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Patrick Wyatt: The StarCraft path-finding hack - Page 2

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Wohmfg
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United Kingdom1292 Posts
February 20 2013 20:48 GMT
#21
On February 21 2013 05:33 Andr3 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 21 2013 05:06 Wohmfg wrote:
I love how these little quirks in games add so much to the top level of play.

How a game can be so perfect without being engineered that way.

There's a lot of cool stuff that wasn't intended to be as the developers imagined it.

Besides all the cool tricks there are in BW, Quake had bunnyhopping( i think it was first "introduced" in doom..not sure), GunZ has a bunch of animation-based tricks. Like Wall cancelling etc.



Yeah exactly.

A lot of things that take a game to the next level professionally were never designed and take away from the immersion of the game which makes me question whether a game can be designed with the sole intention of being played at a very high level competitively.
BW4Life!
prplhz
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Denmark8045 Posts
February 20 2013 20:50 GMT
#22
this is really good stuff
http://i.imgur.com/M7t7egx.png
IceCube
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Croatia1403 Posts
February 20 2013 21:24 GMT
#23
Thank you for sharing this. As always very interesting read about my favorite game.
Forever Vulture.. :(
Deleted User 135096
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
3624 Posts
February 20 2013 21:31 GMT
#24
I was waiting for this!! :D
Administrator
2Pacalypse-
Profile Joined October 2006
Croatia9530 Posts
February 20 2013 22:01 GMT
#25
Fascinating stuff!

It just makes me wonder if someone was to create a modernized version of BW (ala Dota1 -> Dota2), how much of those "dirty hacks" would have to be replicated just to keep all the little BW tricks intact, or if that's even possible.
Moderator"We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11471 Posts
February 20 2013 22:03 GMT
#26
Yes! My all time favourite blog.

The isometric on top of square tiles I definitely noticed while map-mapmaking. It can be very frustrating to copy-paste things from other maps. Even ramp copy-paste usually means trying to individually find the right tile to make it flow a little better.

On the plus side, worker drills were born and you have to love that.
Moderator"In Trump We Trust," says the Golden Goat of Mars Lago. Have faith and believe! Trump moves in mysterious ways. Like the wind he blows where he pleases...
Xiphos
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada7507 Posts
February 20 2013 22:15 GMT
#27
On February 21 2013 07:01 2Pacalypse- wrote:
Fascinating stuff!

It just makes me wonder if someone was to create a modernized version of BW (ala Dota1 -> Dota2), how much of those "dirty hacks" would have to be replicated just to keep all the little BW tricks intact, or if that's even possible.


I think BW's graphic is better than SC2's. If they could just increase the definition of the units's pixel and its shadings then we are golden.
2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
Grumbels
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Netherlands7031 Posts
February 20 2013 22:52 GMT
#28
I wonder if they could have found a way to have workers have collision while mining for SC2.

And he has to be like my favorite person, such interesting blogs.
Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it.
thirtyapm
Profile Joined January 2012
521 Posts
February 20 2013 22:55 GMT
#29
been waiting for this, thanks
rauk
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States2228 Posts
February 20 2013 22:55 GMT
#30
On February 21 2013 07:52 Grumbels wrote:
I wonder if they could have found a way to have workers have collision while mining for SC2.

And he has to be like my favorite person, such interesting blogs.


and remove worker drilling? yeurgh
Al Bundy
Profile Joined April 2010
7257 Posts
February 20 2013 22:56 GMT
#31
Thanks for the link Another interesting read.
o choro é livre
Torpedo.Vegas
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States1890 Posts
February 20 2013 22:58 GMT
#32
On February 21 2013 05:06 Wohmfg wrote:
I love how these little quirks in games add so much to the top level of play.

How a game can be so perfect without being engineered that way.


I would argue the "perfection" can from the persistence and innovative attitudes applied to the game because of the competitive scene built around it. It is only natural for players to try to exploit bugs or incorporate as many facets of a game into their play style. Regardless of whether these facets were intended or not. I think it may be even more unreasonable to expect a developer to truly know the effects of every input permutation in their game.
HawaiianPig
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Canada5155 Posts
February 20 2013 23:12 GMT
#33
I love patrick wyatt blogs!

Because the project was always two months from launch it was inconceivable that there was enough time to re-engineer the terrain engine to make path-finding easier, so the path-finding code just had to be made to work. To handle all the tricky edge-cases, the pathing code exploded into a gigantic state-machine which encoded all sorts of specialized “get me out of here” hacks.


Expected, but fun to hear a definitive statement on it.
AdministratorNot actually Hawaiian.
Freakling
Profile Joined October 2012
Germany1533 Posts
February 20 2013 23:23 GMT
#34
On February 21 2013 07:03 Falling wrote:
Yes! My all time favourite blog.

The isometric on top of square tiles I definitely noticed while map-mapmaking. It can be very frustrating to copy-paste things from other maps. Even ramp copy-paste usually means trying to individually find the right tile to make it flow a little better.

On the plus side, worker drills were born and you have to love that.


Part of what I love about BW mapping, is how it's all workarounds, and because you have to come up with your own solutions, there's a lot of room for individuality and creativity.

On the other hand, the fact that the pathfinding algorithm for ground units somehow seems to have problems to figure out what the term "straight line" could possibly mean, especially that it's darn hard to make a mineral line, that hasn't some worker go bananas in one way or another, makes debugging a map quite the chore...
IskatuMesk
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Canada969 Posts
February 20 2013 23:25 GMT
#35
The reliance on hacks and hardcore hardcoded lard make Blizzard games such an unpleasant pain in the ass to mod. Jeez. And I doubt BW is anywhere near as bad as Diablo 2. Diablo 2... that game has some serious problems.
Merany
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
France890 Posts
February 20 2013 23:32 GMT
#36
Blizzard’s “when it’s done” policy for game launch was as much an admission that no one had any idea when we would finish as it was a commitment to releasing quality products.

That quote made me laugh quite a bit!
Great blog, as usual. I really hope he has more of those great stories to share about his time at Blizzard.
xccam
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Great Britain1150 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-02-20 23:54:11
February 20 2013 23:49 GMT
#37
Wrong thread-
Evangelist
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
1246 Posts
February 21 2013 00:01 GMT
#38
On February 21 2013 05:33 Andr3 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 21 2013 05:06 Wohmfg wrote:
I love how these little quirks in games add so much to the top level of play.

How a game can be so perfect without being engineered that way.

There's a lot of cool stuff that wasn't intended to be as the developers imagined it.

Besides all the cool tricks there are in BW, Quake had bunnyhopping( i think it was first "introduced" in doom..not sure), GunZ has a bunch of animation-based tricks. Like Wall cancelling etc.



I found BW's awful pathfinding to be a distraction. I would say the most successful unintentional game mechanic in modern games came from Tribes, namely skiing, followed by rocket jumping and then Counterstrike model stacking.
Dumbledore
Profile Joined April 2011
Sweden725 Posts
February 21 2013 00:20 GMT
#39
I love reading this kind of blogs Great stuff
Have a nice day ;)
Kurbz
Profile Joined April 2011
Australia88 Posts
February 21 2013 01:07 GMT
#40
I love reading articles like this, really gives you insight into the trials and tribulations of development. Plus i loved starcraft as a kid so my inner child is doing jumping jacks.
Never argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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