- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,306
Update: An editor with custom rules/custom player data support is currently available here. Custom map support is a work in progress, and is not available at this time.
I know several of you have been hoping for a Conquests editor for Mac for, well, ever since Conquests came out. The goods news is that my slow progress in expanding my Civ3BIQCompare utility has resulted in a mostly-functional Conquests editor for scenario properties (i.e., not maps). So, if you all wanted, you could have the ability to do some Conquests editing on Mac OS X as soon as tomorrow. However, it's not polished, and it's not complete yet, either. Still, I suspect some amongst you may prefer to have any Conquests editor than none at all, even if it isn't very polished.
Thus, the poll. Two votes are requested - one for which timescale you'd prefer, and one for which OS version you are running. The timescale will be explained below.
OS version will help establish how much of a priority backwards compatibility should be. Right now, OSX 10.4 should be supported, although I have no way to test that. 10.5 definitely would work with what I have today. As far as I know, OSX 10.0 does not support Java, so it is not an option in the poll.
The timescale options are as follows. Each lower option is a superset of the features above it:
*Immediate release - A very raw product, with very limited ability for adding or deleting items from a scenario (only adding/removing buildings currently works properly), and no protection against inputting illegal values that could make a .biq invalid if you overwrote the old version. Some editing portions, notably the custom player data and flavors, will not be in working condition, although most sections notwithstanding adding/deleting items will work.
*Completed functionality (outside of maps) - Everything will be working for non-map scenarios. You'll have a complete editor for random games - but it will still be easy to create invalid (Civ3 won't run them), potentially corrupt (no editor will be able to repoen them), .biq's.
*Functional with basic protection - In addition to the above, you'll have protection on such things as city name lengths to make it difficult (ideally impossible) to create corrupt .biq's.
*Functional with proper field protection - Proper limits on the data will be in place. You shouldn't be able to create a scenario that Civ3 rejects, unless you disable the safety nets to test what happens when you use settings that the Windows editor won't allow. At this point, you should also be able to delete resources and the like from maps with custom resources without unintended side effects (prior to this level, you could safely edit scenarios with maps if you did not delete items. at this level, you could not actually edit the maps - just delete Horses and not have it adversely affect the map)
*Functional with support for custom maps - You'll be able to create your own maps. Note that this is anticipated to be a major jump and may not come to be even in the long run. But it's not out of the realm of possibility.
There are no estimates on when each of these milestones will be reached, but development is very slow (don't expect "completed functionality" in the next two months). A milestone will be reached when it's done.
As a warning, the first option, and to a lesser degree the second and third, will mean that the editor will initially be user-hostile. It won't do many things you want to do, and it will allow you to do things that you probably don't want to do, with no warning. But it'll still making many parts of editing a whole lot easier than the current best alternatives on Mac OSX (the vanilla 1.22 editor, or hex editing). That, along with the realization that development is very slow, is why I'd be willing to release it now.
Let the voting begin (in a couple minutes when the poll is completed).
edit March 20th: It seems most of you prefer to wait for a more completed version; so it will be unless the voting results change. Progress is still slow, but is progressing. Functionality is being added, bugs are being squished, and the design is being improved.
I know several of you have been hoping for a Conquests editor for Mac for, well, ever since Conquests came out. The goods news is that my slow progress in expanding my Civ3BIQCompare utility has resulted in a mostly-functional Conquests editor for scenario properties (i.e., not maps). So, if you all wanted, you could have the ability to do some Conquests editing on Mac OS X as soon as tomorrow. However, it's not polished, and it's not complete yet, either. Still, I suspect some amongst you may prefer to have any Conquests editor than none at all, even if it isn't very polished.
Thus, the poll. Two votes are requested - one for which timescale you'd prefer, and one for which OS version you are running. The timescale will be explained below.
OS version will help establish how much of a priority backwards compatibility should be. Right now, OSX 10.4 should be supported, although I have no way to test that. 10.5 definitely would work with what I have today. As far as I know, OSX 10.0 does not support Java, so it is not an option in the poll.
The timescale options are as follows. Each lower option is a superset of the features above it:
*Immediate release - A very raw product, with very limited ability for adding or deleting items from a scenario (only adding/removing buildings currently works properly), and no protection against inputting illegal values that could make a .biq invalid if you overwrote the old version. Some editing portions, notably the custom player data and flavors, will not be in working condition, although most sections notwithstanding adding/deleting items will work.
*Completed functionality (outside of maps) - Everything will be working for non-map scenarios. You'll have a complete editor for random games - but it will still be easy to create invalid (Civ3 won't run them), potentially corrupt (no editor will be able to repoen them), .biq's.
*Functional with basic protection - In addition to the above, you'll have protection on such things as city name lengths to make it difficult (ideally impossible) to create corrupt .biq's.
*Functional with proper field protection - Proper limits on the data will be in place. You shouldn't be able to create a scenario that Civ3 rejects, unless you disable the safety nets to test what happens when you use settings that the Windows editor won't allow. At this point, you should also be able to delete resources and the like from maps with custom resources without unintended side effects (prior to this level, you could safely edit scenarios with maps if you did not delete items. at this level, you could not actually edit the maps - just delete Horses and not have it adversely affect the map)
*Functional with support for custom maps - You'll be able to create your own maps. Note that this is anticipated to be a major jump and may not come to be even in the long run. But it's not out of the realm of possibility.
There are no estimates on when each of these milestones will be reached, but development is very slow (don't expect "completed functionality" in the next two months). A milestone will be reached when it's done.
As a warning, the first option, and to a lesser degree the second and third, will mean that the editor will initially be user-hostile. It won't do many things you want to do, and it will allow you to do things that you probably don't want to do, with no warning. But it'll still making many parts of editing a whole lot easier than the current best alternatives on Mac OSX (the vanilla 1.22 editor, or hex editing). That, along with the realization that development is very slow, is why I'd be willing to release it now.
Let the voting begin (in a couple minutes when the poll is completed).
edit March 20th: It seems most of you prefer to wait for a more completed version; so it will be unless the voting results change. Progress is still slow, but is progressing. Functionality is being added, bugs are being squished, and the design is being improved.