User guide

How to use the editor: Your first map, then each layer and dialog - terrain, units, triggers, settings, saving, editing one map with multiple people, map sharing, and how to install plugins.

This guide is for map makers. It starts with getting the editor running, walks through a first map, and then goes through each layer and dialog in turn. TrigScript, triggers written as code, has a guide of its own; the technical side — file formats, game data, writing plugins, building from source — has documents of its own, listed in the README.

Beta. This editor needs to be extensively tested. Keep backups of maps you care about, and check anything important in-game before you rely on it.

• Getting startedThere are three ways to run scmJS, each covered in docs/installing.md:
• The editor windowThe window has nine parts, numbered in the picture below.
• Your first mapThis section walks through a small melee map from start to finish.
• TerrainTerrain is painted with four brushes, each a tab in the palette:
• DoodadsDoodads are the trees, rocks, ruins, ramps and bridges of a map: pieces of terrain that come with their own tiles and, sometimes, a sprite drawn over them.
• UnitsThe Units layer places everything the game has a unit for: the three races' units and buildings, heroes, critters, resources, start locations, beacons and powerups.
• SpritesThere are two kinds of sprite.
• LocationsLocations are the rectangles that triggers refer to, as in "bring a unit to *Beacon*" or "create a unit at *Spawn*".
• Fog of warThe fog of war decides which tiles a player starts the game unable to see.
• Cut, copy and pasteTo copy part of a map, drag on it with the Cut / Copy / Paste layer active (C) to mark a rectangle, then Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X.
• TriggersTriggers are what turn a map into a scenario: *when* these conditions hold *for* these players, *do* these actions.
• TrigScriptTrigScript writes triggers as code: TypeScript files kept inside the map.
• Scenario settingsThe Scenario menu holds the map's own tables.
• Checking, testing and savingBefore a map is played, it can be checked for common mistakes, tried in the game, and saved in the form you want to release.
• Your scmjs.dev accountscmjs.dev is the project's own service.
• Editing a map togetherSeveral people can work on one map at the same time, each in their own editor.
• The AITools ▸ AI holds the AI features.
• PluginsPlugins add tools to the editor, and some of what this guide describes is a plugin: Walkability, Paint, Repair, Terrain from Image, TrigScript, Stamp Library, scmjs.dev (the account), scm…
• Keyboard and preferencesPress F1 for a list of every shortcut.
• When something goes wrongIf the editor does something strange (or a bug happens) you can check the debug console to see what happened, use the bug report option to copy it, or use the Report an Issue to send it.
• What it does not doThis section lists what is currently missing in the editor and the limits worth knowing before you rely on a feature.