[OLD] Editor Bugs / Suggestions

[mobius]

That's intentional, but probably shouldn't work that way. I removed the zombies from the "Out" counter to avoid misleading as to how many lemmings could possibly be saved. Part of the reason why it isn't deducted pre-level is because the level may have windows that release zombies, which would be a pain to calculate pre-hand laziness.

Percentages also don't account for the existance of zombies, hence why Doomsday Lemmings uses lemming counts by default instead, despite my very strong personal preference for percents (hence why it's the default in NeoLemmix in general and in all my other packs, though there's an option to change to lemming counts).

ok--I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting confused or something. I highly suggest changing it if just to change the count on pre-placed (which so far is all I've been using. But doesn't mean I won't I guess...)
The main reason I point it out is not only is it a little confusing to the player but when making a level you have to add on the zombies you have in a level. When making the level I was thinking of them as objects instead of lemmings.

In good news I've finally got some good level ideas going on here with zombies.

Would it be possible to have zombies be also climbers and floaters?

[namida]

It most certianly is! Doomsday Lemmings in fact makes fairly extensive use of that feature!

When you place a pre-placed lemming or a window, you can give them any of the following attributes by setting the L value:

1 - Climber
2 - Swimmer
4 - Floater
8 - Glider
16 - Mechanic
32 - Blocker
64 - Zombie

If you want more than one of those, just add the numbers together. Eg: 1 (Climber) + 4 (Floater) + 64 (Zombie) = 69, which will give you a lemming that's a climber, a floater and a zombie.

Some things to note:
- Zombie will be ignored if the level doesn't also have the Zombie gimmick enabled
- Blocker will be ignored on trapdoors; it only works on pre-placed lemmings
- Glider will be ignored if Floater is also set, since a lemming cannot be both at the same time

- In the case that some setting is ignored for the above reasons, anything else you set will still work. For example - if you were to add *all* of these together (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64, = 127) and set it on a trapdoor, on a level that isn't a zombie level; the result would be that it would spawn lemmings that are Climbers, Swimmers, Floaters and Mechanics (with Glider, Blocker and Zombie being ignored for the above reasons).


(This makes me realise... I don't think I've used zombie-blockers anywhere yet... muahahaha)

[namida]

Question - should I start including a copy of NeoCustLemmix with the editor? This will mean the download will be larger, but that users won't have to download it seperately in order to use playtest mode.

Size aside, the main argument against it is that it's of no use to those who aren't using the editor for NeoLemmix levels, in which case they'd still have to (if they want to use direct playtest mode from the editor) get traditional CustLemmix (or SuperLemmini) seperately.

[namida]

Can finally confirm that a VERY overdue feature will be in the next version - editing the window ordering! NeoLemmix has supported this for a very long time, and SuperLemmini for even longer; but currently, although the editor will preserve this data when loading, saving and even converting levels, it provided no way to actually edit it. The next version will finally provide a way.

[Nepster]

I just noticed, that like in original Lemmix, object coordinates have to be non-negative in NeoLemmix (or else these objects are deleted when saving). The current .lvl-file format seems rather flexible to me, so I wonder where problems occur with arbitrary object coordinates?

[namida]

There shouldn't be any issue with it. Give me a sec to check.

EDIT: Okay, found it. This was an issue purely on the editor's side, and purely with the Save routine, and occurred because the coordinates are now 4-byte values, but the Editor was truncating them to 2-byte ones and filling in the space with 00s. My guess would be this carried over from code to fix the bug with this occurring on DOS levels. Since the two have long since been completely seperate pieces of code, there's no need to keep DOS bugfixes in the NeoLemmix save routines, especially if they're causing bugs in the NeoLemmix saving.

Will upload a fix right away. Thanks for letting me know.

[mobius]

[I haven't tested this yet on the latest version of the editor yet but if I don't post about it now I'll forget about it]   

I extracted and used the cheapo style Super Mario with NeoLemmix and they seemed to work just find in the editor and play test. Until I saved and closed the level and reopened it later; it says: style not found.

