first an exact copy - then specials

[sucinum]

i think george should first concentrate to create an exact copy of DM/CSB and an editor.
later, he can add things like gloves, improved quivers, random dungeons, improved spell system and so on, whenever he likes to. or maybe he creates RTC that open, that everyone can create mods, so each dungeon is different and RTC and the editor then grow by time...
again, GOOD work until now, George!

[beowuuf]

*shrug* the exact copy part is up to people playtestign and coherently giving specifics, rather than, as i find, it's like 'hmm, bit faster, bit slower...umm...i dunno, it's just different!'

plus, nice though the ediotr will be, no use having it created if a suggestion is going to radiacally alter the game format, so that it needs to be redeveloped...i think the dm/csb part is down to cosmetics...nothing is going to alter the game format anymore...but large suggestions might....

actually, depressign though it is, the editor really needs to come near last, just sothat people can build dungeons with the first one and noty worry about later revisoions too much

[Rick]

Well why not add a lot of "reserved" bits and bytes, and keep that format as a "standard v1.0"... wait "v0.1" is that ok now?

That way it would take perhaps one year to get the format to change so the editor would only have to be "patched" to support v0.2. Just like PKZIP

Naturally this means that there has to be a lot of brainstorming to develop a "dungeon designer standard format" (.dgn maybe?)

So, when the first format is released, we can set up a team of volunteers to work in the dungeon editor, something like the Mozilla project.

The first thing needed is the maximum dungeon size, already given - 256 levels each one of 256x256 tiles. I think that's enough to start a "raw" dungeon editor, just for the walls, levers and stairs.

I think that the editor might use its own internal "project" format (like Photoshop or Fireworks do), and when the dungeon is finished, use the [EXPORT to RTC] or [EXPORT as DMUTE] buttons to finish the work.

Of course, this also guarantees that you cannot edit finished RTC files!

Also the editor should warn you about a not-exportable feature (like MSWord warns you when saving as TXT). Ta-da!

Dr George sir, does Thee consider this idea worthy of having its own thread?

[George Gilbert]

Patches - shudder....

I think I've explained this elsewhere, but the way the "editor" will work is as follows:

1) You create a ASCII text file (using notepad or whatever) that contains a set of instructions about how the dungeon will be (floor layout, items etc). I'm still currently deciding the exact format for this though.

2) You then run RTC with the optional secret parameter of the text file - this then produces an RTC file for you to play / distribute etc. This is done (and how I already produce RTC files)

Thus this almost exactly maps on to what you (independently) suggest with *.dgn being replaced by *.txt and no special editor. The reason for doing it that way is that the file format will be publicly available and anyone who wants to can knock up a nice little DMute style GUI editor which produces these text files - sadly I probably don't have time to do such an editor its full justice...over to you....

P.S. The limit on dungeon size is actually 200x200 (lost amongst the morass of old posts, I once upon a time explained why, but in summary it is for performance reasons, but it still should be plenty big enough for everyone)

[Rick]

Well maybe patch wasn't exactly the word... i should have meant "minor version".