12 replies to this topic

[Jenny]

Introduction

---

First off, thanks a lot to Stewart for hosting this subforum for my editor. It's very much appreciated, as it provides me with a solid and easy way of handling feedback, bug reports, and suggestions. I created this editor quite some time ago, more as an experiment than anything else. It kind of grew over time, and I showed some people, and they thought it was neat. So I figured I may as well release it to the general public. So here we are. The latest build is 0.95 and currently it should support every game version I am aware of (for both X-com and TFTD). The editor has been designed to detect what version you are running. That said, you are ADVISED to make a backup of your game before modifying anything.

Features

---

So you're probably wondering what this editor is capable of. Here's a list of (current) features:

- full support for both X-com and TFTD
- edit the stats of any alien (and your own tanks)
- edit X-com craft (and their weapons) and UFO stats
- edit your soldiers (name, rank, stats, etc)
- edit your bases (facilities and such)
- edit the weapons in the game and their power, size, accuracy and such
- edit the X-com armors in the game
- edit the damage modifiers in the game
- edit the names used to generate new recruits in the game
- edit the stats of base facilities (cost, maintenance, build time, etc)
- edit the cost to start a new base, per region
- edit the buy/sell lists
- edit the crews of UFOs
- editor can read and display native X-com art for a more intuitive UI

Screenshots

---

Download & Help

---

You can use this subforum to post suggestions, bug reports, or anything else related to the editor.

You can download the latest version off my site: Click here to download the latest version.

Alternatively, my editor is also hosted at StrategyCore. Thanks a bunch to Zombie for this! However, I cannot guarantee this version is the latest.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and enjoy using XcomEd!

Edited by Jenny, 19 August 2009 - 02:23 PM.

[Jenny]

Cool beans! I may have just missed it, but wasn't there an option where once you set up your first soldier, you can click an option to have all the rest have the same attributes and skill levels?

I have added this in the latest version on my website.

[Zombie]

Awesome stuff, Jenny! I'm going to give the new version a whirl right now.

Late Edit: The first time you click "Apply All" and then "OK" to the warning, nothing happens. However, clicking on "Apply All" again doesn't bring up the warning screen but it does apply the stats to all soldiers like it should. So it sort of works.

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 14 January 2007 - 12:47 PM.

[Jenny]

Awesome stuff, Jenny! I'm going to give the new version a whirl right now.

Late Edit: The first time you click "Apply All" and then "OK" to the warning, nothing happens. However, clicking on "Apply All" again doesn't bring up the warning screen but it does apply the stats to all soldiers like it should. So it sort of works.

- Zombie

Yeah that's how I intended it. The message states "click this button AGAIN to confirm". The OK button just closes the popup window.

Edited by Jenny, 17 January 2007 - 01:03 AM.

[Jenny]

OP updated, 0.95 released, added some proper screenshots as well.

0.95 introduces X-com/TFTD base art into the editor, for a more pleasant editing experience. Also, Ive added an import button to the name pool section. I realized that editing 240 boxes is a rather cumbersome experience, so hopefully this will make things much easier. As for the format it expects, any text file will do - it will accept up to 240 single line entries of maximum 12 characters each. Last names are listed, then first names.

[Zombie]

Alternatively, my editor is also hosted at StrategyCore. Thanks a bunch to Zombie for this! However, I cannot guarantee this version is the latest.

I just got around to updating the file at StrategyCore to the latest version and also added a mirror to your site page just in case you start adding more features in the future. Sorry about the delay. I'll try and get a page up in the TFTD section too now that your editor is capable of changing stats in both versions.

Great editor by the way, gave the most recent version another try and it's impressive how many features are crammed in there.

- Zombie

[Jenny]

Thanks a lot! Any chance you could also update the screenshots on SC with the more recent ones on here?

Thanks again!

[Zombie]

Thanks a lot! Any chance you could also update the screenshots on SC with the more recent ones on here?

Absolutely! I used my own screenshots though because 1) some of yours were from an older version and 2) I had already taken screenshots but forgot to upload them.

I created a separate entry in StrategyCore's TFTD files section for your editor here. At one point I almost just linked to the EU page but decided against it. It's always good to have a backup just in case.

Oh, and before I forget, you are using EU's regional names in the TFTD base startup costs editor. The base looks a little fuzzy in the base editor too. Can that be freshened up, or is that as good as it's going to get? There also looks to be a problem with overlapping dashed lines in the base editor in the final row of modules and an odd lines underneath the complete base. Any ideas on how to fix that? Those are the only issues I could find with it.

Edit: and a request, can you show what version of EU/TFTD somebody is using in your editor somewhere? That would be really helpful.

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 03 September 2009 - 08:56 PM.

[hatfarm]

Wow, I can't believe how slow I am to have found this. Maybe XCOMHACK 3.0 doesn't really need to be made, because this is really almost exactly what I had in mind. Great job, very sleek. What language are you writing this in? Is there anything I can help you with?

A couple things that I was planning on doing that aren't in this:

1. Let them put the editor in any folder they want, and then let them point you to where their games are. That way, they could give you a directory for their UFO game and their TFTD game. Obviously this wouldn't be that difficult, and that way they wouldn't have to have two copies of the editor if they have both games.

