hundreds of thousands of ppl will play this map, less than 0.1% of them will care about who made it...
If you are making maps for the sole purpose of lionization then you need to rethink your purpose of map making. Besides, a generic game like turret defense game is not worth aggravating over, especially if u didn't protect your map.
Well, so why are you called "MilleniumArmy" and not John Smith (or however your name is)? Because you prefer it like that, amirite? And they take that from you.
I would like to have see more responsibility in these forums (and anywhere else), but I don't want to give up my "internet identity", or anonymity.
I'm called "MillenniumArmy" because that's the name I want people to recognize me by, not just some random annonymous player. I can understand not wanting to use your real life name but like I said, Blizzard is NOT giving us unique names (I'm talking about battle.net, not the battle.net forums) which is what's pissing me off. I want to have my screenname be recognized and remembered by friends and people I game with and not have like a million other people out there have the same sn as me.
Am I the only person here who actually likes most of these moves by Blizzard?
- I never really liked internet anonymity, IMO all it does is promote ignorance, hatred, and fatuousness. If I want to act like an immature idiot, i'll just do it on youtube or some kiddie forum website where nobody will listen or care. If for reason it's backwards for you (people are assholes to you IRL) then...er... nevermind I won't go there...
- If Blizzard is going to listen to our opinions and feedback/criticism, they demand our utmost respect and decorum. I mean, you're not going to act like an idiot if you were to talk to someone face to face right? But yeah I can understand people not wanting their real names shown on the blizzard forums. In that case, either make a fake name or go somewhere... like this website you're currently looking at. (Or http://www.staredit.net ;D)
However, the one thing that I am pretty pissed about is the fact that screennames are only 12 characters max (I can only squeeze in "MillenniumAr"). And that these screen names are not unique. I do not believe I need to elaborate on this matter.
It's different for everyone but I'll share how I personally get motivation. Pretty much it comes down to three things: Purpose, Process, and Personality.
Purpose
Why? Why are you making this map/project? What do you hope to achieve from doing this? These are obvious questions which we always ask ourselves and yet most of us don't even have a real answer. From all my years of making maps for SC1 I can confidently say that "I want to prove to myself that i can" doesn't cut it. For instance in school we do homework assignments because our teachers/professors require us to. If the homework is optional meaning that nobody is monitoring your progress, it requires much greater discipline to tell yourself to get it done. Well sure it's possible you can do anything without anyone telling you to but realize that if you lack motivation to make a map, you are not disciplined enough to monitor yourself.
Solution? Make a map not for yourself but for someone else, an "audience." Make it for b.net noobs, the sc2 map making community, your friends in real life, or better yet make it for Blizzard or map making competitions. Even "wowing" people is an absolutely great reason to make your map. The only sacrifice we must make is that we have to let our "audience" dictate what needs to go into the map. All of this we all should (hopefully) know but the next point is the hardest part.
Process
Yes we want to make that map, if my map is good enough I can probably get a girlfriend. Oh if we could just complete that map life would be great, but when we open that editor and start tinkering with a whole plethora of data and modules it's easy to lose a hold of yourself. Too much work, I don't know what to do next, too hard, etc. All of these can instantly desiccate you of any motivation and soon enough you'll find yourself dithering around in the Galaxy Editor. So what's the remedy? Well everyone has their own way of expounding regarding this impasse of map making but here's what keeps me motivated:
Rhythm - In the world of sports all athletes must find their rhythm or "click" in order to perform well. Same thing with map making. When you get your mindset into that of a machine operating in an assembly line you'll be getting work done in no time. Doing even the most perfunctory of tasks is all you'll need to get your juice flowing. But whatever you do, DO NOT STOP. As soon as you take a break, you lose that rhythm (you go cold in sports). Be optimistic when you see that your map screams tedium and meticulousness ;)
Point of concentration - Pretend your map/project is like a blank piece of paper. Hold that paper in your hand and look at it, your eyes are set on the paper as a whole. Now with a pencil or pen, draw a small dot in the middle and look at the paper again. Where are your eyes focused? The dot. When you look at a blank piece of paper it's hard for your eyes to concentrate on any given area/point but with a small dot your eyes now have something to focus on. Like with map making, you focus better when you concentrate on only one aspect/part of the map (and this greatly helps with the rhythm). But be careful that you do not jump ahead of yourself, which brings me to my next point:
Pace yourself - When working on my maps I may suddenly find that my mind starts veering into other aspects of the map (particularly after I've completed something). It's important to keep your head focused on one and only one thing at a time. This may actually require a little discipline on your part. We all (hopefully) love making maps so it's easy for us to get carried away and lose pace of yourself. We know all of this already but the question is can we carry it out?
