<wall of text> We have a couple new game modes, and I'd like to revise the scenario editor to make it easier to use them in custom games. (I especially want to see Quick Draw in future Mauve Manticores.) These suggestions (especially for monsters) will create some issues with backwards compatibility, so we'll need some code to convert old format scenarios (a batch convert won't fix scenarios people saved to their harddrive). Some of my ideas will require more room in the interface, so my first suggestion is to hide the "Invite Player" frame until you click "Create Game". Global settings (top area) Scenario: New, Load, Save As, Name This part is fine as is. Tags: I don't want to use tags for gameplay options. Instead, I'd use them for meta things like guild ceremonies and internal linking (which module the scenario belongs to, etc). Tags should be visible in the API. Board: Name, Create, Import, Export These are fine too, but I would rename "Create" to "Edit" and when you click it, instead of the confirmation dialog it should ask if you want to save changes. Under the board name and buttons, I'd like to add a line showing how many spawn points of each type the current board has for each group plus "Any Group" (you don't need to distinguish between small and large). Then highlight in red any mismatches with party size (using MP party on a map with Group 4 or Group 5 spawns, having a monster group larger than available spawn points, etc). Maybe also show if the board has Victory squares or not. Board Editor: I spend way too much time waiting for the board editor to load. Could we only load images when we load a board or open a palette? If the scenario editor had a board loaded, automatically open it when you start the board editor. I don't know if other designers feel this way, but the first thing I do every time I open the board editor is turn off the terrain layer. I would love to have it off by default. When you close the board editor, first ask if you want to save changes (if any), and then ask if you want to import the current board into the current scenario. This (with the auto-load suggestion) would eliminate the need for separate board files (you could still use them if you want). Audio and Time are fine. (New) Party Restrictions: Level (number): MP party members are set to this level (1-24). Only Handicaps, 1 HP, No Party Deaths (checkboxes) Race, Class (dropdown lists) Monster parties ignore all restrictions except for 1 HP and No Party Deaths; Quick Draw parties ignore Level and Only Handicaps. (New) Co-op (checkbox) I only want co-op in scenarios designed for it. Also, all co-op (not just Quick Draw) should name characters after the player controlling them. If a player controls a minion group, name the group after the player. The AI co-op team can be: Gary, Karen, Melvin, Amy, and Mom. If Co-op is selected, show the size of each team needed for this board (based on spawn points), with a red highlight if your own team is invalid. (New) Preview (button) Displays the board, places figures (uses random figures for Quick Draw and opponent's MP party), show VP goals and timers; basically do everything up to the initial draw. Allows you to drag the board and check LoS before returning to scenario editor. Your Party (left area) (Delete) Is AI This has always been disabled anyway. VP Target Add an "Auto" button that calculates what your side is currently worth, in case you want to do auto+2 or something. (New) Party Type: MP, Quick Draw, Monster (radio buttons) Selecting MP or Quick Draw disables the Monster Groups. Monsters: I want some big changes in how monsters are handled (I thought I already made a post about this, but I guess I didn't). Currently, we have two monster tables: one with stats and one with decks. The reason for two tables is because many times more than one entry in the first will link to the same deck (all five types of Armored Skeletons have the same deck). There are two reasons for having different Group IDs with the same deck: so they can have slightly different stats (Display Name, Draw, and occasionally Point Value) for group size 1 vs more than 1; and so players (and logs) can tell apart otherwise identical groups in a battle. For the first, we can just add "Display-Plural" and "Draw-Plural" fields to the stat table (I'll discuss Point Values later). Making the logs unambiguous is also pretty easy: only 10 groups are allowed in a battle, so you can number Player 0's groups 0-4 and Player 1's 5-9, then have the logs add that number to the end of each Group ID and everything will be perfectly clear, even in a battle of 5 groups of Alabaster Dragons vs 5 groups of Alabaster Dragons. Also, groups cannot contain more than 100 minions, so they can be numbered 0-99; put the group number in front of that and you have a 3 digit number you can add to the end of the minion's name in the logs to uniquely identify them, even in an epic battle between 1,000 Giant