How do you feel about map protecting?

[Chewbalka]

Lool yeah the good old days when we felt amazing for changing models on units and their names.

Do you still by any chance have that dinosaur map? It sounds enjoyable to me.

no that was when i first got into maps that where not meele, that was on a older crudy computer got a virus so i formated it and lost all the warcraft downlaoded maps (Along with like 30Gb's of other stuff ), but there was only a few intresting ones anyway.

 

[Zerox]

no that was when i first got into maps that where not meele, that was on a older crudy computer got a virus so i formated it and lost all the warcraft downlaoded maps (Along with like 30Gb's of other stuff ), but there was only a few intresting ones anyway.

Lol oh well. Its not like I'll die without it. Heh maybe I could attempt to make something like it.

 

[The Mapmaker]

I don't like protection because it _doesn't work_, and it _can't_ work. The map has to be readable to the game, so there is a fundamental limit to how much you can protect it. It's like DRM, except you don't even have control of the reader.

As far as I can see there is only one way to 'protect' maps, and that is by digitally signing them. Battle.net should let you assign a public key to your profile, and the 'author' field in the map should be used to identify the account.

Any maps signed by the person in the author field get nice big "SIGNED BY (YOU)" text. If anyone modified the map it will no longer be signed. If anyone signs it themselves, it will say signed by them. Good luck getting anyone to play a version of dota that doesn't say "SIGNED BY ICE FROG".

Of course that doesn't really work for unpopular maps, where it's more likely that the map gets all-out stolen than just cheated. In that case we would need something like battle.net signing maps with a date stamp, which would allow you to prove who did what first.

Maybe someday blizzard will actually notice that we want this type of system.

Actually, yes, it does work. If it didn't work, then why would there be a poll about it?

 

[Zerox]

Actually, yes, it does work. If it didn't work, then why would there be a poll about it?

It works but it can be undone by someone who knows how. Supposedly.

 

[The Mapmaker]

It works but it can be undone by someone who knows how. Supposedly.

Not all the time. You just have to remove certain parts of the map that are required to view the map in WE. I've tried to unprotect with many programs, and none of them work for some maps.

 

[iParadox]

Well since you can add or delete triggers without opening a map in world editor, it doesn't matter if it's protected or not. Any map is easily edited if you know how, but general map protection works on 99% of the noobs trying to edit it.

 

[Kazuga]

I like and dislike mapprotection, it's a good thing to keep away people who just want to make a cheat verision or take all the credits but it's real bad that you can't give other's the oportunity to learn how to do advanced things if they don't know how to make it on their own. That's what I like with the warlock maps, none of them is protected. Upsides: You can go and learn how to make something like that on your own, downsides: Houndreds of cheat verisions has been released on battlenet. Altough this can easily be avoided by releasing the original on a trustfull website and allways check if you have the map that is uploaded or not.

 

[Draphoelix]

The warlock maps are protected now. I got 8 versions, 7 protected and 1 cheat version (protected too) and 1 unprotected, really old one.

I like protect. Even if you prevent people from learning from your triggers, you also prevent them from using your map idea, your spells, your system. Who is made by YOU, on a purpose for your map, not others.

 

[MoonSlinger]

Personally, if you want to learn from a particular map, you can always "ASK"

I know a good number of map makers who protect their maps, however when you have shown that you are not going to do stupid things to their map, they would usually be happy to pass you an unprotected, earlier version of the map. There... solve the problem of learning. :thup:

Even for paranoid map-makers, they are usually happy to share snippets of codes, especially when you add lots of glucose in relation the specific area of the map you want to learn create. However, if you are asking for the newest version of any map.... you are asking to be ignored. :thdown:

 

[The Undaddy]

Protection ftw!
I feel like most people think that protection is about making your map un-openable,so that people won't steal your ideas.But actually...
1)Protection makes the map smaller - DotA is 3 MB IN SIZE PROTECTED.How much would it be unprotected?Would it even playable on bNet?
2)How many hacked versions of maps would there be of good maps left unprotected?10 for every version of the map?
3)Even if someone wants to see how you've done something,why not?It's not like hell make an exact copy of you map :\.TheHelper wouldn't even be here if everyone thought "they'll see how I did this,lets protect"

So,thumbs up for map protection :thup::thup:

--> I think that everyone should protect their maps.

 

[Romek]

I can undo map protection pretty easily, and I would be able to modify the majority of maps which are protected
Most people can't though.
...Which is good. I like map protection. It stops idiots stealing your map or creating a sea of tomes and publishing it. If they want to see how you did something, leave your email or something on the loading screen and they can email you.

 

[Larcenist]

Anyone could deprotect a map, but you can laugh in their face when they try to locate or understand all the code that's been merged into one huge one.

