uhhhhhh what?

If you mean a Line tool, that would be a welcome feature and I believe it has been suggested before.

The DMM format is open, so it's possible to write an external editor with all of these features, but BYOND still lacks the API to allow an external program to check all of the existing types (and/or get icons) from the code, short of parsing the DM files manually.

It would be nice, but ultimately implementing this means you are taking time away from the implementation of other more useful and important things.

So forget it.

Falacy wrote:

more usefull things then a competent map builder? even the rpg maker map builder is 10x more robust then the byond one.

Are you sure you know what "robustness" is? You've probably meant "flexible" here.
Anyway, sure, Dream Maker's map editor isn't perfect, but I'd consider it pretty competent already. There are no major issues with it.

I see no reason that byond's map maker shouldnt have the same features as MS Paint

For one, Paint is a drawing (image editing) program, and is entirely different from a map maker.

Anyway, what Obs was basically implying is that while this would be a nice feature, it isn't very needed or important and therefore should be no a lower priority than other features.

Couldn't you make that mob invisible and attach an image to it that can be seen by everyone in the world except for the mob's client? You would have to manually change it's icon state, etc.

I'm with Falacy and Eternal Desire here, actually. (Never thought I'd see the day. ;-)) A ellipse tool, a line tool, a flood tool, and various brush sizes would all be excellent features for the map editor that could be taken advantage of by competent level designers. It's not a critical feature, but it's very useful; ostensibly more useful than a lot of the esoteric features that are being slipped in on the back end.

I can give a list of less generally-useful features that people might like too, of course. For instance, a "pick" tool which allows you to draw across the map, placing objects randomly; each tile drawn across would choose a random object from the "pick box", with weighting specified in the editor, and place a copy in that tile. The box would also have a "blank" object with user-specifiable weighting in order to allow no object to be chosen for some tiles. The map designer could drag-and-drop objects from the object tree (and/or the Object pane) into the pick box in order to add them to the pick tool's list, then right-click on the object in the pick box to modify the instance data.

This was a beautiful feature in PUDDraft (or was it War2xed?) that I used all the time, although PUDDraft's was tuned specifically to Warcraft II and so it wasn't as customisable.

Jtgibson wrote:

I'm with Falacy and Eternal Desire here, actually. (Never thought I'd see the day. ;-)) A ellipse tool, a line tool, a flood tool, and various brush sizes would all be excellent features for the map editor that could be taken advantage of by competent level designers. It's not a critical feature, but it's very useful; ostensibly more useful than a lot of the esoteric features that are being slipped in on the back end.

I can give a list of less generally-useful features that people might like too, of course. For instance, a "pick" tool which allows you to draw across the map, placing objects randomly; each tile drawn across would choose a random object from the "pick box", with weighting specified in the editor, and place a copy in that tile. The box would also have a "blank" object with user-specifiable weighting in order to allow no object to be chosen for some tiles. The map designer could drag-and-drop objects from the object tree (and/or the Object pane) into the pick box in order to add them to the pick tool's list, then right-click on the object in the pick box to modify the instance data.

This was a beautiful feature in PUDDraft (or was it War2xed?) that I used all the time, although PUDDraft's was tuned specifically to Warcraft II and so it wasn't as customisable.

These tools would be great if map making was perfectly analogous to drawing a picture. But it isn't. Good map making usually means the map maker gives consideration to every tile individually, rather than just using mass tools.

And for other stuff like randomized terrain, that's all better done in code.

Obs wrote:

Yes, I suppose there could be some mediocre work around that will be more trouble than it would be worth.

So, in other words, your reasoning for why you want it is exactly the same as their reasoning for why they want that.

As their request is more likely to be used by more people, I think theirs has higher priority, no?

Neither does yours. The same end can be achieved with or without the BYOND addition in both scenarios. Just requires more work on the developer.


And FYI, the fact you can think of another feature you want is no reason another feature shouldn't be added.

Except, it does have merit.
There is more than one reason to add it, no reasons not to add it.