SC2Mapster

@DuckyTheDuck: Go

Your most of the way there, your problem lies with transparency

Some areas (small dustings) of the shakuras_sand texture are 100% transparent When you go 'Remove Alpha Channel' in gimp you effectively convert all alpha to white (the same as sliding a solid white background under the image) This washes out the color difference and worse, the 100% alpha areas become 100% white, killing all color that was there on the diffuse map (Those strange teal specs on the ground) :(

• What you want to do is right click the layer, go 'Add Layer Mask...'
• Pick 'Transfer Layer's Alpha Channel'
• This splits the layer into 2 sides, Color and Alpha..
• Now right click and go 'Delete Layer Mask' to remove the Alpha without compromising the color

Alternativly you can just copy the origonal 1024x1024 pixls, create a new 2048x2048 image, paste the pixls into the new image 4 times and you should be able to move and play with them even though you have alpha in there :)

I'm not sure what alpha is used for in terrain diffuse.. possibly something to do with shaders or lighting, but without adding it back in you will still have normal looking ground.

@Azzaaer: Go

Yes, trying to figure it out now

The player name on mouseover is disabled in the blizzard map Aiur Chief

There are still Highlight Texts displayed for those units with text already set in the actor data (or added using triggers) AND with the unit flag "No Highlight Text" disabled.

@JJ436: Go

If ya send me your map ill have a look and see if I can spot anything strange... Will look into it a bit tomorrow.
Anyhow, its a repica of the Marauder but has a new missile unit/actor, so uses the standard Marauder site/ops and whatnot right?

@wOlfLisK: Go

Name: Matthew (Umbra Lamina)
Help type: Data, Triggers, Terrain, Galaxy, Model Conversions, Texturing>
Specialty: Pritty much all of the editor functions other than layout files (So far), texturing in GIMP and Photoshop, Basic 3ds Max
Maps: A multyplayer FPS, A single player FPS, A top down survival map, A FPS library
Contact: MSN
Time Zone: New Zealand (+12 Hours GMT)

@JJ436: Go

My bad, I ment to say

Actor->Attack Actor->Art - Missile:

Your right, The 'Launch Asset' field is for launch sounds,models (muzzle flash)

When I had this problem I had the 'Effect->Launch Missile->Unit - Ammo Unit' set incorrectly but the 'Actor->Attack Actor->Art - Missile' correct. All shots got fired out of the model origon (x,y,z = 0) no matter the Site operators or fallbacks. I think it works the other way around as well though. Basically once those two are set up your able to START adjusting where it launches from.

Sorry 2 say it guys, but I think he is trolling you...

@JJ436: Go

Hit this problem yesterday

It could be that you need to link the

EDIT: Actor->Attack Actor->Art - Missile: to the Actor of your projectile

AND

Effect->Launch Missile->Unit - Ammo Unit: to the Unit of your projectile

The respective Actor/Unit links should be to the 'Unit Actor' and its 'Unit' (of type Projectile)

It dosn't make sense that you need an actor handle given you already have a unit handle (in the effect), you would think it could just use the Unit's scope and send a message to the _Unit alias to get the right actor, but hay...

It's proberbly necessary when using placeholder units or some other strange case... makes life harder but adds more functionality/adaptibility to the editor in the long run. Hope this helps...

@MoonAndStars: Go

First load up the editor and create a map, when your creating it click 'Modify' beside the dependancies dropdown box, then click 'Add Standard...' then check the 'Liberty (Campaign)' item. This will give you access to everything used in the single player campain. If you have already started making your map go to 'File->Dependencies...' and do the same thing.

Now to copy an existing unit to do your magic on.

Your looking at a few different things to do this, all of em are in the 'data' section of the editor (The blue icon that looks like a marine from the belt up w/ a gun)

In 'data' there is a drop down box labled 'Data Type' this tells you what your looking at, set it to 'Units'

Navigate through these folders, Campaign->Terran->Hero now right click on Rory Swann and go 'Duplicate Unit...' (Blizzard seems to love using elipses in their forms o_0)

By going duplicate rather than copy you have the option of copying things related to the unit... the only one we want is the 'actor' called 'Dutch' This will give you your unit Rory-Swann Copy(the copy of all the stats and controls for a real ingame unit) and an actor called 'Dutch (Unnamed) Copy' (the thing that has has an ingame model, can be clicked (if its type unit actor, alias _Selectable, and its unit has the right flags) and moves around/animates when the game tells it to).

None of those little details matter at your level of mapping, but it will all make senes if you stick with the sorded world of galaxy for long enough!

