This post was originally made in another thread, it was made into it's own thread so people could find it easier, and not flood the thread with this topic too much. Thanks for bibendus recommending to move the post, and to Greythepirate for finding the origonal post of the recording.
thanks, a-lot of this information needs to get out to as many modders as possible, we cling (a little to hard at times) to any behind the scenes information that blizzard happens to reveal, and blizzcon is one of the big events we look forward to each year to get our updates, and any more information to dissect and discuss.
note/warning - this summary does not embody the entire discussion and is a very broad and general interpretation of the conversation that does not include all of the points made in detail. It is an early inturpritation I wanted to get out to the community before a more fully fleshed out more and accurate summary is posted by others. (parenthesis represent my own little snarky commentary or clarification on my summary)
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(now that the disclosure is out of the way) So a summary of what I got from that, since the launch of heart of the swarm, 5 million unique users have played the arcade, and every week 35% of the players who load up starcraft go to the arcade. basically, modding is a very relevant thing to starcraft (for some of us, that is actually news we needed a few years ago), and while not as active as the start, is no where near from dead. Unfortunately (for some unknown reason...) they have not been able to share those numbers with us until now. Their most recant promotions of maps have been successfully giving them more exposure and people have been playing whatever is featured more, (despite the lack of reviews I guess?? (we need more info!)).
They mentioned a lot about the blizzard supported marketplace, and apologized for taking so long to clarify this (cuz they durped Hard letting people hang on that... :| ), but basically behind all the talk was (in my own words) "we don't know the details, but we really want to do it.", The idea is still out on the table, but they still have yet to flesh out all of the details, and when (or if) they start experimenting, they will tread lightly to test the waters. They do not anticipate an "app store" type thing, and would work with specific people with really good games, any monitization they would be involved in setting up. They in short want to reward us for great content, and give us more rewards and recognition, and ANOTHER rock the cabinet contest with a specific theme. (it is still highly advisable to map for fun, passion, and personal enlightenment...)
Server side banks has been heard, and is being brought up, but they first want to hear what we would use any new feature for before just implementing something that we might not have wanted. They also want to do a lot more documentation and they need our help to document the editor. That does not necessarily mean we would be writing the documentation ourselves, but even an interview would be much appreciated over something like skype. They want videos, maps that show how to do things, the whole lot, and need our help to see how far they can take this idea. (they can start the project using our wiki if they would like ;) )
As of late they have been attempting to empower their community people a bit more and go up the chain of command when they need help with a question or something, and are attempting to become more involved with talking with the modding community. OH AND AND, warcraft 3 models are going to be in the lotv expantion available for modders to play with, and since the heroes of the storm works off of the same engine, most of the models from that game will be available as well for us to use. (as an asset pack, I believe they are working with the asset pack here on sc2mapster and could release it next year in its entirety) But there is some sort of PTR in really really late January they want to do with that I believe. < (leaked stuff apparently.)
Also, any plans of the arcade being separated from the starcraft client entirely have not been made, and will most likely never happen. (no surprise personally, that's a big ass project) one other thing they said they would not be supporting is games like fps shooters, it would take too much work on the engine itself.
----------------------------------
In closing - Hope that information is accurate enough and my snarky comments don't take away from the accuracy, but at least entertain (and sharpen the pointy stick of truth). You can listen to it yourself on the website, a summary from our wonderful Traysent blizz community manager would still be much appreciated, I am sure that there was more talked about outside of this, and the transcript from the wonderful EpicinsanityFN will help those who for the life of them cannot understand the recording.
I also got the feeling like, there had to be more questions, more important information said off on the side, because there are so many more burning questions that the community as a whole has wondered, and wants clarification upon. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciated them starting to take the time to talk with us directly, and that you recorded the conversation, but I was left with the feeling of, there had to be more, and that there had to be more questions asked after the presenters did their presentation. I personally loved the little idea someone on this forum brought up of showing mappers how many people play their game on a daily or weekly basis for how long (maybe something to come with server side banks? :) )
Edit: I listened to the recording a little more and added some cool announcements that people would be interested in. Any corrections to something I am wrong about would be greatly appreciated, or adding onto any important things I missed, or may have misrepresented.
Edit 2: I will continue to update this post with more accurate information as time goes on if necessary.
Interesting. The part that stood out to me is "every week 35% of the traffic goes to the arcade". That's... a lot of traffic. Over 1/3rd of all StarCraft 2 traffic is the arcade. It makes me wonder why the arcade community is so quiet, if there are so many players.
