If you're really interested, you could join the prerelease testing program and see for yourself. It's open to anyone who wants to be a part of it. While there are still some caveats and limitations, the editor is already mostly functional at this point.
Believe me, I have thought about it, long and hard. I was ready to beg, bribe, and even offer my first born for a chance to work with an even barely functional base editor again, let alone a mostly functional one...
But sadly, my time is very limited these days. I wouldn't be able to do a proper job of helping with the testing right now, and all I would really be doing is looking for "early access to new shineys", as you put it somewhere (sorry, I remember the quote, but not where I saw it exactly), and that wouldn't be right in my book. I have done a lot of Beta Testing of games (in fact, I was one of the BTers for CoH) and when I commit to something like that, I take it quite seriously. And I simply can't do it properly right now.
Plus, I used to sometimes spend series of 18 to 20 hour sessions editing bases. If I could suddenly edit bases again right now, especially after the years of withdrawal, I would probably stop sleeping and miss several days of work... Non-good things would soon follow for me. I don't think I would take well to homelessness and no internets...
It is tempting, (you really can't even begin to understand how much so), but for now, I must stay away. For my own good, and my sense of integrity.
If there is any other less time-consuming way I can help, please let me know. I am pretty sure I worked on and owned more bases than just about anyone else in the game (every toon, on every server, on three accounts was in a different SG, and I was the base editor or owner for all of them, and that isn't counting the nearly 200 or so bases I built, sold, traded, or was hired to make for others). Yes, I actually paid monthly for multiple accounts just so I could have more bases. I am not bragging. I am unwell, and probably need professional help. But I digress... where was I? Oh yeah, helping out...
For example, if you want to stress test the editor you are working on, I can send you a demo of one of my bases that used to really strain the in-game editor, so much so I never got to finish it. Or if you want suggestions, I think I still have copies of some of the multi-page suggestion posts and messages I used to send the devs regarding improvements, issues, and simple QoL changes that they could make to the editor. I even suggested ways they could monetize the base editing system. And mostly they were practical suggestions, things like interface changes, displaying X,Y,Z and rotation degree numbers - not just the standard "we need moving NPCs, running water, ICON and market interface stations" most basers in the suggestion forums would make. Though I'm not a programmer, I think I know the difference between realistic helpful suggestions, and "would be nice", "not worth the effort", and "probably never going to happen" suggestions. I'm sure a lot of the points I made in the past are beyond the scope of your project - I think you are seeking to make editing simply work as a priority, not change things to fill wish lists - but there may be a few nuggets of helpfulness in there. If I can find them, of course. You guys could probably re-write the entire editor from scratch before I could find any specific copy of a base suggestion post written years ago, tucked away in nearly 2 TBs of poorly labeled text files. Besides being unwell, I am poorly organized... But I am digressing again...
I may have some time to be of proper, more direct help in mid/late September. With my luck, by the time I have a chance to help, it will be too late and you will have already finished your work on it. But I will always be willing to help in any way I can with the time I can spare...
-WarBase-
He who likes playing with early shineys... but must also live with his (stupidly honest) conscience...