OK, so now you have a unit (that looks like a tough engineer with a mechanical claw for an arm) The problem is he attacks stuff, hes a hero (nasty hero icon on the bottom right of your screen) and he can place turrets.

First we change his name, Select the unit 'Rory Swann Copy' and go control+enter. You will see 'Name:' set this to Engineer (its what you see ingame), 'ID:' This is what the editor (and occasionaly YOU, see when your playing with your map files... dont worry to much about this at this level of mapping, just go 'Surggest'... an ID cant have spaces or insane characters... Now go OK and you have renamed him

Next we change the units properties, to do this you want your UI looking like mine, so you can follow my instructions... so click the brown buttons at the top of the screen, you want 'View Raw Data' The far left at the VERY top to NOT be pressed (this makes the editor show the real (complicated) values that you dont need to wory about yet..., the other 5 brown buttons to the right of the brown 'View Raw Data' should be pressed in while you work with me, many of em you wont want pressed in while you are learning but you will need for this guide.

Now if you have your unit 'Engineer' selected I want you to scroll down to the field 'Unit - Flags' and deselect the 'hero' flag (This gives him hero properties). Now scroll up to 'Editor - Editor Categories' and set 'Object Type:' from 'Hero' to 'Unit'. This will move where you see the unit in the editor from where heros are kept to where normal units are.

Next we remove his attack, go to 'Combat - Weapons +' and delete both 'Swann - Concussive Grenade' (his ranged) and 'Swann - Fist' (his melee) attacks.

*Spoiler*

If you think back to the campain, on the level in which you get to use swan you cant loose your heros... they just kinda chillax on no HP untill they respawn.

*Spoiler Ends*

You DONT want this, so go to 'Behavior - Behaviors +' and remove (Valerian02a - Hero Death Prevention)...

Next remove his nasty little turret 'Flaiming Betty', To do this, go 'Ability - Abilitys +' and delete 'Swann - Place Turret' (this removes the ability from him), Now go to 'Ability - Command Card +' and remove 'Place Flaming Betty (Dutch)' (this removes the icon for the ability).

Next comes his abbilitys... we need to remove that turret he has 'Flaiming Betty' , we also need to give him the weapon that will steal enemy buildings < 25% hp, kill 25% hp off enemy buildings > 25% hp, fully heal ally buildings < 100% hp, do nothing to ally buildings = 100% hp... For this we need a few new 'Data Source:' tabs, so far we have worked in 'Units', now we move to 'Weapons' (Alternaty we could make an ability to do this, but I think you want it strapped to his attack command like in red alert)

Ok, so your in Weapons, time to create a snazy Engineering Weapon for your unit... right click and go 'Add Weapon...' Set 'Name:' to Engineer, 'ID:' to 'Suggest' button, 'Weapon Type:' to 'Generic', 'Race:' to Terran and hit 'OK'

Ok, now time set an icon for your weapon, Go to the field 'UI - Icon' and navigate to 'Assets/Textures/btn-techupgrade-terran-automatedselfrepair.dds' You don't have to pick this icon, if you want a different one look around the rest of the btn- textures, they are the ones designed for these kinds of icons.

Set the 'UI - Tooltip' field to something appropriate for what the engineer does. The next step is to link this weapon to its effect (the thing that does the work) which we haven't made yet. To make it, you have to change from the 'Data Type' you are in (Weapons) to the 'Data Type' (Effects).

Have to leave for work, ill finsh the rest of this off for you sometime tonight. The long and short of it is that you need to create 4 effects, one for each of the three cases of building ownership/damage that you want to deal with. And one that links to the weapon, checks which case it is, and then tells the effect for that to activate.

Then you simply link the unit to the weapon, the weapon to the selecter effect, and make a few more minor tweeks to the unit and your done.

Let me know how your going up to this point

Gl man, nobel effort

Epic Tut man, defiantly a under rated feature! For a look at how to convert a single custom value into hundreds of bit flag values check out this tutorial.

This tutorial will teach you how to use bitwise pre-set types and how to get hundreds of yes/no bit flags out of a single unit custom value (each unit in the game has up to 66 total)...

Create the two following preset types

Custom Flags
  Value Type: Bit Flag (Base Type: Integer, Use As Bit Flags)
  Values: YesNoValueOne
          YesNoValueTwo
          YetAnotherBitFlag
          UnitHasGodMode

Bitwise Binary Operators
  Value Type: Custom Script (Integer)
  Values: AND // Script Value: &
          OR // Script Value: |
          XOR // Script Value: ^

Put as many values into 'Custom Flags' as you like, you can have hundreds of yes/no flags on your unit per custom value.