Think small, act small. Sure you may have too many ideas to count all jumbled up in your head but that's what makes it too overwhelming for you to do... anything. Organize your ideas and plans so that you can deal with them in an orderly fashion.
Personality
Every person has two personalities: The Teller and the Doer. The teller is the voice inside your head. It tells u what to do, nags at you, and sometimes belittles or encourages you. The Doer self is the laborer, the one that follows The Teller self's commands; its the one that actually does everything. When you are working on your map, your Teller self would yell orders at you like, "Do the triggers for this, change the data fields for this unit, make the terrain for this part of the map, etc." This constant nagging will frustrate your Doer self and disrupt your rhythm, bogging you down. So the point is: ignore your teller self. Do everything with ease and don't stuff your head with your teller's annoying and irksome commands. Let your mind go and let the wind carry you.
I believe you should make the pace a little faster. A game like this (oh btw, I made wall ball for sc1 but anyways that's besides the point) IMO benefits most from how fast it goes. But I guess we won't really find out until we can play this with other humans (or against AI which you are trying to implement)
You could add statistics at the end. I wanted to add for sc1 wall ball but given the limitations of it's editor would be impossible and/or too much work:
- Kill percentages. Like for basketball (in real life) you have a field goal percentage and whatnot. Perhaps add something like that: how many times you've shot the ball, and how many times you've successfully hit someone. Perhaps even an average number of kills per shot.
- Average lifespan: How long your average lifespan is per life.
- Design some sort of formula which can calculate your overall skill level (sort of like the MVP). It could be based on your kill percentages, lifespan, etc.
I made Basketball for sc1 back in 2003 and it was and is one of my most successful maps of all time so I think it is a good map to remake.
So
I've planned out everything about this game. Once I fully learn how the trigger and data editors work I believe I can get a map done. The only thing I'm really stumped is probably the most important part: shooting the ball. If you guys played the sc basketball map, you can see that it implemented a patrolling aimer system which was quite revolutionary and ingenious for an sc1 map. I think I would like to try something different and more realistic.
To shoot the ball you have to click on the hoop itself. This will initiate an X meter/gauge of some sort. Click again and you'll shoot the ball. The better X is, the more likely you are to make the shot. Only problem is I don't know what X will be. Here are the two possibilites of X:
1) Accuracy meter
When you click on the hoop, an accuracy meter will pop up. It will oscillate from 0% to anywhere up to 100%. The speed at which it oscillates and the maximum accuracy it will reach will depend on your location relative to the hoop when you shoot the ball. So for example if you are trying to shoot a ball from beyond half court your accuracy meter will oscillate very fast and the peak accuracy will only be like 20%, but if you attemp a shot from say in the paint the meter will oscillate at a very slow pace but the peak accuracy can possibly go as high as 100%. Here's an illustration of what I'm hoping to achieve:
These only show half the cycles. The X axis is the time it takes to complete half of one up and down cycle and the Y axis is the accuracy at a given time. The blue curve would be an example of when you are trying to shoot a full court shot but the red one would be one from inside the paint. Notice how the curves slowly transition from concave up (far) to concave down (near); essentially the closer you are to the hoop the larger the margin of error when trying to get a higher percentage shot.
(The numbers are only estimates of what an accuracy meter would be like.)
Pros:
- Relative ease; a player simply has to have the right timing to get an accurate shot
- Statistically realistic.
Cons:
- Very lucked based. It's not fair for someone who always gets <50% shots in when someone never makes his >50% shots.
2) Power meter
This is another thing i was thinking about. Like the accuracy meter, click on the hoop to initiate the power meter. This will also go from 0 to 100%. The power level dictates how far the ball will land when shot so your distance relative to the hoop matters very much. In the paint you'll only need like a 5 to 15% power level for the shot to go in, a 30 to 40% power level around the 3 point line, and at least a 75% past center court. Here's the catch though, getting too low a power level will give you an air ball or something but too high a power level you'll probably throw the ball out of the map! So the key is to know exactly what power level is needed at certain spots on the court.
Pros:
- Pure skill. No luck involved, simply positional memory (knowing which locations on the court require what power levels).
- Physically realistic
Cons:
- Very very little room for error (power levels must be exact or within a certain range in order for a shot to go in.)
- Strict learning curve.
