It's not about guilt or apology. I'm trying to make you realize your logical fallacy.

So even without the explanation you should notice that "something" doesn't add up. Simply, the place where you edit doesn't have information of which trigger is going to be affected. You could assume the information is missing. The next step would be to find the next occurence of the string and see if that carries some information. You'll find none.
Everyone, programmer, normal person, noob - everyone capable of processing the presented information - should be able to notice that dilemma.

Assuming that it's a bug and the dev forgot to implement properly something that obvious, instead of assuming that there's a knack to it, just doesn't seem reasonable at that point.

And again, I'll be the first to admit that, ScmD could use better documentation so you can use it more efficiently.

I think the string editor is fine. It's useful for avoiding the string limit. Speaking of which, there was an editor a long time ago where it would remove strings that weren't required for gameplay. Things such as location names and comments. Would this be possible to implement in scmd?

Hi SI, big fan of your wizardry, maybe you can help. I have a difficult problem in mapping that is beyond my programming level to solve. I use scripts to generate triggers, and those scripts call from arrays of all the locations and strings I'm using in scmdraft. Any time I need to edit a location or a string in scmdraft, I have to similarly update it in my trigger generation scripts. I don't use scripts every time I edit every map, but my maps are kinda big so editing the triggers manually often looks like ctrl+fing in ~50k lines of text. This isn't optimal, but it's doable.

The problem is I make a lot of maps that use nearly all the locations and strings available, so I've been trying to streamline my editing process. I have to update my string and location arrays manually every single time I want to use a script, and doing this across 200+ locations for like 10 maps is an absolute pain in the ass. Reminds me of old map editors where I had to edit each unit individually; the new unit editor is a godsend. Is it possible to have the string editor take input from code? scmdraft does this automatically for most strings, but not for locations (for the same reason I need this function actually). Maybe with a locationID? And is it possible to output the entire string and location table somehow so I could parse it into my scripts without having to reverse my own maps? I don't know what you did for the back end of the string editor, but I assume it's possible? Would be the best addition to scmdraft since TrigEdit.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 17 2017, 10:10 pm by outlawpoet.

Hello, outlawpoet! To make it clear, do you want TextTrigedit accept location IDs instead of their string names as trigger actions/conditions parameters?

This can actually go for many things like switches, units, even players to accept raw (integer) data into those fields. However strings are better for readability and backwards compatibility.

Would be cool if SI could allow both integer and string parameters for input in triggers. But here comes a problem that SCMD doesn't actually store triggers in text, but generates them every time you open TextTrigedit window. What kind of representation to choose for that integer/string data when generating text?

Adding a LocationID in addition to the string would in theory allow for editing location names in scripts or external plugins and then importing them into scmdraft. could become something like . Then scmdraft could read the locationID and make any according string changes to that location. Without the ID, obviously it's a total mess -- changing a single location at a time would require diffing and changing two would be impossible to distinguish. [edited to add: With an alias list you wouldn't even necessarily need to include the ID in the trigger at all, similar to way switches work in Trigedit.]

The big request though is a way to add input/output to the string editor entirely from text. Imagine "String Editor" outputting to text all of the available strings, in the same text format that's below the string representation.



I don't know how the String Editor back end works, but it'd sure be nice to get all that information out into something I can edit outside of scmdraft itself, and then for it to receive the input back. Syntax isn't my specialty, but both the string and location pages could surely look something like the Switch tab of TrigEdit.



The above would do absolute wonders to simplify my map editing and creation process, and I assume that of anyone else who might want to edit strings and locations in a text editor.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 18 2017, 10:35 am by outlawpoet.

Why that complicated. Given "Seoul" is a location number 5, I assumed the following:


Can you elaborate more on your triggering process? I think the complication on your part comes from misusing the tools. What I mean is that TextTrigedit isn't meant to modify locations names. The best use for it is to inject your text triggers into the map. As far as I understand the problem comes when you rename locations in the map - you have to rename them in your text files as well. But since you use scripts to generate your text files you can use script facilities to give your locations meaningful names, right? The suggestion then is to stick with default location names in your map (which also will save strings) and give them meaningful names in your script. Why doesn't that work?

On external string text editing part. Imagine you have 3 strings in your map:

Let's say String3 is reused as a location name and a unit name at once.
How SCMD should interpret the following change to strings text file?

Which strings should it use for the location and the unit if you delete string number 3?

"Why that complicated?" Why have an alias list for switches? People just aren't going to remember indexIDs for all their locations or strings, especially not years later. Humans do remember names, and visually having names when you're editing locations and their sizes is helpful. If we were to imagine a different scenario where locations were only referred to by number, I'm sure a popular feature request would be to be able to change their name. Hence, aliases, just like how switches operate at the moment.

The whole point of the feature request is that I have to change things multiple places for a single map, and across a lot of maps this is a lot of tedium. I'm not misusing the tools, I obviously don't change location names in TextTrigEdit and expect it to transfer. That wouldn't work. Why would I try to do something that doesn't work? But it could, and would be helpful. Any time I edit a location name, or let's say there are old maps I've made where I don't have the location arrays -- I have to type out the location names manually into the arrays I use for my scripts. This is almost certainly harder than it has to be, given that each location already has an ID.

