Naming levels

[SoLan]

I may be making a lot of fuzz about a small thing here, but I wonder if there is - or if we need - some kind of system for naming user created levels? After getting the new beta version of the level editor I am working on a new mission pack. I have a story ready and I have made a map for the first level, but then I got to naming the level.

In my first mission pack there were three levels, and as they are part of the same mission, I included a "letter and number" first part of the level name in the same way that Spiffcode named the levels that came with the game. That way the player can see that these three levels belong together, and the levels are sorted in the right order in the mission list.

My first thought when I was going to name the levels in my second mission pack was to give the levels a new "letter and number" series, since these are part of a different mission pack. But then I thought that when we get a lot of level creators this might get confusing, and maybe I should stick to the letter I picked for my first mission pack and just give these levels new numbers.

The advantage of this is that all my levels will be identified by the same letter, and others can use different letters or letter combinations for their levels. The downside is that the levels belonging to the new mission pack might look like they belong to the same mission as the ones in the first pack.

Does anybody have any thoughts about this? Have I simply been staring at this screen for too long?

[crakerz]

I'm thinking that not too many people will have more than a few packs installed at a time, because of memory. I plan on storing them on external, moving them to memory as time permits.

[scottlu]

The packs are pretty small, so I think people won't mind installing a bunch of packs, which would populate the list. We used single letters because they worked for the built in missions. If everyone did that it would inevitably lead to first letter conflicts. I suggest that if it is a multi-mission pack (we usually call this a campaign) that it is:

campaign name:mission name

If it is a single mission pack, then just

mission name

[drdeath2k3]

scottlu wrote:

The packs are pretty small, so I think people won't mind installing a bunch of packs, which would populate the list. We used single letters because they worked for the built in missions. If everyone did that it would inevitably lead to first letter conflicts. I suggest that if it is a multi-mission pack (we usually call this a campaign) that it is:

campaign name:mission name

If it is a single mission pack, then just

mission name

I've yet to install and try out the actual mission editor (only access to PCs is at school.. so i'll try it out tommorow...) but is it possible to simply make the first part (the one-letter thing) into say three letters.... this would obviously make things a bit easier....

[SoLan]

scottlu wrote:

I suggest that if it is a multi-mission pack (we usually call this a campaign) that it is:

campaign name:mission name

This would not get the levels sorted in the right order in the mission list, though (unless you make sure to name the levels in alphabetical order, of course). And without any level numbers, it would be difficult for the user to know which level is the first one - the one that starts the campaign.

[scottlu]

Good points SoLan. Ideally the sort order would be independent from the name so we could have naming freedom but we don't have that. To keep it simple how about this:

campaign name: NN mission name, example:

Andy's Fate: 01 The beginning
Andy's Fate: 02 The ending

Then if it is a single mission pack, either the number can be left out, or the campaign name, or both.

Of course due to sorting I will be naming my campaign name "AAAAA" )

AAAAA : 01 Andy's Alphabet

[SoLan]

Nooo! I was going to take the AAAAA!

I really don't care much about where in the list the missions end up as long as they are sorted internally in a sensible way. If someone wants to use the alphabet "cheat" to get their levels listed at the top, it is fine with me, but I fear some nasty levels will result if people try to make campaign names that makes sense while putting them at the top of the list. Can you imagine the mission "AA Meeting: Andy's downfall"?

But seriously the "campaign name: NN mission name" naming convention would solve all the issues as far as I can see.

[crakerz]

I like it! Now, if you can just get everyone to follow it.....

[SoLan]

I don't think the levels in the Replicator Hazard mission pack will be renamed until the next revision/version, but I intend to go with this naming convention for my next pack.

[knelson]

Since there are going to be many iterations for the different level/level packs because of feedback and other improvements. It would be a great idea if you could identify what version of the level/level pack you are currently running.

Unless I'm missing something. The only way I see currently for doing this is in the naming convention. Maybe this should be added to the wish list?

[scottlu]

That's a great idea knelson. I will think about it.