btw, in TopView i notice you're getting blacked quadrants. Could try turning on UseMono in MainView's Options,
Selecting "UseMono: True" does display the previously blacked out images correctly. However it also causes the program to run at what feels like 1 frame per 60 seconds. (I tried Stoddard's build but the result was the same.)
I think I can work around it for now using the "UseMono: False" setting even with the graphical errors as the only effected areas seem to be the 'Floor' 'West' 'North' 'Content' 'Part' icons in the "Top/Route Views" and the "TopView" windows.
Is this tile normally black in the "TileView" because it fills the currently selected tile with nothing leaving it empty/blank or is it a graphical error caused by me not using the Mono = True setting?
To confirm if I understand the RouteView controls correctly, to place and link alien movement nodes:
. Right click an empty tile to create a new node.
. Select one of the Link1 through Link5 options
. Assign "Dest" to the number of another existing Node.
. Assign "Unit" to the type (Or any if all aliens) are able to move from the selected node to that "Dest" node.
. In the "Node data" settings assign it a "Patrol Priority" of at least 1 so that the alien has a chance of wanting to vist that node from other nodes.
. Aliens may now choose to move from the selected node, configuration is complete and up to 4 (5 total) other nodes can be linked from the selected node.
And to make the Node a spawn point for an alien unit:
. Select an existing node.
. In "Node data" select "Node Rank" and assign it the value of the rank of alien to be spawned from the alienRaces: .rul file.
. So long as "Spawn Weight" is set to greater than 0 that tile 'could' be used to place one of the aliens of that type.
Do I need to make sure each node links to another node without going through walls or solid objects, or will aliens automatically path around everything to get to the other linked node?
To make sure I'm understanding this correctly as an example I've altered UFO_GT0006-1.RMP from this:
to this: (Here is the edited route file:
UFO_GT0006-2.RMP)
With this new node between the two alien crafts aliens can choose to move to from node 1 or node 6 to node 49.
Have I done this correctly?
(Node 49: Link1 = 1, Link2 = 6)
(Node 1: Link4 = 49)
(Node 6: Link5 = 49)
The part starting with "&" marks the anchor's definition, and the parts starting with "*" refer to it. With this, the entire "terrains:" part is automatically copied to all places where it's needed. Make sure to set the anchor on your FIRST instance, as the engine can't look up, only down.
The "&" "*" method looks very useful. I was only aware of using refNode: to do something like this:
items:
- &STR_EXAMPLE_ITEM
type: STR_EXAMPLE_ITEM
- type: STR_DUPLICATED_SECOND_EXAMPLE_ITEM
refNode: STR_EXAMPLE_ITEM
If I understand correctly the contents of the "terrains:" list is the only thing being duplicated when "terrains: *Urban" is written elsewhere in the code. It isn't also duplicating these lines:
category: Urban
group: UFO - Terrain
Can I use this in any YAML .rul file wherever a list was going to be?
For example instead of creating three different weapons like this:
items:
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_01
compatibleAmmo:
- STR_AMMO_A
- STR_AMMO_B
- STR_AMMO_C
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_02
compatibleAmmo:
- STR_AMMO_A
- STR_AMMO_B
- STR_AMMO_C
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_03
compatibleAmmo:
- STR_AMMO_A
- STR_AMMO_B
- STR_AMMO_C
It could be written like this:
items:
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_01
compatibleAmmo: &StandardAmmoTemplate
- STR_AMMO_A
- STR_AMMO_B
- STR_AMMO_C
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_02
compatibleAmmo: *StandardAmmoTemplate
- type: STR_EXAMPLE_WEAPON_03
compatibleAmmo: *StandardAmmoTemplate