Construct 2 - most wanted

MULTIPLATFORM!!!!!! (windows, mac, linux, Flash, java, iphone and android anyone? XD)

opengl, native 3D support, a better resource management, a better GUI, vectorial graphics support, a better graphic editor with an animation preview test (like MMF2), an animation editor like flash! and...well that for now xd yes, it's to much, but dream it's free XD

Sub Layouts - When making an RPG or sidescroller with many layouts, it'd be helpful to have sub-layouts where everything is still retained once the player teleports to them. They can be used for small rooms or little sections like you see in many old RPGs. This way all the private variables are retained and if you exit the room, the events which took place will still be there and not reset.

Making sense? I'll elaborate if you want.

Encryption - This way one will be more confident with creating an external file which handles save slots or inventory items.

Integration of Python exclusive features - If I'm not mistaken, there are some features which can only be utilized through Python. It'd be nice to see these made into events.

Online focus - Who doesn't love online integration? I know a user did a good job at making online work through Python, but making an official plugin will be the next logical step.

AI behaviour? - This can be a distant consideration, but maybe creating an AI behaviour that performs simple tasks as chase down a character or try to avoid a character once it's approaching? Probably won't work since it's an abstract concept but it can be at least considered.

A dialogue system - I created one months ago which handles standard dialogue along with options and responses based on the options chosed. Even emoticons were supported by simply adding something like #H at the end of the dialogue string. It's all Python driven and was pretty messy (I had just started learning Python) but I'll probably try remaking it now into something more understandable and powerful. Anyone interested?

I'm still new to Construct, so my suggestions may be short sighted.

• More Python integration. Currently exposure to the core engine is hit or miss. By more, I guess I mean full exposure. If I can "point and click" to it, I should be able to just python it.

• Speaking of Python, the current editor is kind of fumbly. Tabs for example sometimes work, sometimes change focus in the window. Sometimes the tab brackets don't work. Copy-pasting acts weird at times. The "intellisense" (helper text) isn't very complete or helpful, usually. It's not any one thing, it's just not as polished as it probably could be. Right now I use IDLE and copy-paste. But, then there's copy-paste issues at times (python could be less nazi about indentation in general, but what do you expect from a language that has an optional end statement operator).

• Networking. Nothing more than a layer or "wrapper" is really required, but some native support to connect and send packets around would be swell. PodSixNet works pretty good right now. Having integrated support would be faster, though. Object Replication would be dreamy creamy, but you did ask for blue sky stuff. This is the stuff end users would be interested in. Making a network object and telling it to be broadcast, and it internally be taken care of.

RakNet does all of this, quite simply too. I know the licensing might be an issue for an opensource project, but that should be between the game creator and Jenkins, not Construct and Jenkins (RakNet is free for most people -- only when the dough rolls in does he ask for a cut).

• Sprite Indexing and or easier/more obvious instance selection. Instancing in Construct is rather "masked." I don't know why, as it's extremely vital to select the thing you're trying to modify. For Python too!

• Astar module? I have it working in python, sure, but again, more integration means faster computations (compiled C++ vs. python...) It's a pretty easy thing. You guys even have a "node" editor built into some modules, so laying custom paths down would probably be easy, even for 1.0. Pre-generated pathing nodes would be a must too (and would probably be a lot faster in C than again, Python). Not that python is dog slow, it's pretty quick, but more speed is more speed! *grunt, grunt*

• Speaking of Astar, that's probably too low level anyway. Why not just go for sky blue and do AI actors? It's a pretty important part of a game, these days.

Hm, I guess this is more of a 1.0 wishlist than a 2.0 one. Most of this stuff I could see be attainable for 1.0, or well, should be anyway.

Like I said, I'm new still. Can't think outside the box yet =)

More efficient data structures (arrays, lists etc.), working with the Array or Hash objects is a pain.

-Better tiling. Creating level 8000x6000 with a lot of various densely tiled decorative sprites is very tediously. It would be nice to be here tile editor like in GameMaker or RPG Maker

-Export/import objects, sheets and layouts. Should be very usefull.

-Unicode support.

-Gamepads support (if it will not be released in 1.0)

-Animation preview

-Better 'save/load to disk' function, which will support all "third-party" plugins

Hope it's clear to understand my sentences and my english

Oh yes, based on the above users suggestion, I forgot to say in mine....

Import/Export of layouts/sheets is extremely important in a team environment.

