SC2Mapster

Interesting topic. My core viewpoints are:

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1. Creative activities can be put as making new combinations of existing things, not making new things from complete scratch.
2. Methods like trigger obfuscation implies that the maker wants to protect the combination they produced. Thus, reverse-engineering requires consent.

Q. As a map maker, is it ethically proper for you to copy others peoples maps, change stuff and publish it as long as you give proper attribution and the map was unlocked?

• Yes.

Q. What if the map was locked?
Q. And what if it was locked and the maker declared they had abandoned it?

• Given that no reverse-engineering is done, yes. As I see a successful replication as a proof of creative ability, neither attribution nor consent would not be necessary.
• Though, I don't see any point in making just a mimicked version of wanted map, when a playable execution already exists.

Q. And if it was abandoned for 3 years, and was broken from all the blizzard patches?

• Then there's a point. No attribution is necessary, but it would be helpful to inform the players.

Q. What if you've tried all possible ways to get in contact with the maker, and have gotten no replies? How long should you wait for a reply?

• I'd just work on replicating from scratch. Reverse-engineering requires consent.

Q. As a map maker is it ethical of you to abandon a map and let future patches break said map, without ever updating it?

• Yes. Arcade maps are freely playable, so no users are entitled to demand an update or fix.

Q. Is it ethical to post maps that you didn't copy a map file from another maker, but the game is almost the same as another game aside from terrain and certain aspects of data and trigger coding?

• Yes.

@FunkyUserName: Go

Great. ::rolleyes:: Definitely will not do a fresh upload.

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Publish name must match the previous names of all locales

Has this been fixed yet?
I can't upload any update for multi-locale maps. (which means different map names for each locale)
Tried "use map name for all locale".

Fresh uploads work.
Updates for single-locale maps work.

Maps are in TW/KR Region.

Pitfall: Unable to update multilocale maps properly, for those freshly published after 3.0 patch. This does not block the update, but only the enUS locale will be published. This leaves "published name for <your locale> does not exist, and it will be excluded from publishing." in message log.

Workaround: Overwrite enUS locale texts with texts from your desired locale.

Pitfall: Images for arcade game previews and screenshots do not resize properly. All images appear "jagged" as if a naive resize filter is applied.

Solution: none on the client side.

@Traysent: Go

Just succeeded in making a fresh new publish and updating on Americas. From what I've tried, upload failure with mismatching names might not be related to region. For instance some members on the other thread reported success uploading to KT region, which I'm guessing are new uploads and/or has one locale, while I am getting mostly failures on that region, which are updates. Most of my maps are on KT. I'm suspecting that the enGB locale removal bugged the name check process on uploads.

I was able to update some maps in KT region. Major factor is that they were for internal tests, and has never been published with enGB locale specified on it. If this factor is causing the failures, any map having its enGB name still registered on bnet in would fail on upload. Initial publishes / maps with no enGB name registered on bnet will succeed uploading.

I suggest you investigate this to replicate.

@FunkyUserName: Go

Same problem here, and Use for all regions option doesn't solve it. (tried KT region) I noticed something while trying different maps for uploads, as some of them got past the name check. From what I see, the main differences are:

• is published with multiple locales defined, and has a published map name to compare, for each locale.
• displays "unknown locale does not match published name" for a short time (bout 0.5s) when clicking use for all regions button (not the checkbox one, but one above the log panel)

Assuming these differences are the root causes to this problem, solving it would require a database cleanup or a namecheck exception rule on Blizzard side.

SOLVED. Reduced violence option was overriding all custom death animations for terran units. I've been testing my maps only on the editor. That option gets only disabled after Bnet login. I'm almost feeling stupid now, but got it done anyway XD

Yes, and I have tried different names to see whether their priorities are messed up. I've found the names and priorities stored in SYSTEM_ActorConfig Actor. HOTS zergling actor uses names Upgrade, UpgradedAcid and such, along with corresponding entries in DeathCustoms array. My name fields are set up correctly just like zergling and command center does it.

