Just in the last few days I've had a ton of people ask me hte same question: what are we supposed to do with HotS dependencies? Can they be used mutually with WoL? Can I "convert" an existing WoL map into a "HotS" map? Do I need to re-publish my map for HotS? I figured I'd take a minute or two to officially address a few issues.
How do I publish to HotS? Will my existing maps on WoL need to be re-published?
Basically, here's the deal:
HotS and WoL are both part of the same client. Players will choose which "version" of the game they want to play in a dropdown, which will change the ladder they are on and the arcade maps available
WoL players will not be able to play maps that utilize HotS dependencies. The maps just won't show up for them.
There is only one server for each region, which runs both HotS and WoL. The unified server means you won't have to create multiple published copies of a map
You only need to publish one version of your map. If it uses HotS dependencies, only players with a HotS license can see it. If you don't use HotS dependencies, everybody(WoL & HotS players) can play. You will not need to publish your map twice. However, if you wanted to create two separate versions of your map, one with HotS assets and one without, you can do that.
That means your map shares popularity between the games, it's not seperate. A WoL-only map could potentially remain just as popular and played as a HotS map.
You may not use HotS dependencies in your own map if you don't own a HotS license yourself
You may not sneak HotS assets inside a custom-made mod. Although it may technically be possible, it is against the ToS and your map, and possibly your account, will likely be banned
Full Quote: "As a caveat to this user-generated mod flexibility, know that attempting to bypass our license restrictions by importing HotS assets into your custom mods will be policed and considered actionable violations of our Terms of Use. "
The Verdict: Any existing map on WoL will automatically be available on HotS as well. If you choose to add HotS dependencies to your map, WoL players can't play the map. If you don't add HotS dependencies, anybody can play. Here's the official statement on it if you'd like to read it yourself.
How do I publish my map to a region that isn't where I live already?
The other new feature with publishing is global play, which means you can now publish your map to any region without purchasing additional accounts! Just open the preferences menu under the "file" dropdown at the top of the editor. Click on the battle.net tab, and then set your region to whatever region you wish to publish on. Next, log in to the editor again, and publish like you normally would. Your account space is separate on each region, so publishing a 15 MB map on 4 regions won't count as 60 MB total to some kind of "account-wide limit"- each region has a separate publishing size limit, so there's no penalty to publishing everywhere.
What's the deal with dependencies? Are WoL & HotS mutually exclusive?
This is something that a lot of people have been confused about. The Heart of the Swarm dependencies INCLUDE the WoL mod files within them already! Take a look at the screenshots below:
Here's a map I just created, which only has the HotS (Campaign) Dependency:
Note the tree on the right, which shows what mods inclued what other mods. As you can see, the swam campaign includes the swarm (mod) data, AND the WoL (mod) base date, AND the WoL (campaign) data.
Now I'm going to add the WoL (campaign) dependency to the same map, after saving:
See how there is no difference? That's because the WoL content was already included within Heart of the Swarm. Adding the WoL dependency does not actually change anything, because it was already being included.
There's just one minor issue. You should not use the campaign and melee dependencies together in any map. The campaign and melee dependencies were intended to override other dependencies because they use different data for the same units. So the Campaign and melee dependencies are mutually exclusive; do not use them together in a map. Luckily for you, the editor will warn you if you try to do this, so you'll know if there's any issues.
So what's the verdict? You can use WoL And HoTS dependencies together without any problems, but there's no point in having both; However, you should NOT use campaign and melee dependencies together. Regardless, remember that you should always create a back-up copy of a big project before modifying dependencies, just in case something goes wrong.
Is the HotS editor better than the WoL editor?
No, there is only one editor, just like there is only one game client. Purchasing Heart of the Swarm simply places a licnese onto your account that allows you to play the campaign, use the dependencies, and play HotS multiplayer. So if you haven't purchased HotS, you're editor is the same as everybody else's except you can't use the HotS dependencies.
Hopefully that clears things up. If you guys have any questions, feel free to post them here or send me a PM.
Question: I have a map I made with WOL and want to convert it to HOTS. Removing dependencies makes my editor load till the end of eternity. However, adding the Swarm dependecies seems to work just fine, too. Exept for one thing: The sound seems to be quieter, for everything while I run the map. Even the "Battle.Net Loading Finished Bump Sound" seems to be affected by this, however, im not 100% sure. Any suggestions and/or solutions?
Good to know the Swarm Campaign mod includes Liberty campaign mod. It seems Ill just needs to replace Liberty melee with Swarm melee and Liberty Campaign with Swarm Campaign for my SC Expanded maps.
