First, thanks a lot for addressing all my concerns, and knowing that they might be corrected soon is really great.
Darkfrost wrote:@Weltall Zero
Thanks, that's exactly the kind of feedback I want, this helps me out loads
1) Inability to recognize folders for the game's resources other than in the default routes expected by the editor; changing these routes does nothing. Forces to copy the extracted resource dirs where the editor is.
It'll recognise them fine, just if you've already set up the file paths with them pre-extracted... don't hit the extract button - I'll make this clearer in the next version
As I mentioned before, I didn't hit the extract button, and they already ARE already extracted. It recognizes them fine if I copy them to the root of where the editor is, you just can't change the paths in the editor itself, because there is no "accept" button and every time you close the window where you can change them, it just discards the changes. Not sure how else can I change them?
Darkfrost wrote:2) Inability to load .ftl files, only being able to read separate xml and .txt files.
Yeaah, this is mainly because it's such a pain to work out where to load stuff from, half the time it's coming from the game files, half the time it's coming from the blueprints file in the xml, etc, I should probably add that though
I would load five things from the ftl file: the blueprints.xml.append, the ship xml, the ship txt, the floor graphic and the ship graphic. This would actually be the same as selecting each file individually, which the editor already prompts you to.
Darkfrost wrote:4) When saving a ship, the "save to .ftl" file is next to useless, as we need an uncompressed copy of all files (as mentioned above) to reload it, and also, it doesn't include the ship's graphics, even when we have selected them.
It should put all the file in the folder the .ftl file is saved to aswell (As it actually just throws them all in there, then zips up that folder), but i'll add a save all button too
If you can get number 3 to work, and add the image files to the .ftl file, then that would go a HUGE distance towards improving the editor's usability. Right now it's a real pain to back up your work each time or test it....
BTW, there's another thing. When loading your ship from an uncompressed folder, the editor never manages to find the files of your ship. Each and every time, you load the .append file, then it complains that it can't find, for example, ship.xml, but opens a "file open" dialog in the exact same folder your ship.xml file actually is. Then the same for ship.txt. I have a suspicion it's searching for them in the uncompressed, original data folders, which of course doesn't make much sense.
Also, is it supposed to load the ship and floor images? Because, same deal, you have to open them manually each time too.
I would be content with either a fully fledged .ftl save/load, or, barring that, automated loading and saving of all files from a matching folder tree, including images.
Darkfrost wrote:6) Inability to move the ship's graphic and floor graphic separately.
...Can you even do this in FTL? o_O
Good point, the xml file doesn't have separate offsets for the floor and ship images. Then I guess it should go somewhere on the tutorial that both files have to match in size and position from the get-go. Or rather, there could be a tutorial to make floor images.
There is an awesome way to make them and have them look exactly the same as FTL's own floor plans, actually. I have to post that sometime.
Darkfrost wrote:7) Perhaps worse of it all, and even though the tutorial says otherwise, the editor does not save the graphics' offsets (correctly or at all), leading to manually having to edit them using guesswork.
Ehh, I'll doublecheck the exporting then, might be some cases in which it doesn't work I guess
That'd be great really. It's probably the biggest usability hitch right now, even above the save/load woes, so I'd make that the highest priority.
Darkfrost wrote:For the record I'm a software engineer with 13 years of work experience, so it's not like I'm an inexperienced user exactly; I can't imagine what the average user might think.
So, feel free to grab the source and help out, it's on github, link in the first post
I've actually been tempted to, and I've even checked a bit of your code, but I don't really have the time right now. Also, I don't have a lot of experience with C# (mainly C++ and a few years of Java), and I don't particularly like it.