Matrix Games Forums

Just a heads up guys, for the last few days I have been working on a scenario editor for PzC. It is almost finished, I just thought I would post a little teaser [:D]

Note: It is not a map editor (I WISH!).

Basically it scans the PzC dir structure for all xml files and then allows you to load any scenario or unit into the editor. You can pretty quickly knock up any battle you like with any of the (11) maps and units provided.

It is pretty easy to use, just drag and drop. Should save a lot of time over hand codeing scenarios.

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Laryngoscope

Wow, outstanding job Laryngoscope! Can't wait to give it a try.

Regards,

- Erik

Looks cool and promising!

Drool ............. when?[:)]

It is almost finished, at least version 0.01. Would be faster if I wasn't studying for my second part (guilt feelings [:-]). The first version won't have the unit specs feature (like in the game), but I plan to add that at some later stage.

I am at the data validation stage now, which is where I might need Erik's help.

Erik, I can generate perfectly valid XML which will load the scenario into the "Load Battle" screen and allow the user to make purchases, etc, but then crash when it proceeds to loading the game. All x,y,hdg positions and id's are valid.

In other words there must be some type of internal rules (rules enforced by crash [:@])for which force types, points, victory scores, objective points etc etc are allowed and which are not. Do you have any of this info to share? I suppose I could work it out by trial and error but it would just take longer!

If you like I can post valid XML scenario files which will crash the game and you can tell me why.

Laryngoscope,

Go ahead and e-mail me a couple of those to erikr@matrixgames.com and I'll take a look and see if I can figure it out. We'll definitely help you get this working.

Regards,

- Erik

Hi,

I agree with others… that is hugely impressive [:)].

It never ceases to amaze me what some can achieve in tweaking wargames.

All the best,
Kip.

Thought I would post another screen shot. It is close [:D]. I have started to add in a full specs window which you can see bottom right (not finished yet). I wasn't going to but hey!

All the UI elements scale to screen resolution (screen shot is downsize of work at 1280x960).
The battle map is fully "dragable". So too are each unit, just click to load and then drag them to where you want them. A small heading carat can then be moved around the unit to determine heading. You need never enter co-ords at all! [;)]. All scenarios, units, equipment and maps are auto scanned and presented as drop-downs. This means that in the future when new maps or equipment is added the editor should automatically make use of them.

Hopefully I can knock off the specs window quickly and get this out to you guys. The first version will probably not have data validation until I can work out what it is that sometimes makes PzC croak. That doesn't mean you can't use it to make your own scenarios, just that you can do things like only one unit / side which is perfectly legit xml, but PzC will fall over if it finds something it doesn't like.

On a side note. After extensively studying the XML files supplied with the game, I note that most have been hand edited ?!?! and some are poorly formated. The worst offender is english.xml in the text directory. It fails its schema check. I have had to code around it a bit.

Laryngoscope,

That's really looking great. I was hoping someone would take advantage of the open data and do something like this and I'm delighted to see it.

Regarding the XML files, they went through so many revisions and enough iterations that I wouldn't doubt they were hand-edited at one point or another. However, I'm surprised to hear that english.xml is out of whack (though it's clearly not bothering the game at this point). I'll check that and feel free to e-mail me any of those files that were causing problems for you and I'll look those over too.

Regards,

- Erik

Ok its finished. Erik I am emailing you a copy to try out first and if its ok you can then distribute. I can already see some performance enhancement tweaks in the future but it is late and i am tired. [>:]

Thank you for putting your skills to work on this and all the time involved. This will surely be a big help to the PC community.

This looks great.
 
Can I make a suggestion, though? The color coded map is important from a pathfinding perspective, so you need to make sure that units are never placed on a 'red' space -- which it looks like some are on your map. You should do some type of test to make sure that this is not the case.
 
(Your tool makes me think a lot about the pathfinding since the pathfinding/combat testing tool looks almost identical to your scenario editor.)
 
Deride

Deride,

It's ok - those are the in-building starting deployments in this case. You're right that it does remind me of the combat testing tool. I just received it and will look over it today. Thanks Laryngoscope!

Regards,

- Erik

Ok another small update.

Up to version 0.04 now with some significant improvements over 0.03 (The version you have Erik). This has much better UI performance with larger scenarios as well as some nice UI additions like double clicking on the OOB platoon list will center the map on the selected unit. It also fixes several bugs. However and most importantly, it now includes *full* validation of the scenario. What this means is that everything from unit positions, equipment entry dates, off board arty/air positions to victory point objective co-ords are checked to ensure everything is A-OK.

Koios you will be pleased to know that all your scenarios are validated with the exception of the LevelM01-1 variety skirmish scenario which has a start date of 1/24/1943 but includes a Panzer Artillery "Wespe" Platoon, which according to the DB wasn't introduced until 4/43 [:D] I know a very minor point and I would never have found it unless the automatic validator didn't bring it to my attention!

Erik I will email you the latest version after I do just a little more checking on it. I wouldn't even bother looking at 0.03 at this point.

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Laryngoscope

Editor is now out

see http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1199522

Now includes a scenario import program as well.

New version 0.06a is out with significant improvements