So to get the maximum amount of spread for your project, you either have to use only WoL assets - or make your entire own set of assets. Because they can't even see the damn map if you don't.
Not sure if I like this. I am pretty sure I do not like this at all.
So to get the maximum amount of spread for your project, you either have to use only WoL assets - or make your entire own set of assets. Because they can't even see the damn map if you don't.
Not sure if I like this. I am pretty sure I do not like this at all.
Most, and i mean most people who have bought WoL and enjoy the arcade, or the campaign, would consider buying the expansion to get more out of it. People who enjoy specific map will also encourage us to spice up the models and add HotS model in for them. Progamers would have to get the expansion to keep up with tournaments. That leave the percentage of people who have WoL and does not want HotS are the one already quit the game a long time ago. I consider this issue to be trivial
Question: I have a map I made with WOL and want to convert it to HOTS. Removing dependencies makes my editor load till the end of eternity. However, adding the Swarm dependecies seems to work just fine, too. Exept for one thing: The sound seems to be quieter, for everything while I run the map. Even the "Battle.Net Loading Finished Bump Sound" seems to be affected by this, however, im not 100% sure. Any suggestions and/or solutions?
The issue with dependency-swapping taking forever (literally) in some cases is a bug within the editor itself. It's been acknowledged and it's being fixed in an upcoming patch. So far you're the first person to mention the sounds being quieter, and I can't imagine why in the world that would happen (unless all HotS sound files are just quieter by default, which doesn't make much sense). I would check to make sure this is actually correct first- if you can't tell by ear, you could record the same audio twice, once with each dependency, and compare the sound files.
So to get the maximum amount of spread for your project, you either have to use only WoL assets - or make your entire own set of assets. Because they can't even see the damn map if you don't.
Not sure if I like this. I am pretty sure I do not like this at all.
I can see your point, but I'm not sure what options blizzard really had, other than allowing HotS assets on WoL. But if they did that, people could just make HotS clones on WoL easily- I assume the fear is that it would devalue the game itself for a lot of people. I was initially a little bit afraid they would segregate the maps totally and have two different versions of the editor, so at least that didn't happen :P
I'd certainly be interested in knowing how many people still play sc2 regularly but didn't upgrade to HotS- I can't imagine there's too many.
The issue with dependency-swapping taking forever (literally) in some cases is a bug within the editor itself. It's been acknowledged and it's being fixed in an upcoming patch. So far you're the first person to mention the sounds being quieter, and I can't imagine why in the world that would happen (unless all HotS sound files are just quieter by default, which doesn't make much sense). I would check to make sure this is actually correct first- if you can't tell by ear, you could record the same audio twice, once with each dependency, and compare the sound files.
Well, the sound is definately quieter by a whole lot, I can tell by ear. The sound just seems alot less bombastic, almost like its entirely coming 1 speaker or something. The only part where im not sure if the sound is indeed quieter is with the starting pop sound that every map has since the new big arcade patch. If I use the version prior to HOTS, the sound is just perfect. But not with the HOTS dependencies :/
It cant be that all sounds are quieter, either, seeing how my custom sounds are also quieter, as are the Menu sounds. I even uploaded it to Battle.Net to see if its the case there, too, but the same: As soon as I start the map, SC2 as a whole seems to come only from 1 speaker or something.
Edit: Just checked, this sound bug is also present in the editor, when I play the sound assets in the editor while having the map open, its quieter. Its also seems to be the case that the sound is not really quieter, but has alot less punch to it. Kinda like when you switch from 5.1 speakers to stereo or something.
I'd certainly be interested in knowing how many people still play sc2 regularly but didn't upgrade to HotS- I can't imagine there's too many.
Too soon to say that Zelda, you know, not everybody pre-ordered it. Blizzard lost me by not allowing me to use Paypal, because I'm in Latin America. Which means I'll have to find another way to get it (I don't want the Brazilian version).
Most, and i mean most people who have bought WoL and enjoy the arcade, or the campaign, would consider buying the expansion to get more out of it. People who enjoy specific map will also encourage us to spice up the models and add HotS model in for them. Progamers would have to get the expansion to keep up with tournaments. That leave the percentage of people who have WoL and does not want HotS are the one already quit the game a long time ago. I consider this issue to be trivial
There is quite a few people I know that don't consider buying HotS at all for now. Mostly because they have no interest in the campaign or the regular multiplayer and just the custom maps. Guess they might buy them for cheap later on maybe, if their favorite maps disappear. So this isn't a small or trivial thing if there are a lot more people like that. And I could imagine there might be quite a good chunk of those overall. I mean think of how many people bought WC3 just for DotA and Footy. A lot of my old classmates of that time did and never played the campaign.
