Much of the editor is very familiar. There were some significant differences, however.
When painting terrain features like trees, you can now take advantage of the different sizes of "brush" and paint large areas in a single click. There is a selector for overwriting terrain already placed or mixing the new with the old. I was able to make some thick, mixed species forests in two passes of the mouse. In addition, if you place some trees or rocks and then click again, the objects rearrange themselves into a different configuration within the brush area.
The events menu will remove the need to hide monsters in tunnels with a fire blocking a teleporter as it handles spawning reinforcements or wandering monsters (among other things). Events (which range from text messages to resource additions and auto-killing specified units, and a lot more) are controlled through pull down menus that are very easy to get the hang of (which is good, as there will be almost no documentation for the editor). The down side is that every event will have to be assembled, no more just grabbing a text bubble.
There are no more timed "obstacles" like fires, which is annoying. One new "terrain feature" is the AI block (depicted by the letters 'AI' covered by the red slash and circle). This prevents an AI controlled unit from moving into that hex until a player has moved through first.
I'm not happy with the way the shield indicating alignment is positioned on some of the units. In some cases it ends up over the face of the unit, making the Dread Reaper look like it has a shield for a head under its cowl. If I'm not mistaken, the Glutton is wearing the shield in the middle of its forehead.
I have some issues with how AoW2 plays out, but I must say that the editor looks pretty good.
After not finding him for several hours, I managed to cross paths with Angel Draco and spend some time chatting. Nice to meet some of the gang in person.
-Agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
The Alex Mars AoW2/SM Map Collection
The Alex Mars AoW1 Map Collection
Slouching Towards Apocalypse: The Soulclaw Saga, an AoW SM Campaign