I'm surprised that the marketplace is still a thing. I thought they'd dropped the idea. I think micro-transactions for arcade maps would be more successful than outright selling maps.
I wonder how much traffic that is in absolute terms, though. It wouldn't surprise me if the Arcade is so silent because 35% of almost nothing is... well, SC2mapster, basically.
I updated the post from "traffic" to "players" to more correctly represent what he said, you can find this at 3:00-3:35 in the recording, thanks for pointing that out.
Are you guys all living under a rock or something? Maybe there arent a huge amout of active mappers that can actually do stuff, but there definately are alot of players out there. Just look at the Arcade in the evening and you will see tons of active maps and alot of players. I dont see where the problem is.
Also, I think they should drop the marketplace idea entirely. All it does is make people greedy, which imo is one of the things that has lead to making SC2 mapping "a disappointment" for certain types of people...
I think it would also be worth mentioning that they wont try to support the tps/fps-capabilities of the editor any further, since they are hitting the edges of the engine and making better fps maps possible would mean too much work/rebuild to be done on said engine (around 28:00)
edit: moz: "I wonder how much traffic that is in absolute terms" ... = +1.. i wonder too, should we not have these numbers (grmb only one asking grmbblll)
Thanks, I forgot that, I added that to the bottom and made a new paragraph about things they will not be supporting. as he said it can be found around 28:00.
Hmm... I am sorta tempted to finish an old project but since my HD died I would need to recover it some how... "Squad Prototype." was a diplo map engine and it would really make a difference.. but there when I stopped working on it editor was still buggy as ...
IDK I guess it depends on whether I'm gonna actually get some real support this time around instead of vague statements and promises and whether they are going to fire Cloaken like they so dearly need to. He was not good for the community.
Also I heard OrangeBlue got banned by Cloaken for copyright... If thats true then they have still learned nothing. They couldn't give us definitive answers on anything, even copyright, to save their sorry asses.
Actually come to think of it I'm gonna go ahead and wait before I make any jump like this. After the BS put me and others I am going to be very leery about risking more effort for nothing.
We don't know that yet I'm afraid. during my absence I've been getting me a degree in Computer Science and my paid internship is starting very soon. Not sure I'm gonna have the time or the inclination for restarting that large map project.
On the other hand Blizzard told me I couldn't have lots of units without a huge pathing cost and I think I've managed to show them up with a little algorithm I've developed :)
Thanks for writing down the summary! Interesting to see the WC3 assets will make it in LotV, makes me wonder if the other racial heroes have been made too from the time they showed the orc ones up to this point...
Also, 35% of the players are in the Arcade? So, if the main menu player counter is correct, out of the 1m players on average, 350k are playing in the Arcade? That's a lot more than I thought o_o
From what I've heard/understood, the Heroes editor is the sc2 editor now. As they mentioned, LotV is a standalone, which means they developed/made it with the Heroes/updated editor. So everything we have seen in Heroes, we will have in LotV.
I think it's good. We will finaly get finished product. I remember the workaround when trying to create leap ability in data (buff+Force effects) in WOL. So f*cking timewaste. Then they brought HotS. Same with this, i think it's better to wait for this instead of wasting hundreds of hours in Data. Ofcourse this doesn't affect authors that using mostly triggers in their maps or some folks that make campaigns. But for epic data work we need LotV imo :).
Basicaly i think LotV release date is somewhere near 1st quarter of 2016, or maybe even later because of this mysterious Allied Commander mode + they want to extend their product's lifecycle. From what i inderstood this "Oblivion" trailer is some low quality mixed hype generator, like for Heart of the Swarm they made "HotS Preview" trailer (you can check it on official youtube channel). So the real CGI opening cinematic is something that we will see in nearest future (hopefuly)
This post was originally made in another thread, it was made into it's own thread so people could find it easier, and not flood the thread with this topic too much. Thanks for bibendus recommending to move the post, and to Greythepirate for finding the origonal post of the recording.