There is obviously also the fact that the files are already downloaded into any SC2 folder that is up to date. I can relate to Blizzard wanting people to buy the Expansion for the Campaign and regular Multiplayer, but I really see no good reason to impact the community this way and blocking people from having access to their favorite custom maps just because someone suddenly uses HotS assets for it. To me this just seems like a really bad idea.
Though zelda is obviously right in that people might just export/remake the campaign maps and upload them, but there is certainly ways to prevent this behavior without impacting the amount of people that get to play your map. It's hard enough to boost yourself up to the higher rankings as it is, there is a lot of good maps dying on the 200+ rankings.
Guess I might just be mad at fellow Devs doing unnecessary things to impact their own playerbase again, especially after what we had to deal with in SC2.
I'd certainly be interested in knowing how many people still play sc2 regularly but didn't upgrade to HotS- I can't imagine there's too many.
Given the recent track Blizzard had with it's games, I can imagine quite a few people being very, very careful. I mean if you look at the spoiler thread, you already find quite a few issues that showed up in HotS as well. Though they still have more favor with people than Gearbox with that god-awful Colonial Marines.
Hey thanks for making this thread. It explains a lot. So just to be clear:
- My WoL maps have Liberty Mod+my custom mod (see here). The custom one includes Liberty Mod+Campaign+Storymode,
How do I make the cleanest dependency that includes WoL melee and campaign+storymode and HotS melee and campaign+Storymode data?Since Swarm Story (Campaign) includes: Liberty Mod, Liberty Campaign, Swarm Mod, Swarm Campaign, Swarm Story (Campaign) is the only Mod that is needed to have all Melee, Campaign and Story objects from WoL and HotS am I right?
I understand adding Multi mod would conflict, so I guess we will manually update the Balance changes (stats, abilities, etc) on our mod to keep the units up-to-date.
Just took a look if the the sound thing is with completely new HOTS maps, too. It is. The sound definately has less punch to it. Can someone please confirm if this is a problem that only I have or a problem that everyone has? You can check it pretty easily: Make a non HOTS map, then make a trigger were a sound is played, select a sound from the list and play it in the editor (The sound beeing quieter is most notable with sounds that are pretty loud, I always use Hybrid_PsionicRiftLaunch as testing). Then do the same thing with a map were you have HOTS campaign dependencies. There should be a noticable drop in volume. Probably best noticable with headphones.
I'm having trouble understanding publishing to other regions. In my drop-down menu under preferences I only have (Default) and The Americas as my choices. In the publishing menu itself, I have a list of different locales but I don't see a place to set which region. Can anybody help me out here?
It sounds like your regions are not available for some reason- Here's a workaround you can use. The sc2 support team recommended this fix to a few community members a while back, so you shouldn't get in trouble for "hacking" the game or anything like that.
Head to your sc2 installation directory "C:\Program Files\StarCraft II". Download the region file I attached and place it right there. Make sure it's still named regions.xml. This should allow you access to US, EU, Korea, and Southeast Asia for now. Hopefully a "real" solution will be available later.
Thanks for posting this. I started to transfer all the HOTS assets in a new MPQ to avoid conflicts and I saw that it was really NOT a good idea. I recently tried to convert my dependencies from WOL to HOTS and the editor tells me that it cannot do that due to some unit errors (like bunker model and other strange things).
But I'm asking this question (which is purely of opinion) : Is it preferable to use WOL or HOTS dependencies? Some of you have partially answered it, but I saw both advantage and problems about that. I know that Blizzard panic about that because they think that if you copy the HOTS assets into a WOL map/mod (without the dependencies), players who haven't buy the expansion will have access to its content, which is, maybe, a loss of profit. But, honestly, the expansion was not only for the campaign and multiplayer game? Most of us make custom map, so even if some abilities or units are copied from the expansion, I saw it more as an ad for the expansion than as a threat. And between you and me, if you want to have an HOTS ability button in a WOL map, you can create your own image that is 'strangely' ressembling to this HOTS image...
Even if a player make an exact replica of a HOTS multiplayer game in the WOL dependencies, I don't see any kind of threat about that, it is just a big ad to buy the expansion to play with ranked games and tournaments. I hope that a day all the art and sound assets will be published for custom maps, but I don't think that it will be soon. And do you think of the complexity of that when the protoss expansion will arrive?
