Steel
Software Engineer
- Reaction score
- 109
The leap from the original SC editor to the WC3 editor was a giant one. I'm assuming the same thing will occur from WC3 to SC2. Not much is being disclosed about what is inside the mystery of the World Editor. I have a number of things I've been hoping they add into the game to enhance the Map Maker's field of creativity.
New! 11) Better Comments / Documentation - Provide better documentation to some of the functions. Some major issues with using functions provided was using them incorrectly and causing a game to desync. Some functions are very self explanatory but some are quite complex and are not very easy to pick up and use. Examples would be great for more of the complex functions, but not necessary on all of them. Perhaps a user's guide or manual that lists functions and features, I'm sure if Blizzard doesn't do this that the community will take it upon themselves and make their own.
New! 10) Store / Retrieve Data - Allow map makers the ability to store some data on the player's computer in a special folder that can be retrieved later. World of Warcraft does this with the use of the WTF folder, it allows addons to save data to be used and loaded later. This would allow continuation of maps and the ever popular ORPG maps to flourish. Another idea using this outside of the ORPG scene would be an AoS map that would record some of your items to carry over to your next game. Swat Aftermath uses something like this with a save / load code, which this tends to get very annoying. The only issues that could be seen here is the data in the special folder would have to be encrypted so players could not manipulate the data on their own.
New! 9) OOP - Whatever the language they are going to use it should have some ability of object oriented programming in it. If you know what OOP is I won't go into detail about it.
New! 8) Keystroke Events - The ability to detect if the user has pressed a key, the list could be limited to the basic alphabet and restrict the use of the F# keys for security / safety purposes.
7) Garbage Collection - A lot of people have been talking about Memory leaks and fixing them. Blizzard should code in a simple Garbage Collect via a Heap and let the game automatically recycle data.
6) Debugging - Real Time debugging like DDD (Linux users should know what I mean) or Eclipse's debugger with its step in and step over functions. This would allow you to pinpoint particular problems with 99.9% certainty.
5) Preloading - This may be too far out there, but for a map that uses numerous models the loading of these models may be quite looming. Why not create a function much like the Preload of WC3 that would preload before the game is actually being loaded. Example: If you are on SC2, and you join a game through battle.net and you are sitting, waiting for people to join, the game could load up the models from the map in the background as you wait. If you leave the game, simply flush all the data.
4) Control over the physics engine - You could have a lot of fun mapping if you are given full utilization of the physics engine. MaDOS created his own physics system for his dodgeball map which was very innovative. Imagine a Pinball game with that Zergling Egg model bouncing around all over the place.
3) Map Optimization - Again, another tool written by the community to improve maps. Vexorian's Optimizer is a program many people use to shrink the size of their map and improve performance. Mike Pitzer's Widgetizer is another program that optimizes load times.
2) Map Protection - In WC3 we have relied on tools made by others to protect our maps, why not have Blizzard offer the feature? Have a simple prompt ask you for a password. With the AES as secure as it is, it would be nice to have this feature in SC2.
1) Addons - We have seen this done on the WC3 WE through various "hacks." Grimoire for example is a great tool that was written to dramatically improve the ability to debug code. Any game, system, or program that allows the community to build on their own code can only yield beneficial results.
TESH is another great "hack" that many people use.
New! 11) Better Comments / Documentation - Provide better documentation to some of the functions. Some major issues with using functions provided was using them incorrectly and causing a game to desync. Some functions are very self explanatory but some are quite complex and are not very easy to pick up and use. Examples would be great for more of the complex functions, but not necessary on all of them. Perhaps a user's guide or manual that lists functions and features, I'm sure if Blizzard doesn't do this that the community will take it upon themselves and make their own.
New! 10) Store / Retrieve Data - Allow map makers the ability to store some data on the player's computer in a special folder that can be retrieved later. World of Warcraft does this with the use of the WTF folder, it allows addons to save data to be used and loaded later. This would allow continuation of maps and the ever popular ORPG maps to flourish. Another idea using this outside of the ORPG scene would be an AoS map that would record some of your items to carry over to your next game. Swat Aftermath uses something like this with a save / load code, which this tends to get very annoying. The only issues that could be seen here is the data in the special folder would have to be encrypted so players could not manipulate the data on their own.
New! 9) OOP - Whatever the language they are going to use it should have some ability of object oriented programming in it. If you know what OOP is I won't go into detail about it.
New! 8) Keystroke Events - The ability to detect if the user has pressed a key, the list could be limited to the basic alphabet and restrict the use of the F# keys for security / safety purposes.
7) Garbage Collection - A lot of people have been talking about Memory leaks and fixing them. Blizzard should code in a simple Garbage Collect via a Heap and let the game automatically recycle data.
6) Debugging - Real Time debugging like DDD (Linux users should know what I mean) or Eclipse's debugger with its step in and step over functions. This would allow you to pinpoint particular problems with 99.9% certainty.
5) Preloading - This may be too far out there, but for a map that uses numerous models the loading of these models may be quite looming. Why not create a function much like the Preload of WC3 that would preload before the game is actually being loaded. Example: If you are on SC2, and you join a game through battle.net and you are sitting, waiting for people to join, the game could load up the models from the map in the background as you wait. If you leave the game, simply flush all the data.
4) Control over the physics engine - You could have a lot of fun mapping if you are given full utilization of the physics engine. MaDOS created his own physics system for his dodgeball map which was very innovative. Imagine a Pinball game with that Zergling Egg model bouncing around all over the place.
3) Map Optimization - Again, another tool written by the community to improve maps. Vexorian's Optimizer is a program many people use to shrink the size of their map and improve performance. Mike Pitzer's Widgetizer is another program that optimizes load times.
2) Map Protection - In WC3 we have relied on tools made by others to protect our maps, why not have Blizzard offer the feature? Have a simple prompt ask you for a password. With the AES as secure as it is, it would be nice to have this feature in SC2.
1) Addons - We have seen this done on the WC3 WE through various "hacks." Grimoire for example is a great tool that was written to dramatically improve the ability to debug code. Any game, system, or program that allows the community to build on their own code can only yield beneficial results.
TESH is another great "hack" that many people use.
