In-game Editors and Debugging Aids

There are some editing tools that are contained in Bridge Commander, and are run from within the game. This section will describe how to use them, along with other debugging aids.


The console

Bridge Commander includes a Python interpreter, accessible through an in-game console. To access the console, start up Bridge Commander with the -TestMode command line option. This will enable some cheats and other aids. Press the tilde key (~) to toggle the console. When you type a line in the console and hit return, it will be passed to the Python interpreter, evaluated, and then any error messages will be printed.

The console is very useful for debugging missions while they're running. For example, you can import the mission file, then print out the values of its globals, or run functions from the mission directly. You can also get ships, sets, or other objects, and then manipulate them from the console.

Any functions in the script file SimpleAPI.py will automatically be accessible from the console. (i.e. you don't need to import them beforehand, or specify the module name beforehand) Other scripts will need to be imported before they are used.


Cheat keys

When you have -TestMode enabled, as above, certain cheat keys become active in the game. While in tactical mode:


Placement Editor

The placement editor is used to navigate sets, and create or manipulate placement objects (used for ship starting positions, planet positions, asteroid fields, camera positions, waypoints...the list goes on and on). You can toggle the placement editor while in-game by typing "Edit()" at the console.

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Created on ... January 31, 2002