Wouldn't it be nice if you could duplicate an ability without worrying about which components of it need to be duplicated? Without worrying about actor fields being misnamed? Now you can, thanks to the magic of Templates!
Take your Rail Gun Snipe ability as an example. If someone were to make a Template for that ability, the only thing you would need to do to duplicate it would be to specify a few values like Damage and Model, which fill in the Template. All the tedious bullsh*t would be taken care of for you.
Templates can be made for pretty much any group of XML data, including annoying shit like leveled abilities and attachments.
You're right; there is no right way of doing things. But clearly, the easiest way of doing things is the one people should care about, especially if the easy way reduces a lot of dev time.
Using this tutorial, I was able to create a working turret attachment that actually fires. Yay! Thanks ProzaicMuze!
BUT you no longer need to understand attachments in order to create them, thanks to this program: http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/. Using it, I made a template out of my turret attachment. Now the only thing I need to do to create an attachment on a unit is specify four things:
the turret model
the beam model
the attachment point
the host unit
Everything else is copied automatically. :) You guys should try it out.
If you create a Template for a photon cannon or for a beam, you'll never need to worry about this problem again. As long as you setup your template correctly, my software (http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/) will copy your cannon/beam as many times as you want, and never forget to copy/link things. It's extremely useful. I already made a Turret Attachment Template, which creates a new turret that fires a new beam, all attached to an existing unit.
The actual right way to duplicate a photon cannon: in the XML data, replace every instance of "PhotonCannon" with "#id#", then turn that XML data into a template. Then use my tool (http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/) to duplicate that template as many times as you want, while filling in the value of #id# each time.
Quote from Crainy:
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, these errors are ugly and they will be hidden in the final release. The thing is, when i made the trailer, i wasnt aware that you could hide them. And for the "Destroyed" text: Theres actually alot of sound indication in the game, and a sound also plays when you kill someone. However, the Destroyed text together with the sound have a real kick to it whenever you kill someone that can only be noticed when you actually play it. They make killing alot more satisfying. Also, the text is just small enough that its not annoying, you actually dont even notice it in intense situations.
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Ahhh I see. Maybe the "Destroyed" text actually works, but it's hard to tell without sound. Maybe you should consider making an actual gameplay demo, showing exactly what you experience in the game (including sound).
This is probably a really dumb question, but how do I subscribe to a forum thread, such that I am notified about new replies to the thread?
Hiveworkshop has a really nice system where you can go to your "user control panel" and see all the threads you have subscribed to, see which ones have new replies/edits, etc. THW also auto-subscribes you to threads to which you replied. This way it's really quick and easy to see the threads you care about.
Is there anything similar for SC2Mapster? It's really f***ing annoying that I can't even see what people say in response to me. Unless I bookmark this page, I might even forget to check whether someone answered this question...
Wow. This gameplay trailer blew me away. I especially liked the camera work in the cinematic. How did you get the camera to move so smoothly between turns and pans? There was absolutely no jerking. Did you use splines or some special tool? This is by far the best camera work I have seen in any custom map trailer.
Some suggestions for improvement:
1) Fix those ugly red errors. If you're not yet sure how to fix them, at least do what SkrowFunk said and hide the error pane while recording your trailer.
2) As others said, improve the interface. However, focus on functionality over prettiness. Try to keep it simple and functional. Remember that the entire point of an interface is to give the player control.
3) Find a better word to use than "Destroyed". Destroyed could mean that you were just destroyed or you just destroyed your enemy; it's kind of ambiguous. Also make it smaller. It's pretty annoying to see that big text blocking your view so often. Also consider whether or not this text is even necessary. There are many other nicer ways to let the player know that he just killed someone: i.e. play a sound, display a special effect, etc.
This isn't actually a "compiler". The whole point of a compiler is that it translates one language into a lower level one (i.e. C --> Assembly, or Java --> Java bytecode). The lower level language is harder for humans to understand, but easier for machines to understand and/or execute.
The Galaxy Editor already validates our galaxy code. Are there situations where the editor's compiler thinks our code is good, but then fails to execute it in-game? I.e. are there situations where the Editor doesn't validate our code correctly? If so, is that what you are trying to fix? Does your program give better error messages than the Editor or something?
The only thing you told us about your program was what's on your to-do list; you never said what it currently does. Please clarify.
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In case any of you were wondering, there is now a better way to duplicate units which does not run into these kinds of issues: use Templates!
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Wouldn't it be nice if you could duplicate an ability without worrying about which components of it need to be duplicated? Without worrying about actor fields being misnamed? Now you can, thanks to the magic of Templates!