If you do not know about unit custom values, check this link before continuing [Triggers - Beginner] Custom Values and Their Use, if you do not know about bitwise logic please Google it, it is a moderately advanced concept...

Next we will create a 'Set' action and 'Get' function to store and load our custom flags onto a unit.

Converting from the pre-set to a real (custom value) is easy (real from (int from pre-set))

Set Umbra's Custom Flag
  Options: Action
  Return Type: (None)
  Parameters: InputUnit = (any default will do) <Unit>
              Custom_Flag <Preset -> Custom Flags>
  Local Variables: CustomIndex = 5 <Integer>
                   CustomValue = (Real((Integer(Custom_Flag)))) <Real>
  Actions:
    Unit - Set InputUnit custom value CustomIndex to CustomValue

Converting from a real (custom value) to your pre-set is NOT easy however.

Galaxy doesn’t like you converting in this direction and tries to protect you against it (Because you can overflow the number of pre-set values. I.E. set value >= (2^(prset of bit values)) To get around this protection either code as a custom script or do the following...

• set up your 'get' trigger with your bit flag variable as an int rather than the preset type you want to use.
• Once the trigger is ready change the variable from type int to type preset-> (your preset)

Get Umbra's Custom Flag
  Options: Function
  Return Type: Preset -> Custom Flags
  Parameters: InputUnit = (any default will do) <Unit>
  Local Variables: CustomIndex = 5 <Integer>
                   CustomValue = 0.0 <Real>
                   CustomFlags = 0 <Integer> // Change to <Preset -> Custom Flags> later
  Actions:
    Variable - Set CustomValue = (Custom value CustomIndex of InputUnit)
    Variable - CustomFlags = (Integer(CustomValue))

Just a warning... if you now click on '(Custom value CustomIndex of InputUnit)' line can set the input data to any variable you want... INCLUDING dialogs/regions/etc. doing this will break your code, the 'Custom Flags' preset is an INT type so only ever pipe int (or other presets) into it!!!

Now you have an huge large set of bit flags for any unit, you just need to use them... Simple bitwise algebra is fully supported in galaxy (though there are no good built in functions that will do it!)

You are going to have to make your own; here are some logical operators for you to get you started...

& // AND (= valueTwo & valueOne) Only flags true in both valueOne AND valueTwo
| // OR (= valueTwo | valueOne) any flags true in valueOne OR valueTwo
^ // XOR (= valueTwo ^ valueOne) only flags true JUST valueOne OR JUST valueTwo
~ // 1s Compliment (= ~value) any true flags are false and vica verca
<< // Shift Left (= <<value) each flag gets the value of the flag to it's right
>> // Shift Right (= >>value) each flag gets the value of the flag to it's left
>>> // Unsigned Shift Right (= >>>value) see above, however first value gets a 0

(I have not tested them all, if you have more to add/if some of them don’t work, please let me know!)

Here are three sample functions you can use to play with your new bit values.

Check Relevant Bits
Options: Condition, Operator
Return Type: Boolean
Parameters: value <Any Preset>
            relevantBits <Same As>
            comparison <Preset->Any Comparison Operator> // Already exists in Built-In
Custom Script Code:
  // Check whether reference bit flags are true in the given value.
  (#PARAM(relevantBits) #PARAM(comparison) (#PARAM(value) & #PARAM(relevantBits)))

Compare Relevant Bits
Options: Condition, Operator
Return Type: Boolean
Parameters: valueOne <Any Preset>
            valueTwo <Same As>
            relevantBits <Same As>
Custom Script Code:
  // If the relevant bit flags in valueOne and valueTwo are the same.
  ((#PARAM(valueOne) & #PARAM(relevantBits)) != (#PARAM(valueTwo) & #PARAM(relevantBits))
  // There is a bug when inputting 'Bit Flag' presets, if you are wanting to use the
  // 'value' tab to setup a preset value you will need to set the preset to a variable
  // rather than filling it in at the function call, otherwise the first flag you select 
  // will not be used.

