This is a small guide to help with knowing and understanding the Editor screen a little better.

The red area at the start is the opening area, you can not place anything there.

The large ball of light is the Stage-End marker, it will appear once you place an object. It will move back as more objects are placed.

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.

The Editor menu shows the current 10 maps you have saved.

To open a map, click the map you want to edit and then click the Editor button in the bottom right or double click the map.

The Import button is for importing a map file saved on your computer.

To share a map on the Steam Workshop, click it once and click the share buttom in the bottom right. This opens a new screen with a giant share button, below that is a Public/Friends/Private button to select the maps visability in the workshop. There is also an export button to export the map as a shareable ini file instead of posting it to the workshop.

To load a map from the workshop click on an empty map slot and click the Downloads button to go to a screen with all your downloaded maps. The download page will store 100 workshop maps you have downloaded.

To exit back to the main menu click the back button or press Esc.

The top of the window contains several options and has the enemy selector, from top-left to right they are;

1) Help window toggle - In the top left cornor is a small '?' button which will bring up the help dialog. Holding the fire button (mouse 1) will write the text faster, click once when text is written to close the dialog.

2) 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.

3) Group cycle - Cycles through different groups of objects including, All, Neon, Ogron, MecTec, Granar, Mercs, Unidentified, Boss, and Power-ups.

4) Layers - Cycle background layers. Buttons 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 control each of the five background elements while buttons 3, 5 and 7 control lighting effects on the different elements. Layer 3 lights layer 2, layer 5 lights layer 4 and layer 7 lights layer 6. Left click to cycle forward, right click to cycle backwards, middle click to lock a layer so it won't be changed if you click random.

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

1) BGM. Changes the maps BackGround Music.

2) Lighting effect. Changes the maps color tint.

3) Display options box - This box has 6 toggles;
3a) Clouds - Toggles light clouds throughout the map.
3b) Light - Toggles night-time with ships spotlight on.
3h) Noise - No visible effect in editor or mission.
3d) Rain - Toggles a rain effect. Only one weather effect can be used at a time.
3e) Snow - Toggles a snow storm effect. Only one weather effect can be used at a time.
3f) Dust - Toggles a sand storm effect. Only one weather effect can be used at a time.

4) Quit. Exit current map. Will ask if you want to discard any unsaved changes if present when clicked. Can also click Esc.

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

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

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

7) Play. To Play-test your changes.

7) Mini-map - At the bottom center of the screen. Hovering the cursor will let you scan through the map, clicking it will quick jump to that location.

9) Log. While not a button the log will sit in the bottom right corner. The log time-stamps every change and can be scrolled by hovering the cursor over it and scrolling with the mouse wheel.

The center section is where all objects are placed and effects appear. Objects can not be placed in the red area around the player ship marker. Image is with Light and Rain options on using Grid 160.

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.
3) Move the cursor over the sets of arrows on the left of right side to pan in that direction.
4) Objects can be placed as high or low as you want, they are not restricted to the area pictured.