My dreams get extremely vivid sometimes, and I've had a lot of interesting ideas born from them. What's really neat is when you become aware in the dream and are able to manipulate it however you choose.

Oh, man, I never get bored of that.

It's so fascinating...sometimes when we think our minds could not come up with anything more creative, our dreams give us some fresh inspiration.

I'll list two examples that happened to me, and then maybe you could all list some of your examples.

1. Anyone see Disney's Jungle Book 2?  Like most direct-to-DVD sequels, I hated it.  My dreams actually came out with a much better plot than the original movie had.
2. Pretty much most of you know me for inventing the concept of S.A.D.  Guess what?  Last night, I dreamed of another, completely new RTS game involving railroading, with once again, a new concept never done before.  It's interesting that this concept would also work very well for calculators, although I plan to stop with calculator games after S.A.D. is done.  Maybe for a computer game, or something...

Way to go, ztrumpet!  You'll be great!

You would be the perfect one to do it!

Indeed, anyone could indeed modify the application variable containing the campaign.  And it would be relatively easy to...all people would have to do is read our source code and learn the format.  But then, why would people want to bother?  (I'm asking simply because I don't know) To me, it seems almost as pointless as editing a level pack done for the calculator Super Mario games, but am I missing something?

1. Campaigns use maps.  It's like how an apple pie uses apples.
2. When compiling (not saving), the campaign editor translates the script into a custom format of binary data, kind of like a file for saved computer games.  This is stored as an application variable.  I will be writing the asm code necessary to read and use this data.  I will give you the format needed as we plan out how to read these application variables.

i can probably do that if you want...Depending on which one, I might be able to do that one too, if, like said above, you want me too.

The last thing I want is for you to work on something you don't want to work on, so take your pick!   You can work on both or one of your choice, and let me know if you have other questions.

VB (preferably a newer version) and Phython are all fine.  But I think I should probably put up more details about the programs for those who need them for making their decision.

The map editor takes a picture with 16 x 16 tiles, and allows users to place them on a map of their choice of size.  It will also come with a tileset designer, where a user takes a bitmap with 16 x 16 tiles, and specifies information about each and every tile: which ones a solid, which ones are partially solid (meaning a unit can walk on some of it), which ones are solid but can have buildings placed on top, which ones are player starting positions, etc.  Once the tileset is saved, the user can use these tiles in the map editor.  The map editor compiles this information into a map (or a set of maps) that S.A.D. can use.  I imagine the map editor to be relatively easy to program.

The campaign editor is a little bit harder, but it mostly requires just time.  The campaign editor assumes that all required graphics were created by the player.  A user can design a campain and compile it into an application variable (or several application variables) that S.A.D. can read.

The main body of the campaign designer is a text window. Campaigns are designed so that instructions are read one after the other. There is no jumping, no if-thens, and no looping. (The asm code will take care of that) There is only one instruction added after another. These instructions are listed in English as a "Mission Script," meaning instructions come one after the other, such as "Big Text" or "Pause," etc.  These instructions can be edited manually using a built-in editor if needed. They are also added or edited using wizards, or step-by-step dialogs.

Example:

BigText(1, 1, "Hello") would display "Hello" on the Homescreen at x=1 and y=1.

As I said before, there are wizards to make this process easier.  Or, if a minor adjustment needs to be made, the text window can also be used.

The Campaign Editor will allow a person to test his script, except for mission objectives.

Here's some other things the Campaign Editor will allow a person to do, all with wizards or the text editor:

*Add a mission objective
*Add a sprite
*Add a map (Pre-made.  The campaign designer will not include a map-editor.)
*Add a Unit.  Custom units can be added to S.A.D., though there are strict limitations as to what you can add, and these custom units are only for the AI.  For buildings, you can only make similarities of the buildings already in the game.  For units, you can only provide range, air attack, ground attack, fire rate, weapon data, S.A.D. abilities, fuel and sephrane gas.  For this reason, I don't think implementation of this function will be as hard as it sounds.
*Add a faction, using only these custom units.
*Add a custom object for certain mission objectives.  This is really a bitmap with a few statistics.
*Display Big Text in the Campaign
*Display Small Text in the Campaign
*Display a Mission Breifing screen in the Campaign
*Display a Picture in the Campaign
*Add a cutscene.  Cutscenes only display sprites, move sprites, display maps, and display text.
*Edit AI: Edit the difficulty of the AI for the mission.
*Edit Mission Objectives
*Edit a Tech Tree
*Set a Mission as a Combat mission (More on that later, but it should be easy to code)

Yeah, screw math, we use our calculators for what they were intended for!

Where did you say you grew up?