I've worked with the Warcraft III editor obviously, and also worked with the Hammer editor (the map editor for Valve games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 etc.).
I'd love to give a HL2 mod another go, but ever since the Steampipe update the modding tools are kinda broken. So it's not just Blizzard who occasionally kills backwards compatibility to older mods.
Truly, I could've spend more time on the gameplay and testing if it weren't for the fantasy theme requirement.
Between me having computer issues for most of the summer, and losing most of my data due to the 3.0 update, I only had six weeks to work on something - and I've spend most of the time just establishing the look and creating the terrain and game data. I had like 2 days left for actual game testing and emergency bug fixing.
It was a valuable game development lesson if nothing else. Still, other people managed to create some great maps, and I congratulate everyone of you for that!
Overall it was fun. But next time, please no more betatesting during the contest period ok Blizzard?
If it's just a mapfile, then you can place it anywhere on your computer. However, a modfile must be inside the "Starcraft II/Mods" folder, and if there are several maps which load automatically after one has ended (campaign), then they also must be placed inside the Maps folder as instructed.
That is because all the data is referenced in relation to the folder structure, so ideally everything has to be inside the Starcraft II folders.
Here is a video that shows the entire process of installing a custom campaign:
(Here's a direct link in case you don't have Flash installed:
Lastly, you don't always need to load a map inside the editor in order to play it. There is an alternative way.
Go to Starcraft II/Support folder and find "SC2Switcher.exe". Drag & Drop any mapfile onto that executable and it will start the game with the map automatically.
If you create a shortcut for it on the desktop, you can drag & drop files onto that as well, which is a lot faster than starting the editor every time.
Go ahead and download Cascview again (even if it still says v 1.0.0.39). It was apparently updated without changing the version number. It works now once again.
It's not just you, it only shows one big "unknown" folder for me as well.
It worked about a month ago when I was searching for some HotS files. Maybe a recent update has broken it (could be CASCView's newest version or HotS/SC2's newest version).
I managed to fix all the dialogues. All menues and messages now appear correctly on anywhere from 1024x768 to Full HD (1920x1080). I'll update the map within the next hour.
The issue with the right menu background still persists though...
I doubt that this can be fixed before the Cabinet deadline, but if anyone else has a solution for this in the future, I'll be sure to update the map with it.
This seems to be one of the few spots I haven't covered in my pathing work. I checked through my terrain again and fixed that along with another doodad. Hopefully all the doodads should be 100% solid now.
About the "screen cutoff":
Yeah... the game isn't meant to be played in anything other than widescreen/fullscreen.
I can try to fix the text messages, but the menu to the right is unfixable to me, as this is part of the Layout system rather than a custom trigger. I've spend a lot of time just to get this to work at all, and I'm out of ideas. Unless a Layout genius shows up, the right side will remain buggy for smaller/non-widecreen resolutions.
About the enemy aggro:
I have to work on that. Every character was done from scratch, so any aggro settings that worked on an existing Starcraft II unit is obviously not there.
(Yup, there is no logo for this, just a beautiful background. My photoshop skills are... nonexistant. If anyone else want to create a logo, be my guest)
Current Version: 1.05
Note: The European version 1.03 is identical to the American version 1.05. I just didn't update the European one quite as frequently and just packed all the patches in one update.
This map uses a lot of graphics, sound effects and music tracks from Open Game Art. Beyond that, the map uses two tracks from Heroes of the Storm, and the title screen/loading screen image which is from Thomas Hugo (it was a commission).
Also, here are all of the art and sound assets used in the map that are from OpenGameArt: Assets Folder
Video
(Here's a direct link in case you don't have Flash installed:
Introduction
Gaia Explorers is a Hero Survival map in which you pick a class and defeat a boss in each of the four areas.
Each player has a survivor rank. This rank increases with each defeated boss and improves the various abilities of each class, as well as unlocking other difficulty modes (new players start on Casual difficulty).
If a player group finishes a game session (defeating four bosses), they'll be awarded with a rune. Runes are the primary source for stat boosts.
