Hello Everyone 
I am posting this to start a discussion thread. As most of you know, I usually don't post on ServUO because I really don't use ServUO, but I've begun to play with the ServUO repository and I've decided that I would move my scripts over here on a permanent bases. With that said, I want your opinions regarding what is mentioned below. I am one of those people who think feedback is a valuable way of determining if one is wasting their time or not. At any rate this is our chance to have something that is definitely needed, but whether it will be widely used will determine the projects fate. I am not one to re-invent the wheel when I have the blueprints in front of me; I'll just rebuild what has already been invented and try to make it better
Project Background:
Around two years ago, I forgot which month, I had released a map creation suite I so aptly dubbed, "UltimaOnlineMapCreator". Now those who know me, know that I often take on projects that are way out of my scope. I do this in an effort to learn from them and take that knowledge and apply it to other projects. My goal for UltimaOnlineMapCreator was to create a UOLandscaper clone and turn it into an open-source community project which everyone could improve upon and re-release at will; there was no glory or ego involved. I was just determined to get one of the best map editors available into the hands of the community so that we all could have a map creation suite that we could update without depending on anyone.
To accomplish this I didn't want to step on any toes, so I sought out the original developer of UOLandscaper, dknight, and asked for his permission first; yes he gave me his permission under the stipulation that I could not re-release it under the UOLandscaper name. So with the help of dknight, and four other developers, the UltimaOnlineMapCreator was born. On initial release it was met with a lot of support, and a few harsh words of criticism from those people who didn't realize I had gotten permission to rewrite UOLandscaper; both programs look and function almost exactly alike, which is the reason for the criticism, but the UltimaOnlineMapCreator is faster, has a few more features, and was written in C# (not Visual Basic).
Consequently I removed UltimaOnlineMapCreator from the website(s) I had initially released it on, around the start of 2016, due to the backlash of criticism and the lack of feedback from those who were using it.
Project Aspirations:
Turning the clock ahead: in the past month or so I began searching my hard drives in an effort to revamp some of the tools I have made, and others have left unfinished; every time I do something like this the projects I re-work, more often than not, become a little better (in my opinion). With that said, I found the source to the UltimaOnlineMapCreator and it rekindled some of the motivation I had when I began the project. To make a long story, even longer, I am revitalizing the UI to make everything a little easier to navigate and read. Once I am finished with this then I will be left with a shell that I will re-construct piece by piece; I am wanting to re-release this map editing suite to benefit the community.
My Own Questions:
With this goal in mind, I may need some help with specific parts to make this program function with all it's potential in-tact. The questions I pose to everyone are: do you think I'm wasting my time? Will this project take off as a, work-in-progress, community project once released? Is this even something people are interested in having? Keep in mind that we don't have any open source map creation suites available, and if we do have something that I am unaware of, then chances are it is really outdated. The real question on my mind is: will I have your support? With bug reports, help fixing issues, and making this the best map editing suite project available; something we'll all be able to personalize and call our own.
2017 Change Log:
I changed the name to: MapCreator and I have finished the main-body of the map creation suite. As you can see below, all this initial stage does is give me a platform to launch all plugin modules from a centralized location; rather than having to find 20 or more individual programs floating around on our hard drives.
I am currently integrating all of the functions on the 'Main Menu' into the application itself. This will cut down on the plugin modules that go into the 'Plugins' directory; thereby leaving that specific directory available for user-submitted plugins only. It also makes it so the core program is one application.
Some ScreenShots:
On Plugin Form Load:
On Hover Over Plugins:
I am posting this to start a discussion thread. As most of you know, I usually don't post on ServUO because I really don't use ServUO, but I've begun to play with the ServUO repository and I've decided that I would move my scripts over here on a permanent bases. With that said, I want your opinions regarding what is mentioned below. I am one of those people who think feedback is a valuable way of determining if one is wasting their time or not. At any rate this is our chance to have something that is definitely needed, but whether it will be widely used will determine the projects fate. I am not one to re-invent the wheel when I have the blueprints in front of me; I'll just rebuild what has already been invented and try to make it better
Project Background:
Around two years ago, I forgot which month, I had released a map creation suite I so aptly dubbed, "UltimaOnlineMapCreator". Now those who know me, know that I often take on projects that are way out of my scope. I do this in an effort to learn from them and take that knowledge and apply it to other projects. My goal for UltimaOnlineMapCreator was to create a UOLandscaper clone and turn it into an open-source community project which everyone could improve upon and re-release at will; there was no glory or ego involved. I was just determined to get one of the best map editors available into the hands of the community so that we all could have a map creation suite that we could update without depending on anyone.
To accomplish this I didn't want to step on any toes, so I sought out the original developer of UOLandscaper, dknight, and asked for his permission first; yes he gave me his permission under the stipulation that I could not re-release it under the UOLandscaper name. So with the help of dknight, and four other developers, the UltimaOnlineMapCreator was born. On initial release it was met with a lot of support, and a few harsh words of criticism from those people who didn't realize I had gotten permission to rewrite UOLandscaper; both programs look and function almost exactly alike, which is the reason for the criticism, but the UltimaOnlineMapCreator is faster, has a few more features, and was written in C# (not Visual Basic).
Consequently I removed UltimaOnlineMapCreator from the website(s) I had initially released it on, around the start of 2016, due to the backlash of criticism and the lack of feedback from those who were using it.
Project Aspirations:
Turning the clock ahead: in the past month or so I began searching my hard drives in an effort to revamp some of the tools I have made, and others have left unfinished; every time I do something like this the projects I re-work, more often than not, become a little better (in my opinion). With that said, I found the source to the UltimaOnlineMapCreator and it rekindled some of the motivation I had when I began the project. To make a long story, even longer, I am revitalizing the UI to make everything a little easier to navigate and read. Once I am finished with this then I will be left with a shell that I will re-construct piece by piece; I am wanting to re-release this map editing suite to benefit the community.
My Own Questions:
With this goal in mind, I may need some help with specific parts to make this program function with all it's potential in-tact. The questions I pose to everyone are: do you think I'm wasting my time? Will this project take off as a, work-in-progress, community project once released? Is this even something people are interested in having? Keep in mind that we don't have any open source map creation suites available, and if we do have something that I am unaware of, then chances are it is really outdated. The real question on my mind is: will I have your support? With bug reports, help fixing issues, and making this the best map editing suite project available; something we'll all be able to personalize and call our own.
2017 Change Log:
I changed the name to: MapCreator and I have finished the main-body of the map creation suite. As you can see below, all this initial stage does is give me a platform to launch all plugin modules from a centralized location; rather than having to find 20 or more individual programs floating around on our hard drives.
I am currently integrating all of the functions on the 'Main Menu' into the application itself. This will cut down on the plugin modules that go into the 'Plugins' directory; thereby leaving that specific directory available for user-submitted plugins only. It also makes it so the core program is one application.
Some ScreenShots:
On Plugin Form Load:
On Hover Over Plugins:
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