I got beta access yesterday, so I took some time to dig the new features addedd to the 2.0 editor.
Here is just a feature list and short descriptions of what I found. And it would be bit long. They may not as many as the new features add in 1.4.4->1.5, but there are still some interesting things...
Please remember the Heart of the Swarm is still in development, so I believe blizzard would add more features in future.
UI Editor
The first and most important thing is:
The in-game visualization UI Editor is coming!
In debug mode, press Ctrl+Alt+F12 to call forth the in-game UI Editor. You can use your cursor to drag/resize UI elements, or modify them by input direct property values then see to result.
Currently, this UI editor is still under development, and doesn't have any actual affects to your map - you cannot save the UI Layout files with it. But we can see it would be very useful for future editor users
Now, we can draw Diamond shaped regions in the Terrain Editor.
And we can drag out diagonal selecting box when we want to select units and doodad in the Terrain Editor. (Needs to select 'Tools -> Diagonal Selection' )
-Now we can use "Target Mode Updated" to capture the "Ability Placement Mode" events.
"Ability Placement Mode" would be on after you click a target-typed ability, but haven't click down to assign the target, and it would be closed after you assigned target or cancel it. And we can use "Target Mode Updated" -(TriggerAddEventTargetModeUpdate()) event to capture it, and we can also get the triggering player, triggering ability command and the the event state (On or Off).
-And there is a also a new event 'Unit Changes Ability Auto Cast State' that allows you to capture the ability autocast state change.
Dialog & UI
-Dialog Item event can capture Double-Click and Hotkey-Pressed event now.
-And finally, we can use triggers to set Hotkeys for any dialog items(include ingame UIs, because they are the same ) now!, just need use DialogControlSetPropertyAsInt() function to set the c_triggerControlPropertyHotkey property for the target frame.
We can chose hotkeys from these 278 hokey sets types blow:
-Create a new Bank Section, if the section is already existed, it won't remove the keys in it.
nativevoidBankSectionCreate(bankb,stringsection);
Unit Magazine
- Last Created Magazine Ammo Unit
Returns the last unit created via the "Add Ammo To Magazine" action. This function ignores units created by other triggers.
- Last Created Magazine Ammo Units
Returns the last group of units created via the "Add Ammo To Magazine" action. This function ignores units created by other triggers.
Player
- Now, the Player Property function could get the Damage Dealt Time amount and Damage Taken Time amount in his last combat.
Two new catalog: 'Herd' and 'Herd Node', from my test, it seems they are use to calculate the "crowding level" of the marked units in the map. If a group of marked units are very close, it can send out a actor event.
For example, we can use it to play tumult soundswhen there are many people stand in a small place. And I can set different "crowding levels" in the new catalogs, and do different things depend on different level.
Unit
- New Unit Attribute: Summoned.
- New Unit property: EnergyRegenRateCreep, LifeRegenRateCreep, ShieldRegenRateCreep. Can be used to define the vital regen rate on creep.
- New Unit property: Attack Speed Multiplier On Creep, enough said.
- New Unit flag: Clear Rally On Death, Selectable While Dead, Targetable While Dead.
- New Unit property: Inner Radius While Dead.
- New Unit property: Order Display Minimum, it decide you need to issue how many orders to the unit's order queue before the unit display his order waypoint.
Ability
- Most ablility type now have "Smart Priority" properties, it deside the priority of the ability if the unit has more than one ‘Smart Abilities’ (i.e. Right-click abilities)
- Build Abilities (CAbilBuild) now have a EffectArray, it can fire effects on its Start, Cancel and Finish stage.
- Move Abilities (CAbilMove) now have a "Show If Immobile" flag, can be used to decide if it would still sure ability icons when the unit cannot move.
- Morph Abilities (CAbilMorph) now a have two new properties: AbilLinkDisableArray and AbilLinkEnableArray, which can be used to enable/disable abilities when morphing.
Effect
- New Effect class: CEffectCancelOrder, can be used to remove specified ability command from the unit's order queue.
