Mods do not have access to the file system and cannot read files on your computer (which is a good thing, otherwise I could make a mod which reads your browser history or looks at your emails etc). A mod only has limited access to a specific text only file.
I wish you could import more than 255 characters at a time. It's a silly Blizzard limitation do you mind linking me the build you're refering to? Most builds manage to fit more in but I'm guessing that one is worse than others.
If I may make a suggestion... when you select a build order to play through "menu->build orders->select" there is a button which says "edit" where you should be taken to the in game editor. Here you will be able to manually add steps to the build order for example add when the starport gets built.
You say that the length of the build is limited inside the game as well? That should not be the case. If that is true then that must be a mistake on my behalf and I will have a look and fix it. I thought the limit was something like 100 steps but maybe it is set at 50 by mistake. That I CAN change.
Since this is on the front page again I can post guilt free without worrying about cluttering up the forums and necro-ing threads :D
Some news events for those not 100% up to date:
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SALT and Spawningtool.com teamed up! which means that finding and playing a build order has never been simpler! I'll let JaKaTaK do the talking on this one because he puts things better than I ever could:
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I think I finally figured out a way to automatically detect what a players control group hotkeys are. Once implemented people with custom hotkeys for control groups will no longer have to faff about setting it up properly or be confused why it doesn't work.
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I'm building an AI!
It was origionally going to be something small to help you practice in SALT but it grew and is now a fully fledged AI project! And it's cool, because AIs are cool... right up to when they try and enslave humanity... possibly even then too if they look cool like terminators.
Here is a demo of the current state of the AI project (heavily in development)
This is built ontop of SALT so the two will be compatible when finished. But I will also release as a standalone thing so you can play a normal game with/against it without chosing start locations or any of that stuff.
Question, how come the AI needs to scout when it knows everything about the game anyways? Solely as an attempt to make it seem more human?
If you can proceed with this line of thinking, you will be a god if you can manage to get an AI to undergo and respond to cheese and harassment like a normal human would. I've yet to see an AI that doesn't just turtle in its base and deathball it across the map.
On May 22 2015 14:09 ElMeanYo wrote: Question, how come the AI needs to scout when it knows everything about the game anyways? Solely as an attempt to make it seem more human?
This AI does not know everything about the game. It can only make descissions based on what it has observed.
You're right in that I COULD let it know everything on the map if I chose to do so. It's like working through maths problems in a textbook. Sure, the answers are right there in the book. It would be pretty easy to just look at them and get 100% on every question but there is no point to doing that. So instead I'm going to cover up the answers and try and work through the problem myself.
I'm chosing to not cheat so that it can compete with other people on an even playing field.
Most rts AIs have to cheat otherwise they are easy to beat. If this AI is not challenging enough I may have to let it cheat a bit like the others but I would probably give it money hacks, or maybe slightly faster production times rather than map hacks to make it more realistic.
At the moment there is no cheating going on. I'll be open sourcing the project within a week or two so others can see for themselves if they want.
Sorry I'm struggling with this - I search for the map in custom games but only old versions come up, none of the ones mentioned on the first page. I am on EU. How do I get SALT?
try the extension mod. select whichever map you want in custom games (for example Blizzard ladder maps) and click on the add extension mod button. Then search for SALT. I just updated it now for you, it was previously a few months old so the mod should have todays date as the publish date.
Let me know if that doesn't work out for you and I'll take a closer look.
I know I've said previously that there is a Blizzard bug in how Bnet handles extension mods and so playing the maps with SALT already added is better than using the extension mod feature. HOWEVER, releasing new versions of every map with SALT on every server is a job which can take up an entire afternoon/evening and is the most tedious job imaginable. So keeping the maps up to date is not possible for me anymore. Keeping just the extension mod up to date only takes 10 minutes, so the extension mod is naturally going to be more up to date.
Hello Turtles, thank you so much for this wonderful tool you have created! I really believe it is a tool that will eventually become a must when some more features are added either in the SALT tool itself or in the Spawning Tool that is linked to it. I tried using it recently and noticed that whenever I reload my game from a given slot, I end up losing my control groups! Strangely enough, my camera location hotkeys remain though ... now I read this on your post:
«I think I finally figured out a way to automatically detect what a players control group hotkeys are. Once implemented people with custom hotkeys for control groups will no longer have to faff about setting it up properly or be confused why it doesn't work.»
So I believe from what I read that this problem is currently being fixed? Or am I using the wrong version of SALT?
«You say that the length of the build is limited inside the game as well? That should not be the case. If that is true then that must be a mistake on my behalf and I will have a look and fix it. I thought the limit was something like 100 steps but maybe it is set at 50 by mistake. That I CAN change.»
I experienced the same limitation!
And by the way, congratz on this AI; wow Blizzard should totally hire you for this! If we could finally get an AI that can really play a bit like a human ... that is, using certain guidelines but also adapting to what he scouts. If you turn this into a kickstarter or anything I will definitly contribute
Thanks for the feedback. SALT is not really playable without control groups, it's not worth it if you have to re add all your units every time you use a save slot.