The original post: http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/general/general-chat/71038-whos-going-to-blizz-con/?page=4#p71
The Original recording, and soon to be transcript: http://frozenerdz.com/?p=1765
thanks, a-lot of this information needs to get out to as many modders as possible, we cling (a little to hard at times) to any behind the scenes information that blizzard happens to reveal, and blizzcon is one of the big events we look forward to each year to get our updates, and any more information to dissect and discuss.
note/warning - this summary does not embody the entire discussion and is a very broad and general interpretation of the conversation that does not include all of the points made in detail. It is an early inturpritation I wanted to get out to the community before a more fully fleshed out more and accurate summary is posted by others. (parenthesis represent my own little snarky commentary or clarification on my summary)
----------------------------------(now that the disclosure is out of the way) So a summary of what I got from that, since the launch of heart of the swarm, 5 million unique users have played the arcade, and every week 35% of the players who load up starcraft go to the arcade. basically, modding is a very relevant thing to starcraft (for some of us, that is actually news we needed a few years ago), and while not as active as the start, is no where near from dead. Unfortunately (for some unknown reason...) they have not been able to share those numbers with us until now. Their most recant promotions of maps have been successfully giving them more exposure and people have been playing whatever is featured more, (despite the lack of reviews I guess?? (we need more info!)).
They mentioned a lot about the blizzard supported marketplace, and apologized for taking so long to clarify this (cuz they durped Hard letting people hang on that... :| ), but basically behind all the talk was (in my own words) "we don't know the details, but we really want to do it.", The idea is still out on the table, but they still have yet to flesh out all of the details, and when (or if) they start experimenting, they will tread lightly to test the waters. They do not anticipate an "app store" type thing, and would work with specific people with really good games, any monitization they would be involved in setting up. They in short want to reward us for great content, and give us more rewards and recognition, and ANOTHER rock the cabinet contest with a specific theme. (it is still highly advisable to map for fun, passion, and personal enlightenment...)
Server side banks has been heard, and is being brought up, but they first want to hear what we would use any new feature for before just implementing something that we might not have wanted. They also want to do a lot more documentation and they need our help to document the editor. That does not necessarily mean we would be writing the documentation ourselves, but even an interview would be much appreciated over something like skype. They want videos, maps that show how to do things, the whole lot, and need our help to see how far they can take this idea. (they can start the project using our wiki if they would like ;) )
As of late they have been attempting to empower their community people a bit more and go up the chain of command when they need help with a question or something, and are attempting to become more involved with talking with the modding community. OH AND AND, warcraft 3 models are going to be in the lotv expantion available for modders to play with, and since the heroes of the storm works off of the same engine, most of the models from that game will be available as well for us to use. (as an asset pack, I believe they are working with the asset pack here on sc2mapster and could release it next year in its entirety) But there is some sort of PTR in really really late January they want to do with that I believe. < (leaked stuff apparently.)
Also, any plans of the arcade being separated from the starcraft client entirely have not been made, and will most likely never happen. (no surprise personally, that's a big ass project) one other thing they said they would not be supporting is games like fps shooters, it would take too much work on the engine itself.
----------------------------------In closing - Hope that information is accurate enough and my snarky comments don't take away from the accuracy, but at least entertain (and sharpen the pointy stick of truth). You can listen to it yourself on the website, a summary from our wonderful Traysent blizz community manager would still be much appreciated, I am sure that there was more talked about outside of this, and the transcript from the wonderful EpicinsanityFN will help those who for the life of them cannot understand the recording.
I also got the feeling like, there had to be more questions, more important information said off on the side, because there are so many more burning questions that the community as a whole has wondered, and wants clarification upon. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciated them starting to take the time to talk with us directly, and that you recorded the conversation, but I was left with the feeling of, there had to be more, and that there had to be more questions asked after the presenters did their presentation. I personally loved the little idea someone on this forum brought up of showing mappers how many people play their game on a daily or weekly basis for how long (maybe something to come with server side banks? :) )
Edit: I listened to the recording a little more and added some cool announcements that people would be interested in. Any corrections to something I am wrong about would be greatly appreciated, or adding onto any important things I missed, or may have misrepresented.
Edit 2: I will continue to update this post with more accurate information as time goes on if necessary.
Edit 3: New location! feel free to comment here.
Interesting. The part that stood out to me is "every week 35% of the traffic goes to the arcade". That's... a lot of traffic. Over 1/3rd of all StarCraft 2 traffic is the arcade. It makes me wonder why the arcade community is so quiet, if there are so many players.
I'm surprised that the marketplace is still a thing. I thought they'd dropped the idea. I think micro-transactions for arcade maps would be more successful than outright selling maps.
From my limited understanding the map with more triggers consumes more traffic, considering this and total number of sc2 players 35% isnt that big.
@TyaArcade: Go
I wonder how much traffic that is in absolute terms, though. It wouldn't surprise me if the Arcade is so silent because 35% of almost nothing is... well, SC2mapster, basically.
