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So, I sat down and though "It's probably about time I started writing actual content for this blog" but after sitting in front of an empty screen for a while I though: "Nahhh, screw it! Reading and writting skills are SOOooo last century! All the cool kids are creating videos these days!"
So I decided to give a breif video tour of the customization available for build orders so you can display them however you want. In some ways it looks like the build orders of it's predescessors, however I rewrote the whole build order stuff from scratch to make it a lot more flexible and have a lot more options. Obviously this is still all early days so bare with me.
You can see for yourself how builds can be presented in the way you want. There are a few things I didn't explain or highlight in the video though so I guess that gives me a few things to talk about here.
- time - the demo build I chose didn't have any time markers for each step but you can elect to show when each step should be completed.
- Hotkeys - you can list the unit hotkeys for each step in the build. In the vid they all say "N/A" because I haven't done them yet but you can chose whatever you want as the hotkeys for any given unit/structure/research. For instance I might put "5,s,d" as my hotkeys for drones (5 is my hatchery control group) whereas you might just put "d". I figured everyone would have their own way they wanted to list hotkeys so I let the user define it.
- audio - There is going to be an audio option where you can chose to have a voice tell you the next step. for instance if the next step is a factory it will wait till you have 150 minerals and 100 gas before telling you to "build a factory". I do not have any of the voice recordings I am going to use but I hope for a voice simillar to Gillyweeds in her imba-builds series shown below. Or another clear spoken, preferably female voice. (Gillyweed, if you happen to see this then we should talk. I'll have my people call your people once I've ironed some stuff out)
- build length - the build can have a lot more steps than before. I think I set the limit at about 50, but that's just an arbitrary number. you can scroll up/down and in the inbuilt editor you can add a step midway through a build or erase any step you want.
- save/load - when you load back to a previous point in the game the build will reflect this. Which includes being reset if you reset the game from scratch. (using the inbuilt save/load features which take about 3 seconds, I don't mean resume from replay)
- instruction steps - functionality is not yet included but you will be able to make instruction steps where you can include your own notes in the build order such as "scout for early baneling nest", "resume probe production", "take map control"... etcetc.
- import/export - create your build in the editor or use the new "record from play" functionality. Once you've perfected it export it into text format and share it with a friend to copy/paste into his own build database all via an ingame UI.
- buggy scroll bars - slightly buggy scroller bars in the display options menu. As seen in the above video. OK, this isn't really a feature but it took me 5 whole &%$#ing days to get slider bars to (almost) do what I want. So everyone better damn appreciate them!
Once again, the quality of the video is absolutely shoking. I'm currently using a free demo version of camstudio. I think it might be a limitation imposed by them to punish me for not giving them any money because my computer seems to handle OK when recording on highest settings, the recording just turns out really really bad afterwards, and then converting to youtube video doesn't help much either. I'm guessing I'll have to part with some of my dear cash to get some decent recording software? anyone have experience in that field?
And in completely unrelated news...
+ Show Spoiler +
Sorry for any typos, typing one handed with other hand wrapped around my meat. More on that latter.
What else have I been up to. Besides spending 5 whole &%$#ing days trying to get sliders working in the UI? (seriously, 5 whole &%$#ing days?! Screw you Blizzard UI galaxy editor! #deadgame)
I did my first lead in rock climbing! Was scary as hell because the first bolt was 3 metres off the ground and the next was 2.5 metres above that. The damn bolt plate wouldn't go on the bolt and I spent a few minutes hanging by one arm with only one foot hold getting excrutiatingly tired trying to get this damn bolt plate on. If I fell I would have fallen almost to the ground before the rope kicked in and started to slow my descent. I wouldn't have hit the ground in free fall mode but there were nothing but rocks underneath me so I could have easily broken my legs. So yeah, that was scary.
Australia day came and went. The day where the nation celebrates being a yobo and calls out racist slurs before collapsing in it's own vomit from drinking too much. ( <3 u Australia ). Was working on Australia day so I had a bbq on Monday where I "threw a shrimp on the barbie" for the first time (NOTE: saying that phrase to an aussie is the number 1 easiest way to make him cringe so hard it's like his face is trying to dislodge itself from his head and book a trip to bali). Also I bought 2 massive lamb racks for about $14 which will ended up being about 5 dinners worth of food! It was tough as hell but sinfully tasty at the same time. Currently typing one handed, holding the meat with the other hand while biting and then shaking my head around like a dog trying to dislodge the tasty tasty meats. Some more left over, I'm going to boil it up first before bbqing it. I've done that with pork ribs before and made the best "fall off the bone" ribs I've ever eaten that way before.
Also currently playing dues ex and bioshok for the first time (and I call myself a nerd, *scoff*)
Anyway, that's enough unrelated ramblings for one session. Hope you are all well. Call in a sick day on Monday and go for a 3 day road trip this weekend. It's been too long since you were outside your city boundaries. Bye.
If I discover a computer password in the game I then have to look it up online to be able to read it and enter it in on a computer in game.