I like both methods equally but I'm not sure which one would be better fit for my basketball map. Or if you have another method, I'd love to hear from you. Any comments, objections, or criticism are welcome.
I guess this forum also serves as a welcome thread.
I've been a devout map maker for StarCraft: BroodWar for the past 10 years. I never played WC3 so I never got past the SC1 map editor intellect meaning I have a lot to learn. (Hence why I'm here)
In sc1, i made a bunch of maps. One that I would like to mention is Mini-game Party. It's like Mario Party (or Uther party for those of you who've played wc3) but with 128 mini-games (you can find it at http://www.staredit.net). I plan on remaking Mini-game Party for sc2 but i am going to need plenty of help with this galaxy editor so I hope to befriend you folks here :)
0
Blizzard needs to make a patch already? Lol :P
0
hundreds of thousands of ppl will play this map, less than 0.1% of them will care about who made it...
If you are making maps for the sole purpose of lionization then you need to rethink your purpose of map making. Besides, a generic game like turret defense game is not worth aggravating over, especially if u didn't protect your map.
0
Millennium.548
0
I'm called "MillenniumArmy" because that's the name I want people to recognize me by, not just some random annonymous player. I can understand not wanting to use your real life name but like I said, Blizzard is NOT giving us unique names (I'm talking about battle.net, not the battle.net forums) which is what's pissing me off. I want to have my screenname be recognized and remembered by friends and people I game with and not have like a million other people out there have the same sn as me.
0
Am I the only person here who actually likes most of these moves by Blizzard?
- I never really liked internet anonymity, IMO all it does is promote ignorance, hatred, and fatuousness. If I want to act like an immature idiot, i'll just do it on youtube or some kiddie forum website where nobody will listen or care. If for reason it's backwards for you (people are assholes to you IRL) then...er... nevermind I won't go there...
- If Blizzard is going to listen to our opinions and feedback/criticism, they demand our utmost respect and decorum. I mean, you're not going to act like an idiot if you were to talk to someone face to face right? But yeah I can understand people not wanting their real names shown on the blizzard forums. In that case, either make a fake name or go somewhere... like this website you're currently looking at. (Or http://www.staredit.net ;D)
However, the one thing that I am pretty pissed about is the fact that screennames are only 12 characters max (I can only squeeze in "MillenniumAr"). And that these screen names are not unique. I do not believe I need to elaborate on this matter.
0
It's different for everyone but I'll share how I personally get motivation. Pretty much it comes down to three things: Purpose, Process, and Personality.
Purpose
Why? Why are you making this map/project? What do you hope to achieve from doing this? These are obvious questions which we always ask ourselves and yet most of us don't even have a real answer. From all my years of making maps for SC1 I can confidently say that "I want to prove to myself that i can" doesn't cut it. For instance in school we do homework assignments because our teachers/professors require us to. If the homework is optional meaning that nobody is monitoring your progress, it requires much greater discipline to tell yourself to get it done. Well sure it's possible you can do anything without anyone telling you to but realize that if you lack motivation to make a map, you are not disciplined enough to monitor yourself.
Solution? Make a map not for yourself but for someone else, an "audience." Make it for b.net noobs, the sc2 map making community, your friends in real life, or better yet make it for Blizzard or map making competitions. Even "wowing" people is an absolutely great reason to make your map. The only sacrifice we must make is that we have to let our "audience" dictate what needs to go into the map. All of this we all should (hopefully) know but the next point is the hardest part.
Process
Yes we want to make that map, if my map is good enough I can probably get a girlfriend. Oh if we could just complete that map life would be great, but when we open that editor and start tinkering with a whole plethora of data and modules it's easy to lose a hold of yourself. Too much work, I don't know what to do next, too hard, etc. All of these can instantly desiccate you of any motivation and soon enough you'll find yourself dithering around in the Galaxy Editor. So what's the remedy? Well everyone has their own way of expounding regarding this impasse of map making but here's what keeps me motivated:
Think small, act small. Sure you may have too many ideas to count all jumbled up in your head but that's what makes it too overwhelming for you to do... anything. Organize your ideas and plans so that you can deal with them in an orderly fashion.
Personality
Every person has two personalities: The Teller and the Doer. The teller is the voice inside your head. It tells u what to do, nags at you, and sometimes belittles or encourages you. The Doer self is the laborer, the one that follows The Teller self's commands; its the one that actually does everything. When you are working on your map, your Teller self would yell orders at you like, "Do the triggers for this, change the data fields for this unit, make the terrain for this part of the map, etc." This constant nagging will frustrate your Doer self and disrupt your rhythm, bogging you down. So the point is: ignore your teller self. Do everything with ease and don't stuff your head with your teller's annoying and irksome commands. Let your mind go and let the wind carry you.
