SC2Mapster

Hi all,

I've got a defense tower and an upgrade for it (which increases its damage) which can be researched somewhere else. This bonus is passive, but I wanted to show a nice colored icon to indicate you can research this and that you already have researched it. Second part I got to work. I made a button and a requirement and the colored icon shows after one completes the research for it.

First part: I don't get it :E I want the unit to show a desaturated/greyed out/disabled version of the button saying on mouse-over: requires research xy. But with the current state of affairs the button just won't show at all. Does this only work for active abilities? Or is there a way to make it work for passive ones. best regards,

BlacKcuD

Quote from Eimtr: Go

Ok you can take a look at this sample map I have:

For my Win Loss System map that was supposedly ready I realized that since I do the triggers like that: Store Real In Section 1 for Player 1, store Real in Section 2 for Player 2, Store.. Section 3 for Player 3.. etc the problem occurs:

Let's say I play the map and im player 1, another time i play the map and im player 4. Since Player 4 should get Section 4 loaded but the Bank contains Section 1 because I previously played as Player 1, it won't load anything since my Bank contains Section1. I thought this would be solved if I named the same Section for all players -.- what happens is all players load my bank which is so wrong..

So can you pls tell me how to fix this on that map?

Is the win/lose stat dependent on which palyer slot you were? If that's the case then just add variables for each slot and put them all in the same section. I think you have missunderstood something completely about how banks work. There is NOT "one" bank in which everybody stores his/her stuff from your map. A bankfile is a local (on your computer) file. It exists individually for every combination of MAP, ACCOUNT, and COMPUTER. Other player's can't even access your bankfile if there is not some sort of transfer/comparison coded into your map's triggers.

Why don't you save the w/l ratio (or whatever) in key "wlr" in section "whatever". Why has this value to be slot dependent? When you load up the data again make an array of type real named winloseratio[n] (where n is the number of players) and you load from Player 1's bank the key wlr from section whatever and save it in winloseratio[1] and so forth.

Quote from ScorpSCII: Go

@BlacKcuD: Go

Doesn't it return 0 by default if no integer was stored?

Haven't tried it yet. There was a time (according to some tutorial I read), where this was needed in order to not have errors popping up. The else-branch could be avoided through setting default values.

To be honest, I didn't fully understand your problem. I think you are overcomplicating things and/or haven't understood the structure of the banks (which are xml files) completely. The bank should be named like your map + sth wierd so it is unique. Every player playing your map will have a bank file named after this. Sections are 'chapters' within this bank file and are for sorting/categorizing purposes. If you store only things like single numbers (high score?!) for every player, put everything in the same section. Sections are only useful if you have multiple units (heroes?) with same named stats (like every hero has a level).

However, the big missunderstanding here is, that every player's bank file IS a single personal copy of the values you write in it, since only his/her stuff is saved locally. To illustrate I copy/paste you some code which is actually working 100% from a map of mine. There is little/no comments, but I think this should be self explainatory.

LOADING (Note: i is a local integer, -XP is aglobal integer array of length 4, PlayerBanks is global Bank array of length 4)

        Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "icecrushertd2" for player 1
        Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "icecrushertd2" for player 2
        Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "icecrushertd2" for player 3
        Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "icecrushertd2" for player 4
        ----- preload&synchronize does NOT allow for variables!
        General - For each integer i from 1 to 4 with increment 1, do (Actions)
            Actions
                Bank - Open bank "icecrushertd2" for player i
                Variable - Set PlayerBanks[i] = (Last opened bank)
                General - If (Conditions) then do (Actions) else do (Actions)
                    If
                        (Bank PlayerBanks[i] has "xp" in section "global") == True
                    Then
                        Variable - Set -XP[i] = (Load "xp" of section "global" from bank PlayerBanks[i] as integer value)
                    Else
                        Variable - Set -XP[i] = 0

STORING

        General - For each integer i from 1 to 4 with increment 1, do (Actions)
                Bank - Store integer -XP[i] as "xp" of section "global" in bank PlayerBanks[i]
                Bank - Save bank PlayerBanks[i]

THE BANK FILE (which may be found in your documents folder)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Bank version="1">
    <Section name="global">
        <Key name="xp">
            <Value int="50"/>
        </Key>
    </Section>
</Bank>

And for you little hackers out there: the bank files for Icecrusher TD 2 are encrypted hardcore so don't even try :)

Quote from Eldrazor: Go

I think the SC2Mapster community isn't large enough to have a map chosen every week. Instead, there should be map of the month. A month should be plenty of time to have a couple of interesting maps released.

this.

And I can help with pushing up maps. I am working on a publishable project right now, but it needs a little more content to be worthy imho. I also have enough confidence in my timetable to allow for timely publishes if we need some person for that still (EU).

best regards,

Quote from Gorandor: Go

Level Editor Rule #45: If you still find places to put rocks ... YOU HAVE NOT USED ENOUGH OF THEM!

- Nice job on this one. It looks great, doesn't distract much and won't cause too much performance issues => perfect for (melee) map.

- What's the name of the cross beam things? Never seen it in the editor O.o

- However, and this especially goes for sc1,sc2, and war3 fun/custom-maps: game design and fun will keep the players coming back to your map. If one wants them to be coming back (i.e. the map is popular) they will give a damn about your terrain and play the map because it is so funny mechanics wise. The real art is, imho, to place as many beautiful things in your map as possible, but to never let them hinder your mechanics. A balance process which is actually effing hard, imho.

- One last thing (and in case you did, just ignore this), but do you know/watch GSL? They have the perfect examples for how a map can look effing awesome and still fulfill all conditions to be playable as a melee map on the highest standards (world's top 100 players using them every day). Names of the maps I am talking about are: Metropolis, Belshir Beach and now from the tl contest: Cloud Kingdom.