Merging caps would be another godsend.

zooming out of event sheets

its really often i find myself annoyed having to scroll around looking for things when i could just zoom out and pinpoint something right away, i waste alot of time just moving up and down through large groups that i need open alot. groups are handy but zooming out would be quite nice. (ctrl+wheel)

a rotatepoint"X/Y/Z"(yaw,pitch,roll,originx,originy) system expression, would be nice, to make adding minimal 3d faster computationally and event wise, and also a lot more accessible to users, actually this could probably be easily added right now.

a "expression shorthand" mode, which would make writing expressions faster and easier for experienced users, supplementing things like .angle with .a, .zelevation with .z, sin and cos and tan with s,c,t, making writing pv's consist of putting [bla] or {bla}, or something similar instead of ('bla'), replacing system expressions like angle and distance with AN and D, a whole bunch of things of that sort. Thats a feature id like to see in construct really bad, i always find myself naming sprites things like P or A2, so that i can write them faster and have smaller expressions length wise, extending that to things i use in almost every expression but cant choose like .angle, .zelevation, distance, sin cos etc would really be nice imo, maybe even an option to set these to whatever you wish for any object, so that you can be familiar with your own work environment, and adjust things for any plugin or anything that extends into the expression editor somehow like behaviours, effects, you get the point.

also a setting to enable coloring the contents of different brackets different colours like (10+(agfa)*(blah)*ag) to oraganise expressions and see bracket errors better

ability to add custom system expressions

ability to build "behaviours" which you can save and reuse, using events that can be applied to objects/groups of objects.

ie you make a block of code that uses sprite1 and sprite2 and MOUSEKEYB1 and canvas1 in it, and then you can add that in as an event block, when added in it prompts you which objects to use, and youll need to give it 2 sprites, 1 mouseandkeyboard and 1 canvas for it to work, but they dont have to be sprite1, sprite2, MOUSEKEYB1 or canvas1, they can be whatever object of wtv plugin is required, even extending the ability so that you can use custom plugins in your event block (behaviours, effects etc referenced as being needed on certain plugin objects in the block will also need to be applied to there said partner in the block, if not applied, prompted to add them, aaaand another optional request prompt asking if youd like the settings saved with the original event blocks objects for any and everything to be added/changed to what they were for the original on that object), with some form of commenting and grouping saved into the eventblock file so that you can tip on how its used and if original properties are required, so that people who use it can know what to do.

these event blocks would be saved as some file-type and then you could share them as reusable code for anyone to use here online "mode7.evb" "IK.evb" "platformwithtriplejump.evb" "customspriteparticles.evb" "Spritetext.evb" etc. THIS would make construct and the forums an even more super awesome tool with so much extendability, and speed up work a really big amount for everyone, without necessarily needing to know C++. a new forum for sharing and a database for everyones .evb files could be created, making the community behind construct a driving force in its accessibility and feature set. oh yea, container and family properties would need to be attached as well, pretty much everything would for it to work perfectly, but it'd be so great and really worth the work IMO.

well those are all the good ideas i can think of off the bat at least

-Better tiling. Creating level 8000x6000 with a lot of various densely tiled decorative sprites is very tediously. It would be nice to be here tile editor like in GameMaker or RPG Maker

I second this. Making detailed sidescrolling maps is just too time-consuming with the current system.

• No ribbon

• Object bar that remembers settings (the way you have it sorted, small/large icons etc.)

• When you right click on an object it would be handy if it had the "rename" thing on the menu. It's annoying when you need to rename a lot of objects at the moment, as you have to click on the object then go to the left and open "common" etc. for each object.

• 3DSphere Object for making nice 360 panoramas

Android export.

Anyway, Android supports OpenGL ES 2.0 (from 2.0 and above) instead of standard OpenGL, and I don't know if it's possible, but I know OpenGL ES and OpenGL doesn't change very much at all. So, if Construct 2 will support OpenGL rendering, that will be possible only if the Android exporter compiles the project in Java format (.APK for Android), and that's surely not easy to do.

I suppose that, to do an exporter for Android, there will be the need of using the Android SDK, which requires some time and much work.

But, if an Android export will be done the right way, even paying for it, it will be a planetary success and an EPIC WIN.

hmm..

-networking games

-better map editor

-yea, the ribbon could go..

-better python support

-custom classes yay.

-a web browser plugin to play construct games? idk.. i think export to flash would be pretty hard, so amybe this for browser gaming.

-opengl

I'd like to see more in depth access to the XAudio2 object and better control over sound data, as well as the use of filters and DSP effects etc to create more dynamic sound systems.