Don't think, just feel.
0
I believe you should make the pace a little faster. A game like this (oh btw, I made wall ball for sc1 but anyways that's besides the point) IMO benefits most from how fast it goes. But I guess we won't really find out until we can play this with other humans (or against AI which you are trying to implement)
You could add statistics at the end. I wanted to add for sc1 wall ball but given the limitations of it's editor would be impossible and/or too much work: - Kill percentages. Like for basketball (in real life) you have a field goal percentage and whatnot. Perhaps add something like that: how many times you've shot the ball, and how many times you've successfully hit someone. Perhaps even an average number of kills per shot. - Average lifespan: How long your average lifespan is per life. - Design some sort of formula which can calculate your overall skill level (sort of like the MVP). It could be based on your kill percentages, lifespan, etc.
The survival mode concept is pretty cool though.
0
I made Basketball for sc1 back in 2003 and it was and is one of my most successful maps of all time so I think it is a good map to remake.
So
I've planned out everything about this game. Once I fully learn how the trigger and data editors work I believe I can get a map done. The only thing I'm really stumped is probably the most important part: shooting the ball. If you guys played the sc basketball map, you can see that it implemented a patrolling aimer system which was quite revolutionary and ingenious for an sc1 map. I think I would like to try something different and more realistic.
To shoot the ball you have to click on the hoop itself. This will initiate an X meter/gauge of some sort. Click again and you'll shoot the ball. The better X is, the more likely you are to make the shot. Only problem is I don't know what X will be. Here are the two possibilites of X:
1) Accuracy meter When you click on the hoop, an accuracy meter will pop up. It will oscillate from 0% to anywhere up to 100%. The speed at which it oscillates and the maximum accuracy it will reach will depend on your location relative to the hoop when you shoot the ball. So for example if you are trying to shoot a ball from beyond half court your accuracy meter will oscillate very fast and the peak accuracy will only be like 20%, but if you attemp a shot from say in the paint the meter will oscillate at a very slow pace but the peak accuracy can possibly go as high as 100%. Here's an illustration of what I'm hoping to achieve:
These only show half the cycles. The X axis is the time it takes to complete half of one up and down cycle and the Y axis is the accuracy at a given time. The blue curve would be an example of when you are trying to shoot a full court shot but the red one would be one from inside the paint. Notice how the curves slowly transition from concave up (far) to concave down (near); essentially the closer you are to the hoop the larger the margin of error when trying to get a higher percentage shot.
(The numbers are only estimates of what an accuracy meter would be like.)
Pros:
- Relative ease; a player simply has to have the right timing to get an accurate shot
- Statistically realistic.
Cons:
- Very lucked based. It's not fair for someone who always gets <50% shots in when someone never makes his >50% shots.
2) Power meter This is another thing i was thinking about. Like the accuracy meter, click on the hoop to initiate the power meter. This will also go from 0 to 100%. The power level dictates how far the ball will land when shot so your distance relative to the hoop matters very much. In the paint you'll only need like a 5 to 15% power level for the shot to go in, a 30 to 40% power level around the 3 point line, and at least a 75% past center court. Here's the catch though, getting too low a power level will give you an air ball or something but too high a power level you'll probably throw the ball out of the map! So the key is to know exactly what power level is needed at certain spots on the court.
Pros:
- Pure skill. No luck involved, simply positional memory (knowing which locations on the court require what power levels).
- Physically realistic
Cons:
- Very very little room for error (power levels must be exact or within a certain range in order for a shot to go in.)
- Strict learning curve.
I like both methods equally but I'm not sure which one would be better fit for my basketball map. Or if you have another method, I'd love to hear from you. Any comments, objections, or criticism are welcome.
0
I guess this forum also serves as a welcome thread.
I've been a devout map maker for StarCraft: BroodWar for the past 10 years. I never played WC3 so I never got past the SC1 map editor intellect meaning I have a lot to learn. (Hence why I'm here)
In sc1, i made a bunch of maps. One that I would like to mention is Mini-game Party. It's like Mario Party (or Uther party for those of you who've played wc3) but with 128 mini-games (you can find it at http://www.staredit.net). I plan on remaking Mini-game Party for sc2 but i am going to need plenty of help with this galaxy editor so I hope to befriend you folks here :)