There is a shop which is accessible after a boss has been defeated. In this shop you can buy potions as well as upgrade your runes.
The map is designed for quick game sessions, lasting only 10 minutes on lower difficulties, and up to 30 minutes on higher difficulties.
It starts out rather simple and easy, but once you've unlocked a few runes and can play on Hard and Brutal mode, I promise you it'll become a whole lot more tactical.
Story
You travel through Green Valley, a place which has been invaded by demons. Aside from demons, there also are other enemies like bandits and other monsters.
In order to return peace to the valley, you must ally yourself with a bunch of unlikely allies. Scholars, thieves, masons, demons, dragons - truly, it couldn't be any more unusual.
Despite their differences, each of these unlikely adventurers have one thing in common: To repel the demon threat. For this goal they work together, just this once.
Classes
In order from left to right:
The old man always wanted to be a great Alchemist, but lacked the skill. In an act of desperation, he made a pact with the devil of the West - Mephisto. His soul is now forever damned, but in exchange he gained a lot of knowledge. With Mephisto's book in hand, he travels to Green Valley to try out his new skills.
Living in seclusion for many years, the Hermit enjoyed a peaceful life in Green Valley. But suddenly demons and other wild beasts are roaming this peaceful place. Determined to stop the threat, he graps his bow and asks the nature for aid against this threat.
The Artisan has been exiled from the Brotherhood for practicing the dark arts. He's been working as a construction worker ever since. One day, he decides to travel to the north in the hopes of a less stressful life. But what he found at this new place instead were demons. Inspired by the other strangers who fight the demons, he remembers the courage of his old Brotherhood days and joins the fight.
Being part of the Brotherhood of the South, the Cleric is a warrior who protects peace and order everywhere.He has been ordered to track down a raider who has fled to the kingdom in the north. Once he reaches Green Valley and notices the demonic presence, he offers a truce to the raider in order to defeat the new treat.
Even after the end of the Demon Wars, the Berserker continues to fight everyone, everywhere.
Nothing seems to be able to stop his bloodlust -except a worthy opponent. Upon hearing rumors that demons have shown up in Green Valley, he travels to the location to slay the strongest demon he can find.
Being one of the few remaining survivors of the Demon Wars, the Warlock has been holding a grudge against humans. Three villages already fell victim to his powers. One day, he feels a strong demonic energy emanating from Green Valley. He travels to the location to find the energy source and acquire its power.
The Raider has been plundering many villages in the southern kingdom. The Brotherhood has been putting a bounty on his head, so he was forced to travel northwards. Eventually, he discovered a peaceful little place known to the locals as Green Valley. He fears neither demon nor human, and is determined to rob them all of their riches.
After finally breaking out of his prison, the Dragoon was ready to go on a vacation. Little did he know, the destination of his vacation - Green Valley - is being invaded by demons. He has to face the demons, or else his curse will return and transform him into a statue once again.
____
Each class has an offensive (damage-dealing), defensive and passive ability. There is no purely-supportive class, everyone here can fight for themselves.
It is advisable to read through each class' description in-game and talk to other players in order to come up with a well-balanced and efficient party.
Especially if you want to defend yourself from sudden enemy ambushes, you're gonna need a good combination of classes to prevail on harder difficulties.
Development History
Gaia Explorers is the successor of my first multiplayer map for Starcraft II (Sanctuary Guardians). Things like the survivor rank and a range of different classes make a return here.
Originally I was working on a different type of map for Rock the Cabinet 2015, but I lost half of my files back in early October. But as soon as I've heard that the deadline has been extended, I've begun work on Gaia Explorers.
The map was created from scratch and was done in six weeks. The graphics and sound assets from my old project (which weren't lost back in October) were reused for this map.
Feedback
The map has just been uploaded, and while it functions just fine at the moment, there might still be some balancing required. Feel free to post any feedback you have in this thread!
Thanks a lot! This helped me to realize that the "ui_battlenet" textures are also used in the in-game GUI. I thought it was exclusively for Arcade interface and the like.
