First Thirty Minutes With The Editor

[CraftyReaper]

On initially running the Takedown editor you are greeting with a load error screen with a long list of missing objects and files. This is to be expected and it is alright to click 'OK' and continue into the editor. (Confirmed by TerryTheHammer from Serellan).

On looking around the content browser I found no map files within the 'Maps' folder, so instead went to the default file-->open option and pointed my browser to 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Takedown Red Sabre Level Editor\TakedownGame\Content\Maps

and found a list of available levels to look at.

I started by loading up the TD04_HQ.umap and was greeted with another load error screen which I promptly dismissed by hitting OK. Low and behold I was inside the HQ map in all it's editing glory. Now it was time to stroll around and see what I could find out. As I am writing this at the same time (so as not to forget something ) I might at this point discover nothing of use and burn up these first thirty minutes too quickly. Here goes.

The first 30 Minutes. I spent this time initially flying through the scene and looking at the different actor classes that were available such as the emitters and path nodes, cover nodes , player starts etc. I noticed a fair few materials/textures/decals missing and sort of expected this due to the load errors. It was then I decided to hit Play From Here in the editor and after 5 minutes of saving the scene (even though I had not edited anything) it launched in a window. I was fully able to run around the level and could shoot with the LMB and open doors with space, I could not however see my weapon or any HUD. Also I could hear voices like ' I hear gunfire" but never came across anyone officer or suspect. I am guessing on making a map you would need to actual get it running in the main Takedown folder to have access to all this.

A more detailed analysis will take time and will hopefully come later. With the lack of official documentation I do not know I even loaded the intended mission from the right folder. I am confident that over the next few days we will have a lot more information. Should be fun.

[CraftyReaper]

Well the next few days actually brought frustration as we could get nothing original to run in anything but a single player environment. We had some luck with a small map I made using the static meshes available from serellan. However we could import our own meshes and textures but they would not be found when we started the game. At this point DarkSynopsis had a conversation or two with Terry The Hammer and even sent him our map files for testing. The result was that the editor still needed fixes and that they were working hard on this.

Since this time we have learned that Serellan will be issuing a Post Morten of this kickstarter game and this means in all likeliness that there will be little or no further development. So at least for now the level building side of things is on hold.