I pretty much decided not to update my existing published map to have HotS as a requirement. Every person who I talked and likes to play my map a lot, has no interest to buy HotS yet expect that one guy, who already purchased it but didn't bother to activate the expansion at the time.
It's a shame. Why doesn't Blizz allow WoL players to play HoTs maps, exactly? It would be awesome if players who don't have it can still play arcade HoTs maps. Just because. I'd love to use some of the new models for my map that I saw in campaign.
No, there is only one editor, just like there is only one game client. Purchasing Heart of the Swarm simply places a licnese onto your account that allows you to play the campaign, use the dependencies, and play HotS multiplayer. So if you haven't purchased HotS, you're editor is the same as everybody else's except you can't use the HotS dependencies.
Hopefully that clears things up. If you guys have any questions, feel free to post them here or send me a PM.
The HOTS dependencies include graphical assets. But beside graphics there aren't any disadvantages using only WoL dependencies?
For example, every skill/spell made with HOTS can be done with WOL as well?
@GEditorUser: Go You're right, data is only data, you can use similar abilities in WoL, unless you're trying to recreate melee or campaign mechaincs in detail.
The HOTS dependencies include graphical assets. But beside graphics there aren't any disadvantages using only WoL dependencies?
For example, every skill/spell made with HOTS can be done with WOL as well?
Yes. The physics engine added for HotS is part of the client and the editor. Like I said, it's literally the same editor, there's only one. You should be able to recreate all of the HotS units abilities, although obviously you wouldn't have the models, sounds, or other assets. I don't know if this would be against the ToS, to be honest.
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Just in the last few days I've had a ton of people ask me hte same question: what are we supposed to do with HotS dependencies? Can they be used mutually with WoL? Can I "convert" an existing WoL map into a "HotS" map? Do I need to re-publish my map for HotS? I figured I'd take a minute or two to officially address a few issues.
How do I publish to HotS? Will my existing maps on WoL need to be re-published?
Basically, here's the deal:
The Verdict: Any existing map on WoL will automatically be available on HotS as well. If you choose to add HotS dependencies to your map, WoL players can't play the map. If you don't add HotS dependencies, anybody can play. Here's the official statement on it if you'd like to read it yourself.
How do I publish my map to a region that isn't where I live already?
The other new feature with publishing is global play, which means you can now publish your map to any region without purchasing additional accounts! Just open the preferences menu under the "file" dropdown at the top of the editor. Click on the battle.net tab, and then set your region to whatever region you wish to publish on. Next, log in to the editor again, and publish like you normally would. Your account space is separate on each region, so publishing a 15 MB map on 4 regions won't count as 60 MB total to some kind of "account-wide limit"- each region has a separate publishing size limit, so there's no penalty to publishing everywhere.
What's the deal with dependencies? Are WoL & HotS mutually exclusive?
This is something that a lot of people have been confused about. The Heart of the Swarm dependencies INCLUDE the WoL mod files within them already! Take a look at the screenshots below:
Here's a map I just created, which only has the HotS (Campaign) Dependency:
Note the tree on the right, which shows what mods inclued what other mods. As you can see, the swam campaign includes the swarm (mod) data, AND the WoL (mod) base date, AND the WoL (campaign) data.
Now I'm going to add the WoL (campaign) dependency to the same map, after saving:
See how there is no difference? That's because the WoL content was already included within Heart of the Swarm. Adding the WoL dependency does not actually change anything, because it was already being included.
There's just one minor issue. You should not use the campaign and melee dependencies together in any map. The campaign and melee dependencies were intended to override other dependencies because they use different data for the same units. So the Campaign and melee dependencies are mutually exclusive; do not use them together in a map. Luckily for you, the editor will warn you if you try to do this, so you'll know if there's any issues.
So what's the verdict? You can use WoL And HoTS dependencies together without any problems, but there's no point in having both; However, you should NOT use campaign and melee dependencies together. Regardless, remember that you should always create a back-up copy of a big project before modifying dependencies, just in case something goes wrong.
Is the HotS editor better than the WoL editor?
No, there is only one editor, just like there is only one game client. Purchasing Heart of the Swarm simply places a licnese onto your account that allows you to play the campaign, use the dependencies, and play HotS multiplayer. So if you haven't purchased HotS, you're editor is the same as everybody else's except you can't use the HotS dependencies.
Hopefully that clears things up. If you guys have any questions, feel free to post them here or send me a PM.