I don't know how SI does this for the string editor, but if you edit a string in the GUI it changes it for every single instance of that string. And strings are already automatically parsed into the string editor from text. I just want to export/import the strings table or whatever he's using for the GUI back end and be able to manipulate it in a text editor.

Why not just click a few dozen times for every single trigger? We have a working interface already?!

I don't understand wbat you're saying.

Do you want to modify locations names in texty manner?
Or do you need a text method to read location names?

If you want to put raw location index in text triggers you can use TrigEditPlus.

There is a scrollable list of strings in a GUI in scmdraft. I want this scrollable list of strings manipulable in a text editor. Export and import preferably.

I want a list of locations and aliases manipulable in text editor, same as switches. Switches are already export/import functional.

I think it's doable for locations, since we already got the same thing for switches. Probably kind of a not-so-hard-to-do copy-paste thing.

But honestly I don't understand how is it going to help you. Do you have something like this in the code, where Locs[5] is getting substituted by your script with the aliased location name?

Imagine you want to draw locations in scm draft, name them there, then import them into an array you would use to generate triggers. Would you rather type out all of the locations again?

Or, imagine you've named all your locations in scm draft, but want to rename them all to your display messages to recycle strings. Would you rather do it one by one, or all at once?

Now imagine you haven't named any of your locations at all, but want to preload a template of which locations go with which ID so you can reuse code without having to rename your IDs. Would you rather do it manually or automatically?

I had several incidence where I needed exactly that functionallity. Like translating map or batch editing unit names. Text string table editor would definitely help.

I think the better long-term solution would be script access to ScmDraft - may be a bit more work for the user to read / set the data, but it is more general.

Sounds great to me! Even minimal script access would be fucking amazing even if it were really obscure/difficult. My use case only REALLY needs strings and locations. Terrain, units, upgrades, spells, etc. are functional enough. But I do make unit stats spreadsheets too and am manually inputting the information, and the spreadsheet often ends up deprecated after a few new versions because manual input is tedious.

Hard to add script access? Do you accept bitcoin for feature requests?

I have some ideas on how access might work, but haven't done any testing to see if it really does work the way I envision it. Once the concept works its still a ton of tedious work to connect everything to a script/COM interface.


I don't do anything with bitcoins. I won't say no to unspecified donations via paypal, however I won't do feature requests for donations unless the sum vaguely matches the time required.

How much time / money per hour are we talking? Sincere question/sincere estimate please, PM me if it's more appropriate there. I didn't intend to insult you or underestimate what you might charge per hour, and/but I do want to understand how much work this actually would be for you. I was assuming this was a feature request that wouldn't just be a casual addition, though in my eyes you are a wizard so I couldn't be sure! I also know you have a day job, so I thought this might also be the kind of request that went outside the realm of a personal hobby, and didn't want to take it for granted that you would entertain a large request without some recognition of how much time it might take you.

Additionally, if you want to pass along the tedium somehow, I'm willing to do tedious things especially when it means I might have to do fewer tedious things in the future. I know that's a longshot especially because of minimal programming experience, but I've spent countless hours in scmdraft and it would be my pleasure to give back in whatever way works best.

Are you familiar with OLE automation / scripting, for example what excel uses? If I were to implement it I'd probably use a similar mechanism. (So connect to a running ScmDraft instance, and then grab internal subobjects)

I just have no idea how feasible all of this is without doing full-blown object registration and proxy / stubs. Ideally it can all be done with registration-less COM and dynamic IDispatch interfaces.

I'm afraid I can't be of much use in deciding which technology to use, or knowing what options there are or what's best. Functionally (as far as I understand my request and your response anyway) you'd be creating an API, and exposing certain elements like locations and strings, and maybe unit stats, upgrades, and so on. Any method you chose, even inelegant, would still be tremendously appreciated. I'd be more than willing to help with rote/tedious things (with clear instructions lol) if there's a more elegant approach that requires more grunt work or something. And again, please, if the amount of time is an impediment to pursuing this, we can probably work out something that amounts to fair compensation.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 25 2017, 11:14 am by outlawpoet. Reason: word

Is there a way to offset terrain?

So it isn't impossible - I have managed to add access to two classes from python. However right now that broke keyboard shortcuts among other things, and there are still quite a large number of things that need to be done to get from here to full scripting of the maps. Its not really something that anyone can help with since various subsystems need to be modified / redesigned.

<- Grabbing the open map table from python. Right now that is the only exposed object, and there is no access to the map objects since they weren't designed for COM access.



Not yet - long-term the resize map window will also get X/Y offsets, but I haven't had time to finish that functionality.



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Am uploading a build which fixes an error when trying to save a map after downgrading requirements from BW -> SC 1.00, and it adds a Memory / EUD action to classic trigedit.