Factorio Forums

OK, how should I put it.
The Map Editor needs love, a lot of it!

While the game made significant improvements the Editor seems to be untouched. (no offence here, just seems like it :-)
I tried it today for the first time and it lacks some very basic features every editor should have, more on that later.
Don't get me wrong it is a useful tool but very limited in some annoying ways that the "game" already sorted out.
In example there is no easy "cut/copy" solution, "ingame" robots take care of that.

Factorio is preparing for steam right now and considering that the steam community is spoiled with the "easy workshop" integration a good editor gains new importance.
I would love to see that even the newcomers would have an easy tool to create new challenges and upload it to the workshop.

I tried to create a map for a video tutorial.
After fiddling a bit I got annoyed and created just a giant empty canvas with roboports / chests with the raw materials because I had to do a lot of repetitive stuff.
->Where i even had to setup a script that allowed the blueprint use...

So here is my wishlist for a good but basic Map Editor experience:

• Multi-select
• Object "handles" to drag/move stuff around the map
• Cut/Copy/Paste
• Togglable Grid for easy lineup
• Player Setup (Spawn Inventory, Research)

But why stop there upgrade the Map Editor to the almighty Scenario Editor:
(A lot of this requires the luaJIT, man I'm waiting for this)

• Easy "Test/Run" Button
• Event system
• "cutscene" editor
• Map transitions and dependencies (important for storytelling)
• Global Flags menu like: Day/Night cycle, biters friendly? etc.

...There are a ton of features that would be great and I don't even know because I usually don't create content.
But we have an active community so feel free to add your wishes here in the thread.

I think that we need a better editor. Of course we need.

But when you look deep inside of it, then it is clear, that an editor is just - more or less - a mod (not in Lua, so it can directly access the c-routines).
And surely: With this current editor it is in my eyes impossible to build a bigger campaign. But a campaign is needed to get out of gamma/beta state of Factorio.

So for me it's clear, that the current editor will be extended, the question is just when.

And so what I'm suggesting is, that Factorio has better editor-interfaces for modding, so that everybody can implement own editor-extensions.