Most of the groundwork is actually done, of course if anyone picks it up they might have a different coding style than me or a different preference on how to do things.
I believe the things left are,
- Data editor work to add the bots to be controlled
- Make a code parser to actually execute the code on the bots
- Code the matchmaking system
- Mapping of the actual bot arenas.
But I really didn't expect anyone to pick it up, it is after all a map that probably won't be very popular except for with other map developers and programmers. It is also at least a good 100 hours of work to be done before a proper playable beta is ready.
But that said, if someone serious should want to pick it up I will be happy to provide them with all my notes on the map. And also help them understand how my code works and what design I was going for.
as some of you might remember I used to be active in the mapping community a while back (like 7-8 months ago). However I haven't had much time due to real life to keep working on my projects. Because of this I have decided to release my BattleBots map as is, it is kind of in a half done state and the resent patches seems to have broken the UI a bit. (keyboard shortcuts don't work)
However there might be a lesson or two in there for aspiring map developers who are not that into the programming side of things.
The thing is that the current list implementation in sc2 is horribly rudimentary and weird. Sadly I can't help you much with it as I shun the lists as much as possible, I would rather just make my own list by using buttons and not using a graphic for them.
As of now conclusion, the site has yet to take me any further than Gamefaqs, don't if this is a good or bad omen.
My goose just got cooked.
This is probably because most of what you ask for help with has already been answered and made into tutorials that are on this site. Try searching the forums and looking through the tutorial collection thread instead of being lazy and just expecting people to go out of their way to help you.
I think this would need a bit of work as the transport system at the moment doesn't really support this. As I'm a programmer I would go with a mainly trigger approach to the problem probably (Please note that I am writing this off the top of my head without much thought put into it, there are probably better ways).
Now first of all you need to figure out how to show up the load/unload buttons for the players. This could be done with custom UI or optionally by giving the bunker to the player who selects it. I think I would rather go with a custom UI approach though, optionally checking units that enter loading range of the bunker to see if they have a move command to move to the bunker.
Now I would do one of two things,
1) I would not actually load the unit into the bunker, I would rather hide the unit and give it a custom value. Then set a custom value on the bunker so that I can find the unit again by just searching for hidden units in the area around the bunker. Also using a custom value to track the amount of units in the bunker and who owns them. Then I would just create/remove dummy units of the same type inside the bunker to get it to fire.
2) Set a custom value on the unit to identify which player it belonged to, give it to the neutral player and then loading it into the bunker. That way you can retrieve the unit and give it back when it is unloaded / bunker is destroyed.
Edit:
One alternate idea is to have an invisible bunker (needs no model, just needs to work for units shooting out of it) near the bunkers for each player that can load units in. Then load the units in that, but it still needs to be synchronized with the bunker for space / on death / unloading.
I am all for remakes as long as people move away from the old system with using beacons that you have to walk on top of to perform actions. We now have not only the possibility to make upgrade menus / shops, but also custom UI dialogs. If the original gameplay was good then by all means keep it the same, but please update the UI where it makes sense.
Also with the new game modes system you could create several game modes like "Classic" or "Revamped" so you could start by remaking the game exactly as it used to be then create your own custom version with "improvements".
I would say take a look at how the range indicators for units like siege tanks, sensory tower, etc... works. These indicators are shown only for the player that has the unit selected and I'm sure you can use it as a basis for whatever you need to do.
It is possible to overlay the chat area with a UI element as well, which will prevent users from reading their messages. This might of course not be an option for you but it is possible.
You have right to know the reason. That is general knowledge. Yea, they will get fans this way.
Too bad people pre ordered the game. Would be smarter if people would wait after release, then buy.
I don't see what this has to do with people pre-ordering the game or buying the game at all. It is still a good game even though some maps get removed from the system without the map makers getting to know why. That said though I do agree that their publishing system could need some work, particularly the lack of meaningful error messages when trying to publish.
Also as jarltheafro said, did you try to inquire with blizzard about it?