To get around this SALT needs to know what hotkeys you use for control groups. It assumes that you use the default hotkeys (1-9) so anyone who uses the default hotkey setup does not have to do anything. As you use custom hotkeys for your control groups you need to go into menu->hotkeys->control groups and enter your control group hotkeys into the boxes.
If you are using the extension mod you have to do this at the start of every game. But that's ok, it only takes 1 minute and is very easy to do.
These are not due to bugs with SALT. This is due to bugs in the Blizzard software so there is nothing I can do to fix it.
I think I finally figured out a way to automatically detect what a players control group hotkeys are. Once implemented people with custom hotkeys for control groups will no longer have to faff about setting it up properly or be confused why it doesn't work.
Unfortunately that was a dead end. You need to follow the steps I mentioned above.
As for the limit in length to the build order you still cannot import a really long BO by spawningtool (again, this is a Blizzard bug. Fix yo damn bugs Blizzard!). But you can import a build order and then add steps to it if you wish. Or you can place the BO in your bank file manually and have a build as long as you want. I haven't covered how to do that and need to make an update post explaining how. But it will be a bit complicated, for simplicities sake I think most people will use the normal method for importing a build order even if it comes with a size limit.
On November 16 2015 12:34 Nabukadnezar wrote: Currently the SALT mod works with LOTV... Turtles... can you make it better though?
nope, can't be done, perfection can't be improved upon . But if you have a suggestion I'm open to it. + Show Spoiler +
I'm joking of course, there are plenty of improvements and features I would like to add / change
I will be maintaining, making small improvements and cleaning it up as time goes on. Most major work I'm doing in the editor will be based on the AI I'm currently writting.
On November 16 2015 12:34 Nabukadnezar wrote: Currently the SALT mod works with LOTV... Turtles... can you make it better though?
nope, can't be done, perfection can't be improved upon . But if you have a suggestion I'm open to it. + Show Spoiler +
I'm joking of course, there are plenty of improvements and features I would like to add / change
I will be maintaining, making small improvements and cleaning it up as time goes on. Most major work I'm doing in the editor will be based on the AI I'm currently writting.
I was playing it earlier today and when i hit reset it did not reset 1+ attack bio upgrade for terran.
Any other zerg players having larva troubles with SALT in Legacy? I'm only starting the match with two larva, instead of the three I'm supposed to get.
It kind of looks like the mod used to make your starting larva by using a queen's "Spawn Larva" command to make four and then it killed one of them to drop it to three, and that it's still doing that even though the queen only spawns three larva now anyway.
I got reports from other zerg players but did not have time to look into it to figure out what the problem was. I leave for holliday in 6 hours! But thanks to your post I knew what the problem was immediately and was able to fix it
It kind of looks like the mod used to make your starting larva by using a queen's "Spawn Larva" command to make four and then it killed one of them to drop it to three, and that it's still doing that even though the queen only spawns three larva now anyway.
You are entirely correct. I just had to remove the lines of code erasing one of the larva. Uploading the change now.
I'm going to be spending the next two weeks on an island in a tent with no computer, electricity, phone reception or roads.
If anyone has any further bug reports please send them in via carrier pidgeon. I will write my code corrections on paper and place it a bottle and throw it out to sea. Probably nobody will find my message in the bottle but it will make me feel better.
Sorry for the cross post everyone, but I thought it might be worth mentioning here that SCFusion (build order optimizer) now supports the SALT output format. You can find more details about the app in the forum below, but basically this allows you to determine the fastest way to achieve a certain build (ie, if you wanted to get 5 stalkers out in the fastest possible build), which you can then generate a SALT build for and then practice it in game.
Hey Turtles, I sent you some private messages, but I will reiterate in case anyone else is having the same troubles.
1) Great job! I can tell this took a lot of time and effort and I am really impressed with your work. I really appreciate everything you have done with this mod and how great it is.
2) I got the SALT string from Fast 3 CC - Bio Liberator, and it doesn't seem to be showing Reactor timings when playing with the SALT mod. I unfortunately do not know enough about the encoding to help, and I have been unable to find documentation on it. Anything I can do to solve this problem?
I managed to find the Reddit thread where you described the salt encoding. I tried to build out the encoding to the reactor and ended up with
%Test|||~* 1 /, H !, N ,/!;" /!=!(0!H #0!P /1”” )
Not really sure where i went wrong, but the reactor doesn't show up. It looks like This is version 5 of the encoding, with spawning tool spitting out version 4. That doesn't seem to look like it makes a difference, you probably just added any new buildings in alphabetical order to create the new encoding, which I think are none for LotV Terran.
%Test|||~* /+ !, ,/ " / !(0 #0 /1 1
This encoding for some reason gets to the reactor, I think I am just missing the documentation on updated versions.