-Better tiling. Creating level 8000x6000 with a lot of various densely tiled decorative sprites is very tediously. It would be nice to be here tile editor like in GameMaker or RPG Maker

I agree that this is good, but I would like it to be a selected mode of object placement (eg: Free/2D Tile/Isometric Tile/Hexagonal) as both placement modes of Construct and GameMaker have their pro's and con's.

Here is my list of ideas:

It would be nice if Construct 2 started with a 3D engine at the core, and the 2D was built on top of it (eg: All objects have the same Z position). This would make it easier for the community to extend the 3D side of it through plugins/accessing the source.

An implementation of a network library would be really cool, but if it messes with the licensing then it would still be awesome to just have basic interent packet sending/recieving stuff.

It's always tricky working with the animations, I would really like a system closer to the way The Games Factory handles it where it shows a popup with the list of animations, the current selected frame, the angles of the animation, and the frames below (however, instead of just pre-defined animations, there should still be an ability to add new ones). I wish I could also mention some improvements for the sub animations, but currently I have no idea how to get them to work in the first place.

The layout of Construct in general is good in my opinion, but I can see why people coming from RPG Maker and Game Maker don't like it. The ability to choose your layout style would be nice, but if it comes down to a choice between the two, I vote heavily on keeping it as-is.

In terms of 3D features, A 3D shape object instead of just a 3D box would be nice, (eg: Sphere/Cylinder/Box/Pyramid). Something even greater would be basic 3D collision detection for them, since they can then be used as collision boxes for imported 3D models. However, the current implementation of 3D models would be a perfect start for Construct 2 if it also supported animation (the other stuff can come later through community plugins, etc).

Multiplatform at runtime is definitely on the wish-list, but it would be better if the community can make the exporters for other systems rather than them being pre-set (eg: Construct tells the default renderer to draw a sprite, but the renderer module itself handles the OpenGL/Direct X code, meaning Construct itself can be a solid code that doesn't need to change for the different rendering api's). For Construct 2 itself, if it works in Windows (and Linux through Wine) then that would be fine too (If I remember correctly, Mac has some methods of running Windows programs now?).[/code:24phqhny]

Anyway, thats all I can think of at the moment, most of it is pretty "in the next 5 years" requests, but it's nice to dream right?

Improved shader based motion blur technique that doesn't hammer performance like construct's current method.

Event search filtering - a search box that when typed into, hides all events in the event sheet editor except the ones pertaining to what was typed in, like the windows search box. So you could type something like "sprite rotate" and it would only show events that have actions/conditions/expressions containing all of the words.

Set text size, font and icon size in the event sheet editor.

Exporters to mac, linux, XNA, PSN, Wiiware, DSiware, iphone, android, web.

Like Quazi said, full 3d camera and sprite position/angle control - I don't want construct to try to become a full 3D game creator, but I think there's a lot of possibilities if we had full control of the angle and position of the camera and sprites. It's a lot easier to move the camera through a world with multiple 3D objects than it is to correctly position multiple 3D objects around a camera properly. Basically the camera as it is is pointed straight out towards the horizon, so even making something simple like a 45� looking at a 3D world is made far more difficult than simply setting the camera angle. If we had the ability to do that with the camera, we would need to be able to aim the sprites at the camera as well.

Behaviors able to work on per-layer basis - so they could be set to collide only with objects on their own layer.

Real time compiling - I'm not sure this is possible, but it seems like it might be. The graphics I don't expect to be able to be compiled in real time, but would it be possible for events to be? I'm not exactly sure what happens on export, but if upon editing the event sheet, it simultaneously edited the compiled event sheet, then no matter the number of events, they would have no affect on the amount of time to preview. That sounds cool to me!

Better vram control - I have a lot of animations in my game, but most of the time I'm not using a lot of them. Some of them only get used once in the entire game. I would love to be able to set a sprite to 'manual mode' where I could tell it specifically what animations to load. As it is to get around vram issues, I'm having to create new objects and swap them in, toggling the visibility. It's very clumsy.

Gamepad support

Instead of Quazi's idea about 'expression shorthand', what if there was intellisense for commands and object names, same way there is for variables? So you would press 's' then a menu with sprite highlighted would appear, then press enter, then press '.a' and a menu with angle highlighted would appear. I second that request as well.

Alspal: not sure if you know this, but you can hide the ribbon by right clicking on it.

Shinkan: you can use the 3D object to import a sphere.