The aim of this post is to bestow an open version of the currently famous site SC2Mapster.com to every user.
Ever see a thread you want to learn more from but the original poster or a moderator locked it, preventing further converse over it?
(*really* sorry EternalWraith, this is in no way a call out to you, I'm just hoping you appreciate what I'm doing here is all ;) )
I strongly discourage thread-jacking so, please, use this for educational purposes ONLY.
It did not involve:
- GUI trigger reconstruction; I am not planning to create a tool for this in the future;
- any intentional changes to the normal function of the web site;
- serious reformatting, lack of time has prevented this;
- Any serious consideration that this is anything but an exposure of the hypocrisy of leaving the thread up.
Use this responsibly! I cannot regurgitate this enough: do NOT upload this post to other SC2mapster threads unless serious change to the post has occured, ie. where the post, in no shape or form, represents the original post. Ignoring my warnings will lead to possible banning by SC2Mapster mods who support map cracking, and if such event were to occur I hold no responsibility for such bans.
Regards,
BumpInTheNight
Unlocking a Locked SC2Mapster thread:
NOTE: Hopefully, creating this guide will ensure SC2Mapster's web developers increases its enthusiasm in updating its lock thread feature. It sure is lacking, compared to every other forum software on the internet.
1. Find a locked thread you would like to learn from by interacting with it further.
2. Find a post in the thread, then click the reply button associated with it, as seen here:
3. Insert your own educational modifications to the thread in the dialog box below.
4. Click the reply button at the bottom of the dialog box.
ED: By nuking this post or banning me, you are definitely exposing the hypocrisy. Please if you do, don't ban me :P
That method (linear beam attack) isn't the same as this method at all and frankly doesn't work anything like this one, its not a missile at all really. The collision effect in this one comes from the rapid search effect being called by a behavior onboard of the missile, to get the missile to behave like a proper one though that nukes itself you need to change what that searcher does. In the example here its just burning everything it gets within range of, instead you want to make a new effect Set and then have both the damage effect and a 'suicideself' effect in that set, then the set should be what the searcher is calling instead.
Now your missile will kill itself when it does damage to something. As Progammer mentioned to get them to also die on cliffs you need something to compare what the cliff height is and if its higher then desired to again call a suicideself effect to remove from game.
I'd start in the custom games forum of battlenet myself. Against all probability it seems Blizzard does occasionally react to things posted in there, people like Rodrigo have proven it. Just that whole icky problem of the forum's mods historically not taking kindly to exposing such short comings of their products and invoking the ol ban hammer on anyone who does.
I'm also definitely all for the sharing of knowledge on how to do things with the editor, hell I'd be dead in the water long ago if it wasn't for yourself and countless others posting their discoveries and ambitions within these forums and the results of other people's input on them. I'd like to think I put in as much as I can towards the expansion of the knowledge as well and could hazard a rough estimate that way most of my posts here are helping others vs asking questions that I'm seeking answers for. Just for my personal map making ambitions I don't actually have any stake in trying to hide the contents of the project I'm working on, more a matter of until that 250ms lag is delt with for player actions it makes the whole thing kinda pointless so I keep it mothballed, also the code is very ugly and I'm not very proud of how some of it works :P Still doesn't stop me from explaining how a particular demo or aspect of it works to anyone who asks though that's for sure.
Beyond that though I definitely don't agree with a situation where people who are actively trying to keep their released maps from being dissected are getting cut off at the knees by people who point big neon signs at the holes that let it happen, unless those signs can also be seen and hopefully rendered moot by the people who left the holes in the first place.
ED: Speaking of holes, okay now I'm really curious: Why the hell aren't locked maps encrypted when they are taking off the server and then decrypted as needed by the starcraft client?
I ended up making my own Timer window using a dialog and rapidly updating its text with the timer's time converted to the text. Yah we're kinda boned for a lot of things when we use the blanket 'hide UI' option, had to make up my own score board dialog too etc.
Anyone who really supports the exposure of cracking of maps: Put your ideals where your mouths are and post links to this thread in the battlenet forums, light this fire properly if you're so insistent on the nobility of keeping it alight.
The educational value of cracking maps does not trump the desires of those who create the maps themselves, nothing should trump what a creator wants to do with their work and its very arrogant to force that into any other position. There are many reasons besides greed to want to keep a map's inner workings from its players and as you mentioned with the bank system that is an excellent example. I guess its easy to support an all open environment when your strongest ambition is to teach, but for those that want to create maps that have any reliance on some of its workings not being accessible to its player's scrutiny this fails.
