I Am Making a Mission.dat Editor

[Lewin]

Hi,

There are a bit too much options on left panel for my taste, but you are the Boss

I like options. They are also useful to hide things that are in the way. You may just ignore them if you dislike them.

can you make buildings more distinctible from roads, e.g. put an outline or something, it looks confusing now (if "2" means road ownership or house..)

I agree with you. I think I will make houses be the door simbol in that teams color or something, so they stand out from the roads.

house/roads display on minimap is needed, so to estimate village locations.

Give me a chance!! It's been on my to do list for quite a while.

When you need a solution for units or building flags - me and Harold will be happy to help

I don't think I'll bother with building flags. Units are not going to be an issue either (assuming the XY offsets in units.rx are correct for serfs etc.)
Units by storehouse will not be displayed.
Troops will be tricky. For the moment, I'll just put a man where the leader stands, I might add the other member of the squad later.
Today I'm working on a major update to the site. Planed:
- A way to stop people spam rating missions, someone has done that with Thunderwolfs already, so I'll fix it then reset the rating.
- Add the rest of the competition missions
- Fix many minor bugs in text, + the one Merchator pointed out in the script of Thunderwolf's mission.
- Anything else I think of
Lewin.

EDIT:
I manged to add 2 more entries + all of the other problems I listed. (including spam rating. To do this I had to reset the ratings, so please go to the site and re-rate all of the missions.) I also added a News section for the mission page, you might like to read through it. Now I'm going to do a bit more on my editor, I'm tried of reviews and PHP...

[Lewin]

Hi Everyone,
I have released version 0.5.
http://lewin.namsys.com.au/kam/index.php?go=knights_and_merchants_editor_download
I think I have made a few mistakes in this project. My first was my definition of a Beta version. The last two Beta versions (0.4 and 0.3) were good code, but the translations weren't complete, so I called them beta. In this version the translation isn't compete either, but I've decided to not called it a beta. (I will be doing this from now on)
My second mistake was not releasing versions for you to test regularly enough. I really should have done a Alpha version about the time I released the first screenshot with the village loaded.
Anyway, I hope you like this version, but PLEASE report bugs. Every time I run it I find one so I would be great full if you could report any that you find. You are more likely to find bugs in languages other than English, as I haven't tested them much.
Known bugs: (don't report these)
- Poor performance in general. Loading, saving and even placing villages takes a lot longer than I'd like it to, I think I can improve this a bit.
- Multiplayer missions are not fully supported on the map, you cannot choose which section things are placed in.
- All of The Dark Lord's missions (I think all missions made in King Harold's editor) do not load correctly
- You can place buildings/roads on places where you shouldn't be able to (hills, trees, etc.)
I am looking for a temporary German translator! The_Crow has disappeared so I would like someone else to do this version. There are about 130 strings. The Polish and Dutch translators have said they are working on it, so the next version will hopefully be up to date.
I would like suggestions for the interface, etc. so I can make the program better. I will now add the other competition entries to the website, and maybe work on my campaign a bit. (I'm tired of programming)
Lewin.

[Krom]

Great to see KaMEdit0.5 finally released!
Looking very good.

Here are bugs I've found:
- Incredible long loading times - TPR1 took ~30sec (on P4 2.26GHz), IslandOfBandits took more than 5min (sorry I couldn't wait any longer and "killed" it from TaskManager)
- Moving around terrain is just a tiny bit laggy, nothing to worry about yet
- When AutoScroll is enabled it works fine until cursor is in toolbar area, then map keeps scrolling even if I remove AutoScroll flag until cursor is returned to view area
- It would be nice to expand team selection listbox with team colors, besides from what I know KaM supports upto 8 teams, you have only 7 there.
- Roads placing, crossed ropes stay on last placed tile - is it meant to be so and if yes - what for?
- It's impossible to draw a continous road with cursor moving fatser than map redraws itself (which is 2 tiles a second on my PC), perhaps you could redraw whole map only once when mouse button released?
- When house is placed cursor starts to place roads - thats fine, but on toolbar it's still house highlighted
- Mission TPR1 fields are rendered wrong order and do not belong to players, I guess thats same in other missions and should be fixed aswell
- Switching from script tab back to map takes very much time (2+ min)

Thats about enough for now.

[Lewin]

Hi,
Thanks heaps.

- It would be nice to expand team selection listbox with team colors, besides from what I know KaM supports upto 8 teams, you have only 7 there.