- Create Unit Effects(EffectCreateUnit) now have a new property: "RallyUnit", it can specify the created unit would use which unit's rally point. *(Used on Swarm Host Locusts)
- Damage Effects(CEffectDamage) now have a new property: AttributeForced, from my test, it is used to forcely specify the damage effect would choice which Attribute if the target unit have multiple appropriate Attributes, and the damage to other Attributes would be forcely cut to half.
- Create Unit Effects(EffectCreateUnit) and Launch Missile Effects(CEffectLaunchMissile) both get a new flag: "Ignore Blockers", it is used to ignore the movable blockers (for example, the player's own ground units) on the landing place.
Behavior
- Buffs(CBehaviorBuff) can modify the units SubgroupPriority.
- Buffs get a new flag: "Update Duration While Disabled", it is used to decide if the Buff would update its duration when it is disabled.
- Buffs also get a new property: "Herd Node" it is used to cooperate with the two new Catalogs I mentioned above.
- Conjoined Behaviors(CBehaviorConjoined) now have two new flags: "Share Acquire" and "Share Selection", the former one can share target, if a unit get a target, other units which conjoined with him would attack the same targets. The later one can share selection, if you select a unit, you would automatically select units which conjoined with him. *(The new larva selection mechanism in Hots is done by this)
- Resource Behaviors(CBehaviorResource) get three new properties: EnabledSearchFilters, EnabledSearchRadius and Ideal Harvester Count. From my test, the former two properties are used to calculate the number of Workers who are havesting this resource node, and the last one is use to set this resource node's ideal harvesting Workers. *(Used in a new mechanism in Hots - Display Ideal Worker Numbers)
Spawn Behaviors(CBehaviorSpawn) get a new property: "Conjoined Link", it can conjoin all units spawned by this behavior, for example, all larva in the same Hive.
Validator
- Cross Cliff Validators(CValidatorLocationCrossCliff) get a new property: “Cross Ramp” can be used to decide if the ramp would be reckoned in.
Race
- Race class(CRace) now get two new flags: "Automatically Harvest Nearest Resource" and "Automatically Set Harvest Rally Point". Respectively, they are used to decide if or not the Workers would automatically harvest nearest resource when the game starts, and if or not the Base would automatically set Harvest Rally Point to the nearest resource node.
Actor
- Unit Actors(CActorUnit) get two new properties: VitalColors and VitalNames. They can be used to change the Vital colors and Names of the unit, for example, you can change the name of Life to "Stamina".
- CActorUnit also get "Status Harvester Data" and "Status Text Info" properties, can be used to display the number of havesting Workers on the Base or the Gas factory.
- CActorUnit also get "Wireframe Shield Color" property, can be used to modify the shield color in the unit's wireframe.
- Range Actors(CActorRange) get a new flage: "Game World", can be used to decide if or not the range indictor would be displayed in game world.
- New actor event: HerdLevel, it is used to cooperate with the two new Catalogs I mentioned above. And would be fired when the "crowding level" changes. And we can compare the "Level" in the actor Term.
- New actor event: UnitRefund, it would be fire when the unit be refund, and it also have a Sub Name to decide which refund type it would capture, Build or Salvage.
- New actor events: ActorThink and ActorUpdate, once you activated them, they would fire continually, so use them only when you need it.
- New actor Messages: MsgMessageThinkActivate and MessageUpdateActivate, used to active the two events above.
- New actor Term: AbilCmd, it is used to cooperate with the "Confirmation" event, could be used to judge the Ability Command which fired the "Confirmation" event.
- New actor Term: Game Time, you can get the currently Game Time with it.
- New actor Term: Height, get the Height of the actor, it seems...
- Term: ValidateUnit get a new flag: "Include Derived Snapshot" it seems could include the derived snapshot into Validation.
Model
- Models(CModel) get a new flag: "Show Creep Engulfment For Low Quality", can force the Creep Engulfment be displayed on the model even when on Low quality.
Button
- New properties:Hides For Simple Text and Simple Display Text, the former could decide if or not the button would be hide when "Simple Command Card" mode is on, and the later could be used to set the displayed texts when it is hidden in "Simple Command Card".