@Mozared: Go @abvdzh: Go
I updated the post from "traffic" to "players" to more correctly represent what he said, you can find this at 3:00-3:35 in the recording, thanks for pointing that out.
Are you guys all living under a rock or something? Maybe there arent a huge amout of active mappers that can actually do stuff, but there definately are alot of players out there. Just look at the Arcade in the evening and you will see tons of active maps and alot of players. I dont see where the problem is.
Also, I think they should drop the marketplace idea entirely. All it does is make people greedy, which imo is one of the things that has lead to making SC2 mapping "a disappointment" for certain types of people...
I think it would also be worth mentioning that they wont try to support the tps/fps-capabilities of the editor any further, since they are hitting the edges of the engine and making better fps maps possible would mean too much work/rebuild to be done on said engine (around 28:00)
thank you for typing joecab
much appreciated, me liked your post
will read and report back if required
again ty .. will be in blizzcon next year
will do my bid back
edit: moz: "I wonder how much traffic that is in absolute terms" ... = +1.. i wonder too, should we not have these numbers (grmb only one asking grmbblll)
@TheUltragon: Go
Thanks, I forgot that, I added that to the bottom and made a new paragraph about things they will not be supporting. as he said it can be found around 28:00.
Hmm... I am sorta tempted to finish an old project but since my HD died I would need to recover it some how... "Squad Prototype." was a diplo map engine and it would really make a difference.. but there when I stopped working on it editor was still buggy as ...
IDK I guess it depends on whether I'm gonna actually get some real support this time around instead of vague statements and promises and whether they are going to fire Cloaken like they so dearly need to. He was not good for the community.
Also I heard OrangeBlue got banned by Cloaken for copyright... If thats true then they have still learned nothing. They couldn't give us definitive answers on anything, even copyright, to save their sorry asses.
Actually come to think of it I'm gonna go ahead and wait before I make any jump like this. After the BS put me and others I am going to be very leery about risking more effort for nothing.
@FockeWulf: Go
Welcome back ol Fockie.
@Bounty_98: Go
Hey Bounty,
We don't know that yet I'm afraid. during my absence I've been getting me a degree in Computer Science and my paid internship is starting very soon. Not sure I'm gonna have the time or the inclination for restarting that large map project.
On the other hand Blizzard told me I couldn't have lots of units without a huge pathing cost and I think I've managed to show them up with a little algorithm I've developed :)
Cuz the arcade has lots of polite people, and they are quiet. Not like them cursing MOBA or console players xP
joecab thanks for typing that up! Interesting stuff, especially the WC3 assets point
Thanks for writing down the summary! Interesting to see the WC3 assets will make it in LotV, makes me wonder if the other racial heroes have been made too from the time they showed the orc ones up to this point...
Also, 35% of the players are in the Arcade? So, if the main menu player counter is correct, out of the 1m players on average, 350k are playing in the Arcade? That's a lot more than I thought o_o
weren't there any technical details discussed, like why terrain deformer actors don't affect unit height?
Well, actors can never affect anything in game logic. And unit height is one of the logic thing.
The warcraft models: Yeah, that's what I wanting for, can it be more fast? I need it now.
Marketplace: well, I never really think it's a good idea. So fine if it never exist.
No server bank: Said.
Any information about if we would get heroes editor feature in sc2 editor in anytime soon?
From what I've heard/understood, the Heroes editor is the sc2 editor now. As they mentioned, LotV is a standalone, which means they developed/made it with the Heroes/updated editor. So everything we have seen in Heroes, we will have in LotV.
'will in LotV' is something too far, too uncertain.
I'm not in the habit of waiting.
I think it's good. We will finaly get finished product. I remember the workaround when trying to create leap ability in data (buff+Force effects) in WOL. So f*cking timewaste. Then they brought HotS. Same with this, i think it's better to wait for this instead of wasting hundreds of hours in Data. Ofcourse this doesn't affect authors that using mostly triggers in their maps or some folks that make campaigns. But for epic data work we need LotV imo :).
Basicaly i think LotV release date is somewhere near 1st quarter of 2016, or maybe even later because of this mysterious Allied Commander mode + they want to extend their product's lifecycle. From what i inderstood this "Oblivion" trailer is some low quality mixed hype generator, like for Heart of the Swarm they made "HotS Preview" trailer (you can check it on official youtube channel). So the real CGI opening cinematic is something that we will see in nearest future (hopefuly)