Question: I have a map I made with WOL and want to convert it to HOTS. Removing dependencies makes my editor load till the end of eternity. However, adding the Swarm dependecies seems to work just fine, too. Exept for one thing: The sound seems to be quieter, for everything while I run the map. Even the "Battle.Net Loading Finished Bump Sound" seems to be affected by this, however, im not 100% sure. Any suggestions and/or solutions?
Good to know the Swarm Campaign mod includes Liberty campaign mod. It seems Ill just needs to replace Liberty melee with Swarm melee and Liberty Campaign with Swarm Campaign for my SC Expanded maps.
So to get the maximum amount of spread for your project, you either have to use only WoL assets - or make your entire own set of assets. Because they can't even see the damn map if you don't.
Not sure if I like this. I am pretty sure I do not like this at all.
Still good work!
Most, and i mean most people who have bought WoL and enjoy the arcade, or the campaign, would consider buying the expansion to get more out of it. People who enjoy specific map will also encourage us to spice up the models and add HotS model in for them. Progamers would have to get the expansion to keep up with tournaments. That leave the percentage of people who have WoL and does not want HotS are the one already quit the game a long time ago. I consider this issue to be trivial
The issue with dependency-swapping taking forever (literally) in some cases is a bug within the editor itself. It's been acknowledged and it's being fixed in an upcoming patch. So far you're the first person to mention the sounds being quieter, and I can't imagine why in the world that would happen (unless all HotS sound files are just quieter by default, which doesn't make much sense). I would check to make sure this is actually correct first- if you can't tell by ear, you could record the same audio twice, once with each dependency, and compare the sound files.
I can see your point, but I'm not sure what options blizzard really had, other than allowing HotS assets on WoL. But if they did that, people could just make HotS clones on WoL easily- I assume the fear is that it would devalue the game itself for a lot of people. I was initially a little bit afraid they would segregate the maps totally and have two different versions of the editor, so at least that didn't happen :P
I'd certainly be interested in knowing how many people still play sc2 regularly but didn't upgrade to HotS- I can't imagine there's too many.
Well, the sound is definately quieter by a whole lot, I can tell by ear. The sound just seems alot less bombastic, almost like its entirely coming 1 speaker or something. The only part where im not sure if the sound is indeed quieter is with the starting pop sound that every map has since the new big arcade patch. If I use the version prior to HOTS, the sound is just perfect. But not with the HOTS dependencies :/
It cant be that all sounds are quieter, either, seeing how my custom sounds are also quieter, as are the Menu sounds. I even uploaded it to Battle.Net to see if its the case there, too, but the same: As soon as I start the map, SC2 as a whole seems to come only from 1 speaker or something.
Edit: Just checked, this sound bug is also present in the editor, when I play the sound assets in the editor while having the map open, its quieter. Its also seems to be the case that the sound is not really quieter, but has alot less punch to it. Kinda like when you switch from 5.1 speakers to stereo or something.
Too soon to say that Zelda, you know, not everybody pre-ordered it. Blizzard lost me by not allowing me to use Paypal, because I'm in Latin America. Which means I'll have to find another way to get it (I don't want the Brazilian version).
There is quite a few people I know that don't consider buying HotS at all for now. Mostly because they have no interest in the campaign or the regular multiplayer and just the custom maps. Guess they might buy them for cheap later on maybe, if their favorite maps disappear. So this isn't a small or trivial thing if there are a lot more people like that. And I could imagine there might be quite a good chunk of those overall. I mean think of how many people bought WC3 just for DotA and Footy. A lot of my old classmates of that time did and never played the campaign.
There is obviously also the fact that the files are already downloaded into any SC2 folder that is up to date. I can relate to Blizzard wanting people to buy the Expansion for the Campaign and regular Multiplayer, but I really see no good reason to impact the community this way and blocking people from having access to their favorite custom maps just because someone suddenly uses HotS assets for it. To me this just seems like a really bad idea.
Though zelda is obviously right in that people might just export/remake the campaign maps and upload them, but there is certainly ways to prevent this behavior without impacting the amount of people that get to play your map. It's hard enough to boost yourself up to the higher rankings as it is, there is a lot of good maps dying on the 200+ rankings.
Guess I might just be mad at fellow Devs doing unnecessary things to impact their own playerbase again, especially after what we had to deal with in SC2.
Given the recent track Blizzard had with it's games, I can imagine quite a few people being very, very careful. I mean if you look at the spoiler thread, you already find quite a few issues that showed up in HotS as well. Though they still have more favor with people than Gearbox with that god-awful Colonial Marines.
