Yeah, of course I'm going to create Wizard for War3 Mod. The goal is make creation/modify data objects much easier like the old War3 world editor.
Still each abilities needs to be set differently. So it would be a very long term work.
Currently I planed to make wizards in this sequence:
1. Wizard for Unit/Hero Creation
2. Wizard for modify Common Ability Data
x. WizardS for Create/Modify Spefic Abilites
If you have speical abilites you wanted most, you can post here, and I may able to do them first.
Please remember the wizards are not omnipotent, so not 'everything is possible'.
Also the wizard would be simple like the war3 one, which mean you can modify less things within the wizard. But you can still modify the detail data in the data editor after you created the objects with the wizard. But you can also suggest 'Must Have' properties here so that I can include them into the wizard.
A solid list for the most part, but by any chance could there be one made to modify an existing unit that's similar in simplicity to the one for creating a new unit?
Would it be possible to create a Wizard for attaching custom race UI to races specified in "Races" data type?
Since the default Races data type lacks the fields regarding inclusion of custom UI, it would be really helpful.
What the UI does is has references that append the race identifier (Prot, Zerg, Terr, among others) to the name of the file referenced to get the actual file/color/image/whatever to use. So many many many assets in the game have the exact same name, with 3 variations having _Terr, _Prot and _Zerg on the end. Same with colors, and with font styles and with many other things.
So in order to link up a custom race to a custom UI requires you finding ever place where such race specific assets are references and adding a file of the same name with your races ID on the end. For this reason, is why almost no one has ever done it, it is a ton of work.
Thanks for the reply! Sad to hear that even with the introduction of Data Wizards, it is not currently possible or requires a tremendous amount of work. I had high hopes for 3.0 Editor to at last have that support, but alas, that wasn't the case.
I don't know about Renee, but I've slowly made some progress, but real life work has of course intervened.
One thing that is giving me some pause as well is Blizzard is building a UI to build wizards (Yes, I know, Building a tool to build a tool to build data). Last patch I looked, the part for general wizard construction was done, and making conditions was done, the rest was not.
One tricky thing I'm sometimes struggling with is keeping it small and keeping it simple, very tempting to build ultra complex ones.
Cool. I've been working on a comprehensive beginners tutorial to the editor in an attempt to make map making more accessible, but I put the project on hold because I felt the whole tutorial would need to be re-written with Wizards in mind, which is why I'm curious to know.
I would go ahead and complete your tutorial. Wizards will not change the fundamentals. Wizards are simply a way to customize the data editor, either in view or in workflow. Sure they will be good for newer people and streamline production, but it will take some time to develop them, and they will have to build off each other. They are almost too flexible in some regards, so you have to think about presentation and some other interesting things.
This sounds wonderful. When you create a new unit/hero, would everything be duplicated so modifying a component of a different unit wouldn't modify the new unit as well?
I miss the easy copy/paste system of War3. And the easy ability to modify units/abilities.
This kind of wizard sounds like an awful lot of work though to make...
Yeah, of course I'm going to create Wizard for War3 Mod. The goal is make creation/modify data objects much easier like the old War3 world editor.
Still each abilities needs to be set differently. So it would be a very long term work.
Currently I planed to make wizards in this sequence:
1. Wizard for Unit/Hero Creation
2. Wizard for modify Common Ability Data
x. WizardS for Create/Modify Spefic Abilites
If you have speical abilites you wanted most, you can post here, and I may able to do them first.
Please remember the wizards are not omnipotent, so not 'everything is possible'.
Also the wizard would be simple like the war3 one, which mean you can modify less things within the wizard. But you can still modify the detail data in the data editor after you created the objects with the wizard. But you can also suggest 'Must Have' properties here so that I can include them into the wizard.
Maybe a simple wizard for making trees.
A solid list for the most part, but by any chance could there be one made to modify an existing unit that's similar in simplicity to the one for creating a new unit?
Yes, wizards can be designed to load data entries into them, and also to view them.
Would it be possible to create a Wizard for attaching custom race UI to races specified in "Races" data type? Since the default Races data type lacks the fields regarding inclusion of custom UI, it would be really helpful.
@miketwistam: Go
Not possible with data wizards.
What the UI does is has references that append the race identifier (Prot, Zerg, Terr, among others) to the name of the file referenced to get the actual file/color/image/whatever to use. So many many many assets in the game have the exact same name, with 3 variations having _Terr, _Prot and _Zerg on the end. Same with colors, and with font styles and with many other things.
So in order to link up a custom race to a custom UI requires you finding ever place where such race specific assets are references and adding a file of the same name with your races ID on the end. For this reason, is why almost no one has ever done it, it is a ton of work.
@ArcaneDurandel: Go
Thanks for the reply! Sad to hear that even with the introduction of Data Wizards, it is not currently possible or requires a tremendous amount of work. I had high hopes for 3.0 Editor to at last have that support, but alas, that wasn't the case.
Hey, was just wondering how progress on these were going. Any estimated release time?
I don't know about Renee, but I've slowly made some progress, but real life work has of course intervened.
One thing that is giving me some pause as well is Blizzard is building a UI to build wizards (Yes, I know, Building a tool to build a tool to build data). Last patch I looked, the part for general wizard construction was done, and making conditions was done, the rest was not.
One tricky thing I'm sometimes struggling with is keeping it small and keeping it simple, very tempting to build ultra complex ones.
Cool. I've been working on a comprehensive beginners tutorial to the editor in an attempt to make map making more accessible, but I put the project on hold because I felt the whole tutorial would need to be re-written with Wizards in mind, which is why I'm curious to know.
I would go ahead and complete your tutorial. Wizards will not change the fundamentals. Wizards are simply a way to customize the data editor, either in view or in workflow. Sure they will be good for newer people and streamline production, but it will take some time to develop them, and they will have to build off each other. They are almost too flexible in some regards, so you have to think about presentation and some other interesting things.
I just fixed my PC and recovered my data (It's broken for a long time). I will need to continue the work.
@Renee2islga: Go
Oh, sorry to hear that - glad you managed to recover your data, though.
This sounds wonderful. When you create a new unit/hero, would everything be duplicated so modifying a component of a different unit wouldn't modify the new unit as well?
I miss the easy copy/paste system of War3. And the easy ability to modify units/abilities.
This kind of wizard sounds like an awful lot of work though to make...
Any progress on it? Do you have any simple wizards which we can use?
http://www.youtube.com/user/RussianMapster
i wish a wizard with one button: create random scalable spell with 10 levels