Rubber Ducky, Galaxy Editor

Warning: This is mostly Rubber Ducky debugging/brainstorming. Wall of text ahead.

Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
....
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

I've been teaching myself how to use the galaxy editor (mostly out of boredom). I'm trying to make a map that's a mix between Starcraft and Age of Mythology.

For those of you unfamiliar with Age of Mythology , the way you unlock the tech tree is by advancing through 'Ages', sort of how Zerg has to go from Hatch->Lair->Hive, but instead of upgrading a building you choose (research) a new Minor God at each Age, which grants you access to a part of the tech tree. Here's an age advancement series for Zeus, for example: http://aom.heavengames.com/gameinfo/cultures/greek/zeus.

Each Major God has unique passive bonuses, a unique Technology, and can choose between specific Minor Gods at each Age. Each Minor God unlocks a unique unit and multiple unique techs. Every god also grants you a God Power, which is a powerful 1-time use ability that can be casted by the player anywhere he has vision, with no cost. (Red Alert 3 had "commander abilities", which are basically the same thing as God Powers, except they could be used multiple times, but had very long cooldowns)

Anyway, for the map i want to make, the 6 factions (Major Gods) are: Khalai, Nerazim, UED, Sons of Korhal, The Swarm, The Brood. (2 each of Toss, Terran, and Zerg, respectively). At each age you'll be able to select a 'Leader' that will give you bonuses and unlock a unique unit. For the rest of this, I'll use the Protoss as an example. Here's a shitty rendering of their advancement tree:

Protoss
Khalai ....Nerazim
Aldaris .........Fenix ...........Razagal
Selendis.......... Artanis........Zeratul.........Mohandar
Khas............Tassadar ........Adun ......Tassadar .........Ulrezaj

So if you pick Khalai, you can choose Fenix or Aldaris at Age 1. Nerazim can choose either Fenix or Razagal. Once you pick one, you can't go back and pick the other. If you pick Fenix, you can then pick Artanis or Zeratul in Age 2, but if you picked Aldaris, your Age 2 choices would be Selendis or Artanis. Etc. I hope that makes sense.

Picking Fenix would grant Dragoons and a unique zealot upgrade, picking Aldaris would grant access to Shield Batteries and Sentries. (all these units and abilities will be rebalanced and redesigned ofc, but the general idea will remain the same). If you pick Nerazim -> Razagal-> Mohandar -> Ulrezaj, you'll have access to Purifiers (from sc2 alpha, also called Soul Hunters), Void Rays, Dark Archons in addition to the basic Protoss units.

Remember these? Yea. Zealots with Halo Swords on Hover Scooters. Aren't they amazing?

Anyway. The tech tree is where I ran into problems with the Galaxy editor. Right now I have, on the khalai Nexus, two buttons: Choose Fenix / Choose Aldaris. They are Ability:Research buttons, and they fulfill Requirement:Have Fenix/Aldaris. On the gateway I have the unique units with correct requirements, and they function correctly once I choose the correct Leader. what I don't know how to do is: remove the Aldaris research button once the Fenix upgrade is complete; replace those buttons with the correct Tier 2 leaders. I'd also like for the Sentry to not appear in the Gateway at all once I choose Fenix, and likewise for Aldaris and the Dragoon. (right now it remains, despite being unbuildable). The way I disallow Aldaris currently is to have Requirement:Don't Have Fenix, which is roundabout at best, since it still shows aldaris on the card but doesnt allow me to ever pick it.

Also, at startup, i have a dialogue which allows players to choose from among the 6 factions, and then places the correct Town Center at their starting location. I don't know how to make the map wait for all the players to select one, though. Right now I just let the dialogue stay open until you choose, and if the opponent chooses faster than you, he gets an advantage :S. I guess I could set a variable= number of players ready; if playersReady= #ofplayers in game; create TCs. But then I'd need a variable to store everyone's choices, and this variable would need to be of dynamic size based on players in the game. So newTrigger= SetVariable_recordPlayerFactions, which would need to be an array of dynamic size (is that possible? i guess i could just make it size [max # of players on map] and mark anything not used as 0. not a big problem if it's a 1v1 map, i guess...)

