Will the map editor be user-friendly like AOE 2? I saw map editors that are ridiculously complicated to use. I took one look at the company of heroes map editor, and quit at the sight of it. I probably would have to watch many hours worth of a Youtube video to figure out how to do anything.
I haven’t tried out the Company of Heroes editor so I can’t talk about that.
I think it’s important to find a balance between an editor that is easy to understand and an editor that is powerful and easy to use.
Simplified editors are often a pain to use of more advanced users. But too complex editors can become to hard to use for advanced users again.
I think a good example is Starcraft 2 compared to Warcraft 3.
Stracraft 2 added so many new possibility but made things like just changing the attack damage of a unit a pain.
In WC3 units could just have 2 attacks and they were in the list of the units stats.
In SC2 attacks were their own properties that then had effects as properties that actually did the damage (maybe I forget some extra steps) this allowed much more flexibility but was much harder to use. Changing things took too much time.
Despite having more possibilities SC2 never got as many good fan maps as WC3. A lot of SC2 maps were also less complex, not because it wasn’t possible but because it took so long to make them.
The AoE2 editor is very annoying to use.
Yes it’s very easy to make a scenario but using triggers and stuff is just pain.
In AoE3 (especially before DE) you had to do a bit more to get a working map but doing more complex things is much more comfortable.
That’s why I think the AoE3 editor is much better than the AoE2 one.
The Definitive Editions improved both editors, not the AoE2 one isn’t as bad as it used to be and the AoE3 one got some nice small additions too like that the computer players now have an AI on default.
I hope it isn’t anything like the AOE3 editor lol