ED: Added a little qualifier to that first statement, I know that this is all basically to stop this sort of thing from happening in the long run.
Nope, because that's illegal. If you were selling your map, that would be a completely different story. However with that in mind, when the Premium marketplace comes out, this is something you should be worried about. If people can unlock maps then they will most certainly unlock Premium ones.
Well, I dunno about you but when I read the EULA's 2nd section
term E: "Modify or cause to be modified any files that are part of the Game in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;"
term I: "Use the Map Editor (defined below) to access or edit anything other then content included in an authorized copy of the STARCRAFT II licensed to you."
Keeping in mind that section 3 basically explains that all content created with the editor (like locked maps) are owned by blizzard...
Then follow up with the description of the 'locked' setting in publishing is basically saying its to not let other people open or edit a map...
You are supporting the hacking of blizzard property. Beyond that anyone with half a brain can understand that people who put the setting to locked do no wish for the maps to be 'open source', even if you ignore the above you are also basically giving a big finger to the map makers who want their maps locked at this point. Between these two things you are causing tremendous damage to this site's reputation and frankly alienating its user base at the same time. You can't honestly say you are blind to what you are doing here, can you still? Please, you come across as much smarter then that.
ED: Now, blizzard not having a genuinely effective locking mechanism is also giving a big finger to us, but frankly exposing just how weak it is and posting a how-to on bypassing it is not something that many of us feel is a good way to handle it, in fact I think its only you and the sockpuppet who posted it who in support of trying to force blizzard's hand in this manner.
Wouldn't stop someone from copy/pasting the triggers and data adjustments whole-sale to a new map. You could probably also just copy/paste the contents of the raw mpq file to a new map that you wanted as well and get around it too.
If I understand it right I think he's suggesting they use the encryption half of an archiving process, which I think would make a lot of sense. Just those pesky 'sending encrypted data into several dozen countries and how they all deal with that' thing is in the way I bet. I mean imagine if maps were transferred as encrypted files instead that were opened on the fly by the client as it read them into memory. Sure the reverse engineering then becomes a matter of finding the spot in memory where that key is determined on the client side but then you have them clearly screwing with the program's memory which well...if they'd also then go and make the executables for the game and editor 64bit...bah that's now a pipe dream due to all the old hardware being used to play.
True enough eh? Firefox for me just tries to display the raw file but IE knows its a file and asks me what I want to do with it (the desired behavior).
Oh hey I'm not alone in this then eh? Yah does it to me too, I originally thought it was something about when I reinstalled SC2 but now I think its more that there is a disconnect between what the site is telling the browser its about to receive so the browser no long goes and looks for a suitable app to accept the incoming file.
Short of it: Pretty sure this is a server-site problem that needs a server-side solution, just right-click save-link-as instead for now.
There is a genuine difference and there is no comparison here.
Okay then, what is the ethical difference between posting instructions on how to bypass the Blizzard map locking system and posting instructions on how to bypass the Blizzard copyright system?
ED: Also considering OP's obviously sockpuppet-account type and post count, I'm pretty sure even he's got a better understanding of how this can piss off the map making community.
Further ED: So there's also nothing wrong with say me posting a link in the blizzard forums to this thread and saying that SC2mapster will show you how to break the locks on Blizzard's map system? Because you know if nothing is wrong with this sort of thing then that's pretty much what I intend to do. If the goal is to force blizzard to create a stronger lock system well that's about the best way to apply the pressure, right? Wait on second thought I'd rather not get banned, why don't you do it Sixen?
So, why is it okay for him to post instructions on how to bypass the protections used to lock maps, but its wrong to post links to say nocd cracks for the game. What is the difference, exactly? I mean if blizzard doesn't want people to get at the game for free they shouldn't have released it, right? We both know there is a genuine difference here, but you're coming across like there isn't and its completely ethical and okay to reverse engineer people's work against their wishes and do things with it against their wishes, ie "because there is no way to 100% lock a map then its okay to crack the locks that exist". So yah, there is a double-standard here and that's I think what has us upset.
0
Does it feature Denis Hopper? Because anything to do with Space Truckers needs Denis Hopper :P
/was kinda hoping this was a competitive economic/trader style game, still sounds interesting though.