For everyone else being stuck on a specific interface texture: Just use Cascview and extract the Textures folder from "mods/core.sc2assets/Assets". It's a lot easier to browse through the textures this way than through the editor file browser.
You should be able to find all textures related to the non-campaign related GUI this way.
btw, for my problem from above, the textures for the menu buttons were:
I'm currently working on a custom UI by using the Protoss UI and replacing all the textures related to that race. The rest I do via a custom layout.
I've got everything covered so far - expect two things.
I can't seem to find the textures to change the button graphics in the main menu, as well as the minimap options (see image attachment). I've been searching for days now, checking every texture file beginning with "ui_" in their name, and still can't seem to change it.
The minimap buttons aren't that important (but nice to have), but the main menu buttons are. So does somebody knows at least the texture for those?
- Selendis looks nothing like she does in Wings of Liberty.
That was my first thought as well. She looks younger and I think her eyes are rounder than from her WoL version as well.
I think Lasarra from Heart of the Swarm was like that as well. Either Blizzard turned all Khalai Protoss females into beauty queens, or they recycled Lasarra's model for Selendis.
Considering that they even used her unit model at the end of the campaign, this wouldn't even be too far-fetched.
Speaking of Selendis though, I have the suspicion that the entire Colonists arc in Wings of Liberty is non-cannon.
In Heart of the Swarm, there are references, and different dialogue depending on your choice, for the Tosh/Nova sidestory. And the appearance of the Odin in The Reckoning makes the Horner sidestory also cannon. But no mention at all about Hanson.
I think you could play through the WoL campaign without touching at least one sidequest storyline. As long as you do every mission of the other two sidequests, you could still complete enough missions to unlock the main storyline missions and reach Char.
Looks like Blizzard took this as an excuse to make a certain path cannon.
It's not his development that's the problem, but his personality (maybe I worded myself poorly, I don't know). It's pretty common for the main character in a story to have this quality. A good example would be Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Not a bad character per se, nor one without development, but it seems everyone and their mother prefers Han Solo, because he's... well, cooler and more charismatic (it certainly also helps that Harrison Ford is a better actor than Mark Hamill). It's a hard character to get right. I'm not saying Blizzard wrote Artanis in a bad manner, but simply that his personality lacks color.
Isn't that the entire point of the Protoss though, that they never change?
I'm not even talking about the Conclave and all that stuff from Starcraft 1, I mean that the Protoss are a race which are rarely-capable to adapt and change. The few individuals that cause some big changes are, paradoxically enough, praised as saviors by future generations (Adun, Tassadar, Artanis, Zeratul).
This makes for some "boring" stories with the Protoss because there is little to relate to for the player. No sudden bursts of emotions, no irrational actions etc.
(This also was an issue with Heart of the Swarm and most of the Zerg characters the player could talk to within the Leviathan.)
Alas, the writers have to maintain the realism and let the characters act accordingly. "Reality isn't always entertaining" as they say.
Sometimes it is a case of bad writing of course, but sometimes it's not. I though that Artanis had at least a little bit of personality beyond his commander role at least.
Is that Tracer's pistol in the lower-right corner of that image? Looks like an Overwatch character will make an appearance in Heroes of the Storm after all.
0
I've worked with the Warcraft III editor obviously, and also worked with the Hammer editor (the map editor for Valve games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 etc.).
I'd love to give a HL2 mod another go, but ever since the Steampipe update the modding tools are kinda broken. So it's not just Blizzard who occasionally kills backwards compatibility to older mods.
0
Truly, I could've spend more time on the gameplay and testing if it weren't for the fantasy theme requirement.
Between me having computer issues for most of the summer, and losing most of my data due to the 3.0 update, I only had six weeks to work on something - and I've spend most of the time just establishing the look and creating the terrain and game data. I had like 2 days left for actual game testing and emergency bug fixing.
It was a valuable game development lesson if nothing else. Still, other people managed to create some great maps, and I congratulate everyone of you for that!
Overall it was fun. But next time, please no more betatesting during the contest period ok Blizzard?
