Scenario editor
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The Scenario Editor allows you to make your own levels in Empire Earth. You can do many things, such as create the map to play on, place units and buildings that you can't normally have in a normal game, and use 'Triggers' which can do things that would otherwise be impossible in normal games.
The great thing about the editor is that it's easy to use, and requires no coding at all, the trigger system plays that role in manipulating the game's many functions and effects.
Map Editing
Making a map is one of the easiest things to make. First, you click on the globe icon, and you can do one of two things.
You can make the map from scratch by putting in the size of the map you want (The maximum size is 400x400), or...
Have the game generate the map with the settings you want, which is similar to the settings you would put in to play a random game (size of map, map type, etc) You can also put in a 'seed' value, which will generate the exact level, however there are millions of seeds (meaning that you'll almost never play on the same map twice).
After your done, you may texture the land, raise and lower the elevation of the land (To make water, make the elevation a negative value), place units and buildings, assign teams, Add trees and other resources, and much more.
Triggers
The Trigger system is what manipulates the game, and almost every scenario has them. Many of the Multiplayer Scenarios use hundreds and sometimes thousands of triggers. Triggers may appear to look complicated, but it's easy once you learn the basics of a trigger.
There are five tabs in the trigger menu.
Triggers, Conditions, Effects, Objects, and Areas.
Triggers are what fires (or triggers, hence the name) what you have it set to fire (usually an Effect) if a condition is met or if 'Always True' is on.
Conditions are things that tell the Trigger to fire if certain requirements are met, the requirements can be many things, from getting a certain amount to resources to a unit dying, and much more.
Effects are actions referenced by triggers to do something in the game, such as killing a unit, placing a graphical effect on them, force the unit to change sides, change the stats, and give them stats that would normally be impossible to implement in a normal game (such as giving a priest gun armor),Making a message appear on the screen in many different ways, and even declare victory and defeat.
Objects are units, buildings, or resources that are referenced by the Object to be targeted by a trigger.
Areas are highlighted areas in a map that can cause a trigger to fire if something happens in the area (A unit walks on the area).
Making your first trigger will help you understand the system much better, an example is below.
In the triggers tab, make one trigger, and name it My First Trigger, then, go to the Area tab, and mark a part of the map, then make it Citizen Spawn, next, go to the Objects tab, and click on Object Specification, then click on the middle selection menu, and scroll until you see Citizen, name your Object Citizen Reference, and on your bottom left, click on the check mark that says 'In Area', then select your Citizen Spawn. Next, go to the Effects tab, and you should be at 'Create', just go to the Object selection menu, and click on Citizen Reference, name it 'Spawn me some cits Next, go to the Conditions tab and set it to 'If Player 1 (you)'s Current Pop is <=(Less then or Equal to) 20. Name it 'If I have less then 20 pop' Finally, go to the Trigger tab, then set the condition to If I have less then 20, then go below and set the effect to Spawn me some cits, It should say
'If I have less then 20 pop
Then Spawn me some cits '
Make sure you checked Looping, so it won't ever stop.
Test the game, if done correctly, you should start seeing citizens pop out of nowhere, where you placed your area.
Congratulations, you just made your first trigger, using all the tabs!
Your next step is to experiment on the different effects and conditions to see the result.
