i understand that this is not a priority. as there are many others that comes first. nor i’m asking to diverge people from doing one thing, to another. though, it’s somewhat of a relevant issue that i think it affects the whole modding community and it prevent it’s growth
huge chunk of context plus explanations regarding the issues i have found while trying to explain generally the struggle of mods.
greetings dear developers.
this time, it’s somewhat of a “open letter” from someone who enjoys the editor and actively tries to improve with it. which in my opinion, it’s one of the best features that enlisted has. which allows a place for everyone to create innovative and endless missions and possibilities on the base of enlisted.
now, i know my credibility can be questionable since i only have published 1 map ( which it’s currently not working either funnily enough ) ( and the other isn’t technically a map. but ok ), though i have at least 3/4 more that are bigger than others but can’t upload due to size limit. but that is unrelated for what i want to cover today. the point that i’m trying to make is, and the reason why the modding community is slow to growth, it’s because the lack of guides and base technical knowledge about the editor in question.
i’ll start by saying that, i’m very greatefull towards all the guides present in this section: https://sandbox.enlisted.net/pages/mod_howto/
and the various Q & A that have been made by @1942786 , various support given by @Enginya.
though, if you allow me to say, i don’t think that’s enough.
hence, the reason why i’m making this post.
now, granted, i don’t think devs are entitled to spoon feed everyone on how to do everything, because part of the process of us modder is trial and error, but i feel like sometimes we are kinda left on our own convinced of being able to do everything, yet we don’t get told much about limitations and technical details.
for example, i won’t lie that despite me making 4/5 maps, i have other 10 unsucesfull attemps of making a working mission because i cannot understand the editor logic, and more precisely, why certain things do not work the way are supposed to, or what among the types of objectives we have even do. so, essentially, i either have to abandon the project, or ask for help to others modders. but the outcome is not always granted.
and can be tied to the lack of troubleshooting.
to make a clear example while following through ( and to back up essentially what i’m saying ), (which i have to thank @Devenddar to find out a few things ),
here is my map ( which i don’t ask to fix, i mean, sure, i’ll take any help i can get, but it’s to prove a point:
scene.txt (564,5 KB)
so, here are the objectives:
the problem that arises are, why does my map, towards the objective 6, @Devenddar had to enable check all obj in group in order to make the flow of the map work as it should despite the objective in question alone?
the problem that caused was, and still cause if i don’t tick the group option, is that from an invasion, the game becomes a conquest. for no reason.
which would then ask the following questions, why does the editor logic thinks the objective was meant to be in a couple? why would then the editor according to that, transform the invasion into a conquest?
but even worse,
and the problem that still arises, which i found out with devendar, is that my mod would then create a ghost/zombie session in the game once each objective have been captured by the attackers. or in other occasions, not make the match end despite all capture points were captured:
as after capturing the last objective, the game makes players go in the lobby, but the session it self is still running in the custom game browser. which players could then join, and see and all objectives being captured from the previous session.
( which yes, i know that i has to do with team score cap and etc but i don’t understand the ratio based on how many points are on the map. or how it should/would work in other occasions ).
but the point i’m getting at, we lack of base knowledge.
primarely of what for example each settings in teamfactionid does, how should i relate the objective in my map with the score and total cap of the team.
what each capture point does. where should i use them, or how can i achieve just a simple 2 binary invasions with more than one point per sector.
questions that remains somewhat unaswered. and a huge time loss behind trials which not everyone can sustain. unfortunately, due to my life style, despite the dead times that i have for transportation i am somewhat active on the forum. but not active on the base game, even much less on the editor.
as unfortunately i do not have much time for this system of fails and trials.
which is kinda reflected on the mod portal and i must give credits to the complains where are due to @Aurora_Pioneer_I . majority of the maps are gun game and / or conquests because those are the ones that are “easy” to do compared to others.
now, i don’t think that the portal is being oversaturated by these type of mod, because shows people what are willing to play, but in my opinion kinda gives a false impression of what can be done on the editor ( which i have to thank @tommyZZM @Devenddar @schyrikami and @Bazsi37 ) because it’s thanks to these people that actually engage with questions and actively help people that i managed to make more than 1 map. whether it’s nice that brings us together, i don’t particularly like the fact that in order to make a playable experience, i have to leach codes after codes from these individuals that are actively putting their work out there for scrubs like me to make something out of it. ( or rather, thanks to these codes and helps that manages to make my mod something )
and i don’t particularly enjoy depending from other people.
sure, i won’t hide that this blondie right here ( me ) has some severe issues with problem solving, ( or rather, lack of )
but i feel like it all comes to back from lack of basic knowledge of the editor.
and currently. there isn’t much out there from guides and official.
which, i should explain, i’m not here to point fingers, or blain anyone. if anyone, that should be somewhat on me. what again i’m trying to point out, is to rise awareness on this topic.
because so far, from what i’m gathering based on the official guides/document provided, they tells you to do that and then that, and in some occasions, they correctly explains you why and what does specific value and feature, but there isn’t an actual guide for ALL objective, types etc.
so it would be great if we could have a wiki by officials and explain what each nodes ( for example the pos, attached, shaders, time etc ) how works. just the basic. and perhaps some examples as well. to then let modders and those who are interested to further dive in and puzzled some features together.
because half of the time spent is trying to figure out what a feature does, the other is trying to make it working out.
which both are time consuming, and sometimes one outclass the other. so to speak.
and when everything crashes because … reasons. it’s other time “wasting” in trying to figure out a solution. which i can’t come on my own because i don’t know how i should read logs and such.
( which remember the map i mentioned? now it does not even open for me or devender and both of us have no idea why it crashes despite working a few hours ago without touching anything. yes i know, hard without evidence, but i have some logs that i just don’t know what they are saying )
to conclude, here is what i would like to know and be available to everyone:
Guides on stuff that i would like to be cleared for everyone officially:
1 ) a guide about the team_faction_Parameters/Features:
what each node does and what i can do with them. what’s the “math” that i have to do behind the team score, and what are those templates for:
because for example, i don’t really understand what team bot count does despite me tweaking the numbers and saving multiple times and restart to check.
which… would be greater if we could read somewhere, a definition of each feature, what they do, and an example of where or what a specific feature can be used with/in.
i’m sure it would be great if translations for russians user would greatly help as well for those who do not know english extensively.
2 ) an indepth guide about each and every Mission Type Objectives:
there are more than 110 ( which technically, majority are variations of each. and therefore, ) and more precisely, more than 50 objectives. and i along side many others do not know the differences between each objective. what some of those do, and how for example, can i use a polygon point to create an area of objective. and etc.
3 ) a general guide regarding all nodes ( with some examples if possible )
as some sounds easy enough, yet hard to use, and others gives little to no informations of what they do.
again, perhaps, not the technical ones that the majority of people wouldn’t use, but to give generally more information about majority of the stuff that can be useful in the making of mods and templates.
and lastly,
4) Some sort of TroubleShooting technique/site/thread help for modders to understand and fix their issue from their own ( or with the help of someone )
countless time the editor crashes or something, and we have to remove good chunks of hours of work just to make it work, and try to understand why it caused our mod to not work anymore.
so perhaps allow us to understand to help how each crashing report works, and how we can interpretate them.
as it’s very hard to understand what went wrong.
and… that’s it from me. if any other other modders would like to join the discussion and add other informations that feels like should be available, type it down.
). So if somebody wants experiment, tools are - well fine, basic manual exists and we understand that MOD ability is not primary aim of company. I am ok with this, I love existing option as it is.