Event Editor suggestion

Would it be possible one day to have the Event Editor connect the current position of the cursor with the events / objects the current field is being pointed at? Not sure this is clear, so I made a quick and not really designed sketch which should hopefully get the idea across:

clear

(it doesn't have to be blue fields, it can be outlines or whatever)

I know that the odd / even field colour can be customized in the preferences but this would make it even more legible. With the current generation of relatively big monitors sometimes it's hard to say what the cursor is pointing at when there are a lots of similar conditions / objects next to each other.

The event editor sucks. Use the event list instead :P
(speaking of which - I'd really like to be able to import/export the events list as a plain text file, so I could write events in notepad etc when I don't have access to MMF, and so it would be easier for people to post their code when asking for help on forums)

IMHO, the Event Editor doesn't s_ _k. I also think we are lucky that there is the Event List Editor, so programmers have the choice of the two.

Marv

If the event editor were done in HTML and rendered, then this could be easy @_@
And parsing through it would just be text...

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Originally Posted by nivram

IMHO, the Event Editor doesn't s_ _k. I also think we are lucky that there is the Event List Editor, so programmers have the choice of the two.
Marv

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I suppose you'd have Clickteam bring back the step-through editor too?

The event editor is a relic left over from before the event list editor was introduced, and it was only kept to make MMF look more noob-friendly in their marketing.

I think RayMarble's suggestion is a good one.

While I'm sure the event list is nice, I have only glanced at it in the years I've been using MMF. I am accustomed to the Event Editor; in my opinion, it does the job very well.

I also think that the step-through editor was an ingenious idea (and entirely optional) that helped new users to build a game quickly and get a feel for how Klik n' Play events work. Personally, I wouldn't be opposed if Clickteam decided to bring it back - despite the fact that likely wouldn't use it myself.

I wouldn't have them do anything Muddy. It was my opinion, just as you had yours. If you would like to communicate further to me about this PM me.

Marv

i was making a 20 line game on my laptop at my cousins place when on holidays.
he found by watching me work on it using the event editor, he felt he could follow it without too much trouble. (this is coming from someone who never has even thought about programming.)
he was familiar with excel, and the "spreadsheet-ness" of the event editor made it less overwhelming to understand.

to the point of highlighting column and rows, i dont think its that bad an idea myself.

I didn't use the step through editor but it would be nice to have a version that you could limit what it stops for and tell it to stop when certain values change or such.

Something I would like very much is the timeline editor back from MMF 1.5. I quite liked that one.

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I suppose you'd have Clickteam bring back the step-through editor too?

The event editor is a relic left over from before the event list editor was introduced, and it was only kept to make MMF look more noob-friendly in their marketing.

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The event list editor eats tons of vertical space since actions are just listed underneath the conditions rather than in its own column to the right which would be optimal. This means that the event list editor is sometimes able to show only ~3-4 events on screen while the event editor can show around ~10-15 in the same situation. Until the event list editor is improved to use the space better (which involves separate columns for conditions and actions and provides a shortcut button to hide and show the actions so less vertical scrolling is involved to go to a specific event in a specific group), THEN the event editor will perhaps not be essential any longer.

I know both editors have its problems. The event editor have the problem of horizontal scrolling to find the desired object, but it have the upside of showing the events in a more compact form, and that you can drag and drop sets of actions to apply them to a different object in a different event. The event list editor have the problem of vertical scrolling to find the desired event, but provides a much better overview of each individual event. Even though it would be best with a single streamlined and optimal editing interface (and I agree that would ideally be a lot more similar to the event list editor than the event editor), neither of them are perfect today. However, right now each editor complements the problems about the other quite nicely and I know how to make the most out of both modes. If you can not, at least do not patronize each suggestion about the editor mode you do not use.

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Until the event list editor is improved to use the space better (which involves separate columns for conditions and actions and provides a shortcut button to hide and show the actions so less vertical scrolling is involved to go to a specific event in a specific group)

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I totally agree with this ;-)


In any case, till then - I made a more refined sketch, that uses outlines to connect the borders of the spreadsheet thus increasing the contrast between the selected square and neighbouring area. I totally understand it's CT's policy not to reply to threads like these but I hope they at least read them.

[img:left]http://i50.tinypic.com/1jq80k.jpg[/img]

Nifflas:
Who's patronizing who, exactly?
I fully understand how to use all the editors, thank you very much. Anyway, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

btw: I like those suggestions you made. It would also help a lot if clickteam fixed the scrolling, so the list scrolled 1 line (action), rather than 1 event at a time.
And why can't we use the event list to edit behaviors?

I like the idea of hilighting the line and column in the event editor. Thanks.

Yeah it's a great idea, perhaps with a user-defined level of transparancy/level so it's not too overbearing.

Also the event editor is, in my opinion, the core of the Clickteam products.