It only allows you to place the players that are in the tree view. So if you load a mission that has 7 players, then yes, you can only set it for 7 players. Go to the tree view, right click on a player and click add new player.

- Roads placing, crossed ropes stay on last placed tile - is it meant to be so and if yes - what for?

The road that you placed last is "selected". The same thing happens if you are on the tree view tab and click on a piece of road.

- It's impossible to draw a continous road with cursor moving fatser than map redraws itself (which is 2 tiles a second on my PC), perhaps you could redraw whole map only once when mouse button released?

I think I'll have to do something like this, unless I fix the general lag bug.

- When house is placed cursor starts to place roads - thats fine, but on toolbar it's still house highlighted

Opps, will fix.

- Mission TPR1 fields are rendered wrong order and do not belong to players, I guess thats same in other missions and should be fixed aswell

I've got no idea what that is. I thought fields were working fine. I'll investergate this.

- Switching from script tab back to map takes very much time (2+ min)

This is due to the amount of time it takes to write out/read in the file. When you change tabs it is effectively saving the whole file. I think I know what is slowing loading so much, so this should be fixed soon. It will always take a bit of time.

The bugs I didn't reply to I know about and am going to fix. (or aren't going to fix, as with scrolling lag)
Lewin.
P.S. Added Kamyks mission to my site, check it out.

[Lewin]

Hi Everyone,
Well here it is, the long awaited version 0.6:
http://lewin.namsys.com.au/kam/downloads/KaMEdit-0.6.zip
Changes:
- General performance improvements. Now runs much faster, especially in loading.
- Less memory usage.
- Jokes/hints will now be displayed while missions are loading. This helps to pass the time.
- Many minor bugs fixed.
- Multiplayer missions are supported fully in the GUI (you can set which section to add things too)
- New goal types are supported!

Not much but the performance was the main thing and that took ages.

Translation status:
German - The_Crow and Merchator - 99% (Update to version 0.6. I forgot to include a few strings)
Dutch - Merchant_992 - 99% (Update to version 0.6. I forgot to include a few strings)
Russian - Krom - 93% (Almost update to version 0.4)
Polish - Lucbach - 75% (Update to version 0.2)
Bosnian - The_Crow - 75% (Update to version 0.2. Unable to contact the translator)

As usual, report all bugs comments etc. I really want more feedback on this.

My next goal is to add more things to the map. (units and animals first)
I let you know how all that goes.
Feel free to post a reply.
Lewin.

[MrVV]

Ahh, its much better than before!
Still waiting for unit placing...
Jokes is a good idea when the program loads.

MrVV

[Lewin]

Hello Everybody,
I have just uploaded version 0.6.8 of my editor.
Here's the screenshot:

And here's the link:
http://lewin.namsys.com.au/kam/downloads/KaMEdit-0.6.8.zip

Changes:
- Fixed a HUGE memory leak that was losing about 2 MB per click. (2MB that was stored in memory but never deleted until the program is closed)
- Changed the way you place things on the map into one "Placement" tab.
- Added units to the map.
- Added animals to the map.
- I have removed all the tree images that are not used (like the animations) and that has reduced the download by a few megabytes.
- Some minor fixes. (as always)

Translation status:
German 100% (thanks very much to Merchator for such fast responses)
Dutch 98%
Russian 95%
Polish 75%
Bosnian 75%

I am now working on adding more things to the map. (e.g. Clear ups, center screen, AI things and troops)

Let me know what you think! (only one person replied to the last release)
Lewin.

[Thunderwolf]

what is 'the barbarian invasion'?

[Lewin]

what is 'the barbarian invasion'?

It is the campaign me and my brother are making.
~5 missions planned, ~2 made.
I don't have much spare time from programming so I rarely do it and my brother isn't very interested in KaM anymore.
I'll finish it one day.

[kuba11100]

I think I've found a bug: when I tried to add a new clear up, an error appeared:

Function: Edit tree view item
Type: Access Violation
Section: 02: Opening Dialog
Last Command Processed: N/A

...and editor crashed. When I tried to edit clear-up in existing mission, I saw the same error. When I tried to edit it once again, I saw only empty error window with OK and Cancel buttons - clicking on the Cancel option closed the editor, OK did nothing.

It happens only when using tree view, on script editing it works fine.