Little underwhelming, I hope there's more to show. If the UI editor can be used to make dialogs that would be one thing, but it looks like it's specifically for editing in in-game UI, which the default is fine for 99% of maps on the Arcade. All the little extra options are neat, but none I can see are game-changers.
Would be nice to see a dialog editor or unit creation wizard of some kind. As things are now I feel like they're addressing issues a majority of players aren't really interested in.
also according to the thread on Battle.net a blizz dev has stated that they will be increasing the number of command cards available by default to above 10.
also according to devs Most of the HOTS script was shipped with patch 1.5, though they dont currently work.
If the UI editor can be used to make dialogs that would be one thing, but it looks like it's specifically for editing in in-game UI
It's not just for editing the existing UI. You can create your own frames, hook them up as regular dialog items and manipulate with triggers just like any other dialog items created purely with triggers.
It's not just for editing the existing UI. You can create your own frames, hook them up as regular dialog items and manipulate with triggers just like any other dialog items created purely with triggers.
Oooo. So you could put together a shop UI or something using this then? Color me excited if that's the case.
- Create Unit Effects(EffectCreateUnit) now have a new property: "RallyUnit", it can specify the created unit would use which unit's rally point. *(Used on Swarm Host Locusts)
Actually, you won't have to buy HOTS to get these features. It'll all be included in the pre-hots patch (just like in WoW). The difference with owning HOTS will be the ability to use the new units, tilesets, doodads, etc.
@JacktheArcher: Go Who told you that? Before the beta release I extracted the models and textures and imported them to WoL so I could check them. M3 is a little different now, probably to support that ragdoll physics, but 1.5 added that to WoL too.
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I got beta access yesterday, so I took some time to dig the new features addedd to the 2.0 editor.
Here is just a feature list and short descriptions of what I found. And it would be bit long. They may not as many as the new features add in 1.4.4->1.5, but there are still some interesting things...
Please remember the Heart of the Swarm is still in development, so I believe blizzard would add more features in future.
UI Editor
The first and most important thing is:
The in-game visualization UI Editor is coming!
In debug mode, press Ctrl+Alt+F12 to call forth the in-game UI Editor. You can use your cursor to drag/resize UI elements, or modify them by input direct property values then see to result.
Currently, this UI editor is still under development, and doesn't have any actual affects to your map - you cannot save the UI Layout files with it. But we can see it would be very useful for future editor users
Terrain Editor
Now, we can draw Diamond shaped regions in the Terrain Editor.
And we can drag out diagonal selecting box when we want to select units and doodad in the Terrain Editor. (Needs to select 'Tools -> Diagonal Selection' )
Trigger Editor
Ability Events
-Now we can use "Target Mode Updated" to capture the "Ability Placement Mode" events.
"Ability Placement Mode" would be on after you click a target-typed ability, but haven't click down to assign the target, and it would be closed after you assigned target or cancel it. And we can use "Target Mode Updated" -(TriggerAddEventTargetModeUpdate()) event to capture it, and we can also get the triggering player, triggering ability command and the the event state (On or Off).
-And there is a also a new event 'Unit Changes Ability Auto Cast State' that allows you to capture the ability autocast state change.
Dialog & UI
-Dialog Item event can capture Double-Click and Hotkey-Pressed event now.
-And finally, we can use triggers to set Hotkeys for any dialog items(include ingame UIs, because they are the same ) now!, just need use DialogControlSetPropertyAsInt() function to set the c_triggerControlPropertyHotkey property for the target frame.
We can chose hotkeys from these 278 hokey sets types blow:
Ping
-Set if or not the Ping would use its attached unit's team color, and set if or not the Ping would bind to its attached unit's Visibility
Bank
-Create a new Bank Section, if the section is already existed, it won't remove the keys in it.
Unit Magazine
- Last Created Magazine Ammo Unit
Returns the last unit created via the "Add Ammo To Magazine" action. This function ignores units created by other triggers.