0
The aim of this post is to bestow an open version of the currently famous site SC2Mapster.com to every user.
Ever see a thread you want to learn more from but the original poster or a moderator locked it, preventing further converse over it?
(*really* sorry EternalWraith, this is in no way a call out to you, I'm just hoping you appreciate what I'm doing here is all ;) )
I strongly discourage thread-jacking so, please, use this for educational purposes ONLY.
It did not involve:
- GUI trigger reconstruction; I am not planning to create a tool for this in the future;
- any intentional changes to the normal function of the web site;
- serious reformatting, lack of time has prevented this;
- Any serious consideration that this is anything but an exposure of the hypocrisy of leaving the thread up.
Use this responsibly! I cannot regurgitate this enough: do NOT upload this post to other SC2mapster threads unless serious change to the post has occured, ie. where the post, in no shape or form, represents the original post. Ignoring my warnings will lead to possible banning by SC2Mapster mods who support map cracking, and if such event were to occur I hold no responsibility for such bans.
Regards,
BumpInTheNight
Unlocking a Locked SC2Mapster thread:
NOTE: Hopefully, creating this guide will ensure SC2Mapster's web developers increases its enthusiasm in updating its lock thread feature. It sure is lacking, compared to every other forum software on the internet.
1. Find a locked thread you would like to learn from by interacting with it further.
2. Find a post in the thread, then click the reply button associated with it, as seen here:
3. Insert your own educational modifications to the thread in the dialog box below.
4. Click the reply button at the bottom of the dialog box.
ED: By nuking this post or banning me, you are definitely exposing the hypocrisy. Please if you do, don't ban me :P
0
@Sntenshi: Go
That method (linear beam attack) isn't the same as this method at all and frankly doesn't work anything like this one, its not a missile at all really. The collision effect in this one comes from the rapid search effect being called by a behavior onboard of the missile, to get the missile to behave like a proper one though that nukes itself you need to change what that searcher does. In the example here its just burning everything it gets within range of, instead you want to make a new effect Set and then have both the damage effect and a 'suicideself' effect in that set, then the set should be what the searcher is calling instead.
Now your missile will kill itself when it does damage to something. As Progammer mentioned to get them to also die on cliffs you need something to compare what the cliff height is and if its higher then desired to again call a suicideself effect to remove from game.
0
@Zuthilios: Go
Welcome to the Galaxy editor! ;)
0
@ProzaicMuze: Go
I'd start in the custom games forum of battlenet myself. Against all probability it seems Blizzard does occasionally react to things posted in there, people like Rodrigo have proven it. Just that whole icky problem of the forum's mods historically not taking kindly to exposing such short comings of their products and invoking the ol ban hammer on anyone who does.
I'm also definitely all for the sharing of knowledge on how to do things with the editor, hell I'd be dead in the water long ago if it wasn't for yourself and countless others posting their discoveries and ambitions within these forums and the results of other people's input on them. I'd like to think I put in as much as I can towards the expansion of the knowledge as well and could hazard a rough estimate that way most of my posts here are helping others vs asking questions that I'm seeking answers for. Just for my personal map making ambitions I don't actually have any stake in trying to hide the contents of the project I'm working on, more a matter of until that 250ms lag is delt with for player actions it makes the whole thing kinda pointless so I keep it mothballed, also the code is very ugly and I'm not very proud of how some of it works :P Still doesn't stop me from explaining how a particular demo or aspect of it works to anyone who asks though that's for sure.
Beyond that though I definitely don't agree with a situation where people who are actively trying to keep their released maps from being dissected are getting cut off at the knees by people who point big neon signs at the holes that let it happen, unless those signs can also be seen and hopefully rendered moot by the people who left the holes in the first place.
ED: Speaking of holes, okay now I'm really curious: Why the hell aren't locked maps encrypted when they are taking off the server and then decrypted as needed by the starcraft client?
0
I ended up making my own Timer window using a dialog and rapidly updating its text with the timer's time converted to the text. Yah we're kinda boned for a lot of things when we use the blanket 'hide UI' option, had to make up my own score board dialog too etc.
0
Anyone who really supports the exposure of cracking of maps: Put your ideals where your mouths are and post links to this thread in the battlenet forums, light this fire properly if you're so insistent on the nobility of keeping it alight.