0
I would be interested. I visit this forum somewhat regularly, and I should have time to maintain at least one page I guess.
0
If it's just a mapfile, then you can place it anywhere on your computer. However, a modfile must be inside the "Starcraft II/Mods" folder, and if there are several maps which load automatically after one has ended (campaign), then they also must be placed inside the Maps folder as instructed.
That is because all the data is referenced in relation to the folder structure, so ideally everything has to be inside the Starcraft II folders.
Here is a video that shows the entire process of installing a custom campaign:
(Here's a direct link in case you don't have Flash installed:
Lastly, you don't always need to load a map inside the editor in order to play it. There is an alternative way.
Go to Starcraft II/Support folder and find "SC2Switcher.exe". Drag & Drop any mapfile onto that executable and it will start the game with the map automatically.
If you create a shortcut for it on the desktop, you can drag & drop files onto that as well, which is a lot faster than starting the editor every time.
0
Go ahead and download Cascview again (even if it still says v 1.0.0.39). It was apparently updated without changing the version number. It works now once again.
0
It's not just you, it only shows one big "unknown" folder for me as well.
It worked about a month ago when I was searching for some HotS files. Maybe a recent update has broken it (could be CASCView's newest version or HotS/SC2's newest version).
0
Text as in texture.
0
I managed to fix all the dialogues. All menues and messages now appear correctly on anywhere from 1024x768 to Full HD (1920x1080). I'll update the map within the next hour.
The issue with the right menu background still persists though...
Below is my code I've used for the Layout file:
I doubt that this can be fixed before the Cabinet deadline, but if anyone else has a solution for this in the future, I'll be sure to update the map with it.
0
This seems to be one of the few spots I haven't covered in my pathing work. I checked through my terrain again and fixed that along with another doodad. Hopefully all the doodads should be 100% solid now.
Yeah... the game isn't meant to be played in anything other than widescreen/fullscreen.
I can try to fix the text messages, but the menu to the right is unfixable to me, as this is part of the Layout system rather than a custom trigger. I've spend a lot of time just to get this to work at all, and I'm out of ideas. Unless a Layout genius shows up, the right side will remain buggy for smaller/non-widecreen resolutions.
I have to work on that. Every character was done from scratch, so any aggro settings that worked on an existing Starcraft II unit is obviously not there.
0
Current Version: 1.05 Note: The European version 1.03 is identical to the American version 1.05. I just didn't update the European one quite as frequently and just packed all the patches in one update.
Americas: battlenet://starcraft/map/1/266906
Europe: battlenet://starcraft/map/2/187326
Suggested Number of Players: 4
Credits
This map uses a lot of graphics, sound effects and music tracks from Open Game Art. Beyond that, the map uses two tracks from Heroes of the Storm, and the title screen/loading screen image which is from Thomas Hugo (it was a commission).
A list of all assets used can be found here: Credits Document
Also, here are all of the art and sound assets used in the map that are from OpenGameArt: Assets Folder
Video
(Here's a direct link in case you don't have Flash installed:
Introduction
Gaia Explorers is a Hero Survival map in which you pick a class and defeat a boss in each of the four areas.
Each player has a survivor rank. This rank increases with each defeated boss and improves the various abilities of each class, as well as unlocking other difficulty modes (new players start on Casual difficulty).
If a player group finishes a game session (defeating four bosses), they'll be awarded with a rune. Runes are the primary source for stat boosts.
There is a shop which is accessible after a boss has been defeated. In this shop you can buy potions as well as upgrade your runes.
The map is designed for quick game sessions, lasting only 10 minutes on lower difficulties, and up to 30 minutes on higher difficulties.
It starts out rather simple and easy, but once you've unlocked a few runes and can play on Hard and Brutal mode, I promise you it'll become a whole lot more tactical.
Story
You travel through Green Valley, a place which has been invaded by demons. Aside from demons, there also are other enemies like bandits and other monsters.
In order to return peace to the valley, you must ally yourself with a bunch of unlikely allies. Scholars, thieves, masons, demons, dragons - truly, it couldn't be any more unusual.
