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Room Editor

The Room Editor is reached by selecting a room in the Editor screen. You can use it to edit any room in the game's data file.

The Room Editor displays a view of the selected room roughly as it would be seen in the game.

Selecting Objects for Placement - A tabbed menu of game objects is shown on the left side of the screen. The objects in DROD are divided into four categories, also called layers:

  1. room pieces: what the room is made from (such as walls, doors, pits, etc.)
  2. floor controls: force arrows and ortho-squares, checkpoints, tile lighting, and level entrance points
  3. items: what goes in a room, such as orbs, scrolls, potions, tar, etc.
    4. and
  4. monsters, allies and custom character scripts

Select a tab to display that object category. Click on an item in the menu to select it for placement. Many menu items have two or more modes, which may be selected by rotating the tile with the Q/W keys (default), the mouse wheel, or clicking on the menu item again while already selected. Items with several types have a pop-up menu that appears when the item is clicked on again.

Placing Objects - Left-click on a square in the room to place the currently selected item there. Items cannot be placed on a square if something already exists there on the same layer as the object being placed. To delete placed objects, see "Deleting Objects" below. When an item can't or shouldn't be placed on a square, it will be shaded red to indicate a new object won't be placed there.

Setting Object Orientation - The orientation of certain objects is significant (e.g., force arrows, monsters, and the player's starting position). Use the rotation keys or the mouse wheel to rotate the way objects get placed. The "Roach" icon on the monster menu tab is updated to indicate which way placed monsters will be oriented. While holding down the left mouse button to place an object, its orientation can be changed until the mouse button is released. When certain customizable objects are selected, using the rotation keys or mouse wheel will select the item's mode.

Placing Multiple Objects - Dragging the mouse with the left button down will fill the highlighted region with the selected object on all open squares. Hint: Scenery objects larger than 1x1 tile may be placed this way. Some items, such as scrolls, are intended to be placed only one at a time. For these items, placing more than one at a time is disabled.

Deleting Objects - Right-clicking on a square will delete any object on that square from the currently selected menu layer. Dragging a region with the right mouse button down will delete all objects of that layer in the selected area. Exceptions are checkpoints and individual tile lighting. These may be placed concurrently with other items on their menu tab, so must be explicitly selected in order to delete them. Hold <Shift> while deleting to erase objects from all room layers in the selected region together.

Moving large regions - To make a duplicate copy of a room region, drag the mouse to highlight a rectangular area and press <Ctrl-C> while the mouse button is down to mark the region to be copied. The region marked for copying stays chosen until a new region is marked or you begin editing a different room. Press <Ctrl-V> at any time to re-copy the marked region. Click on a square to paste a copy of that region, the clicked square being the top-left corner. You may use this operation to paste a copied room region into another room.

Reflecting the room - Press <F7> to reflect the room horizontally (about the vertical axis) and <F8> to reflect the room vertically. All object looks and behaviors are likewise updated to match.

Undo/Redo - Click the "Undo" button or <Ctrl-Z> to undo changes you've made to the room during this session (since selecting the room for editing). Press "Redo" or <Ctrl-Y> to redo changes that have been undone. Note that undone commands cannot be redone once you starting making other changes to the room.

Editor Settings - Enabling the "Show Errors" checkbox will highlight objects in the room that have an improper or questionable placement (see Room Errors below). Uncheck "Save room automatically" on the Player Settings Screen if you want the editor to prompt you before saving any changes you have made to a room. When the room is saved, if the active player profile is not the author of the room's hold, you will be prompted to make a copy of the hold that your player profile may edit before any room changes are saved.

Playtesting - You can test the current room by hitting F5, then clicking on the room position where you want to begin play. During playtesting, you may hit the Undo key (<Backspace> by default) to undo moves at any time. Playtesting continues until <Escape> is pressed.