Take your Rail Gun Snipe ability as an example. If someone were to make a Template for that ability, the only thing you would need to do to duplicate it would be to specify a few values like Damage and Model, which fill in the Template. All the tedious bullsh*t would be taken care of for you.
Templates can be made for pretty much any group of XML data, including annoying shit like leveled abilities and attachments.
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You're right; there is no right way of doing things. But clearly, the easiest way of doing things is the one people should care about, especially if the easy way reduces a lot of dev time.
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Lol there's no other way people are going to give my shit the attention it deserves :(
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Using this tutorial, I was able to create a working turret attachment that actually fires. Yay! Thanks ProzaicMuze!
BUT you no longer need to understand attachments in order to create them, thanks to this program: http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/. Using it, I made a template out of my turret attachment. Now the only thing I need to do to create an attachment on a unit is specify four things:
Everything else is copied automatically. :) You guys should try it out.
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If you create a Template for a photon cannon or for a beam, you'll never need to worry about this problem again. As long as you setup your template correctly, my software (http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/) will copy your cannon/beam as many times as you want, and never forget to copy/link things. It's extremely useful. I already made a Turret Attachment Template, which creates a new turret that fires a new beam, all attached to an existing unit.
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The actual right way to duplicate a photon cannon: in the XML data, replace every instance of "PhotonCannon" with "#id#", then turn that XML data into a template. Then use my tool (http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/) to duplicate that template as many times as you want, while filling in the value of #id# each time.
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If you really want to make Templates (and make super duper powerful Templates), check out this program that I made: http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/starcraft-2-data-manager/
With it, you'd be able to make Templates that use more variables than just
idAND the variables would actually get filled in like you'd expect.0
When I saw this, I was like "HOLY SHIT BALLS AWESOME." :) Looks really well done and polished. Good job!
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@zeldarules28: It's kind of lame that you guys can't directly modify the forum code, but it sounds like the Curse staff should be working on it.
@VoidPotato: That's a good idea. I will do that from now on.
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Quote from Crainy:
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, these errors are ugly and they will be hidden in the final release. The thing is, when i made the trailer, i wasnt aware that you could hide them. And for the "Destroyed" text: Theres actually alot of sound indication in the game, and a sound also plays when you kill someone. However, the Destroyed text together with the sound have a real kick to it whenever you kill someone that can only be noticed when you actually play it. They make killing alot more satisfying. Also, the text is just small enough that its not annoying, you actually dont even notice it in intense situations.
----
Ahhh I see. Maybe the "Destroyed" text actually works, but it's hard to tell without sound. Maybe you should consider making an actual gameplay demo, showing exactly what you experience in the game (including sound).
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Hi all,
This is probably a really dumb question, but how do I subscribe to a forum thread, such that I am notified about new replies to the thread?
Hiveworkshop has a really nice system where you can go to your "user control panel" and see all the threads you have subscribed to, see which ones have new replies/edits, etc. THW also auto-subscribes you to threads to which you replied. This way it's really quick and easy to see the threads you care about.
Is there anything similar for SC2Mapster? It's really f***ing annoying that I can't even see what people say in response to me. Unless I bookmark this page, I might even forget to check whether someone answered this question...
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Wow. This gameplay trailer blew me away. I especially liked the camera work in the cinematic. How did you get the camera to move so smoothly between turns and pans? There was absolutely no jerking. Did you use splines or some special tool? This is by far the best camera work I have seen in any custom map trailer.
Some suggestions for improvement:
1) Fix those ugly red errors. If you're not yet sure how to fix them, at least do what SkrowFunk said and hide the error pane while recording your trailer.
2) As others said, improve the interface. However, focus on functionality over prettiness. Try to keep it simple and functional. Remember that the entire point of an interface is to give the player control.
3) Find a better word to use than "Destroyed". Destroyed could mean that you were just destroyed or you just destroyed your enemy; it's kind of ambiguous. Also make it smaller. It's pretty annoying to see that big text blocking your view so often. Also consider whether or not this text is even necessary. There are many other nicer ways to let the player know that he just killed someone: i.e. play a sound, display a special effect, etc.
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This isn't actually a "compiler". The whole point of a compiler is that it translates one language into a lower level one (i.e. C --> Assembly, or Java --> Java bytecode). The lower level language is harder for humans to understand, but easier for machines to understand and/or execute.
The Galaxy Editor already validates our galaxy code. Are there situations where the editor's compiler thinks our code is good, but then fails to execute it in-game? I.e. are there situations where the Editor doesn't validate our code correctly? If so, is that what you are trying to fix? Does your program give better error messages than the Editor or something?
The only thing you told us about your program was what's on your to-do list; you never said what it currently does. Please clarify.
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holy sweet jesus...