In this "Tutorial" I go through how you can open and learn from the story missions of Starcraft 2. I primarily cover cinematics but if you see anything during your play through that you want to learn how to do you can open it and view it the same way.
You can find even more video tutorials if you check out my youtube channel
I would really like to see the copy+paste of lines of code that contain an array of a record with an array inside it bug to be fixed. This makes the index of the second array disappear when it is copied (In the trigger editor obviously). Example;
Set variable SomeInteger = RecordArray[Parameter1].SomeArray[Parameter2]
When this line is copied the Parameter2 turns into Unkown Index. Which is really annoying as I like many other people (probably) structure most of my arrays within records because it makes the code a bit cleaner when viewing it through the trigger editor.
Also I'd agree with YiffMaster on his "Stack tracing" point, this is particularly hellish when developing a library as you never get a proper trace on where the bug is.
Finally a way to dump all your variables and values into the trigger debugging window (or optionally a new tab in the same window that contains a list of your variables and values).
Perhaps trend is too strong a word, but I do see this far too often. People seem to think that not sharing their ideas will benefit them even though I am quite sure sharing benefits them more than not sharing it. It's not like people will play a map just because of a gimmick feature that no other map has. And I think if we don't do something about it then it will just become more common as people adapt this mindset.
I never stated in any of my posts that people had to share or that they have any obligation to share. Which is why I am not for banning or punishing people who don't share in any way, rather I think we should encourage people to share by showing them with reason why sharing is beneficial for them and also why not sharing is rather pointless as it doesn't benefit you in any way.
I also agree that it can be annoying to explain things to beginners sometime, specially when they try to understand advanced topics when they don't even grasp the basics. However this is not really what I intended, if new discoveries is shared with the community I am sure some of the many tutorial makers on this site will take the time to put a tutorial together for the beginners (with whoever discovered it getting credit).
Anyway, I completely agree. Sharing knowledge is the way to go. I don't think it would be a good idea to ban bragging, because people would just stop posting about it then. This way we wouldn't only not know how to do it, but not even if it was possible.
That is indeed good news, glad to see they decided to share how to do that.
This doesn't necessarily work for everyone though. It'd be impossible to do that for example, with an RPG map. A good balance, I find, is to release stuff like that on your map only, and then by the time you have a new unique feature to show off, post how you did the old one. Everyone wins that way, some people just win later, and the person who discovers it gets to reap the rewards first.
While the idea is good I think this still is not good for development progress, once you show off a cool new feature or that you discovered how to do something many people have been asking for you will most likely have lots of people trying to reverse engineer it. Thus if the basics of the idea (not the entire map) is shared right away we don't end up with lots of people wasting time trying to re-invent the wheel. In many cases it will probably be bad for the person who originally discovered it as well, because:
As I mentioned earlier you won't get credit for it if you don't share how to do it before someone else does it
If you don't share you get a reputation for being an ass.
If you reveal how to do something chances are other people will improve on it and perhaps discover new things that you can benefit from
When one person doesn't share others will follow their example and keep their code to themselves as well
I think what we need to do is work to change the mindset of the people in the community who currently do not share. Because their reluctance to share will most likely influence other people/new people in the community and we just get into a bad circle where everyone think they should keep their discoveries secret so no one else "copies their ideas".
If we look at the WC3 mapping community we all know how futile this is, no new concepts or ideas stay secret for very long. And the maps that make it big are not the maps that implement some new fancy feature that no one else has, in fact I can't think of a single map that is popular just because of some niche feature that only that map has. All the popular maps are the best of their genre with plenty of not as good clones floating around.
I think we need to avoid punishing people for not sharing as that will never work, but rather we should encourage sharing. I think the first step in that direction would be to write up an article about why sharing is important and why it is futile and pointless to try to keep a new discovery a secret. Then I think we need to get the major contributors in the community to try to spread the idea that discoveries should be shared, perhaps by posting said article in the news on mapster and whenever someone refuses to share simply link them over to the article (instead of flaming them/punishing them for it).