Bitwise Operation (Binary)
Options: Function, Operator
Return Type: Integer
Parameters: valueOne <Any Preset>
            valueTwo <Same As>
            operator <Bitwise Binary Operators> // Preset you made earlier
Custom Script Code:
  //Returns the two values operated on each other
  (#PARAM(valueOne) #PARAM(operator) #PARAM(valueTwo))
  // operator is preset value type custom script, script value is a &(AND) |(OR) ^(XOR)

Quote from nevjmac: Go

I plan to implement high scores and achievements though, so there will be a competitive side to it

Can I recomend that you use encrypted bank files to do this, then have each player's list auto combine at the start of each game to create a semi server wide list (keeping the top 500 or so scores)... (there wouldnt be complete consistancy but the effect would be close enough) Also you could place custom textures (or team colours if ya feeling lazy) on units/buildings of players currently in the top xx slots of the highscore list (as a nod) its easy enough to implement and there are already custom textures in there for most units (i.e. all protoss units/buildings have the _dark texture seen on the relic missions)

Also if ya want a data, texture, and/or trigger editor give me a yell, soulds like a cool project.

@s3rius: Go

Ill put up a proof of concept map at some point soon (next week or so) that explains the targeting system, and a bit of a tutorial explaining how to implement it. Basically it's a quite a bit of a hack but it allows mouse position detection without any clicking.

Edit: Hope to give ya some more help soon as well : P, been very busy for a while but it should let up soon.

Most of your post is very good... 1 & 1/2 thumbs up :D For purely visual elements you make some very good points... 11/10

Though I can't agree w/ you on button layout designs (at least not for the purposes we will have in most UMS maps.)

Quote from Aenigma: Go

3. Think mouseclick distances when designing UI. Square and circle layouts are always better than long rows of icons.

An interesting claim... fitts law would agree but for the fact that a row of buttons along a screen edge is alot faster to click. (Mac OS X uses this logic to justify the Dock & Top-Of-Screen menus they use)

With a square button along the screen edge, you can overshoot and still hit the button (the screen edge stops the cursor, allowing you to point much faster and removing over/under shooting concerns). Circle shapes dont allign RIGHT to the edge of the screen so (at least appare to) require accuracy when pointing to them, this increases the time to do so, also a segmented circle is usually limited to 4-5 buttons before becomeing cluttered (rings do better but still)... (Ooh and the grid layout option will cause most (if not all) of your buttons to be floating away from the screen edge, so is bad for the same reason)

Your wow UI is great for an expert user, (I would happly use it myself) as high level users use hotkeys. But for a novice they are ALOT more likely to point and click most of their spells rather than hotkey them. Most UMS maps will be played a few dozen times at most by any given player. Therefore design your UI to reduce the learning curve, and to optomise point-and-click use of spells.

Blizzard employs some very skilled UI designers, theres always a reson to what they do, BUT its not always a reson that is applicable to a UMS map. Wow has a good UI for a newbie confronted with 2^1337 abbilitys (For a UMS map this realy is far to many)... it gets his/her 20-30 'regulers' on the screen and has the space to deal with em, its optomised for the fact he/she still clicks rather than hotkeys... (space for 24 square buttons touching the screen edge is just good sense for a noob given the flood of abbilitys they have to deal with).

As a side note, spend your time making a good map/ui not adding customiseation... (No one wants to play a 2nd rate map, even if the password screen is quite possibly the most customisable, beautiful, teachnologicaly advanced creation this side of the 25th century)

For high skill players the WoW hotkey inefficent UI is highly customisable (no two skilled players are going to want the same layout). This lesson does not apply at all to most UMS maps... With XMLs if you find your map has gone cult and you are the new icefrogs by ALL means allow customisation ('experting' of hotkeys or even the UI itself!!!) but untill you go tripple platnium customisation is not a major concern in a UMS.

For a bit more info about the science of point and click visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law#Success_and_implications

Edit: Nothing against the UI customisation libary itself, just... use moderation, keep your development time balanced...

There seems to be a huge <3 for a reaper hero here...

If you do make one theres a nifty hack you can do to its jumping to make it so that it can only jump down cliffs... (Ambush but not easy escape from every situation)

If you try to do this by behaviour to not have a jump up mover, the game crashes, and if you give a mover that cant complete the jump the same happens.

Replace the first line of 'cliff' pathing allong the top of the ridge line with ground pathing, this will let your units walk realisticaly close to the cliff edge, and will prevent the reaper being able to jump UP the cliff... Diagram below. (G = Ground Pathing, C = Cliff Pathing, X=Below Ground)

• (Shape of Cliff)
• _ _ _
• XXXX|
• XXXX|_

• (Initial Pathing)
• GGCC
• XXXXC
• XXXXCG

• (Changed Pathing)
• GGGC
• XXXXC
• XXXXCG

Allows you more control over jump moves...