[Litude]

Seems like there has been some great progress done since I last touched the editor! Think I might go back finishing off a map I started scripting by hand some 2 years ago.
Still there's one thing puzzling me about the editor. A new feature of this version was the addition of units to the map. Whilst I can see the animals quite clearly on the map, I swear there's no units visible (expect when I place units myself and then they remain visible until I reload the map). Is this a bug? Or is it just me who fails at common sense not being able to locate that enable button?

[Lewin]

Still there's one thing puzzling me about the editor. A new feature of this version was the addition of units to the map. Whilst I can see the animals quite clearly on the map, I swear there's no units visible (expect when I place units myself and then they remain visible until I reload the map). Is this a bug? Or is it just me who fails at common sense not being able to locate that enable button?

Strange..... I can see units fine here, even after saving and re-opening. You do understand that very few units are visible in the original campaigns, as they are either placed with Unit at storehouse or they just let the AI train them automatically.
A few things to check:
- Are all the options under display turned on? If not then the could be hidden.
- If you go to the treeview, are there any units for that team? (if not then it's a loading problem, not a display problem)
- If you open the mission in another editor (like Harolds) can you see any units there?
- If you add some units, save the mission and then re-open it can you still see the units?

I would like to follow up this bug, but for the moment I can't see anything wrong here.

I think I've found a bug: when I tried to add a new clear up, an error appeared:

Function: Edit tree view item
Type: Access Violation
Section: 02: Opening Dialog
Last Command Processed: N/A

...and editor crashed. When I tried to edit clear-up in existing mission, I saw the same error. When I tried to edit it once again, I saw only empty error window with OK and Cancel buttons - clicking on the Cancel option closed the editor, OK did nothing.

It happens only when using tree view, on script editing it works fine.

Thanks for reporting that, it happens for me too so that's a confirmed bug. Thanks to my error catching system I can locate it easily and I'll release a new version soon after fixing it. (this is quite a major bug)

A new policy: Please tell me what language you are running the editor in when it crashes. Sometimes this is the cause of the error. English is always safer and less buggy.

Keep the bug reports coming, I'll release 0.6.9 once I've fixed them all! (and added a few other features I hope)
Lewin.

[kuba11100]

I am using English version, but the bug also appeared in Polish version.

Also, I've found another strange thing: saving on the Map tab is quick, but saving on the Script tab is much longer (like re-opening the file). This can be annoying when switching to map tab after saving.

[Litude]

Strange..... I can see units fine here, even after saving and re-opening. You do understand that very few units are visible in the original campaigns, as they are either placed with Unit at storehouse or they just let the AI train them automatically.

Oh my bad I thought soldiers were also counted as units.

[Lewin]

I am using English version, but the bug also appeared in Polish version.

Thanks. I have enough info about this bug to fix it. I think the trouble is the editor thinks it is a clear all not a clear up.

Also, I've found another strange thing: saving on the Map tab is quick, but saving on the Script tab is much longer (like re-opening the file). This can be annoying when switching to map tab after saving.

This is not strange, it's the way the editor works. The editor only knows how to save from the treeview, not the map tab. So when you click save it must reload the script into the treeview (and that takes quite some time) and then save from the treeview. I could change this but the script is only there for more knowladgable people and I don't think many people use it.
The reason why changing from the map tab to script tab is always faster than the other way around is this: When you go to the script it basically saves the entire file into the edit. When you change the other way it basically loads the script into the treeview as if opening a new file. It doesn't do this very cleverly, it just starts from scratch. (so it must unload the old data first)
If you really want to edit with script I reccomend you use another editor as my one is really desinged for the treeview. However, while the clear up thing is broken you'll need to.

Oh my bad I thought soldiers were also counted as units.

Nope! Troops and units a seperate in my editor. Troops will be far harder to program as it will invole all the rotations and eventually displaying every man in the sqaud. I think I'll be doing troops last, because of these difficulties.
Hopefully in the next edition, as well as fixing that bug, will display clear ups and center screen graphically, as they should be quite easy to do. I'm also working on troubles in translations. As I index the treeview with text searches, when a translator has two strings alike, (Supplies and Wares for example) then things are placed under the wrong header. Of corse, this is not the translators fault, I must add protection agaist this. (I know how to, and it's not too tricky)
Any more suggestions for the next release? Any more bugs? I really want to know....
@kuba11100: You should join our forum!
Lewin.
P.S. Is anybody out there actually using my editor to make a mission/campaign? If so please tell me. I'd like to get an idea of how many people there are using it.