Could been fun indeed to do a SC2 Machinima... If you don't know of Battlecruiser Operational, check it on Google.
About voice actors, as far as I know (because I had to find voice actors once for a project), I think the easiest way is to ask your friends, family, and whoever you meet in real life. This is a kind of experience some people will enjoy to do, because most of the time they're not into videogames so they think the only help they can give is throwing ideas. Especially on a project like this which is more a movie than a game, you will surely find 3-4 guys/girls ready to join.
If your goal is to add memes (rick roll, ran ran ruu, chocolate rain, etc...) you can check my Youtube profile. I have a playlist which contains some of the most common memes. There is also a channel (can't remember the name but I think it's KnowYourMeme) where each of them are explained in a video. There is also knowyourmeme.com (self-explanatory). Basically I'm not even sure you'll need voice actors... I find it pretty funny when people do a whole video thanks to sounds from movies/games/memes put together. I used to do whole sessions with a friend on MSN using only quotes from Wayne's World... :D
About code... well, since your project is more visual than a real gameplay, you can cheat. Using triggers is not that hard, adding models and tweaking with datas can be pretty easy as long as you don't want to do silly powers with Zeratul warping 3 times per second around a character, popping a nuke at each strike, and making the enemy rise in the air to fall on his head... Anyway, as soon as you need some help about it, you're in the right place to ask. Same goes for recording the whole thing...
I'd pay for a joke about Duke Nukem For(n)ever, too... Especially since Tychus says "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum... I'm all out of gum." If you put 3 seconds of the Duke Nukem theme in the background while Tychus says the quote, you're my new hero.
FINALLY! I figured what the problem is! You won't believe it. Yeah, really. It's the... wait for it. Wait for it... Waaaaaait for it...
...MAP SIZE! (OMG WTF LOL BBQ)
You can't have a 64*256 map with roads over all the map. The ratio between height and width must be something like 2:1 (or so I think) or the roads won't display properly at some point. I made my map wider and roads are shown normally again, tested it on a fresh new map too and it's exactly the same. A map of 128*160 works perfect, if you make it 64*160 roads won't show properly anymore. Since my map was 64*256, it won't work unless I make the map 144*256 at least... Good news is my Ikari Warriors project might not even need to be split in 2 maps now. :D
@Kueken531: Go
Hmm OK, just checked... It seems totally fitting but I still need to take some time to test how these are used. Damn, I'll have to rebuild my whole set of scripts now... :D
no matter where I search, I don't see exactly how this integer is attached to the player's number.
If you try removing the variable, the editor will tell you what it will screw up with. (ie. if you remove a variable which is used by a trigger, it will tell you which trigger won't work anymore). The variable may be used in a custom script though, in that case try the Edit menu > Find/Replace > Find... Look for any reference to PLAYER03_ZERG and it will tell you where is this variable used. If you still can't find anything, I'm clueless.
is there some other place where you can edit a player's name to be shown in-game?
As far as I can tell, this is the only way... You still can create a trigger that will "fake" a player name, using a Switch action that will name the player according to its color... This is just an example but you can compare almost everything to determine who to name how. It cannot be used everywhere though, but it's pretty useful if you want to, let's say, label a player as "not playing" in a leaderboard after he quits the game. The only thing that seems impossible to change through triggers is the name determined directly in the editor through the Player Properties tab. So, even if you give a fake name through triggers it will still display the info from the Player Properties tab when you point the unit with your mouse while ingame.
@gamfvr: GoI started this way, it ended up in a pretty big mess (it's really not as easy as it looks if you go the wrong way to begin with). I was taking the problem from the wrong side (you must focus on rolling the dice instead of comparing results pointlessly).