DarkProtoss upgrade already includes Battlecruiser in its affected units array.
I found an article on Bnet forums saying something about a glitch in physics engine.

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For example, if you modify a CUnitActor's DeathArray field, and set a AnimProps for it. It's death actor would cease to handle almost all of the actor messages, and you can't change the death animation with any messages, unless you set the DeathArray[x].AnimProps field to 'Ignore'.

So far I've tried:

Battlecruiser actor had PhysicsDeathSwarmAir macro so I tried removing all macros.
I tried changing DeathModelActor to UnitDeathModel from UnitDeathModelwithDeathMotionFlier.

Hi. I'm having some trouble with implementing custom death models. What I want is when a player has Dark Protoss upgrade, Tempest model is applied to Battlecruiser unit actor. So far I made it switch models when it's alive. However when the unit is destroyed, it plays battlecruiser death animation.

I've added the following in the event tab:

UnitDeathCustomize
> ValidateUnit NoDarkProtoss
> DeathCustomize DarkProtoss

I've also added the following entry to Combat : CActorUnit_DeathCustoms array

Model : TempestDeath
ID : DarkProtoss

However I can't get TempestDeath model to play when the battlecruiser unit is destroyed, after it has switched into tempest model. It plays its original battlecruiser death model instead. It seems that changing the first entry in Combat : CActorUnit_DeathArray to play TempestDeath model works, but it would still play tempest death anim when I have no Dark Protoss upgrade. I want it to play tempest death effects only when dark protoss upgrade is applied.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Obviously enough, microtransactions and player-side banks can't go together.

Regarding the map-stealing issue, I think some sort of automated similarity scanning feature would be great. It's basically the same method used in soundhound or youtube, only it's maps instead of audio data.

This system will take care of any map being republished without author's consent.

@b0ne123: Go

Maybe it's regional difference. Most of the rpg maps here on Asian server have multiplayer features built in, and not much of those maps are played solo. I had that in me mind.

Quote from Forge_User_59026135: Go

@SoulTaker916: Go Linking banks to handles is necessary to provide even a minimum bank security. If your banks are not linked to handles, one person can hack your bank, publish it and everyone on the Internet will be able to use it with a minimal effort.

or you can use player handles as a part of the encryption key XD

Quote from b0ne123: Go

yep stop storing game breaking unlocks in banks. Everything put in a bank should be mostly cosmetic and with no real value. Not doing this is bad in regards to new players anyways. And then you just don't care, if a player wants to hack to enable some skins, who cares at all? who?

Some types of maps just have to be built around bank dependency in mind, such as RPG maps. The idea of not depending on banks just clashes with the fundamental aspect of certain genre.

Quote from Imperfect1987: Go

Priority 6: Allow Doodads to be added/placed through triggers

This would allow people to have dynamic maps that can change every play through. Allows environments to be more interesting and unpredictable. This can be done already with units but would be preferable to do with doodads.

Actually this is already possible. Doodads are Actors you know;)

Quote from Trieva: Go

For the arcade can we have automatic global language translations? That way we don't have larger publishes because of local files and it's very possible for more people to play the map (because of more nationalities). Since we can log into other servers (where our map may also be published) it would be handy having that translated too. I'd like to read reviews of my map and the last time I tried I couldn't copy text from the Korean server to use on google translate.

+1 to that. I don't really see why they made it un-copyable.. Also, as an editor from KR server I can tell you this, language is a huge, HUGE barrier. Just having map title in english drops like half of your audience. It's kinda social thing, but people *have* to study english here so they don't really wanna see it when they are relaxing and having fun playing games.

and..
about the server-side bank, if Blizz is ever going to do map marketplace I think this is just essential. There are lots of maps out there and while some of them would suit a paid map some of them are better with F2P model. Well, I'm sure they're putting more thoughts than I could.

Making the banks unimportant in the game is the idealistic solution I can think of, but this has to be considered from the beginning..
Binding player id's into bank should do fine on most occasions. That way even if someone actually manages to break the code the others are unaffected.

..actually I think we need some kind of similarity verification system on maps. you know, for republished maps.