Choosing a Room from the Minimap - Click on the level map to select any room in the selected level. You can also click on an empty area adjacent to an existing room to add a new room to the level at that location. Hit <Ctrl-X> to cut and <Ctrl-C> to copy the current room. Hit <Ctrl-V> to paste the marked room to the currently selected spot on the map. Hit the <delete> key to permanently erase a room from the game.

Switching to another level - Press the PageDown and PageUp keys to exit the current room you are working on and go to the next and previous level entrances, respectively.

Customizing and Special Objects - Several items can be customized to look or act a certain way. Customizable objects are the following:

  1. Characters. Special NPC scripts can be defined to look or act a certain way.
  2. Orbs. Click on an orb to view which room objects it affects. Yellow gates, force arrows and lights may be affected. Lightning bolts will flash from the orb to all objects it is defined to act on. Objects highlighted green will be opened/enabled when the orb is struck, objects highlighted orange will be toggled, and objects highlighted red will be closed/disabled. Clicking on an applicable object while in orb editing mode will change the effect the orb has on this object. Clicking on a tile without an orb or affected object will exit orb editing mode. Rotate or click on the orb menu selection again to change the orb type.
  3. Pressure plates. As orbs, except they are activated when depressed. Also, they may be placed as a connected component larger than a single room tile. Rotate or click the pressure plate menu selection again to change the type of pressure plate.
  4. Yellow gates. Click on a yellow gate to view which orbs and pressure plates affect it. Lightning bolts will flash from the gate to all objects acting on it. Clicking on an orb or pressure plate while in door editing mode will change the effect the object has on the selected gate. The color coding scheme is the same as for orb/plate customization. Clicking on a tile without an orb, pressure plate or yellow gate will exit door editing mode.
  5. Level entrances. Each level can be entered at any number of user-definable locations. When placing a new entrance, specify what text the player will see when they enter the level at that point. You may optionally add voiceover audio to play along with the text. Level entrance text may be disabled to avoid switching to the level entrance screen when coming to a level entrance. Also, you may select to have the level entrance screen for this entrance to be displayed only once during a campaign. Click on the entrance again to revise any of these parameters or to reorient the direction the player faces when entering the level here, or to mark this entrance as the main entrance to the level. The main level entrance designates its room as the level's Entrance room, or the relative origin from which all other rooms locations in the level are measured. Click and drag a level entrance with the mouse to reposition it elsewhere in the room without changing other parameters.
  6. Stairs. After placing stairs, a dialog box will appear with the list of all level entrances with their text descriptions, along with any world maps. Select one of these to designate where the player goes from this staircase. Selecting "End hold" means the player will finish the hold on using these stairs. The destination level can be changed at any time by clicking on the staircase again. Hint: use pairs of stairways and adjacent level entrances to make two-way staircases.
  7. Serpents and gentryii. Serpents are placed a piece at a time, starting from the head. Once you start placing a serpent, click on a room square to mark a turn in its body. Continue placing segments by clicking to lay down each new piece of the serpent. Pieces that have already been placed can be removed by clicking on part of the last segment placed. To finish placing the monster, click twice on the same spot. A serpent must be at least two squares long; gentryii do not have this restriction. Click on any previously placed serpent or gentryii to modify it.
  8. Halph/Slayer. These are special story-based characters, and placing only one of each at a time in the middle of the room is enforced. However, as many of these as desired may be placed along the room edge. The room edge will be highlighted, indicating that if the player enters the room on this tile, this character will follow the player into the room five turns later. If the edge tile is not vacant when entrance is attempted, it is attempted on subsequent turns that are multiples of five.
  9. Light sources. Click light sources after placement to change their color to the currently selected light color. If their light color already matches the current color selection, clicking lights will increase their light intensity and radius by a tile, up to a maximum of eight tiles. Shift-click lights to decrease their intensity and range.
  10. Custom room textures. Multiple stock floor textures are included with each room style. Their difference is purely cosmetic. In addition, you may add your own custom image textures for floors, walls, and pits by selecting the respective tile on the object menu. When first placing a custom texture tile in a room, you will be prompted to import an image file into your hold from disk. Custom texture images should typically be a multiple of the room tile size, which is 22x22 pixels. Textures will automatically repeat if you designate a room area larger than the image. Only JPEG and PNG images are supported for import. Transparency is supported for custom floor, wall and overhead textures. Once one or more images have been imported into your hold, you may select from these for display in any room in the hold. Only one image can be selected as a custom floor/wall/pit texture for each room. Press F9 to change the image selected for a room and its origin tile (i.e. the location the image starts tiling from). The origin tile can also be modified dynamically via predefined script vars during play.
  11. Overhead textures. You may select an alternate image in each room for use as an overhead texture. Judicious use of overhead textures can add a greater feeling of depth to a room. Tiles selected for overhead image display will be tinted blue in the room editor. Press Shift-F9 to select a different image and modify the origin of a room's overhead image. The origin tile can also be modified dynamically via predefined script vars during play.
  12. Scenery obstacles. Scenery obstacles can appear in a variety of different shapes and sizes. You can switch between different types of obstacles with the rotate keys or clicking the scenery menu option again while selected. If you place scenery obstacles by highlighting an area rather than square by square, then the largest possible obstacle of the current type will be placed. The following is a list of all possible object types and sizes:
    Type1x12x23x34x45x5other
    rock 1XXX
    rock 2XXX
    plant 1XX
    plant 2XX
    dwelling 1XXX
    dwelling 2XXX
    pile o' skulls 1XX
    pile o' skulls 2XX
    goblin statueXXX
    empire statueXXX
    deskXX
    bookshelfX2x1
    chair NX
    chair EX
    chair SX
    chair WX
    book on pedestalX
    treasure chestX
    tombstone 1X
    tombstone 2X
    ubiquitous crateX
    tableXXX
    table w/ runnerXX
    clockweightXX
    hutXX
    cauldronXX
    bedX1x2
    signpostX
    barrelX
    pipeX3x1
    couchX2x1
    washbasinX
  13. Tokens. Architectural tokens may be placed on the item layer to add persistent room effects when touched by the player or a double (with some exceptions, noted below). Rotate or click the token while selected on the object menu to select a different type of token for placement.