I did what Koronis suggested and it works fine... just had to change the order at which actions were done (remove the player from the group as first action) to prevent the last player(s) to be skipped, otherwise the execution of the loop itself is faster than executing the actions. I applied the same method to shuffle the content of a deck (deck content is defined through another trigger with a huge switch), and it works like a charm. No card can be given twice and it just requires a While loop. It's a bit more complex with the cards though, but since it's done through one trigger only, without tons and tons of conditions, it's not that much of a deal anymore... Thanks for the help anyway. :)
Use if then else triggers to determine who goes first depending on their variable arrays(arrays refering to each player).
This is actually the tricky part... If you have 5 players you must compare the score of each to check if player 1 is first or not... Then repeat for player2, etc... Until the "first" player is set in the turn order. Then repeat the process X times (where X is the number of players not placed yet), to determine who is playing when. It needs something like 30 tests if you do it that way, which is obviously not a good idea. This is why I asked for help, I needed something simple because, obviously, what I thought of first was going nowhere. I thought it was easy at first, but it becomes tricky really fast.
Anyway, I checked what Koronis did and it's really close to (if not totally) what I needed. It sounds so obvious now that I have it in front of me... Instead of making each player rolling a dice and compare the score (which is exponentially tricky depending on how many players there is), you just need to roll a dice which will set the player with the matching result (a score of 1 will be player 1) to the next place available in the turn order. Repeat the process X times until each player is placed. The second tricky part was to figure who was already placed in the turn order, to prevent a player from playing more than others... I needed the same process to take a random card only once from a deck, so Koronis's triggers seem to fit perfectly for that. Anyway, thanks Koronis. I'll try that.
I just wanted to say that Progammer did the same thing I was hoping to do for the contest (although I wanted to use the perdition turret instead)... So my vote in part 1 obviously goes to him, since he managed to do in time what I didn't. :)
Anyway, from I've seen on each 3 parts of the contest, most of them deserve a vote. It would be cool to have the maps from each contest compressed in a zip/rar file available on the first page of the contest topic, so that anyone wishing to edit/play them at home could test them without having to find them amongst all the pages. Of course, any contestant not willing to share his map (if it is somehow part of another bigger project, or something like that) could ask not to include his map to the archive... Just throwing an idea.
@SouLCarveRR: GoI don't understand a word you're saying... If you're telling me to have an integer with array to store the values, it's just a part of the solution I already figured. What I need the most is how to compare the values and do something different depending on which player is in which place. What is this "initiative roll" you speak of? Is it some function I need to code, or can I find it directly through usual triggers? I absolutely have no idea whatsoever...
I've started a new project a few days ago, I'm just creating a topic for now just to mention it, and make sure nobody will "steal" the idea.
Basically, this new project will copy the game rules of Smallworld, a board game I discovered with friends a few weeks ago. For more information about this game, please visit the official site: http://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/
What I intend to do with the editor is copy almost everything from this game except art/graphics. Since the rules are a bit too complicated to explain in this topic I'll just invite you to check the website, almost everything is available there.
A quick overview:
It's a turn-based strategy game. The more lands you control the more gold you obtain, so the main goal of this game is to have the biggest amount of gold at the end of the 8th turn. The units you can have (actually they are races, so they come in groups) are sorted randomly from a deck, and combined with a random power from another deck. The combo of cards can be bought to reinforce your army. Each race has its own ability and can turn into decline (it's some sort of "passive mode", where they can't conquer anymore but they sometimes have a new ability in exchange), and the power card associated with them will grant an extra ability (like being able to move between caverns, or adding an invincible dragon to your army...). It is also important to consider the land you want to conquer, since each type of terrain can have its use for a certain race (elves benefit from being in woods, dwarves benefit from being on any land with a mine, etc...).
I intend to make something really similar to the actual board game, but I will change the units to fit StarCraft 2 (ie. the ratmen will be zerglings instead). Same goes for the abilities, but anyway the game rules will remain the same.
