This is a small guide to help with knowing and understanding the Editor screen a little better. Currently is a little rough and WIP, will be cleaning it up and adding more pictures soon*.

The red area at the start is the opening area and nothing can be placed there.

The Blue cross-bar is the Stage-End marker, it will be moved up as you place objects, and should always be placed after the last boss. It doesn't have to be placed at the very end of the screen, the mission will automatically end after the last boss is defeated.

The Red cross-bar is the Speed-Boost marker, once the player crosses this line the ship will move much faster. Placing it near the start of the mission can make many missions incredible difficult.

When placing objects know that many of the ships can and will move, so the screen can become much more cluttered than intended. Play-testing is the best way to learn how different ships will behave and how to properly space objects for your intended effect.

Clicking the '?' in the top right corner of the left side of the screen will bring up the help window which contain several helpful functions.

A few things not covered by the help window.
1) Left clicking on a cycle-able button will cycle it forward and right clicking will cycle backwards.

The right side of the editor window contains several buttons, from top to bottom they are;

1) Map Name. Click this button and you can change the name of your map, names can be up to 10 characters.

2) BG Style. This button will cycle through the 13 available backgrounds.

3) Grid. Cycles through various grid sizes including Off > 640> 320 > 160 > 80 This will help to align objects.

4) Show UI. Toggles several editor buttons on/off. Things not toggled off are The show UI button and log on the right side, the toggle boxes and formation paint buttons on the right side and the mini-map in the center.

5) BGM. Changes the maps BackGround Music.

6) Save Stage [0]. The number in brackets is the amount of changes made since the last save.

7) Play. to Play-test your changes.

8) Quit. Will turn red if there are unsaved changes.

9) Log. While not a button the log will sit in the space below the quit button if it is turned on. The log time-stamps every change and can be scrolled by hovering the cursor over it and scrolling with the mouse wheel.

Update 1.2 introduced a new Ground Speed option that allows you to increase speed to 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0. Will update the guide for this.

The left side of the window contains several options and has the ship selector, from top to bottom they are;

1) Group cycle - Cycles through different groups of objects including, Filter Off, Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Elite, Ground, Midair, Boss, Power-ups, and Details. Class # options are normal enemy's where Class 1 are the weakest and Class 3 are the strongest. Details are pretties like trees, lakes or roads.

2) Help window toggle - to the right of the group cycle is a small '?' button which will bring up the help window.

3) Currently selected ship and information - Shows the information about the currently selected ship including its name, group and combat stats. Use the mouse wheel or the blue up/down arrows to cycle through objects.

3a) Formation Paint - On the right side of the object image are 3 buttons to select how many of the ship you wish to drop into the editor, one, two or three. This selection will also affect how many objects are created when copying objects.

4) Objects - Shows Current/Max placeable objects. While the max is 400 a map with 200 enemy units is plenty, use the last for detail objects to make your map stand out.

5) Display options box 1 - This box has 4 toggles;
5a) Log - Toggles the log on/off in the bottom right corner of the screen.
5b) ID - Shows the relative ID of placed objects. The first object you place will have the ID of "1) XX" where 'XX' is the objects position in the ship select window.
5c) Grid - Toggles a white box around placed objects. Can make it easier to see objects when your map is filled.
5d) X/Y - Toggles the X/Y coords on each placed object.

6) Display options box 2 - This box has 9 toggles;
6a) Clouds - Toggles light clouds throughout the map.
6b) Fog - Toggles heavy fog effect at the start of the map.
6c) Squad - Toggles weather the mission starts with a small squad of fighters.
6d) Smoke - Toggles a smog effect.
6e) Snow - Toggles a snow storm effect.
6f) Sand - Toggles a sand storm effect.
6g) Shadow - No visible effect in editor or mission.
6h) Noise - No visible effect in editor or mission.
6i) Vignette - Toggles edge shadow on left and right side of map.

7) Mini-map - Just to the right of the Display options boxes. Hovering the cursor will let you scan through the map, clicking it will quick jump to that location.

The center section is where all objects are placed and effects appear. Image is with ID, Grid, X/Y, Clouds and Sand options on using Grid 80.

1) Holding Left click will let you move a selected object around. Holding Alt before clicking will allow copying objects.
2) Right clicking an object will remove it from the map.

Currently if multiple objects are stacked on each other you can only grab the largest/last object placed in the stack. This is only really an issue when working with Midair or Detail group objects as many of them are very large and you will not be able to easily reposition objects placed on them. Since turrets no-longer self-remove after a few seconds this is a very minor inconvenience.

If you have never used a stage editor, or done any modding in general, modding may seem like a pretty complex undertaking. Polarity Flow has made their editor very user friendly and is easy to pick up and use.

Here are a few tips for making your own map:
1) Enemy density - An easy mistake is to spread foes to far apart, or to pack them to tightly. If you set the grid to 80, you can assume it will take about 1 second for the screen to advance up 1 square, you can get a general sense of timing when each enemy will appear. Try to keep them spread out enough that there is always a new foe entering the screen, but spaced enough that there is time to kill things, even in mission 8-3 there is rarely more than about 10 enemy's on screen at once. I try to make my maps on the hard side, for higher level/upgraded ships, 200 enemy's is normally plenty for most maps, try to leave about 100-200 for detail objects.

2) The first 4-5 squares above the red area (using grid 80) will be on screen as soon as the mission starts, try to put very little in this area, or if you do, try to keep it to easier foes or else players may be killed before even being able to start playing.

3) The speed bar can be seen as a difficulty multiplier, placing it early in the mission can make it so that most enemy's can't be killed before leaving the screen, or enemy's will be on screen much sooner than intended, which can create 'walls' (points where the screen is over-saturated with enemies and bullets that the player is incapable of avoiding damage) which have a high chance to kill the player ("the game cheated" type moments).

4) Variety - For most maps you don't want to use the same enemy over and over, it can create boring levels. See my own map, Endorence, for an example of lack of variety, it only uses 3 enemy types, but is still fun. Don't expect the G-FlackTank R to be where you placed it, they move a lot and may show up later than expected. This isn't a bug, it's just how the unit behaves, it can inject a randomness to your mission other units can't.

5) Power Ups - Try not to put a lot of power ups in the mission, unless you plan to use only high lvl enemy's, as putting even a few at the start can make a mission much easier.

6) Play-test - Lots and lots of play-testing. Test often to make sure the mission plays the way you intend it to. Moving a foe up or down a little, or deleting 1-2 can change the flow of the mission.

7) Detail objects - Details, like trees, water and rocks can add a uniqueness to your map and help it be more visually appealing. There are enough detail objects to make some very interesting backdrops for your maps. Placing details before foes can help you get a better mental picture of the map you intend to make, and it can be a lot of fun to play with the different details.