SC2Mapster

Deaod and I have been testing Load Next Map, and have found:

• Map Loading will work if the map is launched from the editor and the map is in the Maps subdirectory of the program's directory or a comparable path within the mpqs; maps within the Maps path in the mpqs (like the Campaign and Challenge maps) can be loaded, for instance.
• Map Loading will not work in multiplayer, regardless of path or publish status.

Basically, single player campaigns are possible, provided you launch from the editor. Those multiplayer campaigns some of us had been hoping for are not possible at this time, and I don't expect they will be in the future.

Sadly, there appear to be hardcoded callbacks for melee AIs, so melee AI is not entirely moddable. Campaign AIs, on the other hand, appear to be fully accessible, so the user can control them completely. Remember to call AIStart(player,true,apm).

Quote from MotiveMe: Go

The Galaxy language itself is also (afaik) memory-leak free and garbage collected, so you won't get games that slow down because of it, or spend time calling natives to delete points, unitgroups, etc

From the native.galaxy comments:

Many native types represent "complex" objects (i.e. larger than 4 bytes). The script language automatically keeps track of these objects and deletes them from memory when they are no longer used (that is, when nothing in the script references them any longer). The types which benefit from automatic deletion are:

• abilcmd
• bank
• camerainfo
• marker
• order
• playergroup
• point
• region
• soundlink
• string
• text
• timer
• transmissionsource
• unitfilter
• unitgroup
• unitref
• waveinfo
• wavetarget

Other object types must be explicitly destroyed with the appropriate native function when you are done using them.

Well, of course. I post about it because there didn't appear to be any topics or tools concerned with modding font styles.

If you've been working with text, you've probably noticed the style option, which can define the size of the text, the font, and sometimes color. While the color tool is directly accessible in the text style options, the style presets are inaccessible from the editor. I've found the location of the style presets: Core.SC2Mod\Base.SC2Data -> UI\FontStyles.SC2Style

If you wanted your map to support a variety of custom styles, you may be able to import your own SC2Style file into your mod or map; I have not tested this. It seems like an area open to some third-party tool development.

• Paint terrain textures with finer precision.
• Terrain deformation at finer scales.
• Directly alterable pathing layer.
• Convert (some) terrain from other Blizzard games.
• Supports free placement and scalability of most objects.
• Supports multiple water types.
• Allows custom races.
• More complete trigger GUI / galaxy that grants much greater control over game objects.
• The UI is entirely moddable from maps.
• Mods are natively support; no further need for 3rd-party mod launchers.
• Maps support more players (currently 16 while, according to game data, the max player limit is 32).
• Support for several custom resources, such as Terrazine, Custom, and Research Points.
• Game engine has its own physics, to an extent.
• Most importantly, so little is hardcoded; all the objects are ours to shape as we see fit.

This is just a fraction, though, of SC2's improvements over WC3.