If you are interested in this project, don't be shy. Any help is appreciated. I already have done the whole part about recognizing the regions of the map (depending on their type: forest, swamp, water, and so on...) and bonuses are generated randomly all over the map (caverns, mines, etc.). The next part I need to work on is the randomization of the units+power combo, and the actual gameplay (moving units on the board, and apply effects according to their race, number, power... if they're in decline or not, if they convert nearby regions etc.... well, I bet you can figure how much of a mess it is... but it's worth it!).
I'm trying to create a turn-based board game for 2-5 players. At the beginning of the game I need to check which player is active, and make each of them roll a dice to determine their turn order. I'm having a headache trying to sort the players according to the score they obtained with the dice, and storing this somehow to make sure the turn order is set once and for all, in a variable I can refer to later... Any idea on how to do this?
I don't need the players to actually "roll" a dice. It's just a randomized value for each player, and the one who gets the best score starts first, and so on until everyone gets a rank in the turn order. I thought it was easy to do but I've been on it for 2 hours now and I'm back to where I started...
I had lots of moments like that... The latest was when I figured how to actually do shooting patterns using a periodic effect. Actually, each new step in understanding the data editor and all its possibilities makes me enjoy it even more. I was almost ready to give up using data, until I found a way to make customised unit+weapon. Being able to create shooting patterns (and understanding how actors are linked together, in the process) is probably what is going to change the way I make my maps.
I'm used to have lots of triggers in my maps because it was how the WC3/FT editor worked in most cases. I still enjoy doing silly stuff with triggers though... It may be obvious to some of you but I never used any switch or arrays in the WC3 editor. When I discovered these functions in the SC2 editor, I felt like I was given a new toy to play with... :D
Something really cool about the SC2 editor is, each time I learn something new, a new idea of map using this feature comes to my mind. I was getting bored of elves/orcs/undeads in WC3, especially since most of the time the only maps created were DotA or TDs (seriously this is getting boring now, stop doing these in SC2... please!)... I really enjoy how far this new editor can go, so I enjoy most of the time I spend on it.
Sorry for not making it a page long essay; but I figure it's easier to understand this way. :)
Understanding the Data editor is NEVER easy. :D
Good point though. I personally tend to avoid Data editing as much as possible, since it's a real mystery to me and I don't understand half of what I'm doing when modifying data... I assumed triggers were easier, but it obviously isn't true when trying to do something like PvZ...
What I'm going to say probably won't help much, but you should use switches instead of all those If-Then-Else... About your question now, the only thing I know of is that you can define a variable (type: difficulty level) to store the current difficulty the game is in (thus there is probably a way to modify it, since it can be stored). But I don't know if you can actually modify the difficulty while ingame, since adding difficulty implies loading the units that were not displayed in easier modes. This step is normally done during the loading of the map to prevent lags and bugs. But as mark8264 suggested, you can still fake an improved/lowered AI.
0
0
FINALLY! I figured what the problem is! You won't believe it. Yeah, really. It's the... wait for it. Wait for it... Waaaaaait for it...
...MAP SIZE! (OMG WTF LOL BBQ)
You can't have a 64*256 map with roads over all the map. The ratio between height and width must be something like 2:1 (or so I think) or the roads won't display properly at some point. I made my map wider and roads are shown normally again, tested it on a fresh new map too and it's exactly the same. A map of 128*160 works perfect, if you make it 64*160 roads won't show properly anymore. Since my map was 64*256, it won't work unless I make the map 144*256 at least... Good news is my Ikari Warriors project might not even need to be split in 2 maps now. :D
Well, Blizzard, it's time to do some fixing!
0
MtG ftw! :D
Green+Black combo is still my favorite... And I agree, this definitely needs a video. Is it turn-based or real time?
0
@Kueken531: Go Hmm OK, just checked... It seems totally fitting but I still need to take some time to test how these are used. Damn, I'll have to rebuild my whole set of scripts now... :D
0
If you try removing the variable, the editor will tell you what it will screw up with. (ie. if you remove a variable which is used by a trigger, it will tell you which trigger won't work anymore). The variable may be used in a custom script though, in that case try the Edit menu > Find/Replace > Find... Look for any reference to PLAYER03_ZERG and it will tell you where is this variable used. If you still can't find anything, I'm clueless.