 

[hasslarn]

Agree that the real famous once shall be protected but they should like take the triggers in the map create anew map so u can see what trigger they used and put it in there website or some like that , that way noone can steal the map!

 

[Kazuga]

1)Protection makes the map smaller - DotA is 3 MB IN SIZE PROTECTED.How much would it be unprotected?Would it even playable on bNet?

Wrong, protecting your map does not make it smaller. However there is a program that is designed to shrink your maps, and the maps are thereby protected. Also, the program can not shrink it that much, it usally shrinks about 50-300KB meaning that dota is at top 3.5 MB. Also it's not 100% chance that dota uses this program.

 

[Romek]

Anyone could deprotect a map, but you can laugh in their face when they try to locate or understand all the code that's been merged into one huge one.

I can understand it.

Wrong, protecting your map does not make it smaller. However there is a program that is designed to shrink your maps, and the maps are thereby protected. Also, the program can not shrink it that much, it usally shrinks about 50-300KB meaning that dota is at top 3.5 MB. Also it's not 100% chance that dota uses this program.

Actually Protection also optimizes a map. It deletes files in the map (Which use memory)

----
I bet that everyone who voted for options 2 and 3 aren't experienced mappers

Also, Aren't the options a bit.. weird?

 

[Dameon]

Not all the time. You just have to remove certain parts of the map that are required to view the map in WE. I've tried to unprotect with many programs, and none of them work for some maps.

All those parts you can remove can be added again, IMO people realy have no basis in protecting maps, for the simple reason that they are not there maps, even if you made the map, put down the terain and all that the map still belongs to blizzard, if you don't belive me try to make some money off the map, and then wait for the law suit. It is true that some people add cheats and such, but those maps are easy to find out and then you dont join them. Just like I never join a custom hero line wars 1.5 map cause it is a hacked map.

 

[s3rius]

I am working on a big map which is currently in beta phase and I am protecting each and every version I release and also try to obfuscate certain parts of the code as good as I can. There are two reasons for that.
1st) I am using a save code and I don't want people to simply cheat themselves to max level.
2nd) Just a few months ago an idiot came and told me that he deprotected my map, did a few changes, put himself as the creator and distributed the unprotected (see first reason) version on epicwar.. that is what I call rude. Luckily I could convince the mods that that map was hacked and it got downloaded *only* about 300 times...

Arguing that one could not learn anything from protected maps is completely nuts, too.
Most of the guys who are using this as an excuse haven't even tried to ask the creator of the map whether he or she could tell them a few things.
I myself have a few "pupil" who I am teaching Jass and Gui and I am gladly helping everyone who asks me in a polite way.

There are only two situations in which I support map deprotection.
Either when you really only have the intention to learn from the map and the creator is too busy/ignorant to help.
Or when a map is already dead for a long time and the creator has vanished (I am guilty of that - without this action I'd never have started my current project).

Some of your might know the map Night Of The Dead: Aftermath. It's a quite popular zombie killing map. In my opinion its creator should be a shining example for every mapper. She released released earlier versions of her map unprotected (those which use a different save code system), regulary shared triggers with others and even allowed someone unknown to use her terrain for his own map. :thup:

edit:

It is true that some people add cheats and such, but those maps are easy to find out and then you dont join them.

It might be easy to find them if it is Dota or something with similar popularity. But rather unknown maps don't have this type of protection. Or your example about Custom Hero Line Wars 1.5. Occasionally I play HLW but how should I know that it's hacked? I also barely play Dota. I hardly know which the newest version is. Tricking me with a hacked dota is easy.

Of course everything actually belongs to Blizzard, but that means that Blizzard is also the only one that is allowed to take those maps "by force". What justification do other people have to take it? It's new to me that it is ok to steal something that neither belongs to your nor to the guy you stole it from.

 

[Zerox]

So seen as were getting people who admit to deprotecting maps what are your reasons for doing honestly?

 

[LurkerAspect]

If people were honest, I wouldn't protect my maps. But who will notice if some takes a noobs map, soups it up a bit and then re-releases it, claiming all the credit that the noob was entitled to?

If I was really well known and made fantastic games, I wouldn't protect them, because everybody would know that I had made it originally.

For us noobs, protection is about protecting one's hard work and possibly our success-makers, while a pro would try to protect their amazing triggerwork or models, and keep their secrets of succes to themselves.

 

[Strilanc]

Actually, yes, it does work. If it didn't work, then why would there be a poll about it?

There are forums where people can ask for other people to insert cheat packs, and it is done. I don't really know why people would insert cheat packs for someone who has no idea what the hell they're doing, but there you have it.