Im going to start a project within the next few days, I figure it will take about a week to complete it, (give or take a few days.) It is going to involve creating PDF work sheets for SysOp/GameOps to visually create and modify their game edits, this including ships, planets, aliens, and the actual game settings. These will be in a user friendly organized format, (according to the way they are listed within the TWGS editors) I already have rough-drafts for the contents of each editor made up.

I plan on including the applicable settings with each setting as well as a glossary of command descriptions. The goal of these are to allow GameOps to create games in a efficient manner, while allowing hard-copy access to specific game settings, (both past and present.)

I would like to ask those whom are experienced to please keep an eye on this threat for updates, because I am going to be asking for assistance in defining a lot of the terms, as TWGS does not offer a very palatable explanation of the more complex and commanding settings.

Also once the final drafts are completed, all SysOps that would not mind posting these on their site for public downloading please let me know. Any changes that will need to be made, typo's, or suggestions please feel free to let me know and I will fix the errors and if necessary attempt to alter their formatting.

I am still kinda worried about the formatting because of the limits per page and I want to keep everything uniform and professional in appearance; but im going to tweak with it and see how it works out.

For the titles of them this is what I came up with so far:

For the game editor: Game Edit Considerations or GEC Sheet
For the planet editor: Planet Edit Considerations or PEC Sheet
For the ships editor: Ships Edit Considerations or SEC Sheet
For the aliens editor: Aliens Edit Considerations or AEC Sheet
(These would all be included in the same PDF file for printing in groups as desired, i.e. TWEditSheets.PDF.)

I may be able to assist you in this .. I have already created the text format of all of these.
I print them out and use them to save edit settings and to assist
in setting games up without having to go back in to look over edits.

I sent these all to Rave when she was taking on this project.
ICQ me and I'll send them to you or anyone who needs them.
They are basicly a copy of each page in Tedit.
In text format so you can pencel in your setting.

Ok will do that, thanks Vid, that's kewl... Something else I was thinking was making a version of PDF that has fill in fields, so that the edits can be typed on the computer and then printed and/or saved, but I think you need a special program do to that (PDF editor or something), im not sure?

I have a PDF converter program and am planning on converting Excel spreadsheet styles into the documents. Another possibility is maybe using HTML to obtain the fill in fields, text formatting, and boarders, but that is more for advanced HTML programmers right?

Is there anybody that is familiar with the 'DESQview Pacing' command in Editor Two? I would like to get the variables for it or is the only setting available "20"? I am not sure if you have to have DESQview for it to be enabled, if this is the only option allowable, or if this command is not used anymore do to the popularity of other OS's.

Also on another note how do you get images to display in the forums? I attempted to use the 'Insert Image' command for it and just get a little x-box, I tried copy and pasting and it will not transfer the information, I tried dragging and dropping and that only put the image on it's own page; is the only option to include an image is to give the pathway link to the web-site that the file is actually located at?

I am wondering because, I have finished my first drafts for the GEC and SEC worksheets and thought it would be a good idea just to post them for improvement suggestions. Although this idea does not seem to be working so well for me, so far. [:(]

Ok here here the first drafts of the GEC, SEC, and PEC. I put the images up so as to give an idea of what they look like, although they are kinda hard to read on here, (if you all knew how long it took me to figure out how to display these, you would literally die of laughter!) [:D]

I am still working on the two editors for the aliens as well as the glossary of terms, I just wanted some feedback so as to know that I heading in the right direction or not. A link to the Adobe site is included in the ZIP file and a link is displayed on the index webpage for the WinZip site if those programs are needed by anybody. I look forward to you input as long as it is positive, LOL.



GEC Sheet part 1/3


GEC Sheet part 2/3


GEC Sheet part 3/3


SEC Sheet 1/1


PEC Sheet 1/1


AEC Sheet 1/2


AEC Sheet 2/2


[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.xls"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (Excel)[/url]

[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.PDF"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (PDF)[/url]


A special thanks to gws, for letting me use his site to place this stuff and helping me figure out how to do it. [;)]
http://tw2002.silliman.net

Rexx, on your big bang sheet, you are missing the additional bubble settings that show up.

Guy

Gee, how did I not catch all those, hehee, (I just realized that they do not show up if unless you change the bubble setting to more then 0.) I will put those in there, I have been messing with them trying to figure out the formula so that I can try and work them in there, if there is enough room to (referring to the formula.) This is what I came up with so far, if this is wrong then please correct me...

For the minimum bubble size it is always: 100 to (Size of Universe / Number of Bubbles - 20)

For the maximum bubble size it is: (Minimum Bubble Size to (the result as given in the above formula)

Also is 200 the minimum number of sectors that allows bubbles in the universe? (It allows 1 bubble to be created.) I was hoping somebody already knows this already.