As far as I can tell, this is the only way... You still can create a trigger that will "fake" a player name, using a Switch action that will name the player according to its color... This is just an example but you can compare almost everything to determine who to name how. It cannot be used everywhere though, but it's pretty useful if you want to, let's say, label a player as "not playing" in a leaderboard after he quits the game. The only thing that seems impossible to change through triggers is the name determined directly in the editor through the Player Properties tab. So, even if you give a fake name through triggers it will still display the info from the Player Properties tab when you point the unit with your mouse while ingame.
0
@gamfvr: GoI started this way, it ended up in a pretty big mess (it's really not as easy as it looks if you go the wrong way to begin with). I was taking the problem from the wrong side (you must focus on rolling the dice instead of comparing results pointlessly).
I did what Koronis suggested and it works fine... just had to change the order at which actions were done (remove the player from the group as first action) to prevent the last player(s) to be skipped, otherwise the execution of the loop itself is faster than executing the actions. I applied the same method to shuffle the content of a deck (deck content is defined through another trigger with a huge switch), and it works like a charm. No card can be given twice and it just requires a While loop. It's a bit more complex with the cards though, but since it's done through one trigger only, without tons and tons of conditions, it's not that much of a deal anymore... Thanks for the help anyway. :)
0
This is actually the tricky part... If you have 5 players you must compare the score of each to check if player 1 is first or not... Then repeat for player2, etc... Until the "first" player is set in the turn order. Then repeat the process X times (where X is the number of players not placed yet), to determine who is playing when. It needs something like 30 tests if you do it that way, which is obviously not a good idea. This is why I asked for help, I needed something simple because, obviously, what I thought of first was going nowhere. I thought it was easy at first, but it becomes tricky really fast.
Anyway, I checked what Koronis did and it's really close to (if not totally) what I needed. It sounds so obvious now that I have it in front of me... Instead of making each player rolling a dice and compare the score (which is exponentially tricky depending on how many players there is), you just need to roll a dice which will set the player with the matching result (a score of 1 will be player 1) to the next place available in the turn order. Repeat the process X times until each player is placed. The second tricky part was to figure who was already placed in the turn order, to prevent a player from playing more than others... I needed the same process to take a random card only once from a deck, so Koronis's triggers seem to fit perfectly for that. Anyway, thanks Koronis. I'll try that.
0
I just wanted to say that Progammer did the same thing I was hoping to do for the contest (although I wanted to use the perdition turret instead)... So my vote in part 1 obviously goes to him, since he managed to do in time what I didn't. :)
Anyway, from I've seen on each 3 parts of the contest, most of them deserve a vote. It would be cool to have the maps from each contest compressed in a zip/rar file available on the first page of the contest topic, so that anyone wishing to edit/play them at home could test them without having to find them amongst all the pages. Of course, any contestant not willing to share his map (if it is somehow part of another bigger project, or something like that) could ask not to include his map to the archive... Just throwing an idea.
0
@SouLCarveRR: GoI don't understand a word you're saying... If you're telling me to have an integer with array to store the values, it's just a part of the solution I already figured. What I need the most is how to compare the values and do something different depending on which player is in which place. What is this "initiative roll" you speak of? Is it some function I need to code, or can I find it directly through usual triggers? I absolutely have no idea whatsoever...
0
I've started a new project a few days ago, I'm just creating a topic for now just to mention it, and make sure nobody will "steal" the idea.
Basically, this new project will copy the game rules of Smallworld, a board game I discovered with friends a few weeks ago. For more information about this game, please visit the official site:
http://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/
What I intend to do with the editor is copy almost everything from this game except art/graphics. Since the rules are a bit too complicated to explain in this topic I'll just invite you to check the website, almost everything is available there.
