Upgrades will now be downgradeable

[AceHart]

And some other rather interesting "mapping" features.

Probably old news by now, but I had not seen it yet:
http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=1207685&p=1&#post1207685

 

[Daskunk]

5) Do you plan to take ideas from third party programs and update the editor frequently to meet the demands of the map making community?

Absolutely. We are very much committed to supporting the map/mod community as much as possible, and well be keeping an eye on the forums and updating the editor as often as we can to incorporate new suggestions.

and

4) What additional features will the new editor have?

How much time have you got? Very broadly speaking, the biggest improvements over Warcraft III will be found in the data editor, where literally every game database file is exposed for modification, and in the trigger dditor, which now features the ability to define custom functions and libraries. That said, virtually every aspect of the editor has at least some improvements over Warcraft III/StarCraft.

That was a nice Q&A batch... Sadly, Getting all hyped up over it wont make it come out sooner.

EDIT:
NICE!!!! Didn't see:

[Brett Wood] Lets say you have a cool idea for an implosion type of ability that will rapidly shrink down a targeting unit, then cause an energy shockwave that damages all nearby units within a certain area. Since there is no standard ability with a shrink-down effect, in Warcraft III youd have to resort to some fancy trigger work to achieve this effect. In StarCraft II, this kind of effect can be set up completely in the data files, and you could make the entire ability without having to use any triggers or scripting at all. Generally speaking, setting up abilities and effects will be easier through data customization than using triggers, although there will definitely be a learning curve there as well.

Before. The editor will be very good for sure it sounds like!

On a side note:

How much time have you got? Very broadly speaking, the biggest improvements over Warcraft III will be found in the data editor, where literally every game database file is exposed for modification, and in the trigger dditor, which now features the ability to define custom functions and libraries. That said, virtually every aspect of the editor has at least some improvements over Warcraft III/StarCraft.

 

[2-P]

I wish they would ignore the questions from those "modders" who never touched WE and lived under the rock for the last 6 years or so.

 

[AceHart]

They could ask me instead.
However, there's not nearly enough hype on me for that to happen.

But, if you're in the right place, at the right time, with the right people... even Blizzard pretends to listen.
Or so it seems.
To me, they don't even sell their stuff...

And yet, some of the people that will know that editor ins and outs will be here, at this very site.

 

[phyrex1an]

[Brett Wood] Lets say you have a cool idea for an implosion type of ability that will rapidly shrink down a targeting unit, then cause an energy shockwave that damages all nearby units within a certain area. Since there is no standard ability with a shrink-down effect, in Warcraft III youd have to resort to some fancy trigger work to achieve this effect. In StarCraft II, this kind of effect can be set up completely in the data files, and you could make the entire ability without having to use any triggers or scripting at all. Generally speaking, setting up abilities and effects will be easier through data customization than using triggers, although there will definitely be a learning curve there as well.

Hopefully that stuff will be available through the scripting language too. That pretty much sums up what I hate about jass*, they have so many powerful features stuffed in the game and you can't access half of it from the scripting language.

* Besides being slow, uncustomizable, ect.

 

[AceHart]

> so many powerful features stuffed in the game and you can't access half of it

Which is, actually, a Good Thing(tm).
Imagine the kind of "problems" the WE forum would get if you could kill it even easier.


You can set the damage and the area of effect of an ability directly from triggers?
(No, not setting the level, setting the actual data values)
BGH will be NOTHING compared to what that will give us...

Of course, I'm simply seeing things, and this just can't happen, can't it?

 

[phyrex1an]

You can set the damage and the area of effect of an ability directly from triggers?

<3

Of course, I'm simply seeing things, and this just can't happen, can't it?

Just make it inaccessible from the GUI. Everybody knows that maps made in "custom script" are always good. ^^

 

[AceHart]

> Just make it inaccessible from the GUI

Obviously. Otherwise there would not be any need for ScumEdit Advanced, with extra leaks and bloat.
No, wait, the new editor will not have any leaks of course. Silly me...

 

[2-P]

I think leaks belong to the "everything WE has and more" category.

 

[Sim]

> Imagine the kind of "problems" the WE forum would get if you could kill it even easier.

I can already see the [del]new[/del] next SE Help Zone filled with various "My SE Crashes" problems.

 

[Flare]

Damn, all this new (and hopefully good) stuff that is going to be in SE is giving me an incentive to get the game for that reason alone

Should be awesome (assuming Blizzard do it right ).

 

[Lobster]

Should be awesome (assuming Blizzard do it right ).

Has blizzard ever messed up (exce[t for diablo battle.net from what I hear)
wc1/2/3 was popular, wow is overpopular, starcraft was REALLY poplar (not as much as wow, but anyway) diablo 1/2 was popular, project "hydra" has a chance of being popular, starcraft ghost wasnt good enough for them, but they didn't think it was good enough. the point is, Blizzard knows what ther are doing.

Of course i dont think anyone ever heard of the handheld games they made(its on there site though)

Also, blizzard moved to another host company according to wikipedia (I think so at least), so that may lower the quality expectations a bit in future games (doubtful though)

also, the graphics look workable enough (actually great) to me

 

[ROTS19]

Ancanus said he had doubts about the editor ...

 

[punwisp]

And some other rather interesting "mapping" features.

Probably old news by now, but I had not seen it yet:
http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=1207685&p=1&#post1207685

i dont see the purpose of downgrading...

 

[Dakho]

SCII sounds like it will be so much easier to make more complex triggers. I avoid JASS like the plague, [I just tried to remove a leak and it ended up crashing warcraft, lol) so I'm hoping for a more advanced GUI, and a simpler slide system (maybe just a nice Timed Movement Action)]. I hope they add a lot of wc3 units, as the main reason I'm gonna buy Starcraft II is for the WE

 

[Flare]

i dont see the purpose of downgrading...

There have been a large number of people who have asked how to downgrade, so that would be one purpose (to accomodate users of the editor). And there's tonnes of other things (rematch option which reset all upgrades for a brand-new game, to give units a temporary bonus to a specific attribute such as attack range, armor, HP and such, for example)

 

[seph ir oth]

I hope that with all this custom data availability, you will be able to make first person shooters run smoothly. How cool would a snipers match be using Ghosts!? :thup:

 

[Polak]

wc1/2/3 was popular

Warcraft III was very popular, warcraft II was pretty popular, warcraft I has worse graphics than games made by gamemaker pro.

 

[Prometheus]

The fact that the editor is so uber awesome will probably cause me to go and buy this.
Forget Jass, its called Sass.