Despite their differences, each of these unlikely adventurers have one thing in common: To repel the demon threat. For this goal they work together, just this once.
Classes
In order from left to right:
____
Each class has an offensive (damage-dealing), defensive and passive ability. There is no purely-supportive class, everyone here can fight for themselves.
It is advisable to read through each class' description in-game and talk to other players in order to come up with a well-balanced and efficient party.
Especially if you want to defend yourself from sudden enemy ambushes, you're gonna need a good combination of classes to prevail on harder difficulties.
Development History
Gaia Explorers is the successor of my first multiplayer map for Starcraft II (Sanctuary Guardians). Things like the survivor rank and a range of different classes make a return here.
Originally I was working on a different type of map for Rock the Cabinet 2015, but I lost half of my files back in early October. But as soon as I've heard that the deadline has been extended, I've begun work on Gaia Explorers.
The map was created from scratch and was done in six weeks. The graphics and sound assets from my old project (which weren't lost back in October) were reused for this map.
Feedback
The map has just been uploaded, and while it functions just fine at the moment, there might still be some balancing required. Feel free to post any feedback you have in this thread!
0
Thanks a lot! This helped me to realize that the "ui_battlenet" textures are also used in the in-game GUI. I thought it was exclusively for Arcade interface and the like.
For everyone else being stuck on a specific interface texture: Just use Cascview and extract the Textures folder from "mods/core.sc2assets/Assets". It's a lot easier to browse through the textures this way than through the editor file browser. You should be able to find all textures related to the non-campaign related GUI this way.
btw, for my problem from above, the textures for the menu buttons were:
The minimap buttons use for following textures:
0
I'm currently working on a custom UI by using the Protoss UI and replacing all the textures related to that race. The rest I do via a custom layout. I've got everything covered so far - expect two things.
I can't seem to find the textures to change the button graphics in the main menu, as well as the minimap options (see image attachment). I've been searching for days now, checking every texture file beginning with "ui_" in their name, and still can't seem to change it.
The minimap buttons aren't that important (but nice to have), but the main menu buttons are. So does somebody knows at least the texture for those?
0
That was my first thought as well. She looks younger and I think her eyes are rounder than from her WoL version as well.
I think Lasarra from Heart of the Swarm was like that as well. Either Blizzard turned all Khalai Protoss females into beauty queens, or they recycled Lasarra's model for Selendis. Considering that they even used her unit model at the end of the campaign, this wouldn't even be too far-fetched.
Speaking of Selendis though, I have the suspicion that the entire Colonists arc in Wings of Liberty is non-cannon.
In Heart of the Swarm, there are references, and different dialogue depending on your choice, for the Tosh/Nova sidestory. And the appearance of the Odin in The Reckoning makes the Horner sidestory also cannon. But no mention at all about Hanson.
I think you could play through the WoL campaign without touching at least one sidequest storyline. As long as you do every mission of the other two sidequests, you could still complete enough missions to unlock the main storyline missions and reach Char.
Looks like Blizzard took this as an excuse to make a certain path cannon.
Correction: Sol from SMITE made a cameo appearance in the game.
0
Isn't that the entire point of the Protoss though, that they never change?
I'm not even talking about the Conclave and all that stuff from Starcraft 1, I mean that the Protoss are a race which are rarely-capable to adapt and change. The few individuals that cause some big changes are, paradoxically enough, praised as saviors by future generations (Adun, Tassadar, Artanis, Zeratul).
This makes for some "boring" stories with the Protoss because there is little to relate to for the player. No sudden bursts of emotions, no irrational actions etc. (This also was an issue with Heart of the Swarm and most of the Zerg characters the player could talk to within the Leviathan.)
Alas, the writers have to maintain the realism and let the characters act accordingly. "Reality isn't always entertaining" as they say.
Sometimes it is a case of bad writing of course, but sometimes it's not. I though that Artanis had at least a little bit of personality beyond his commander role at least.
0
Is that Tracer's pistol in the lower-right corner of that image? Looks like an Overwatch character will make an appearance in Heroes of the Storm after all.