I have to disagree there. The editor actually eases a lot of otherwise bothersome processes - even for experienced developers. Of course, as soon as you want something more complex, you need to switch to script. But for a first draft, the results are very good. The code is well made and easy to work with (and actually not that uncomplicated to do properly, with the symbiosis between Script.c and Objects.c).
Bothersome tasks include things like placing levers and connecting them with doors. Doing this script-only includes a lot of playtesting to see if you managed to place everything correctly in the landscape and so on. Dialogues and/or sequences do require a lot of clicking around but also a good deal of remembering the interface of our respective libraries. I don't think that doing this in script is faster or easier than in the editor; but then maybe I am not that proficient in these libs.

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree that some of the features have become complex to a point where it's easier to script. This would include conditional actions, variables, the wizard's staff, number pads, etc.

However, two points in defense of the current design:
1. Getting started should be easier. There always seems to be a big jump from playing to editing because you need to know too much to even write a simple scenario script. My idea is that players can start out simply and move on to more complex features.
  Step 1: Draw a map and place objects. This should be really easy now.
  Step 2: Discover object properties. E.g. place a moving brick and adjust its movement range. Place a spawn point and set its spawn object. Place a clonk and enable its AI. Place a switch and connect it to the door.
  Step 3: Action properties. Play a message when you interact with a clonk or switch
  Step 4: Sequences, Triggers, etc.
I don't think players are too stupid to understand more complex concepts. It's just that they won't arrive there.

I think that right now, steps 3 and 4 are not natural yet. If you place a dialogue, you have to find the "Dialogue" property and then figure out why there's a "Sequence". My current idea would be to add links to step-by-step tutorials to the welcome page and to the help menu (as a video or as a simple wiki page). But if you you have ideas how to make the interface more natural to understand, please let me know!

We're also missing a lot of the "Step 2" elements. I think if every object in the original pack had 2-3 simple properties you can set, you can already build some really nice maps without having to understand dialogues and sequences.

2. Independent of newbie-friendliness: Building things together in network mode is fun! I think that it was pretty cool to build e.g. the parkour test scenarios where everyone was designing different sections between the checkpoints. For editor sessions like this, the more complex actions are not a problem because we know how to use them.

>I find it odd to have functionalities in an editor that experienced developers wouldn't use because they seem too cumbersome but which should be used by newbies.

I think there is potential to make the editor work well even for experienced developers. The great thing about working with the editor is that you never have to restart. Everything you change is immediately there to try out.

It would be great if regular Clonk development could be more like that. There is already some support for reloading scripts, but it's not very useful for developing scenarios (for example, the scenario script isn't reloaded).

Reloading scripts while keeping state is clearly a hard problem, but maybe the editor could have some built-in restricted editing facilities?

Filter field: Yes, good idea
Pictures: Won't that make all the entries pretty large? I always found the Clonk Planet scenario options dialogue incredibly clumsy to use.

Another idea for the object creator would be to hold down Alt to "pick" a definition by cliking an existing object. Similar to how you pick the landscape material while drawing.