@ProzaicMuze: Go
The educational value of cracking maps does not trump the desires of those who create the maps themselves, nothing should trump what a creator wants to do with their work and its very arrogant to force that into any other position. There are many reasons besides greed to want to keep a map's inner workings from its players and as you mentioned with the bank system that is an excellent example. I guess its easy to support an all open environment when your strongest ambition is to teach, but for those that want to create maps that have any reliance on some of its workings not being accessible to its player's scrutiny this fails.
ED: Added a little qualifier to that first statement, I know that this is all basically to stop this sort of thing from happening in the long run.
0
Well, I dunno about you but when I read the EULA's 2nd section
term E: "Modify or cause to be modified any files that are part of the Game in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;"
term I: "Use the Map Editor (defined below) to access or edit anything other then content included in an authorized copy of the STARCRAFT II licensed to you."
Keeping in mind that section 3 basically explains that all content created with the editor (like locked maps) are owned by blizzard...
Then follow up with the description of the 'locked' setting in publishing is basically saying its to not let other people open or edit a map...
You are supporting the hacking of blizzard property. Beyond that anyone with half a brain can understand that people who put the setting to locked do no wish for the maps to be 'open source', even if you ignore the above you are also basically giving a big finger to the map makers who want their maps locked at this point. Between these two things you are causing tremendous damage to this site's reputation and frankly alienating its user base at the same time. You can't honestly say you are blind to what you are doing here, can you still? Please, you come across as much smarter then that.
ED: Now, blizzard not having a genuinely effective locking mechanism is also giving a big finger to us, but frankly exposing just how weak it is and posting a how-to on bypassing it is not something that many of us feel is a good way to handle it, in fact I think its only you and the sockpuppet who posted it who in support of trying to force blizzard's hand in this manner.
0
@Kaprisvatten: Go
Wouldn't stop someone from copy/pasting the triggers and data adjustments whole-sale to a new map. You could probably also just copy/paste the contents of the raw mpq file to a new map that you wanted as well and get around it too.
0
@s3rius: Go
If I understand it right I think he's suggesting they use the encryption half of an archiving process, which I think would make a lot of sense. Just those pesky 'sending encrypted data into several dozen countries and how they all deal with that' thing is in the way I bet. I mean imagine if maps were transferred as encrypted files instead that were opened on the fly by the client as it read them into memory. Sure the reverse engineering then becomes a matter of finding the spot in memory where that key is determined on the client side but then you have them clearly screwing with the program's memory which well...if they'd also then go and make the executables for the game and editor 64bit...bah that's now a pipe dream due to all the old hardware being used to play.
0
@uiasdnmb: Go
True enough eh? Firefox for me just tries to display the raw file but IE knows its a file and asks me what I want to do with it (the desired behavior).
0
Oh hey I'm not alone in this then eh? Yah does it to me too, I originally thought it was something about when I reinstalled SC2 but now I think its more that there is a disconnect between what the site is telling the browser its about to receive so the browser no long goes and looks for a suitable app to accept the incoming file.
Short of it: Pretty sure this is a server-site problem that needs a server-side solution, just right-click save-link-as instead for now.
0
When I put 'missile ground' into the search box I get lots of threads just like this one.
0
Okay then, what is the ethical difference between posting instructions on how to bypass the Blizzard map locking system and posting instructions on how to bypass the Blizzard copyright system?
ED: Also considering OP's obviously sockpuppet-account type and post count, I'm pretty sure even he's got a better understanding of how this can piss off the map making community.
Further ED: So there's also nothing wrong with say me posting a link in the blizzard forums to this thread and saying that SC2mapster will show you how to break the locks on Blizzard's map system? Because you know if nothing is wrong with this sort of thing then that's pretty much what I intend to do. If the goal is to force blizzard to create a stronger lock system well that's about the best way to apply the pressure, right? Wait on second thought I'd rather not get banned, why don't you do it Sixen?
0
@Sixen: Go
So, why is it okay for him to post instructions on how to bypass the protections used to lock maps, but its wrong to post links to say nocd cracks for the game. What is the difference, exactly? I mean if blizzard doesn't want people to get at the game for free they shouldn't have released it, right? We both know there is a genuine difference here, but you're coming across like there isn't and its completely ethical and okay to reverse engineer people's work against their wishes and do things with it against their wishes, ie "because there is no way to 100% lock a map then its okay to crack the locks that exist". So yah, there is a double-standard here and that's I think what has us upset.