If someone has any better ideas or other good ideas on how to change the mindset of some of our community members then please share them with us.
0
I believe the things left are,
- Data editor work to add the bots to be controlled
- Make a code parser to actually execute the code on the bots
- Code the matchmaking system
- Mapping of the actual bot arenas.
But I really didn't expect anyone to pick it up, it is after all a map that probably won't be very popular except for with other map developers and programmers. It is also at least a good 100 hours of work to be done before a proper playable beta is ready. But that said, if someone serious should want to pick it up I will be happy to provide them with all my notes on the map. And also help them understand how my code works and what design I was going for.
0
Hello all,
as some of you might remember I used to be active in the mapping community a while back (like 7-8 months ago). However I haven't had much time due to real life to keep working on my projects. Because of this I have decided to release my BattleBots map as is, it is kind of in a half done state and the resent patches seems to have broken the UI a bit. (keyboard shortcuts don't work)
However there might be a lesson or two in there for aspiring map developers who are not that into the programming side of things.
Here you can download the map (most of the code is in a library inside the map), http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1586398/BattleBots.SC2Map
And here is a video showing some of the features of the map,
There are two more videos (along with more coding tutorials) on my youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GalaxyEditorTutorial
If anyone want to resume the map development feel free, or if you want to use parts of the code or whatnot also feel free to do so.
0
@Flirer: Go
The thing is that the current list implementation in sc2 is horribly rudimentary and weird. Sadly I can't help you much with it as I shun the lists as much as possible, I would rather just make my own list by using buttons and not using a graphic for them.
0
This is probably because most of what you ask for help with has already been answered and made into tutorials that are on this site. Try searching the forums and looking through the tutorial collection thread instead of being lazy and just expecting people to go out of their way to help you.
I'll even be as nice as to give you a direct link to the tutorial listing so you don't have to search for it, http://www.sc2mapster.com/api-docs/tutorials/
0
I think this would need a bit of work as the transport system at the moment doesn't really support this. As I'm a programmer I would go with a mainly trigger approach to the problem probably (Please note that I am writing this off the top of my head without much thought put into it, there are probably better ways).
Now first of all you need to figure out how to show up the load/unload buttons for the players. This could be done with custom UI or optionally by giving the bunker to the player who selects it. I think I would rather go with a custom UI approach though, optionally checking units that enter loading range of the bunker to see if they have a move command to move to the bunker.
Now I would do one of two things,
1) I would not actually load the unit into the bunker, I would rather hide the unit and give it a custom value. Then set a custom value on the bunker so that I can find the unit again by just searching for hidden units in the area around the bunker. Also using a custom value to track the amount of units in the bunker and who owns them. Then I would just create/remove dummy units of the same type inside the bunker to get it to fire.
2) Set a custom value on the unit to identify which player it belonged to, give it to the neutral player and then loading it into the bunker. That way you can retrieve the unit and give it back when it is unloaded / bunker is destroyed.
Edit:
One alternate idea is to have an invisible bunker (needs no model, just needs to work for units shooting out of it) near the bunkers for each player that can load units in. Then load the units in that, but it still needs to be synchronized with the bunker for space / on death / unloading.
0
I am all for remakes as long as people move away from the old system with using beacons that you have to walk on top of to perform actions. We now have not only the possibility to make upgrade menus / shops, but also custom UI dialogs. If the original gameplay was good then by all means keep it the same, but please update the UI where it makes sense.
Also with the new game modes system you could create several game modes like "Classic" or "Revamped" so you could start by remaking the game exactly as it used to be then create your own custom version with "improvements".
0
I would say take a look at how the range indicators for units like siege tanks, sensory tower, etc... works. These indicators are shown only for the player that has the unit selected and I'm sure you can use it as a basis for whatever you need to do.
0
It is possible to overlay the chat area with a UI element as well, which will prevent users from reading their messages. This might of course not be an option for you but it is possible.
