Game Editor

An OIDS game is a collection of planetoids organized into a galaxy. With the OIDS game editor you can design and build your own galaxies and planetoids or modify existing galaxies and planetoids.

To create a new galaxy, click on the "New" button in the Galaxy Chooser. Now select your "Untitled" galaxy with the mouse pointer and name it using the "Rename" command from the "Edit" menu. Next, open your galaxy with the "Open" button. Now create a blank planetoid in your galaxy by pressing the "New" button again. Rename your "Untitled" planetoid in the same way you did for your galaxy.

To begin designing your new planetoid, open it with the "Open" button. The Galaxy Chooser will fade away to the "Edit Screen." The Edit Screen provides a window into your vast planetoid. To see more of your planetoid, move the mouse pointer to one of the screen edges and the Edit Screen will move in that direction.

		The Edit Screen is mostly black except for the initial star field. Your mothership marks the position where a V-Wing fighter will be deployed on your planetoid. Also visible is the "Edit Palette" (shown at left) which contains all the tools for building a planetoid. The first step in building your planetoid is laying out the mountain terrain with the "Mountain Tool." Select the Mountain Tool from the Edit Palette. Now click in the Edit Screen and drag to the left or the right. The terrain line will be drawn following the path of the mouse pointer.
		When you release the mouse button, you will see your terrain segment and two small boxes with plus signs in them at each end. These plus boxes indicate that the terrain is incomplete and needs to be added to at each end.
Notice that the terrain line is thick and appears to fade downward to black. This type of terrain is solid below it and has open space above it. Terrain segments can also fade upward to black. Upward fading terrain is solid above it and has open space below it.
		One way to complete your terrain segment is to make it into an asteroid. To do that, click on one of the plus boxes and drag a line of terrain around in a circle to meet with the other plus box. When you have drawn terrain all the way to the other plus box, the ends will probably not quite meet up. This will leave two plus boxes lined up vertically.
		To fully complete your asteroid select the "Tweak Tool" (shown at left.) This tool is mostly used to make fine adjustments to your scenery. Click the Tweak Tool on one of the plus boxes and drag it over the top of the other. The terrain will bend as you drag the plus box. When you have the plus boxes directly on top of one another, release the mouse button. The plus boxes will disappear indicating that the terrain segments have been "fused" together, creating one solid object.
To complete the terrain of your simple planetoid, you will need to draw a bottom surface. Select the Mountain Tool again and move the mouse pointer down below the asteroid. Now click the Mountain Tool in the Edit Screen and drag to the left or right. Keep dragging all the way to the edge of the screen. When you get to the edge, the Edit Screen will move with your pointer as mountain terrain is continously drawn. If you continue to draw in a straight line, you will eventually meet with your starting position. This is because planetoids are cylinder shaped. Draw mountain terrain right up to the starting position and release the mouse button.
		If you are again left with plus boxes which are lined up vertically, use the Tweak Tool to fuse the ends.
		You may have accidentally drawn past your starting position. In this case use the "Eraser" to remove some of the excess terrain before you attempt to use the Tweak Tool to connect the ends. Select the Eraser and click it on the terrain segment that extends beyond your starting position to erase one piece of terrain. If you press and drag, you can continously erase mountain terrain as you pass over it with the Eraser.
When you are trying to connect one end of a terrain line to its other end, as in an asteroid or your planetoid surface, you must add or erase terrain until the plus boxes are lined up vertically before you can tweak them together. Terrain lines can only bend so far, so if the Tweak Tool refuses to pull the ends together, you may have to redraw a portion of your mountain terrain to get the plus boxes closer together. There are limitations in the complexity of planetoids. Because of this you can draw an asteroid above your surface terrain or a cavern beneath your surface, but you can't have an asteroid directly above where a cavern is.
		All planetoids should have OIDS to rescue. OIDS are held captive in the little dome shaped buildings called "Pods." To place a Pod on the mountains, select one of the two types of Pods from the Edit Palette. Then position it on the terrain surface and click the mouse button. You will now have a copy of the Pod drawn in your planetoid. The Pods with two windows contain two OIDS and the ones with three windows hold three OIDS.
Whenever there are OIDS to rescue on a planetoid, there must be a landing site nearby for a V-Wing ship to land on. To create a landing site, select the Eraser Tool and click it on a relatively flat terrain surface near the Pod. This will clear the way for the landing surface. Now select the Mountain Tool and click and hold on one of the plus boxes. Hold down the OPTION key and move the mouse pointer up and down until you see the flat piece, releasing the mouse button to draw it in. If the landing surface has a plus box on it, use the Tweak Tool to nudge it into position.
		You have now completed a simple planetoid. Click on the "Exit" button from the Edit Palette to return to the Galaxy Chooser. You will be asked if you would like to keep the changes you made this session. After answering "Yes" to this, the Edit Screen will fade out to the Galaxy Chooser. Now close your galaxy with the "Close" button. You will be asked if you would like to save your changes to the galaxy. Answer "Yes" to this and now you're ready to play your new galaxy!
		Planetoid scenery can be composed of several types of objects. They are: mountains, asteroids, caverns and stalactites.

Edit Palette Reference

		The Exit button is your means of leaving the Edit Screen. You will be asked if you would like to keep any of the changes you made, if any.
		The Settings button brings up the "Difficulty Chooser." You can set how "mean" the Biocretes will be and what type of spacecraft they are allowed to have on each planetoid. (See "Difficulty Chooser" decribed below for more details.)
		The View button displays a map of a planetoid in one-eighth scale. If you click the mouse pointer somewhere within the map, the Edit Screen will move to that location on the planetoid.
		The Undo button undoes the last operation performed. If immediately pressed a second time, it will redo what was just undone.

		The Playtest Tool allows you to test the playability of your planetoid while remaining in the editor. Selecting it will give you a V-Wing ship as your mouse pointer. Click the ship somewhere on the Edit Screen to begin play from that location. Hold the OPTION key down while clicking anywhere in the Edit Screen to begin play with a drop-off from your mothership. Type 'Q' to return to the Edit Screen with all bases intact.
		The Eraser Tool removes objects on a planetoid. Select the Eraser from the Edit Palette and remove any item by clicking on it. Hold down the mouse button and drag to erase multiple ground bases and/or mountain terrain in one operation. Holding the OPTION key while erasing terrain will erase an entire segment of terrain object including ground bases. You can have temporary use of the Eraser Tool by holding down the COMMAND key
		The Tweak Tool makes positioning adjustments to mountain terrain or ground bases after they have been placed. Hold the OPTION key to position terrain objects without distorting their shape.
		The Mountain Tool draws mountain terrain. Start new terrain or continue from the end of a previously drawn terrain segment. There is a limit of three mountain pieces per planetoid column.

This part of the Edit Palette contains your ground base placing tools. To place one of the ground bases, select it and move the mouse pointer to the Edit Screen. Press the mouse button to copy your selection onto the planetoid. You can place multiple copies of a ground base in the planetoid.