I figured it is a good idea to include these, otherwise an unexperienced GameOp is just going to be placing invalid info into their edit and will only be left confused.

Just out of curiousity, what is the intended use of these worksheets? I've always just worked directly in Tedit. With sheets laid out exactly the same way, what motivation is there to use them?

To maximize usefulness, I'd suggest laying out the sheets differently from Tedit. Tedit spreads similar/related settings across multiple screens sometimes and having a spreadsheet that better "clumps" things could be useful. E.g. instead of General One and a bunch of stuff listed A-V, put "3-1 Terran colo max" and "1-H Terran repro rate" next to each other.

Actually, the ideal would be an Excel workbook with multiple sheets. The first sheet would have all of the settings clumped logically, as above, with perhaps some read-only cells that automatically calculate things based on that data (this would be especially useful in editing of planet settings; the appropriate cells would automatically list ideal colo count, max product, ideal figs per colo, and so on). The other sheets would just copy the data from the first sheet into the same order and layout as in Tedit, for ease of transfer of the data into Tedit.

Heh, for that matter once I get the write side of my library written I could probably whip up something to automatically import an Excel CSV export straight into a game's settings.

Ok I fixed my obvious mistakes, whew what a pain it was! [:O]
I also got some idea's while doing it, I added a few more things, mainly to the SEC Worksheet. So now I will start on the rest to finish them up, if all goes well. heh


[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.xls"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (Excel)[/url]

[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.PDF"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (PDF)[/url]


Xen, these are basically hardcopies, which will allow better visualisation, while setting up an edit. Rather then going back and forth between the editors, which is time consuming and painful; you can lay the sheets out on a desk with a pencil (or pen) and a calculator and figure out where you want to go with your edit. This is helpful to use with a workbook (of sorts) i.e. when you are on you're coffee break, at the laundry mat, watching a show, while at the Dr. office, etc. these would come in handy to work on you're edits. Basically allowing you to work on you're edits as time permits, without much inconvenience to yourself.

The other aspect I had in mind was including a terms glossary, which will explain the commands more in-depth, as the current explanations are limited in their definitions. I wanted to create something streamlined and aesthetic, so as to make editing more enjoyable (sounds wierd I know LOL); thus resulting (hopefully) in more consistently thoughtout and organized games.

I agree with you're suggestions on matching everything up, I was wanting to do that but then realized it would not be practical when actually inputting the data, because it would leave you hopping back and forth between editors and that would make it a pain very quickly.

This is just the first step as an idea I came up with. A hardcopy version is always a good idea to have available as an option. I was thinking of also making an open input fielded speedsheet later on to allow GameOps to input their data into and either print it or save it for future reference. I was thinking though everybody uses different programs so that would likley create conflicts, so then I was thinking using PDF with open fields; but I guess you need to get a special ADOBE editing program to create those.

You're idea on the spreadsheet is freakin' awesome, I like that streamlining the entire process; I think it could work. It might be tricky on some of the stuff though, (changing one option may effect another option and the formula's have min and max setting's, etc.) I don't think spreadsheets can adjust for these (why I think it is tricky, hehe) if you were to make a program to read it and adjust it accordingly afterwards. As long as the GameOp is familiar with these settings and follows the guidelines, there should be no problems. The program could look for Yes and No fields to determine which settings to include into the formula's and mod as necessary, right? Also best of all doing it your way would allow the setting's to be cordinated with each other, just fill it out and let the program sort em out! hehee [^]

What are pencils and pens? You mean people actually still use paper?

Those are those things that you use to stick up you're nose back in highschool, Harley...hehee j/k [:P]

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

What are pencils and pens? You mean people actually still use paper?


Yeah, I'm confused. He's talking about using them at the doctor's office and stuff, so... Are those new laptop brands?

OMGosh I was giving an example, you know at the doctor's office you are usually in the waiting room for 45-mins on average. A laptop is not really something you want to take with you to an appointment or to the laundry mat and these can be easily used, (even when you are playing WOW, programming in C++, watching CSPAN, etc.); though taking a notebook or binder is of little inconvenience and allow's you to work on projects rather then just sitting their reading cheezy outdated magazines. Yea Xen, that is exactly what it is; one of those new "paper laptop's" LMAO!

Ok, I finished the first drafts for the AEC Sheets. I think they came out pretty good, considering all the confusing aspects of creating aliens. I am not sure about the Gold Rank and Name editors though, I had two choices; either make up two half-full sheets or one full sheet; so I went with one full sheet, (I just saved a tree [^]) I think it will work, but the space is a little short on the Name editor, darn it. If anybody finds this to be a problem, please let me know, I will make adjustments as needed.


[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.xls"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (Excel)[/url]

[url="http://blackhorizontwgs.net/TW_GameOp_WorkSheets.PDF"]Download GameOp WorkSheets (PDF)[/url]

thanks for these sheets