A plea for mapmakers - Page 3

On January 25 2013 20:00 [F_]aths wrote:
Dawn of War never made it successfully into big esports. You cannot just copy something to make a different thing better.

On January 27 2013 06:38 Gfire wrote:
I think waygates would let you do something like bridges, or even way more. However, I think it wouldn't have the visual and pathing issues. It could be a bit hard to wrap your brain around, though, which for pro players I think is fine but it might be confusing for spectators. Would need testing.

By waygates I mean a pair of gates on the map, where units sent to one gate would teleport to the other.

I also want something that would give a passive advantage (like economy advantage,) to players who hold it but unlike a base can be passed back and forth instantly and it will always be beneficial to hold it even for the shortest amount of time. With the right placement and the proper number balance you could really encourage a lot more action.

These two things I like but... I'm not sure if it doesn't feel enough like Starcraft anymore with them. For custom maps, though, worth a try.

On January 28 2013 03:15 The_Frozen_Inferno wrote:
I don't have the beta client / editor, so I'm making a couple assumptions about what already exists in the HotS editor. I'm assuming that blinding cloud works like most other abilities like it. As usual, there is also more than one way to do it:

The viper has an ability that creates a 'persistent effect' that will periodically 'search area' and 'apply behaviour' to all viable targets. These kinds of abilities usually last for like 0.5 a second but the periodic search is equal to that duration and would re-apply the behaviour as long as the unit is in the AoE. (that's why when you leave, the unit is instantly restored, since the applied behaviour wears off).

A model actor is then probably connected to the persistent effect's creation/destruction to make it pretty.

So, all you have to do is create a new behaviour: buff with infinite duration. Its periodic effect will be set to fire off blinding cloud's 'search area' effect. You just need to match the period stats with that of the original 'create persistent' effect.

Stick this new behaviour on the unselectable unit you make by adding it to the 'Behavior: Behaviors - Behavior' field (the same field that the immortal's hardened shield is on, for reference).

Then you need to fiddle with model actors to make sure everything looks pretty. The simplest way is to duplicate the blinding cloud model actor, and change its events to:

Unit birth. cloud unit
= create
Unit death. cloud unit
= destroy
Actor creation
= AnimPlay. (whatever asset name is normally played for blinding cloud)
Actor creation
= SetTintColor. (If you want to give it a visual indicator that it's a non-standard blinding cloud)

-> Now that I think about it, you could also just change the Unit Model to the blinding cloud model. But that method has a few other disadvantages and is marginally more complex to set up. Though both methods should work.

On January 28 2013 07:12 SiskosGoatee wrote:
I tried that, the only thing is that I can't seem to place the unit I made and the icon also doesn't look normal but like a green zealot or something when I make the new unit, any suggestions? The rest seems to work.

On January 28 2013 05:21 Big J wrote:
Elevators and doors that open/close periodically. Same for bridges that appear and disappear.

Also moving platforms. Like imagine the metropolis islands floating in between the main bases.
You build a Nydus, connect it with the island. Once it docks with the opponents main, all your army goes through the docking choke point

On January 28 2013 08:41 SiskosGoatee wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

It works by the way. I am working on a map now with ridiculously short rush distance, the catch is that the key choke on the natural as well as some other parts of it have blinding clouds.

On January 28 2013 08:53 Fatam wrote:


hmm really short rush distance + no disadvantage to melee? wouldn't that make early ling aggression OP? Or am I missing something.

On January 28 2013 08:41 SiskosGoatee wrote:


It works by the way. I am working on a map now with ridiculously short rush distance, the catch is that the key choke on the natural as well as some other parts of it have blinding clouds.

On January 28 2013 09:07 JOJOsc2news wrote:


That's pretty cool. I have been following this thread ever since my reply because it was in my Subscribed Threads. It's great to see that this has actually worked out. I'm looking forward to the map. I guess zealot aggression would be quite good on it.

On January 28 2013 09:17 SiskosGoatee wrote:
Yeah, well, it's also pretty darn choked so I hoped to balance the chokes out with the clouds.



It's another 2-in-1 map. It's cross only, one of the spawns has a very short rush distance. I'm also thinking about adding neutral creep at some points maybe for balance reasons?

On January 28 2013 09:26 Gfire wrote:
I don't think creep is necessary... The map's already too big and complicated. But the use of the blinding cloud and the different spawn points is nice and interesting.

Reminds me a bit of crossfire.

I'm not sure about the double entrance nat, though... it seems like the blinding cloud isn't very effective since the other entrance is so much more appealing already.

On January 28 2013 09:26 Gfire wrote:
I don't think creep is necessary... The map's already too big and complicated. But the use of the blinding cloud and the different spawn points is nice and interesting.

Reminds me a bit of crossfire.

I'm not sure about the double entrance nat, though... it seems like the blinding cloud isn't very effective since the other entrance is so much more appealing already.