Cave Creator
A tool with a graphical user interface designed in Visual Studio and written in Visual Basic, Cave Creator is a tool made by Jimble for the sole purpose of creating caves with ease.
Contents
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Changelog
v1.2.1
- Allows you to add as many of the same treasure as you want. Previously, I attempted to avoid allowing this, however I have now removed that completely because the game doesn't actually seem to have any problem with loading multiple of the same treasure. It won't crash or break anything at all.
- You can now easily delete selected entities by just clicking and pressing the delete key. This works on both the main menu and the Add New Entity menu.
- Adjustment to the menu bar at the top of the main menu - a new About Pikmin 2 Cave Creator window has been added to provide the details of that version of the tool, along with trademark and copyright (Nintendo).
v1.2
- Introduces the Lighting Designer! Produce lighting files with easy-to-use RGB sliders.
- Introduces random generators for Enemies/Bosses and Decorations! Input a number and have random enemies, bosses, drop treasures and decorations added; saving heaps of time and allows experimentation.
- Clear All and Remove Selected are finally on the Add Entity page so you no longer need to go back to the main menu to remove entities.
- Added a "Add Filename To List" button for both units and lights in Sublevel Properties. This is in the case that you have a custom unit/light file. This can be done automatically if you use the new Lighting Designer.
- Adjusted the layout of Add New Entity and Sublevel Properties to fit the new features.
- Background image has been removed from Sublevel Properties; allowing it to load instantly when clicking the Sublevel Properties button.
- Adding a Greater Jellyfloat has been fixed - before it would do nothing upon clicking Add Entity.
- Vanilla lighting names are now just titled by their internal name - before it was a silly list of "Very Dark Surroundings", "Very Very Dark Surroundings", etc..
- New link next to the light selection that leads to a list of screenshots consisting of all the vanilla lights.
- Fixed a bug where selecting Rest in the Music section of Sublevel Properties would actually result in "None until Boss", and vice versa.
- Maximum Room Count and Room:Corridor ratio no longer have a limit, however a label will be displayed stating when there is a high chance of crashing due to RAM limitations.
- General design improvements.
- More optimised and efficient (despite the file size increasing by around 8MB).
v1.1.3
- Adds the pedestal version of the Gatling Groink.
- Fixes music type not changing in code, despite clearly functioning within Sublevel Properties.
- Removes Ivory Candypop Bud from the Enemy/Boss list (it's in the Objects list).
- Removes a debugging feature where clicking Add Enemy would work normally, except the Enemy/Boss list would move onto the next item every time.
v1.1.2
- Adds the Titan Dweevil to the entity list.
- Fixes the capitalisation of Dwarf Bulbears.
v1.1.1
- Fixes a bug where opening project files wouldn't import music data properly.
v1.1
- Added the remaining treasures that were missing. Cave Creator now has all 201 treasures (that includes the thirteen exploration kit treasures).
- Added a new "objects" combobox separating bomb-rocks, eggs, hazards and other stuff from the enemies/bosses combobox. This also introduces the chiyogami paper that was missing entirely, along with some other unused entities.
- Introduces "Check for Updates" where the tool is able to determine whether a new version is available and give the user the option to download it or not. This is under the Help menu.
- Improved treasure system - if you re-add a treasure you will be noted that you've already added that treasure in the current sublevel and thus it will not be added again.
- Fixed a bug where if you typed letters into the Add Gate input box you would be stuck in an infinite loop telling you to use numerical characters - this was only solvable by force quitting the application and could have resulted in the user losing lots of work.
- Updated the save project file to fix a bug where you wouldn't be able to remove selected entities after opening a project file (if you saved a project with entities still in the lists). Project files saved in v1.0 will still work but you will be told that the entities lists will be cleared. This shouldn't be considered a loss, but nonetheless v1.1 solves this and project files made in v1.1 will open perfectly fine in itself and later versions.
- More consistency/design adjustments.
v1.0
- The first release.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Did you export your music file?
This is probably the most common cause of crashing. When the game loads a sublevel, it also reads the Totaka file for that specific cave and if there is no music assigned to this sublevel then it will crash. To fix this, Cave Creator does infact create the music code for you! If you weren't aware, there is a music option in Sublevel Properties where you can select what song you want to play on that sublevel before clicking Add Sublevel. To get this code, go to File > Export Music (or Ctrl+M) and save the text file anywhere you like. Proceed by following the instructions provided next to the music options in Sublevel Properties.
2. Did you add too many enetities?
Sure, Cave Creator doesn't have a limit, but there isn't unlimited points for each room! This is something for the distant future where you can actually make changes to the coordinates of the points and the number of points. If you really want all of your 80 enemies to spawn, try adding more rooms (in Sublevel Properties)! Just bare in mind that the more you add, the less the game will be able to handle you could perhaps get a crash. That said, I've done well over 80 Wollywogs in one sublevel (7 rooms).
3. Are your entities in unavailable spawn locations?
I imagine /you/ can't answer that, but maybe I can. Did you select Enemy Group C? It's important to note that not every room has points for this. Only a few use it frequently and only actual boss rooms have a proper point for it. It's recommended to just avoid using this location until every single room is tested and we can say for certain when you can/can't use it. This isn't a bug, nor a problem.
What about in the case of dead ends? Well, there is actually some RNG involved with dead end spawns so there is actually a possibility you'll catch your sublevel 1/5 times without the dead end spawn. This is completely normal (but honestly quite annoying). More than one room typically deals with this, though.
4. Why are the values for {f000} and {f001} wrong in the display view?
Do not worry about this, if you actually take a look at the full cave view, you'll notice this is fixed and that they all add up properly. The selected sublevel view is just restricted because listbox items cannot actually be 'edited', only removed and then added back which adds a whole lot more work for me. It's not something necessary to worry about so just ignore these values if you prefer the selected sublevel view.
5. Why doesn't the sublevel's enemies or properties change after I've added them?
It's important to note that my tool is quite literally and only a cave /creator/. There is no way to edit sublevels as of right now (hence how there's no import cave file option). So what does this mean? It means that clicking Add Sublevel means you're happy with that sublevel and are ready to move on to the next (or save). That said, there is a workaround. If you add your sublevel and DON'T have 'Clear All Widgets Upon Adding a Sublevel' checked (it's unchecked by default, don't freak out), then you can just go ahead and click Remove Sublevel [count], make your changes and then add it back.
History
All the minor and major versions of Pikmin 2 Cave Creator. Only revisions with main menu adjustments are included.
v1.0
The very first version including all the basic features, released on the 24th of February 2018.
v1.1
The second release on the 3rd of March 2018, containing the remaining treasures, objects and some bug fixes.
v1.2
The third release on the 14th of April 2018, the biggest update yet with a new lighting designer and a random enemy/boss feature for experimentation.
v1.2.1
A revisions of the third release, released on the 21st of April 2018, adding a delete shortcut key for selected entities and an adjusted menu bar featuring the new About window.