[namida]

Two things to check:

1 - Did you place it in the "Cheapo Styles" folder or the "NeoLemmix" folder? Either is fine, but you must choose the same one from the list when loading the level.
2 - How long is the filename of the style (in DAT format)? It shouldn't be more than 16 characters (not including the .DAT extension). If it's longer, rename it so that it's exactly 16, and it should work. (If the current name, when cut down to 16 characters, would end with space(s), then leave the space(s) off.)

[mobius]

I double checked both of those things, didn't work. I tried making a new level in the Cheapo style "ISWorld" I made a simple level and it played fine. But when I closed and tried to reopen it the same thing comes up.

I attached this level and both styles.

the same thing happens with the latest version btw, I finally checked

[namida]

I found the issue. For some reason, it's treating the graphic set names as case-sensitive even though it shouldn't.

If you rename the graphic sets to "isworld" and "smb" (rather than "ISWorld" and "SMB"; notice the new names are entirely lowercase), they will work. This isn't meant to happen though - it shoudln't be case sensitive at all - so I'll fix this in the next update; this is just a workaround for now.

I would also suggest, if you haven't made too many levels in them yet, use the new graphic set format (single DAT file) instead of the old one (G_xxx / V_xxx). The reason for this is that the old one adds extra width to pieces due to that all pieces must have a size divisible by 8; the new format doesn't have that limitation. If you must work with the old one for now, avoid using the horizontal flip feature on terrains/objects.

[namida]

An update that fixes this bug has now been released.

[namida]

So, I've been working on a much tidier gimmick selection menu for the next editor update. This will be especially important if the list of gimmicks continues to grow, but even as-is, it's a bit tidier.

The checkbox (hidden behind the dropdown) simply says "Activate This Gimmick". The panel below it is "Gimmick-Specific Settings" which would be used to set, for example, the target level for bait-and-switch (these will no longer hijack other settings as of the next update; V1.34n-B onwards already support loading such levels, but I wanted to wait a bit longer before adding it in the editor so there isn't as much of a need to urgently update both the editor and the game). At the moment, I haven't added anything to the Gimmick-Specific Settings panel yet.

I'll just make a note - any levels made with editor V1.35n-A onwards will not be fully compatible with versions earlier than V1.34n-B. I say "fully" because they will generally work - it's only a few specific things that won't (levels that use bait & switch or clock gimmick won't work properly, and secret levels probably won't redirect to the intended normal level; anything outside of that should work fine). It won't be anywhere near as major an issue as previous changes to the level format - that's one of the great things about the current format, it's designed to be expandable with little if any impact on loadability by older versions. (The current graphic set format is also similarly designed to be expandable, as is the planned new MAIN.DAT format.)


EDIT: Setting times for the clock gimmick is now working! And, more importantly, it is now completely isolated from VGASPEC settings!
EDIT: And so is bait-and-switch, completely independant from oddtabling settings. Uploaded an updated screenshot.

Since I'm probably not going to officially support music-by-name just yet, the only thing left to do is implement editing the goto rank/level for if the level's a secret level (since they don't generally send you to the level immediately after them, but to a different level; previously this level was specified via the oddtable settings (but without actually turning oddtable on), but that data is now completely seperate; I still need to implement support for editing it, as currently it's only preserved by the editor, not modifiable).

[namida]

Re: currently noted suggestions

> Better music track selection

Next on my to-do list once implementing the new features is done. Probably will make it into the -A release.
EDIT: It's done. Check the screenshot attached. The "Master System Music Pack" checkbox is because there's 4 tracks on the Master System version (and thus, in that version's music pack) that aren't in other versions, so it modifies the list to have their names. The positions of them in the track order in the NeoCustLemmix music pack is the same as those of the missing tracks, so nothing that is in both versions gets reordered.
(The display of an (incorrect) name in the disabled Music File textbox is just a display glitch, and has no bearing on the actual level.)

> Quicker changing of terrain piece / object types

IIRC, Mobius suggested this one. So, Mobius - or anyone else - what would you like to see in this regard? I'm happy to look into it, but I'd like to know what exactly you'd like to see.

> More user-friendly setting of S-value / L-value based object properties

This one is probably going to sit on the "todo" list for a while longer.

[Wafflem]

Just a minor thing, but in the level skillset window, it still say Mechanic instead of Disarmer.

[namida]

Yep, I noticed that the other day. The same thing applies to the quick-select dropdown for pickup skills. Will fix it in the next update.