- Last Created Magazine Ammo Units
Returns the last group of units created via the "Add Ammo To Magazine" action. This function ignores units created by other triggers.
Player
- Now, the Player Property function could get the Damage Dealt Time amount and Damage Taken Time amount in his last combat.
Data Editor
New Catalogs
Two new catalog: 'Herd' and 'Herd Node', from my test, it seems they are use to calculate the "crowding level" of the marked units in the map. If a group of marked units are very close, it can send out a actor event.
For example, we can use it to play tumult soundswhen there are many people stand in a small place. And I can set different "crowding levels" in the new catalogs, and do different things depend on different level.
Unit
- New Unit Attribute: Summoned.
- New Unit property: EnergyRegenRateCreep, LifeRegenRateCreep, ShieldRegenRateCreep. Can be used to define the vital regen rate on creep.
- New Unit property: Attack Speed Multiplier On Creep, enough said.
- New Unit flag: Clear Rally On Death, Selectable While Dead, Targetable While Dead.
- New Unit property: Inner Radius While Dead.
- New Unit property: Order Display Minimum, it decide you need to issue how many orders to the unit's order queue before the unit display his order waypoint.
Ability
- Most ablility type now have "Smart Priority" properties, it deside the priority of the ability if the unit has more than one ‘Smart Abilities’ (i.e. Right-click abilities)
- Build Abilities (CAbilBuild) now have a EffectArray, it can fire effects on its Start, Cancel and Finish stage.
- Move Abilities (CAbilMove) now have a "Show If Immobile" flag, can be used to decide if it would still sure ability icons when the unit cannot move.
- Morph Abilities (CAbilMorph) now a have two new properties: AbilLinkDisableArray and AbilLinkEnableArray, which can be used to enable/disable abilities when morphing.
Effect
- New Effect class: CEffectCancelOrder, can be used to remove specified ability command from the unit's order queue.
- Create Unit Effects(EffectCreateUnit) now have a new property: "RallyUnit", it can specify the created unit would use which unit's rally point. *(Used on Swarm Host Locusts)
- Damage Effects(CEffectDamage) now have a new property: AttributeForced, from my test, it is used to forcely specify the damage effect would choice which Attribute if the target unit have multiple appropriate Attributes, and the damage to other Attributes would be forcely cut to half.
- Create Unit Effects(EffectCreateUnit) and Launch Missile Effects(CEffectLaunchMissile) both get a new flag: "Ignore Blockers", it is used to ignore the movable blockers (for example, the player's own ground units) on the landing place.
Behavior
- Buffs(CBehaviorBuff) can modify the units SubgroupPriority.
- Buffs get a new flag: "Update Duration While Disabled", it is used to decide if the Buff would update its duration when it is disabled.
- Buffs also get a new property: "Herd Node" it is used to cooperate with the two new Catalogs I mentioned above.
- Conjoined Behaviors(CBehaviorConjoined) now have two new flags: "Share Acquire" and "Share Selection", the former one can share target, if a unit get a target, other units which conjoined with him would attack the same targets. The later one can share selection, if you select a unit, you would automatically select units which conjoined with him. *(The new larva selection mechanism in Hots is done by this)
- Resource Behaviors(CBehaviorResource) get three new properties: EnabledSearchFilters, EnabledSearchRadius and Ideal Harvester Count. From my test, the former two properties are used to calculate the number of Workers who are havesting this resource node, and the last one is use to set this resource node's ideal harvesting Workers. *(Used in a new mechanism in Hots - Display Ideal Worker Numbers)
Spawn Behaviors(CBehaviorSpawn) get a new property: "Conjoined Link", it can conjoin all units spawned by this behavior, for example, all larva in the same Hive.
Validator
- Cross Cliff Validators(CValidatorLocationCrossCliff) get a new property: “Cross Ramp” can be used to decide if the ramp would be reckoned in.
Race
- Race class(CRace) now get two new flags: "Automatically Harvest Nearest Resource" and "Automatically Set Harvest Rally Point". Respectively, they are used to decide if or not the Workers would automatically harvest nearest resource when the game starts, and if or not the Base would automatically set Harvest Rally Point to the nearest resource node.