@zeldarules28: Go
Hey thanks for making this thread. It explains a lot. So just to be clear:
- My WoL maps have Liberty Mod+my custom mod (see here). The custom one includes Liberty Mod+Campaign+Storymode,
How do I make the cleanest dependency that includes WoL melee and campaign+storymode and HotS melee and campaign+Storymode data? Since Swarm Story (Campaign) includes: Liberty Mod, Liberty Campaign, Swarm Mod, Swarm Campaign, Swarm Story (Campaign) is the only Mod that is needed to have all Melee, Campaign and Story objects from WoL and HotS am I right?
I understand adding Multi mod would conflict, so I guess we will manually update the Balance changes (stats, abilities, etc) on our mod to keep the units up-to-date.
Just took a look if the the sound thing is with completely new HOTS maps, too. It is. The sound definately has less punch to it. Can someone please confirm if this is a problem that only I have or a problem that everyone has? You can check it pretty easily: Make a non HOTS map, then make a trigger were a sound is played, select a sound from the list and play it in the editor (The sound beeing quieter is most notable with sounds that are pretty loud, I always use Hybrid_PsionicRiftLaunch as testing). Then do the same thing with a map were you have HOTS campaign dependencies. There should be a noticable drop in volume. Probably best noticable with headphones.
I'm having trouble understanding publishing to other regions. In my drop-down menu under preferences I only have (Default) and The Americas as my choices. In the publishing menu itself, I have a list of different locales but I don't see a place to set which region. Can anybody help me out here?
@WarClownz: Go
It sounds like your regions are not available for some reason- Here's a workaround you can use. The sc2 support team recommended this fix to a few community members a while back, so you shouldn't get in trouble for "hacking" the game or anything like that.
Head to your sc2 installation directory "C:\Program Files\StarCraft II". Download the region file I attached and place it right there. Make sure it's still named regions.xml. This should allow you access to US, EU, Korea, and Southeast Asia for now. Hopefully a "real" solution will be available later.
@Crainy: Go
I'll see if I can take a look later, I don't have much time at the moment :P
Thanks for the swift reply! The regions.xml file worked perfectly.
Thanks for posting this. I started to transfer all the HOTS assets in a new MPQ to avoid conflicts and I saw that it was really NOT a good idea. I recently tried to convert my dependencies from WOL to HOTS and the editor tells me that it cannot do that due to some unit errors (like bunker model and other strange things).
But I'm asking this question (which is purely of opinion) : Is it preferable to use WOL or HOTS dependencies? Some of you have partially answered it, but I saw both advantage and problems about that. I know that Blizzard panic about that because they think that if you copy the HOTS assets into a WOL map/mod (without the dependencies), players who haven't buy the expansion will have access to its content, which is, maybe, a loss of profit. But, honestly, the expansion was not only for the campaign and multiplayer game? Most of us make custom map, so even if some abilities or units are copied from the expansion, I saw it more as an ad for the expansion than as a threat. And between you and me, if you want to have an HOTS ability button in a WOL map, you can create your own image that is 'strangely' ressembling to this HOTS image...
Even if a player make an exact replica of a HOTS multiplayer game in the WOL dependencies, I don't see any kind of threat about that, it is just a big ad to buy the expansion to play with ranked games and tournaments. I hope that a day all the art and sound assets will be published for custom maps, but I don't think that it will be soon. And do you think of the complexity of that when the protoss expansion will arrive?
I pretty much decided not to update my existing published map to have HotS as a requirement. Every person who I talked and likes to play my map a lot, has no interest to buy HotS yet expect that one guy, who already purchased it but didn't bother to activate the expansion at the time.
It's a shame. Why doesn't Blizz allow WoL players to play HoTs maps, exactly? It would be awesome if players who don't have it can still play arcade HoTs maps. Just because. I'd love to use some of the new models for my map that I saw in campaign.
The HOTS dependencies include graphical assets. But beside graphics there aren't any disadvantages using only WoL dependencies?
For example, every skill/spell made with HOTS can be done with WOL as well?
@GEditorUser: Go You're right, data is only data, you can use similar abilities in WoL, unless you're trying to recreate melee or campaign mechaincs in detail.
Yes. The physics engine added for HotS is part of the client and the editor. Like I said, it's literally the same editor, there's only one. You should be able to recreate all of the HotS units abilities, although obviously you wouldn't have the models, sounds, or other assets. I don't know if this would be against the ToS, to be honest.