How powerful is the mapper?

[Sir_Funkalot]

I'm thinking about buying Fallout Tactics in order to make maps and have some questions.

1. Is the mapper easy to use?

2. How powerful is the mapper?

3. Is there any good tutorials out there, or would I have to ask you guys everytime I would get stuck?

[Jimmyjay86]

Not to be confused with the Fallout 1&2 Mapper, the Tactics editors are relatively easy to use. There is a learning curve from the time you open the editor to the time you get familiar with it. But if you have the patience to play around and ask questions when you do get stuck, it will be very worthwhile.

You can create the same quality and much better than the campaign that was created for the game. Most of us have already figured out the tricks to allow you do lots of different things, so it's just a mapper of sifting through the information and asking.

There are a few good basic tutorials to get you started and when you get more advanced, just start asking questions when you get stuck. If we don't know the answers we can brainstorm to find out.

[Sir_Funkalot]

Thanks, I'll see if I can get my hands on some cheap version of the game somewhere...

[dolo]

I'd rate it 4/10 compared to all other game editors. It's prolly why FOT didn't go over with the fans, because it takes sooo long to make changes to your work.

The editing tools for FOT are simplistic and time consuming. They seriously could have been a lot better. Some elements of the editors are amazing, like the look and feel of it (being ingame), but for mapping, that is just not practical, imo. They should have opted for better other methods of tile and entity placement.

The scripting section of the editor will have you pulling your hair out. Yes, it's that bad. Each little thread change may require an hour (minimal) tracking disturbances of the original thread. My suggestion is to make sure you love your story before making the level or scripting it out. Define all your characters and stories in advance or you'll seriously hate the results.

With a lot of preplanning, the FOT editor is average, at best. Failure to plan will definately turn you off because of the time lost making changes.

~dolo

[Sir_Funkalot]

As I'm making up what happened to cities and factions after the Fallout 1 and 2 games, and is also making a fan-fic called The Tales of a Wanderer that at least my first campaign would be totally based on, I think I'll have thought out the story long before beginning to map...
But thanks anyway, any tips are appreciated!

[Judge_Iceberg]

In my worthless opinion the FOT editor is in some ways an even more impressive accomplishment than the game itself.

While there are some aspects of it which are time consuming and counter-intuitive I have yet to find something I wanted to include in a map that I could not figure out how to do.

Over the years i have fooled around with a number of editors and this one is much easier than most. I worked with the DukeNukem editor for months and never got anything I was satisfied with.

JI

[Max-Violence]

In my worthless opinion...

No such things here! All opinions count!

Unless, of course, you're Pyro... then we just ignore you and hope you go away

Just kidding, Pyro. We all wub j00

But yep, I think this editor is one of the easiest I've come across. I remember trying to make maps for HL (zero progress)...

Now that I think about it, the StarCraft editor was pretty good, and unlike FOT's, well-documented [/i]

[Jimmyjay86]

Ditto. While it looks intimidating at first, so does a sexy woman. So does that mean that you aren't going to try her or are you up for a real challenge! Ahem...well, you get my drift...

Although Judge, we have run across a few limitations but overall I think that the end results are still above par.