Need an IDE
 

The more I delve into this game, particularly going back to code I haven't touched in a while, the more I really want some sort of IDE that can keep track of what items have been used, and where. I know... as a programmer, I should make my own... I keep getting hung up on all of the extra things I want to do with it.

The IDE in question is for programmers who develop programs.

What you are looking for to create your own game system is to use the HL Authoring Kit. The Authoring Kit is what offers you the ability to create your own game system from scratch. In order to do so, you'd need to use a text editor like:

• Notepad
• Notepad++
• And other known options

You are able to access the .dat, .str and other file extensions within your newly created game system using just the text editor. However, as you keep track, having a Word Processor document to keep track of all your changes is helpful.

An IDE isn't the best way to keep track of building a game system within a program that's already programmed. It's more for software development.

:) I use Notepad++, but sometimes, it would be really helpful to be able to keep track of Components, Component Sets, etc, not to mention being able to easily keep all of the files for one project in the same place without making it so I can't use Notepad++ for any other text files.

I've been using VSCode (https://code.visualstudio.com/) as my text-editor of choice for a while now. I'm trying to get back into making custom stuff in HLC though...

It has a lot of really nice features... like Dark Mode/Theme-ing/Skinning (if you care about that), Plugins and extensions, and also source control integration.