0
I don't see what this has to do with people pre-ordering the game or buying the game at all. It is still a good game even though some maps get removed from the system without the map makers getting to know why. That said though I do agree that their publishing system could need some work, particularly the lack of meaningful error messages when trying to publish.
Also as jarltheafro said, did you try to inquire with blizzard about it?
0
In this "Tutorial" I go through how you can open and learn from the story missions of Starcraft 2. I primarily cover cinematics but if you see anything during your play through that you want to learn how to do you can open it and view it the same way.
You can find even more video tutorials if you check out my youtube channel
0
I also have some that cover the very basics of the trigger editor on my channel as well,
http://www.youtube.com/user/GalaxyEditorTutorial
0
I would really like to see the copy+paste of lines of code that contain an array of a record with an array inside it bug to be fixed. This makes the index of the second array disappear when it is copied (In the trigger editor obviously). Example;
Set variable SomeInteger = RecordArray[Parameter1].SomeArray[Parameter2]
When this line is copied the Parameter2 turns into Unkown Index. Which is really annoying as I like many other people (probably) structure most of my arrays within records because it makes the code a bit cleaner when viewing it through the trigger editor.
Also I'd agree with YiffMaster on his "Stack tracing" point, this is particularly hellish when developing a library as you never get a proper trace on where the bug is.
Finally a way to dump all your variables and values into the trigger debugging window (or optionally a new tab in the same window that contains a list of your variables and values).
0
@tigerija: Go
I'm sorry if you feel offended but it was the first example that I could find while making this post. in retrospect perhaps not the best example.
@malu05: Go
Perhaps trend is too strong a word, but I do see this far too often. People seem to think that not sharing their ideas will benefit them even though I am quite sure sharing benefits them more than not sharing it. It's not like people will play a map just because of a gimmick feature that no other map has. And I think if we don't do something about it then it will just become more common as people adapt this mindset.
@jarltheafro: Go @xenrathe: Go
I never stated in any of my posts that people had to share or that they have any obligation to share. Which is why I am not for banning or punishing people who don't share in any way, rather I think we should encourage people to share by showing them with reason why sharing is beneficial for them and also why not sharing is rather pointless as it doesn't benefit you in any way.
I also agree that it can be annoying to explain things to beginners sometime, specially when they try to understand advanced topics when they don't even grasp the basics. However this is not really what I intended, if new discoveries is shared with the community I am sure some of the many tutorial makers on this site will take the time to put a tutorial together for the beginners (with whoever discovered it getting credit).
0
That is indeed good news, glad to see they decided to share how to do that.
While the idea is good I think this still is not good for development progress, once you show off a cool new feature or that you discovered how to do something many people have been asking for you will most likely have lots of people trying to reverse engineer it. Thus if the basics of the idea (not the entire map) is shared right away we don't end up with lots of people wasting time trying to re-invent the wheel. In many cases it will probably be bad for the person who originally discovered it as well, because:
I think what we need to do is work to change the mindset of the people in the community who currently do not share. Because their reluctance to share will most likely influence other people/new people in the community and we just get into a bad circle where everyone think they should keep their discoveries secret so no one else "copies their ideas".
If we look at the WC3 mapping community we all know how futile this is, no new concepts or ideas stay secret for very long. And the maps that make it big are not the maps that implement some new fancy feature that no one else has, in fact I can't think of a single map that is popular just because of some niche feature that only that map has. All the popular maps are the best of their genre with plenty of not as good clones floating around.
I think we need to avoid punishing people for not sharing as that will never work, but rather we should encourage sharing. I think the first step in that direction would be to write up an article about why sharing is important and why it is futile and pointless to try to keep a new discovery a secret. Then I think we need to get the major contributors in the community to try to spread the idea that discoveries should be shared, perhaps by posting said article in the news on mapster and whenever someone refuses to share simply link them over to the article (instead of flaming them/punishing them for it).
If someone has any better ideas or other good ideas on how to change the mindset of some of our community members then please share them with us.
0
@UmbraLamina: Go
Sounds great, looking forward to it as this is a much requested feature so I think your tutorial will be very popular.