Editor

Is this as good as it gets?

The editor seems kind of hard to use. For instance it's hard to figure out where the player ship will start; there seems to be nothing marked on the editor map for this. It definitely isn't at the place where you put a 'player ship' sprite. That just sits there, while the player starts somewhere else. It's a pain that you can only drag to enlarge and tile a sprite from one of its four corners. This makes adjusting tedious.

I am also having a hard time making my walls stay visible. Some factor I don't understand makes them flicker on and off when I try to play my custom level.

There are only scripts for exactly the bosses of the game, so you can't seem to make even a normal enemy, such as a pursuit Guardian, count as a boss. There does not seem to be a script for a teleporter, so I can't make the 'endless corridor' that I was planning. It seem harder than I was hoping to do anything very original.

Have you read the editor manual throughout?

Indeed, many of your problems are answered in the editor manual, which can be found in the main folder.
As for the disappearing walls, are you making them larger than they originally were? There is a problem werein if you make the sprites too large they will stop drawing as you get near the ends.

You don't have to use the boss scripts to make your enemies bosses, you just have to enter 'Boss' for the sprite name. There're are more exact instructions how to do bosses and the boss gates in the manual.

However: Good luck with your own level.

@student-of-trinity, on Dec 3 2006, 12:36 AM, said in Editor:

The editor seems kind of hard to use. For instance it's hard to figure out where the player ship will start; there seems to be nothing marked on the editor map for this. It definitely isn't at the place where you put a 'player ship' sprite. That just sits there, while the player starts somewhere else. It's a pain that you can only drag to enlarge and tile a sprite from one of its four corners. This makes adjusting tedious.

More details about the starting position: it's not enough to put a "player ship" sprite, you also need to name it "Game Start". If the game cannot find a suitable starting position (i.e. no such sprite, or such a sprite but with the wrong name) it will default to making your ship appear at the 0,0 position.

Also, if you have a multi-button mouse (which, imho, I consider to be standard in this day and age, even if you have an old Mac, as long as it has USB you can buy a cheap multi-button mouse), you can rotate sprites by middle-clicking and dragging, and scale by left-clicking and dragging.

Anyway, as with Nova plug-in resources, I advise to make a copy of an existing custom level (Empty Template is made for that purpose) and start over from there. Lastly, the manual is your friend! Read it! It's the Holy Sketchfighter Bible!

Thanks; the manual is very helpful. I guess I'm too used to programs with extensive online help; it hasn't occurred to me to read a manual first in many years. It could still be clearer. For instance, as written it kind of sounds as though naming one sprite 'Game Start' is a cosmetic touch I might possibly consider adding; it doesn't say clearly, 'This is how you place the start point.'

I still find the interface frustrating. Through some all-too-easy glitch with editing, I had all my walls named 'Game Start', and could not figure out what why I wasn't starting where I wanted. But I can see now that I can get used to it. It's just not very fail-safe for new users.

One problem I often find is that if I have made a stretched and tiled version of a sprite, then want to place an unstretched version, the Place seems to default to making a stretched but un-tiled version. I have to delete this and place afresh to make a normal version.

I am glad to see that I can make anything be a boss. This really adds a lot of options.

I'd still love to see the teleport feature. If I could trigger teleport to a new location, with the possibility of re-orientation as well, and the possibility to have this happen without any overt indication to the player, then I could make some fun and bizarre features.

And could it ever be possible to create my own sprites? They are pretty simple shapes, after all: that's the beauty of this thing. Add that feature, and TCs will flood in, and (I would think) hugely expand the game's sales.

Ah, new sprites. This is a little more complicated matter, and I've investigated it; please allow me a few hours to come up with a proper FAQ then bare-bone documentation on how to do so. Don't worry, a beta tester made a mini-mod with the third ship replaced by a sketched Starbridge a long time ago as a proof-of-concept: it's not a new, unexplored territory.

So, someone could make a nova-sketchfighter "TC?"

Awesome.

@3dd13, on Dec 3 2006, 07:25 AM, said in Editor:

So, someone could make a nova-sketchfighter "TC?"

Awesome.

Indeed. In fact, I'd be somewhat surprised if someone isn't already making one. It's not very difficult to edit the sprites in-game. The hardest part would be to make good-looking sketched nova ships. (Course, that might just be because I'm no good at sketching myself ;))