Quote from BardockTD: Go

omg, when I was saving my map, the editor crashed. now my map is corrupt and I dont have a recent backup -_-

I enjoyed your map a lot. That's sad. But I am curious: how did you make the trap towers? I am very new to behaviours and I wonder how exactly do you apply the behaviour in the first place? (some aura? via attack of the trap tower? trigger?) Best regards,

BlacKcuD

• edit* omg I am sorry if this is an old thread. I was like Jan 2012 :E

Quote from DrSuperEvil: Go

No you cannot add new ones but you can rename existing ones.

Where must one look to change these names? I really like to rename one!

• edit* solved: Main Menu -> Modules -> Text (F8)

To fix your vanishing actors try the following: In the upgraded tower add 2 actor events:

Abil Morph Finish
Morph To UpgradedTower
Create

Abil Morph Finish
Morph From UpgradedTower
Destroy

Same for every tower including the first one. The actor events will create a two-way create/destroy chain sort of. I don't know if this is the cleanest solution, but it works without errors.

Just watched the video. Omg you are my lifesaver! Very very nice find! Thank you very much.

Quote from Kueken531: Go

@BlacKcuD: Go

I changed the team color of the runner. The way I realized it, the arrows are actually attached to the runner and inherit its team color, so changing the runners color affects the arrow as well; also the arrows die as soon as I remove the runner (I added an additional 10 seconds delay, though). Quote:

how do you command an actor to use a specific variant of the model (like with landing lights)

You can use the ModelSwap actor message to specify a specific variant. Quote:

So: How do I hide the actors until everything is placed and how do I destroy/show them all at once (I couldn't find a trigger to do such a thing.

You can send all kinds of actor messages to actors via trigger, for example Hide or Set Opacity. If you use my method, you could also do the same from within the events. Quote:

Should I plant some units instead?)

I wouldn't recommend it.

All set and done. I found out parts of it myself while looking through your example map. I am fairly new to actors and events (I am more like a trigger-guy.)

Thank you again for your example map. I was able to use your actors to modify my example to make it much better looking and waaaay more efficent :)

Quote from ScorpSCII: Go

The thing that OneTwo (the one who made the TD you're refering to) did was to have an invisible unit run the map, and then create these lights every X seconds at its current position. Give the lights a timed life behavior or use triggers to drestroy them afterwards.

That's exactly my problem as of right now.

I implemented a system with an invisible runner and my maze system allows for very narrow chokes and sharp turns so I couldn't make the runner very fast. I am planting down "Landing Lights" Actors to plot the way which disappear after some seconds (so you see a worm like thing crawling through your maze).

However, I don't know enough about actors to do the following to things: hide all actors until the path is done and then show all at once. Afterwards destroy all actors together (so you actually see the whole done plotted way at once and not a worm like thing / building up).

@kueken: how did you change the color of the arrows? how do you command an actor to use a specific variant of the model (like with landing lights)

So: How do I hide the actors until everything is placed and how do I destroy/show them all at once (I couldn't find a trigger to do such a thing. Should I plant some units instead?)

Hi everyone,

There was a map in the early days of SC2 that had this feature. It would print the anticipated path of the mobs through your maze with signal-lights on the ground. Like an "ant train".

I am really curious if anybody of you remembers a map in which I could look up this system.

Secondly, I like to add such a feature to my current td project. At best without a dummy unit. Is there some way to access/calculate the required points along this path?

In theory, one might send an invisible unit (side question: what is the correct way to create an invisible dummy unit in sc2?), which is quite fast, through the maze and every .1 seconds a doodad is dropped/created at the invisible runner's position. All these doodads are added to a group and before a new "plotting run" is started, all doodads from that group are removed.

Is there a quicker/easier/better way to accomplish this?

best regards,

Quote from Kueken531: Go

The Starcraft 2 scripting language and triggers are superior to WC3s, also you don't need to worry about something like memory leaks anymore usually. Also the engine itself is designed for more units etc on the map, generally for more models, more effects, more action in the game. On the other hand the graphics are way more demanding in SC2, you can easily drop the FPS with huge amounts or high-res models and stuff.

I would say, it is not that important to optimize every little bit of code; a 0.5 second update rate for a leaderboard would not cause any trouble, if there is nothing else correlated to it. However, this was pretty much the case for WC3 as well, if you cleaned up memory leaks etc. You just need to care about, what you do, and how you do it. For example, doing stuff like setting variables or easy calculations 16 times a second is fine. Spawning some units is fine as well. But don't spawn units 16 times a second, that will definitely affect the performance.

Rule of thumb: Don't worry about one time actions or stuff, which happens less than 1 time per second, until you notice it causing problems. For everything faster than that, try to avoid costly functions like creating units or other complex objects and calculations. If you are unsure, feel free to ask again in the forums.

If you don't do something stupid, you most likely don't need to worry all that much about your trigger performance. The other big reason for performance problems is massive effect- and model spam. Large amounts or hugely scaled particle effects, units or doodads can easily cause some FPS issues.

Thank you for you quick and broad explanation. I just ran the map online with three people and it was completely lag free despite 600 units getting perma psi-stormed (test wave meets test tower :-o). Me so happy \:D/

Quote from Bilxor: Go

Wow that looks awesome... mind sharing what options you played with to do it?

Every texture set has a "Lighting" associated with it. To modify these Lightings go to Window -> Lighting. There are tons of sliders to adjust the lighting of your map. If you move the window to the side you may preview it very easily and adjust until you find something you like. Don't overdo it thou!