Actor
- Unit Actors(CActorUnit) get two new properties: VitalColors and VitalNames. They can be used to change the Vital colors and Names of the unit, for example, you can change the name of Life to "Stamina".
- CActorUnit also get "Status Harvester Data" and "Status Text Info" properties, can be used to display the number of havesting Workers on the Base or the Gas factory.
- CActorUnit also get "Wireframe Shield Color" property, can be used to modify the shield color in the unit's wireframe.
- Range Actors(CActorRange) get a new flage: "Game World", can be used to decide if or not the range indictor would be displayed in game world.
- New actor event: HerdLevel, it is used to cooperate with the two new Catalogs I mentioned above. And would be fired when the "crowding level" changes. And we can compare the "Level" in the actor Term.
- New actor event: UnitRefund, it would be fire when the unit be refund, and it also have a Sub Name to decide which refund type it would capture, Build or Salvage.
- New actor events: ActorThink and ActorUpdate, once you activated them, they would fire continually, so use them only when you need it.
- New actor Messages: MsgMessageThinkActivate and MessageUpdateActivate, used to active the two events above.
- New actor Term: AbilCmd, it is used to cooperate with the "Confirmation" event, could be used to judge the Ability Command which fired the "Confirmation" event.
- New actor Term: Game Time, you can get the currently Game Time with it.
- New actor Term: Height, get the Height of the actor, it seems...
- Term: ValidateUnit get a new flag: "Include Derived Snapshot" it seems could include the derived snapshot into Validation.
Model
- Models(CModel) get a new flag: "Show Creep Engulfment For Low Quality", can force the Creep Engulfment be displayed on the model even when on Low quality.
Button
- New properties:Hides For Simple Text and Simple Display Text, the former could decide if or not the button would be hide when "Simple Command Card" mode is on, and the later could be used to set the displayed texts when it is hidden in "Simple Command Card".
Nice writeup, thank you for taking your time to do this.
And WOW! That UI editor :)
Indeed that UI editor. Too bad my beta editor crashes on startup, I'd love to try that editor.
Thanks Renee!
It is still very unfinished and many features are not functional at all right now.
It is a neat preview for what we can expect in the near future though :)
Little underwhelming, I hope there's more to show. If the UI editor can be used to make dialogs that would be one thing, but it looks like it's specifically for editing in in-game UI, which the default is fine for 99% of maps on the Arcade. All the little extra options are neat, but none I can see are game-changers.
Would be nice to see a dialog editor or unit creation wizard of some kind. As things are now I feel like they're addressing issues a majority of players aren't really interested in.
also according to the thread on Battle.net a blizz dev has stated that they will be increasing the number of command cards available by default to above 10.
also according to devs Most of the HOTS script was shipped with patch 1.5, though they dont currently work.
I personally like the diamond shaped regions the most. Remember screaming for them on the old battle.net forums during the beta :P
It's not just for editing the existing UI. You can create your own frames, hook them up as regular dialog items and manipulate with triggers just like any other dialog items created purely with triggers.
Oooo. So you could put together a shop UI or something using this then? Color me excited if that's the case.
These features are pretty awesome. The more I see of this the more I want it HoTs is just overall better.
That Ui editor will help a whole lot. I spend too much time trying to make dialogs that looked wonderful in my head and turn them to crap in game.
Of course it is.
still no way to limit unit selection :(
Out of curiosity hots still supports .m3s but the new model types won't be useable in wol right?
LOL WE MUST BUY HOTS WWWWWWWWWAAAAARRRRGGGGGG
Does "Revive unit" ability also get this?
Actually, you won't have to buy HOTS to get these features. It'll all be included in the pre-hots patch (just like in WoW). The difference with owning HOTS will be the ability to use the new units, tilesets, doodads, etc.
@JacktheArcher: Go Who told you that? Before the beta release I extracted the models and textures and imported them to WoL so I could check them. M3 is a little different now, probably to support that ragdoll physics, but 1.5 added that to WoL too.