A quick overview:
It's a turn-based strategy game. The more lands you control the more gold you obtain, so the main goal of this game is to have the biggest amount of gold at the end of the 8th turn. The units you can have (actually they are races, so they come in groups) are sorted randomly from a deck, and combined with a random power from another deck. The combo of cards can be bought to reinforce your army. Each race has its own ability and can turn into decline (it's some sort of "passive mode", where they can't conquer anymore but they sometimes have a new ability in exchange), and the power card associated with them will grant an extra ability (like being able to move between caverns, or adding an invincible dragon to your army...). It is also important to consider the land you want to conquer, since each type of terrain can have its use for a certain race (elves benefit from being in woods, dwarves benefit from being on any land with a mine, etc...).
I intend to make something really similar to the actual board game, but I will change the units to fit StarCraft 2 (ie. the ratmen will be zerglings instead). Same goes for the abilities, but anyway the game rules will remain the same.
If you are interested in this project, don't be shy. Any help is appreciated. I already have done the whole part about recognizing the regions of the map (depending on their type: forest, swamp, water, and so on...) and bonuses are generated randomly all over the map (caverns, mines, etc.). The next part I need to work on is the randomization of the units+power combo, and the actual gameplay (moving units on the board, and apply effects according to their race, number, power... if they're in decline or not, if they convert nearby regions etc.... well, I bet you can figure how much of a mess it is... but it's worth it!).
0
I think it's him in the video... or was... or... will be. I'm confused... :D
0
I'm trying to create a turn-based board game for 2-5 players. At the beginning of the game I need to check which player is active, and make each of them roll a dice to determine their turn order. I'm having a headache trying to sort the players according to the score they obtained with the dice, and storing this somehow to make sure the turn order is set once and for all, in a variable I can refer to later... Any idea on how to do this?
I don't need the players to actually "roll" a dice. It's just a randomized value for each player, and the one who gets the best score starts first, and so on until everyone gets a rank in the turn order. I thought it was easy to do but I've been on it for 2 hours now and I'm back to where I started...
0
I had lots of moments like that... The latest was when I figured how to actually do shooting patterns using a periodic effect. Actually, each new step in understanding the data editor and all its possibilities makes me enjoy it even more. I was almost ready to give up using data, until I found a way to make customised unit+weapon. Being able to create shooting patterns (and understanding how actors are linked together, in the process) is probably what is going to change the way I make my maps.
I'm used to have lots of triggers in my maps because it was how the WC3/FT editor worked in most cases. I still enjoy doing silly stuff with triggers though... It may be obvious to some of you but I never used any switch or arrays in the WC3 editor. When I discovered these functions in the SC2 editor, I felt like I was given a new toy to play with... :D
Something really cool about the SC2 editor is, each time I learn something new, a new idea of map using this feature comes to my mind. I was getting bored of elves/orcs/undeads in WC3, especially since most of the time the only maps created were DotA or TDs (seriously this is getting boring now, stop doing these in SC2... please!)... I really enjoy how far this new editor can go, so I enjoy most of the time I spend on it.
0
Understanding the Data editor is NEVER easy. :D
Good point though. I personally tend to avoid Data editing as much as possible, since it's a real mystery to me and I don't understand half of what I'm doing when modifying data... I assumed triggers were easier, but it obviously isn't true when trying to do something like PvZ...
0
What I'm going to say probably won't help much, but you should use switches instead of all those If-Then-Else... About your question now, the only thing I know of is that you can define a variable (type: difficulty level) to store the current difficulty the game is in (thus there is probably a way to modify it, since it can be stored). But I don't know if you can actually modify the difficulty while ingame, since adding difficulty implies loading the units that were not displayed in easier modes. This step is normally done during the loading of the map to prevent lags and bugs. But as mark8264 suggested, you can still fake an improved/lowered AI.