2. Pictures of everything:
Soldiers, so when they are editing the soldiers they can see what these appearance changes are going to look like.
Craft, perhaps they are more familiar with the look than the name.
Weapons, obviously this will help people to differentiate all this stuff.

Great job, sorry to have not checked it out earlier, I kind of get bogged down with things and don't follow these forums enough. I see that you posted on my .exe editor's post, and this program just puts mine to shame. Again, really well done.

EDIT: I found a typo, in the facility editor (1) says "Modifying the capacity variable may or may NOR work." Easy fix.

EDIT 2: I will still be working on XCOMHACK v3.0, simply because I really enjoy working on it, plus it will have some functionality that is not in this (at least not yet). If I can help you with anything, please let me know. I'll try to continue to decode anything I can from either the .dat's or the .exe's.

Edited by hatfarm, 04 September 2009 - 12:51 PM.

[Jenny]

Oh, and before I forget, you are using EU's regional names in the TFTD base startup costs editor. The base looks a little fuzzy in the base editor too. Can that be freshened up, or is that as good as it's going to get? There also looks to be a problem with overlapping dashed lines in the base editor in the final row of modules and an odd lines underneath the complete base. Any ideas on how to fix that? Those are the only issues I could find with it.

Edit: and a request, can you show what version of EU/TFTD somebody is using in your editor somewhere? That would be really helpful.

Noted, I'll change those things when I get a chance. As for the base graphics, the lines you're seeing is most likely the previous "grid", which I left in just in case it can't read the game's graphics (so you still see what's going on). The graphics tend to look a bit washed because they're stretched somewhat, and in the case of TFTD, the palettes aren't 100% spot on.

What language are you writing this in? Is there anything I can help you with?

It's written in C++. I appreciate the offer, but I'm pretty much done with the editor for now, and I've added most things that were on my to-do list. I might change my mind later, though.

1. Let them put the editor in any folder they want, and then let them point you to where their games are. That way, they could give you a directory for their UFO game and their TFTD game. Obviously this wouldn't be that difficult, and that way they wouldn't have to have two copies of the editor if they have both games.

2. Pictures of everything:
Soldiers, so when they are editing the soldiers they can see what these appearance changes are going to look like.
Craft, perhaps they are more familiar with the look than the name.
Weapons, obviously this will help people to differentiate all this stuff.

These things are on my to-do list, but thanks for pointing them out nonetheless!

EDIT: I found a typo, in the facility editor (1) says "Modifying the capacity variable may or may NOR work." Easy fix.

Did not know about this one, thanks!


I greatly appreciate the feedback guys, thanks again.

[Zombie]

Some more bugs to report.

When you try to click on a facility type lower in the dropdown list to add to your base the mouse pointer doesn't correlate to the facility which is highlighted. Essentially it's almost off by a facility. When you get to the last option on the list: --- (or no facility), your editor puts in an Air Lock. So it's impossible to remove a facility. Maybe your mapping is off a little?

Soldier editor: when you copy one soldier stats and paste that info into another soldier, it should create a virtual clone (except for the name obviously). Right now race, rank, gender and armor are left untouched.

Also, instead of pasting soldier data manually into each of the soldiers in your base, I'd like to be able to apply the stats of one soldier to everyone in a base just by clicking on a button ("Apply to All" or something similar). That would make it easier.

Combat Armor should be changed to Power Suit in the EU soldier editor. In the TFTD soldier editor you are using EU's Armor names instead of the proper ones.

Your editor crashed on me when I was pasting stats from one aquanaut to another in a somewhat fast manner. Not sure what was up with that, but I did have DirectDraw/hardware acceleration turned off on my system in order to play the CE version of the game (I don't use loaders). Maybe that played a role? I'll see if I can duplicate the result with DirectDraw on. I doubt my fast clicking was to blame, though I was clipping along pretty good up till it crashed.

No money editor? No base stores editor? (Both for saved games). I kinda miss those features and had to resort to manually editing the files myself which slows progress down.

For the UFO Crews in TFTD you are using EUs ship names. In the Craft section HWP should be changed to SWS and any mention of UFO should be changed to USO (if practical).

I'm sure I saw something else which needs fixing, but can't remember where it was right now. Ah well, it'll show up again.

Sorry for the lengthy post with nothing but bad news. Maybe I can take your mind off it by offering up quadruplets:

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 08 September 2009 - 10:47 PM.
Spacing changes.

[hatfarm]

When you try to click on a facility type lower in the dropdown list to add to your base the mouse pointer doesn't correlate to the facility which is highlighted. Essentially it's almost off by a facility. When you get to the last option on the list: --- (or no facility), your editor puts in an Air Lock. So it's impossible to remove a facility. Maybe your mapping is off a little?

The way it seems to me is that the highlighting is just off. If you actually point to what you want, it selects it fine, it's just that the highlighting seems to be 1 above where you are actually pointing. Is this just a problem of when the call to update the highlighting is being done maybe?