As for the leader choices, maybe i should put them in a submenu. I'd like them to just be there on the first command card, but a submenu is probably easier.

How do I make units appear on the Gateway's command card only if they're buildable? Does the hatchery show Overlord drops upgrade before you have a lair? [checks in game] ok. yes you can. But that's different. In sc2 you have access to every ability. The tech tree is open. What I'm trying to do is a closed tech tree. It'd be pretty annoying for a player to always see sentries in his gateway even though he can't build them. Or worse, seeing the Merge into Dark Archon button, but not being able to push it because he didn't pick Ulrezaj. So I definitely want to delete those.

oh. right. Requirements can show/hide upgrades as well as enable/disable them. That works. how's that work exactly? under Can be Suppressed, change show to enabled? [testing] not working. [more testing] ah i also needed to change the requirement node under show to say i have at least 1 forge or w/e. which allows me to have different requirements for showing and for using oooh okay that works.

and i guess i could solve the game-start-up choices by making them upgrades on the TC command card with 0 cost and 0 upgrade time, and just use the race choices from lobby. This sidesteps the players getting a headstart because they chose faster problem. So if you pick Protoss, you'd start with a nexus that has Khalai and Nerazim choices on it in the "Choose Leader" submenu, and similarly for the zerg/terran. And this 'research' can fulfill requirements for age advance choices (check) and grant ..... god powers.

Motha-fuckin Meteor. oh yeah.

how to implement god powers? (also, what to name them so that they're starcraft themed?) Preferably, they should be on the command card if you have nothing selected (is that possible) or they can be their own dialogue box / button that stays on screen somewhere, and pops up only when the cooldown is off. The command card ability would be nicer, since it wouldn't need triggers, i think. But what if the nexus dies? Your other nexuses would need to share the ability (and share cooldowns!?). Or you would need a unit that can't die (lazy solution). So Toss could have Mothership to cast god powers, Zerg could have a Queen, and Terran could have... a scientist? :S. actually. that could be a neat, unique way to implement these. Non-global abilities on a 'hero' unit that you can only have one of. Maybe instead of making the unit invincible, allow them to die. How about cooldowns? Is there a way to make it so that abilities start on cooldown? i think so. LOOK UP COOLDOWNS UPON SPAWN.

that means... nonglobal god powers. which kinda sucks. I wanted Sensor Sweep (Scan) to be a god power, but i guess that's too important of an ability to limit it so. I could give the unique units abilities with global range i guess... hmmm. i wonder if anyone will read this far.

So... i think i'm left with a game that requires 0 triggers? win-con would be normal: destroy all structures. Start with 6 peons and 1 TC is fine. Starting with 50 minerals is okay i guess. mineral fields / vespene would be map dependant. terrazine would just be a custom object, i think. LOOK UP CUSTOM RESOURCES. oh right. there's gonna 5 resources: minerals, vespene, terrazine, supply, [race-dependent unique resource].

Terrazine will be used for Economy Upgrades and Psionic Units/Casters.

1. start-up dialogue unecessary - replace with using normal races and apply faction upgrades.
2. make a lot of 'show/hide" requirements, fiddle with command cards.
3. put god powers on unique units. LOOK UP HOW TO LIMIT # of SPECIFIC UNITS CAN BE TRAINED

anyway. for those of you that actually bothered to read any of this, uh, suggest Leaders / Tech trees and unique resources/abilities/units for the Zerg/Terran factions and leaders if you'd like. And god powers! Or ask me why i bothered to type this all out and rate this 0 stars. ionno.

yay galaxy editor.

thanks for all the help, rubber ducky!

Rubber Ducky, Galaxy Editor

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