tiled mapeditor for xcom [in development]

[Falko]

some time ago the mapeditor tiled was suggested to create/edit maps
since then the two thread "died"
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2178.msg21706#msg21706
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2184.msg21744#msg21744

but today i got it in my head that this can not be that difficult
so i surfed through the wiki, annoyed Supsuper and scripted and played some more

and here the result
install https://www.mapeditor.org/

download the zip here
you have all vanilla tilesets (tsx) included
and 3 maps (battleship, avenger and a map from terrormission)

if you open the map you see
each level has 4 layers (ground,objects,norteast/west-walls)
the map has a set of tilesets assigned - the order of these tilesets should be the same as in "mapDataSets" lists in the ruleset

so one can test and play with this stuff now but not convert into anything usefull

what is not part of this tool:
adding new "map elements" - i use existing MCD files to generate tilesets the tool is not and likely will never be able to change/add MCD files it uses only already existing "mapelements"

i can now read vanilla maps but have not written a tool to write back since i miss some information and this tool was started today

TODO:
- understanding RMP (according to my rudimentary understanding: it will be a extra layer with a "RMP"-tileset where each tile has some property values)
- making a LOFT preview - take a look at the example file C:\Program Files (x86)\Tiled\examples\perspective_walls.tmx .. it is possible to make something like that based on a existing map/lofttemplates
- export in MAP/RMT file

[Aldorn]

It seems that levels are inverted (also Ground/Walls 0 is level 4, ..., Ground/Walls 3 is level 1)
I don't know what to do with this, I will wait you make it a valuable tool 
But I guess it will be interesting for designers

[luke83]

Nice work but i must ask, what benifit does this have over the current mapeditor ? Is the benefit for this more aimed at future map formats?

What would be good is if you could build a tool to handle maps from xcom and Apoc into the one easy to understand interface.

[Falko]

since the "current mapeditor" does not work for me and my questions (months ago) in regard to that did not get answered i build my own editor (tha same as pckview - does not work for me i make my own sprite stuff)
since i cant use the "current mapeditor" i cant say interface is better or worse but development is quite fast
now routes are in a basic form integrated see image

[Hobbes]

I believe it's always good to have more than 1 tool available.

Here's a few suggestions/requirements for your map editor based on my experience with Map View:
* Ability to Cut/Copy/Paste map squares
* Ability to Fill a selected region with a specific tile (Ground, Walls, Object)
* Ability to AutoConnect Route Nods
* Ability to Copy/Paste Nodes
* Option to display the map as LOFT (to verify line of fire issues)
* Option to display the map as Scang (to check the overall look)

[Falko]

Ability to Cut/Copy/Paste map squares

works fine but you have to copy the 4 layers seperately so copying a part of a map to another you need to CTRL+C/V 4 times

Ability to Fill a selected region with a specific tile (Ground, Walls, Object)
works

Ability to AutoConnect Route Nods
??
i took a look at the routes of the ufo160 and the nodes there are all interconnected i would have thought that terrorist routes are seperately but as i said i have almost no experience with that route stuff -> see image

Ability to Copy/Paste Nodes
see above no real idea how that works
i thought about using polylines (see image) but it looks not very helpful and there is no easy way to switch height with such 2dimensional drawing

how would autoconnecting work?
just the 5 nearest nodes (without loops)?
openxcom calculates the distance but one could calculate that easily
opening an existing map and saving it would change the route within if i make some automatic routing right?

Option to display the map as LOFT
should be doable

Option to display the map as Scang (to check the overall look)
scang?

[NoelBuddy]

Any update on this?  I haven't had any luck with mapview and this seems to work for playing around with the sets you included in the zip, but I'm lost at the moment as to how one would make a useable .MAP file or import new tile set drawn as a .gif or .png...

I'd really like to play around with map making but at the moment I'm considering drawing the parts writing up the data and dropping it here for someone who can to put together.

[Falko]

current state https://imgur.com/MmdjlaQ
drawing of routes on the same level is easy/fast making routes to level above/below (red/green color) is sometimes a bit annoying to do
and still alle tools that make mcd/pck/tab into a tiled-tileset or a tileset-file into a map are very crude and not ready for publication

[RSSwizard]

Has OpenXcom allowed support for more than 4 floors yet?

You might want to include forward-functionality for that or include that if it has already been established.

[Falko]

the map->tiled reads the map height out of the mapfile and creates the number of layers needed
so a scout only gets two layers

[Hobbes]

Has OpenXcom allowed support for more than 4 floors yet?

OXC 1.0 already allows for maps with more than 4 levels.