can someone eplain how they improved the editor in 1.4?

[myythryyn]

ok so i downloaded the new patch and checked out the editor.
and i dont see any "improvements".

except for the fact nival had the intelligent idea to remove three sections of placeable objects, which players now have to edit their game files to get back. see my post about that
viewtopic.php?t=4585

here is the patch notes -

- functionality of the Map Editor has been improved

hmmm, ok, all i see is two new buttons. P2Peer buttons.
which im guessing means you can directly send you maps over the internet to other computers.
big deal, thats what email is for. this really isnt needed at all.
and well, thats it. i see nothing else. no undo button, no animations on/off, nothing. did i miss something?

- Hero Editor Tool has been improved

what are they even talking about? do they mean when open the properties window of a placed hero, thats been improved? its exactly the same.
they did make a seperate icon object for agreal, biara, and other campaign heros in the objects filter. but who cares, i would just select them anyways from the object window menu.
so what did they supposedly improve?

and lastly, if you look in your artifacts, right above tear of asha, they put an armored tank.
now this has to be a joke, and its not even a funny one.
this object has no use at all in a fantasy themed world. even if you made some alternate earth universe type map, or some invader from the future map, all you got is one dumb tank.

siggh, what is nival doing?

[Sir_Toejam]

what is Nival doing?

smoking pot and giggling at the witty creativity of putting a russian tank in the editor?

they'll look at it in the morning and say to themselves:

"now why did we think that was funny again?"

[Pitsu]

Wasn't the tank there already before?

[myythryyn]

if the tank was there, then i musta completely missed it the hundreds of times i looked over the list of artifacts placing items on the maps before the patch.

i noticed it instantly when i loaded the patch, i saw "tank" and thought, what is that?
then remembered that screen shot way back before the editor was released, with a picture of tanks threatening a lich and a demonlord, the caption was something like "the pressure is being put on nival to make the editor faster".

so they did have this stupid useless tank for sometime now, i think they just unlocked it for this patch, and instead removed three entire sections of useful enjoyable objects. very productive of them.
and im sure your right Sir Toejam, they are no doubt giggling and patting themselves on the back for their brilliant ideas.

so im right then, nothing has been improved with the editor?
no one has noticed anything?

[Mozared]

http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 0wa3uh.jpg

viewtopic.php?t=1767

Tank has been around, just not in the editor.

Improvements? I must say I enjoy the lakes placed under the grass function. That's about it

Mozared

[myythryyn]

haaa haa harr har nival put the tank in the 4th mission of the Haven Campaign map, oh that is so funny and hilarious *sarcasm*

now what would have been funny is if the tank attacked isabel for being so stupid in the campaign.
Isabel raises her sword and without her lips moving, says - "Griffon Eternal!!" then charges the tank....
"BBBOOOMMMMM" tank blasts Isabel.
Benediction that Isabel

[myythryyn]

Improvements? I must say I enjoy the lakes placed under the grass function. That's about it

hmm, i dont what you mean, i dont notice anything different about putting lakes on grassland.

and does anyone know exactly what the P2P buttons are for? is it for what i guessed, sending mapfiles to other computers? is anyone going to even use these buttons?

as far as i can tell, the editor is the same old laggy piece of software it always has been. i loaded my XL map, and it there still is delays/lag doing everything. so i have no idea what nival thinks it improved.

now, if you want an improvement to your editor, download this mapfilter mod, it is incredibly useful and makes map making alot more effecient and easy. it sorts all the placeable objects into categories, like minor/major/relic artifacts, it sorts creatures into their factions, resources, ect.

mod-files at elrath.com: http://elrath.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=569
many thanks to makrise for making this mod.

maybe nival should just stop making patches for a month and instead spend that time paying attention to what players are doing, since players seem to be smarter at improving the game then they are....
unless anyone has noticed anything i havnt, im going to assume that the patch did nothing to "improve" the editor.

[alavris]

is anyone going to even use these buttons?

I don't think so...

as far as i can tell, the editor is the same old laggy piece of software it always has been. i loaded my XL map, and it there still is delays/lag doing everything. so i have no idea what nival thinks it improved.

Maybe they thought, if they tell us it's improved, we will be happy even without checking if it's really better then before
.

[myythryyn]

ok i did find something they "improved"

there is now more ambient light settings, inferno, which makes the underground light red, necropolis, sorta hard to explain, and academy desert light setting.

i suppose its useful, though i actually prefer manually setting the ambient light myself for the underground with different lighted zones, the new settings are only good if your underground is going to all have the same lighting over the whole map....

[alavris]

the new settings are only good if your underground is going to all have the same lighting over the whole map....

So I am not sure if it is really improvement...

[Vitirr]

There were lots of ambient lights already to pick from. You just had to got to search for them in the game resources screen.

i suppose its useful, though i actually prefer manually setting the ambient light myself for the underground with different lighted zones

You mean with the point lights of the objects?