Cockroaches. Helping the player tell groups apart needs new figures for the extra groups. We already have many of them, and we even have multiple figures for the same Group ID. In the first battle of Beneath Tcotzac you see two different colored mummies, but they are actually completely identical (except for figures): same Group ID and everything. Somehow the game was told there are two figures available and so it used the second figure for the second mummy. (Fun Fact: there are four figures available for the Sharkbear!) Unfortunately, it uses the same rules as naming minions so you can't use it for groups >1 (the first mummy in the first group would be beige, second would be blue, rest would be beige, and all the mummies in the next group would also be beige), which is why they needed 3 different Group IDs for the Storges. I would change it so all minions in a group always use the same figure, and the scenario editor shows the small portrait with a red arrow button to change the figure (if other figures available). Finally, Point Values... They don't matter on maps where you win by killing all the enemies, but they matter a lot when victory squares are involved. But they are fixed in the stats table, so custom designers are very limited in what we can do for victory conditions. I want to have a default Point Value in the monster table, but you can override it in the scenario editor. We would then need a way to inform the player what the point values are during the game, maybe have a number in a star near the portrait? The goal here is to have a single, concise monster table with all the stats and decks, and then use it to autogenerate the monster dropdown list (which probably needs a pre-compile script and a flag to exclude monsters not yet released). Back to talking about the scenario editor: for each monster group you'd have the Group Number, Size, Group ID, Point Value, and Portrait with button to change figure. Opponent's Party (right area) Same as "Your Party" except the "Is AI" checkbox is active, and if selected it forces opponent to use a Monster party (I imagine the AI would be really pathetic at Quick Draw). Create Game When you click this, game should first ask if you want to save changes (if any). If opponent is not AI, show the list of players online sorted alphabetically, with the first entry "(any)". Strikethrough players currently in a game and have a button to only show Friends. If Co-op is selected, only show team leaders and put their team size after their name. MP Lobby: I'd like a separate icon for the Scenario Editor (like we used to have). To make room, let's move the Tavern, Cuthbert, and Premade Parties to the Shop Island (and I'd like chest shops, Keep, and Daily Deal on both islands). Also, I think Casual Games should have just one list of maps, with the current Ranked and League maps bolded. </wall of text>
Yes, the editor could use some love and care! Sadly, I doubt BM will have time to tough it in the forseeable future. The monster improvements would be most welcome for me. Though... if information about the .brd format were leaked or reverse-engineered (I've poked at it briefly without success), I might be convinced to make an offline editor. >_>
Crossed out part of original post (had some feature creep while writing it). This weekend I'm going to make a mock-up of what the interface might look like with my ideas implemented. And I've been thinking a bit about options for Quick Draw... What if, instead of a button to make one whole team QD, we had QD as an option in the monster dropdown list? Or even several options: QD any QD Dwarf QD Elf QD Human QD Priest QD Warrior QD Wizard This would allow the scenario designer set pre-select the race or class of QD chars (or not). It would also allow having QD chars on the same team as monsters. Is this a good idea or more feature creep?
Interface mockup, version 1: Not very pretty, but it gives you an idea of what I'm trying to do. Is it obvious what everything does without re-reading my initial post? I'll probably do another version tonight/tomorrow to improve things a bit, like moving the spawn counts next to the group sizes, and adding the co-op team sizes somewhere. Then I need to think about what happens when you set the Party Level to something other than 18. You need to send the player(s) to the deckbuilder screen, but do we want the timer running then? Or should it happen before they accept the invitation?
Got distracted by the new tags, and I'm not sure how I'd want to add them to my interface (because I don't want people to have to memorize how to spell them all). Anyway, a new suggestion: Allow playing against AIs other than Gary. Instead of an Is_AI checkbox, have a dropdown list with "human, Gary, Melvin, Karen". This is a tiny little cosmetic thing, but would really help give some variety instead of always facing Gary. (Also, my current WIP makes more sense being run by Karen than Gary.)
