Redesign Base Editor

[Dacy]

I know this is probably low on the priority list, but is there any chance the base editor could be redone? If not, is there any possibility that it could be at least reorganized?

 

The problems it has are too many to list, but I know that at the bottom of it all is rotten original programming. Slapping little fixes on it is more likely to break it than help anything. Currently, it's using text fields for numerical values. This results in rounding errors which shift objects out of place/alignment. In fact, the math is so wonky on this editor that setting the grid to 1/4, which should be a constant value, is in fact likely to be slightly different each time you log in and edit, resulting in things not aligning when they were done in two different sessions.

 

Many items were added, which is great, but the interface is now full of items that aren't grouped well, making things difficult to find. At the least, it would be wonderful to reorganize how these items are categorized.

 

If the editor were to be redone, I would suggest adding some basic shapes that you could color. A size slider would be awesome. Making several objects that you've used to make something be grouped together so they are regarded and can be moved as one object would be phenomenal. I heard that texture mapping was something someone was trying to do at one point. I don't know how far that went, but we are missing so many basic items you would think would be the first things any base editor would be able to offer: a fair variety of floors, in various shapes and sizes; ground, such as grass, sand, snow, dirt, in various shapes and sizes, walls, maybe a basic tintable wall with no trim to mess up your lines when you're making stairways. Stairway landings. Trim. Windows that are already in a wall section that blends with other wall sections, preferably the tintable wall segments. Curtains. Doors. Door frames.  The list of things people want is fairly endless, I know, but honestly, items we can color and put together to make things we imagine (tintable shapes in various sizes) shouldn't be that hard to add, seeing as we have alphabet letters and other things we can tint, and that would be the fastest way to make life easier for base builders.

 

Overall, I appreciate the freedom this game has given to base builders, and the creativity people show with what we've already got is phenomenal, but there are also so many people who struggle with the bugs in the editor, the difficulty of finding things, the awkwardness  and frustration of trying to find something that works to make that thing you're imagining or you saw in the game, or something that seems like it should be easy and common, but isn't in the editor.   It would be so fantastic if the thing could be redone partially or completely.

 

Thanks for all you do!

 

-Dacy

[Alchemystic]

In short, I dont think it can be done, not that the devs would want to.

 

Back when bases were first a thing, they used a whole set of weird coding of their own, and the guy who originally created it eventually left the development team. After that, nobody really knew how to work with the coding behind bases at all so absolutely nothing could be done with them from then on.

 

It's a miracle that the current development team have cracked it and found a way to improve on it in so many ways, allowing us to do a great many things we were simply unable to do (or do well at least).

 

Back on live, every base was a set of box shaped rooms where you had to stack furniture to build walls or glitch floor tiles to elevate objects. There was no sky, or water, or scenery of any kind, and worst of all everything cost it's own currency called prestige which meant you had to grind to get a nice base.

 

Nowadays we have proper tools for changing the positioning of objects any way we like, and so many different possibilities with landscape and scenery, not to mention having a much higher ceiling and the option for great and wide floor plans to do anything we want with.

 

I just dont see any chance of redoing the base code because it is a tremendous effort to do so, especially when it's taken this long to reverse-engineer something that stumped the original devs for years. What you're asking for is to basically put a system as modular as The Sims in a game that could potentially explode if you so much as change which way a door opens.

 

Hope that provides a bit of context for you. 😛

Edited January 21, 2020 by Tyrannical

[Troo]

The base editor is challenging, which is part of the awesomeness with what people are able to do with it.

 

[Dacy]

Thank you. I do realize that fixing the code as it stands is pretty impossible,  yes, it would have to be completely redone.

 

But. Surely the editor items could be reorganized, if nothing else!

 

And since we have tintable items like the alphabet letters, it stands to reason that we could also have shapes and things like walls that are tintable and made in different sizes. If we were able to tint the grass, it could look like sand. Or maybe even snow. These seem to be things that could be accomplished, given what we already have.

 

-Dacy

[ShardWarrior]

I am all for any improvements to the base editor, including rebuilding the code from scratch.  It its present state, it is simply going to become more and more cumbersome to use as more objects are added to it. 

[WanderingAries]

The only real improvement it could use right away would be making it easier to see/read the list of items. After that I'd focus on a redesign. TBH