go ahead and say I was stressed and tired when I wrote that original message, so I'm not surprised that it was misinterpreted.

 

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