Is it me, or are the current Cave Story editors out of date?

Over the years we had A editor after editor and now we've finally settled on Cave Editor and Boosters Lab. and we've had these ones for aslong as I can remember Cave Story being a thing. Guys, we've come so far since then. We've had some major developments in Cave Story modding. Like Clownacy's mod loader, or CSE2. Isn't high time we get a update to the software we use? I mean, yes we did get some patches here and there, but we don't have anything made to OPTIMIZE the modding experience. Or maybe I'm just being cranky cause I didn't get handed a silver platter.... Anyhoo, what your take?

 

Booster's Lab CAN modify CSE2 though. And even then, should you make it completely optimal, just use a C compiler for all the more advanced stuff (akin to using Ollydbg for assembly). It's not that you weren't handed a silver platter, you just need to lurk moar.

 

Name one thing that we currently really need in BL tbh

 

Name one thing that we currently really need in BL tbh

Waffle Button. But that's literally the only thing we need.

 

In my personal experience I had problems with CE(it just wouldn't stop crushing) and BL(oh my god that thing about deleting maps was awful), so...

 

Booster's Lab is fine for me, though personally I think the Help Section really needs an update (what good is a Help section where you can't access most of it?).

 

This post is just asking for a "If you don't like mine then make your own" from Noxid

I use Game Maker Studio 2's level editor very often, and it is so much more user friendly, with the ability to copy and paste sections of tiles with ease, to create autotile brushes so I can be lazy and place around things.

It also allows you to edit an entity's specific script while still being in the room (It would translate to CS by just having it select the specific tsc event, or creating it if it doesn't exist)

Features I'd love are animation calculators that show you how an npc would animate in a specific script, or just script testing in-engine.
Hell, Why not add in that "playing the game in the editor" thing that Lunar Magic had?

A while back I remember seeing a wip version of a "Sue's Workshop 2" and it honestly was everything I wanted in a CS editor, user friendly, compatible with other editors, and it was intended to be feature complete. I never really heard much progress on that, but I do think the CS community deserves more modern editors with cleaner UIs to match the times.

Sadly anyone that'd put that much effort into an editor has either already made one or won't make one again, so for now we're probably stuck with what we have.

 

This post is just asking for a "If you don't like mine then make your own" from Noxid

I use Game Maker Studio 2's level editor very often, and it is so much more user friendly, with the ability to copy and paste sections of tiles with ease, to create autotile brushes so I can be lazy and place around things.

It also allows you to edit an entity's specific script while still being in the room (It would translate to CS by just having it select the specific tsc event, or creating it if it doesn't exist)

Features I'd love are animation calculators that show you how an npc would animate in a specific script, or just script testing in-engine.
Hell, Why not add in that "playing the game in the editor" thing that Lunar Magic had?

A while back I remember seeing a wip version of a "Sue's Workshop 2" and it honestly was everything I wanted in a CS editor, user friendly, compatible with other editors, and it was intended to be feature complete. I never really heard much progress on that, but I do think the CS community deserves more modern editors with cleaner UIs to match the times.

Sadly anyone that'd put that much effort into an editor has either already made one or won't make one again, so for now we're probably stuck with what we have.

I always wanted Cave Editor to get that integrated debugging support! It could have been an all in one package.

 

I always wanted Cave Editor to get that integrated debugging support! It could have been an all in one package.

Being able to debug tsc would be cool but it's not a need since you can just put in <MSGs and such as breakpoints.

 

Tbh, what Noxid really needs to do is release the Cave Story mod or the ASM coding itself that allows the Multi-layer tiling version to actually work. It's virtually useless, especially when the only other person that's able to achieve using it is Bionicobot, and he had to make that happen through CSE2.

 

Being able to debug tsc would be cool but it's not a need since you can just put in <MSGs and such as breakpoints.

shameless plug for my TSC parser which helps with this

 

shameless plug for my TSC parser which helps with this

Just because your code or scripts are well written and build with no problem doesn't mean something can't go wrong

 

Just because your code or scripts are well written and build with no problem doesn't mean something can't go wrong

helps

 

Spec for the format?

Spec? Like what do you mean?

 

At this point we just need a dedicated CSE2 editor that can utilize CSE2's limits (or lack thereof) to make visually and technically impressive mods.

 

I did have rough plans on making an all new editor while working on my TSC+ Improved xml file ("Where's the tutorial and the XML, Serri?"), but it was basically gonna be a branched version of Booster's Lab converted to the C++ language and have the branch be named to "Momorin's Hideout". Unfortunately, I do not know C++ at all whatsoever, but it has sparked interest in a C++ version of BL in the CSMC when I proposed the idea. Originally, the idea was just to include a Hackinator XML generator and the fabled Waffle Button, but maybe someone can take the branch idea and have it do CSE2 utilizations.

 

I did have rough plans on making an all new editor while working on my TSC+ Improved xml file ("Where's the tutorial and the XML, Serri?"), but it was basically gonna be a branched version of Booster's Lab converted to the C++ language and have the branch be named to "Momorin's Hideout". Unfortunately, I do not know C++ at all whatsoever, but it has sparked interest in a C++ version of BL in the CSMC when I proposed the idea. Originally, the idea was just to include a Hackinator XML generator, but maybe someone can take the branch idea and have it do CSE2 utilizations.

Maybe it could be Electron (think how the desktop Discord app works) based? I know how to develop websites / servers (HTML, CSS, JS, some Node.JS) -- although nowhere near professional level -- so it could help.

actually, I really like that idea.

I still suggest that someone else make something, but I think I'll seriously work on this during the summer. (And maybe during Christmas break.)

Spoiler: Problems I anticipate

1. I'm still really inexperienced with filesystem operations within node.js
2. I have literally never used Electron before
3. I have no idea how to encode/decode tsc, tbl, pxa, pxe, or pxm files - so I would need some help with that
4. aaaaa this is a HUGE project, bigger than any I've ever taken on
5. no time, it's finals week
6. no idea how to re-create the Hackinator stuff

 

A lot of us have had this same concern for quite a while. Though we might be in the market for a new editor, it seems like the vast majority of us are satisfied with the options we already have. They work well for most people, are generally easy to use, and there aren't many people who can do any better anyway. I've been wanting to make an editor of my own, and I have some sketches and stuff for UI and lots of new ideas. Though it's pretty much nothing, if someone is interested in helping with code shit then be my guest, message me on discord or something idc.