Improving room/level editor

[darkhog]

Another thing that original GM is bad at is level editor. Especially when using tiles. I think great example how level editor should be done is Stencyl and RPG Maker. For placing tiles there should be various tools like pencil, rectangle, ellipse, etc. Also support for autotiles would be superb.

Now, when I want e.g. draw platform or part of the overworld, I need to do this tile-by-tile. I can't just drag as if I'd be using pencil tool in graphic software.

Also, in tile selector, multiple tiles (rectangle) should be able to be selected when placing larger than 1x1 tile objects that don't need coding and as such using for them objects/sprites would be waste of resources.

[Benxamix2]

I think you're not only referring to tilesets, but also objects and collisions involved within a whole landscape, which should be done trough paint tools. Am I right?
That's near to impossible in the current ENIGMA state, mainly because the collision system is very primitive and only supports rectangle hitboxes. UNLESS you program a collision system yourself, which is a quite hard task in itself :/

The autotileset can be done by scripting. I bet you can find some examples of this in the GMC.
The multiple tiles thing is something useful, but not really because it serves to little specific cases where you don't want to waste 10 extra seconds to place the tiles in your room.

[darkhog]

No, I'm referring to painting tiles like e.g. in RPG Maker (or any sane 2d tile-based level editor for that matter). Objects can be placed like they currently are

 And while I agree that autotiles can be achieved via scripting, you'll still in editor have some dummy tiles that serve how tiles have to be placed and to see how exactly level does look like, I'll have to run the game. Not to mention coding autotiles is hard.

[Goombert]

I would do it if I had the energy, time and resources, but all I can ever manage is to try and ensure stability these days.

[darkhog]

Hm... Then maybe there is another programmer good with writing level editors willing to try? Anyway, I may give it go as well.

[Goombert]

Well luckily LGM is completely open source, you only need Eclipse to build it.

https://github.com/IsmAvatar/LateralGM

[darkhog]

Yeah, I know it, as I said in new visual scripting proposal, I've tried to implement it myself for over a week. In the end I've gave up since I know jack shit about coding node-like structure (multiple inputs, multiple outputs and not predefined amount at that), but maybe others will be able follow with it. Currently I'm making graphics for friend's game (I am quite good pixelartist actually), but maybe after that I'll be able to try my hand at this.

But thanks for the link, maybe someone who knows how to code it better will be able to do so before I get the chance.

//edit: Also how hard would be to set up LGM's sources for NetBeans? While I've used Eclipse for my node scripting try, I much prefer NetBeans over it.

[Goombert]

Not hard at all, I successfully built LGM with Netbeans once, but I hate it. And also, I am the one in charge of LGM right now, I mostly focus my time on stability though because of the sheer amount of work.