[myythryyn]

There were lots of ambient lights already to pick from. You just had to got to search for them in the game resources screen.

i suppose its useful, though i actually prefer manually setting the ambient light myself for the underground with different lighted zones

You mean with the point lights of the objects?

yes, all the maps ive made i just used pointed lights to give ambient light to the underground, i havnt made a map yet that has one light setting for the whole underground. and i have a feeling im not going to anytime soon.
so this is another "improvement" that to me is more or less cosmetic and not important at all. there are alot more important things they could have improved and worked on.

[myythryyn]

aha!! i think i found something else.

or maybe over the past months its something i completely somehow didnt even notice was there in the first place.

but today, i just noticed in the grassland section, there are three lake objects. were they added with the patch?

hate to continue to bash nival, but in my opinion, the lakes are kinda ugly. its the shoreline around the lake that i dont like, on green grassland it is too much contrast and really sticks out, doesnt blend at all.

i think ill just keep making my own lakes....

[omegaweix]

Isabel raises her sword and without her lips moving, says - "Griffon Eternal!!" then charges the tank....
"BBBOOOMMMMM" tank blasts Isabel.
Benediction that Isabel

Guess you got a far better sense of humour than the guys at Nival do, I laughed for almost 2 minutes..... and this without smoking pot like some mentioned "tank-placers"


And talking about point lights:

i actually prefer manually setting the ambient light myself for the underground with different lighted zones, the new settings are only good if your underground is going to all have the same lighting over the whole map

Yes i'm lightening underground areas on my maps the same way... always!

But has anyone noticed?
With the release of the "new" HoF editor, the light calculation of point lights @underground is completley messed up now...especially for stalactites/ stalagmites? Now they got a black square around them on ground level... as if the point lights would light the object but not the floor around it! Looks quite ugly!
I tried to remove and replace ALL stalagtites in one of my maps but despite from being a tedious work it had no effect at all!
Is that another of those "map editor improvements"?

By the way, played your "playground of the gods" yesterday, an amazing map (albeit a tad slow on my system)!

[myythryyn]

thxs for the positive feedback about playground of the gods

hmmm, i have noticed those dark squares you mention at the base of objects, but i think those dark squares have always been there if you put a 1, maybe 2 or 3 for the "Z" value its places the light very close to the ground which i think is what causes the shadow.

did you notice that a map you made before patch has now different lighting after the patch?

i dont use stalgmites for lighting much, mostly cystals, mushrooms, or just about anything. ive had alot of fun with pointed lights ive found some interesting things to do with them. like you can light up the fire of the mercenary camp object
which is one of the reasons i dont think ill ever use those new underground ambient light settings, they take away the fun of setting your own lights

[Vitirr]

which is one of the reasons i dont think ill ever use those new underground ambient light settings, they take away the fun of setting your own lights

But you can use your own ambient lights too.

[omegaweix]

thxs for the positive feedback about playground of the gods

You're welcome, positive feedaback for a very positive map

hmmm, i have noticed those dark squares you mention at the base of objects, but i think those dark squares have always been there if you put a 1, maybe 2 or 3 for the "Z" value its places the light very close to the ground which i think is what causes the shadow.

Interesting, I'll try that, thank you, i really really hope, that this might work.

did you notice that a map you made before patch has now different lighting after the patch?

When i load the map with the old "standard" editor, there are absolutly no dark squares, that's why i spottet the difference instantly... the map i'm talking about is loadable with the two editor versions because it does not contain HoF objects (yet).

i dont use stalgmites for lighting much, mostly cystals, mushrooms, or just about anything. ive had alot of fun with pointed lights ive found some interesting things to do with them. like you can light up the fire of the mercenary camp object

I've created some nice sceneries with lighted stalagmites that are standing near to walls.
And yes, giving point lights to "fire" objects looks awesome.

which is one of the reasons i dont think ill ever use those new underground ambient light settings, they take away the fun of setting your own lights

Indeed, the H5 undergorund just lives from the point lights, with generic lighting it looks quite ugly (and often way too dark for my taste!

EDIT:
I tried changing the Z values (between 2 and 4) and it WORKS, thank you soooooooooooooooooooooo much myythryyn, i thought i could trash the whole underground of all my maps! Cheers!

[myythryyn]

which is one of the reasons i dont think ill ever use those new underground ambient light settings, they take away the fun of setting your own lights

But you can use your own ambient lights too.

but dont ambient lights cover the entire map? or can you have just a small area with a certain color ambient light, and then have different ambient lighted zones?
see thats why i dont like the new underground ambient light settings from the the patch. they overlap the entire underground and ruin any individual lighted areas you have.

omegeweix, definetly play around with the "Z" value. settings between 1-20 for most objects will move the light up and down and produce interesting effects. like in the arena objects, the necromancer tower object, not the big square one, but the smaller one, if you put a value of 10 and add green light, it looks like the tower is lit up.
of if you put a value of 15 on a haven military outpost, and add yellow light, it looks like the star on top of the building is lit up....