14 replies to this topic

[Raylen]

Ok, so i thought i'd have a little look-see at the developer, as my creative juices are somewhat restricted at the present moment. Is it not the most mind-bogglingly confusing thing ever? I sent JLH a message regarding the sheer incomprehensibility of his creation, to recieve the reply:

no help is available as such

So i was wondering if anyone who might have knowledge of the developer (specifically, a list of what all the stats do) could help me out!

Thanks

[Gaddy]

NO FRIKIN JOKE!

I have it in my NM file...it is worthless to me though. The thing simply is too confusing and doesn't make sense at all. Not to me at least.


I hear most staffers do not like it either and find it annoying or difficult to work with, but -shrug- they may have gotten ahold of it.

[Stigmata]

If it's still the same one I used when I was staff previously then i'll be happy to answer any questions you have regarding it - however if it is the same one, it will be terribly outdated and will probably only cater for basic area features.

[Xian]

Yeh if you wanna post what the stats are called in the editor (I don't have it) I'll try to explain what they actually do, I think I can remember most of it.

[Crane]

The Offline Developer is indeed very confusing, and there are one or two minor bugs that can get annoying. One is that the Locked button is initially up, but the program acts as if it is down... just click it a few times and then it all makes sense! Note you can only place new rooms when Locked is off (i.e. when the button is up after it is clicked a few times).

You need the "userg info.txt" file so you know what all the grid numbers represent and how to use them.

It takes trial and error to work out how to use the editor to its full potential.

[Charon]

Even with that text file its still a nasty grey and red monstrosity though

I mean it made more sense after I read that file, but not much more-
I despise the thing because when I get it to work, I then get confused over which squares I linked to where... and then I was trying to attribute things using the grid refs in the file... and yeah, general confused-ness followed

Now I did hear that for an area that was (and I think now isnt) being made a while back a new, user friendlier version was being made for that one person. I don't know if that version was ever actually made though

I'm sure theres a reason its so nasty- its to dissuade people from wanting to make anything. For the most part, I think it works

[jurian]

maybe you guys can get jlh to make a new one if you ask him nicely?

[Thunderja]

I had a piss around with it.... HELP

[alone]

Pause for one moment and imagine what would happen if every player was able to create and submit an area-
A staff members time would be spent evaluating the area, fixing bugs/spelling/grammar instead of making an area that's more than likely, much much better than any normal player could make.
And even after all the checking and stuff, I can bet 99% of area would be thrown out the window. Would you really not mind if hours of your time, spent building an area, was then rejected? I think you would.

But by all means, take the list of commands that've been offered to you, waste your time, and quit!

[Raylen]

You sound somewhat bitter there son

Crane or anyone else who has it, i'll try and get that text file off you, then if i'm still confused, i'll post again.

One alterior motive i had for making this thread in the first place was to lead up to asking if JLH could possibly re-design the developer? It could be really quite good - you could even have it work up to a point where you "create" your area, and are able to move around it - just offline.

Now of course this would be more than a little bit of (unnecessary?) work, but it sure would be cool!

[alone]

Not bitter, never finished anything yet..
Have several areas almost complete, just got busy with various other things.

I'm just going by what JLH told me in the past (but obviously in my own words).

I'll let others send you a command list

[Matt]

The basic's arnt that terribly hard (aka. descriptions, page locations etc) - The only thing that may be hard for non current staff/old staff are traps, switches etc.

But just like Ste said, if you need help about anything, give me a PM and i'll help you as best as I can/can remember.

[Raylen]

Heh i understand the basic theory, i'll try and get the text help file off Crane or Charon, as they both probably have the most up-to-date version, and go from there. I'm assuming the date that appears at the top of the screen is the most recent update of the developer anyway, its something like 25th of July this year. If i then need more help then i'll send people PM's

I must say it's quite impressive that the save file is over 29MB, and that's a text file! Mental! - no wonder it crashed notepad, lol

Thanks for all the help/support

[Crane]

If you wish to do manual tweaking of the map.txt file that is generated, you will be better off using a Hex Editor than Notepad!

When you wish to submit a map to JLH for his inspection, I believe only rooms.txt is required.

[JLH]

correct
it is designed for staff to use, not players though