Hold complete walls - A special wall tile that becomes transparent and passable to the player once the player has conquered the hold.

Master walls - Another special type of wall tile that becomes transparent and passable to the player once the player has mastered the hold (i.e. exited the hold and conquered every secret room in the hold at least once). Hint: use these to provide access to bonus rooms that the player may only enter once they've mastered the hold.

Room Errors - Errors highlighted in the room include the following:

  1. Matching room edges. Room edge squares are highlighted blue if they don't match the squares of an adjacent room. An open square will be highlighted if there is an obstacle (or no room) on the other side, for instance.
  2. Orbs. Orbs generally affect yellow gates, force arrows or lights. Orbs that don't affect any gates are marked orange.
  3. Gates. Yellow gates that don't have any orbs or pressure plates affecting them are marked orange. Red gates in a room without trapdoors are highlighted. Green gates in a room without any monsters are highlighted. Black gates in rooms without any tarstuff are highlighted.
  4. Stairs. Stairs that exit the hold are highlighted, not as an error but as a helpful reminder.
  5. Strange placement. If an object is put in a location that might not allow it to be used correctly, it will be marked red. Examples of this are placing scrolls or potions on walls where the player can't get to them.

Misc. Notes -

  1. Here are some notes on good room design.
  2. Click and drag scrolls, characters, and level entrances to reposition and reorient them in the room.
  3. Press PageUp and PageDown to switch to editing the next and previous levels in the hold.
  4. Tarstuff can be kept off of walls by holding the Shift key when placing.
  5. After modifying a room, realize that demos and saved games recorded previously in that room might no longer be valid.

Editor key command reference -

These keyboard commands can be changed from the Player Settings Screen.

Press <Escape> to return to the main editor screen.

Level Editor
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