Xxio from TeamLiquid wrote up a rather nice article on the importance of custom maps in the eSports scene, which any Melee mappers would certainly be interested in.
This map is a remake of the NES, 4 player racing game, Galaxy 5000, and includes all of the original 10 tracks and 5 vehicles. This project really reminds me of the old F-Zero games and maybe even Blizzard's own Rock 'n Roll Racing.
Blizzard has released some new SC2 Fanart, pretty sweet stuff, go check it out!
This is a pretty awesome "plug-in" for the Editor made by Renee. It's just an SC2Mod that you add to your maps, but it adds a slew of new Trigger functions and XML data you can take advantage of.
This tutorial does exactly what it says, it's a quick and easy way to convert Diablo III Models to SC2 Models! This means we can make even better Diablo-esque maps, :).
This tutorial goes over the process of taking a scanned sketch, cleaning it up, creating vector outlines from it in Illustrator, saving it as a texture and applying it to a model, and finally Importing it into the Galaxy editor where it covers how to make it a doodad and it's basic use for blocking out terrain.
The great thing about using a template like this is how much faster it makes creating terrain. Before this, you'd have to really eyeball your terrain layout and hope that you've got equal sizes around your maps, or, spend hours looking at the grid and trying to match things up that way if you wanted any sort of symmetrical map. More complex designs, such as circular layouts, are easier than ever before with this technique. Plus, if your map ends up being too big or too small, all you need to do is resize the map bounds and the doodad, and you don't have to start all that tiresome work over again.
Patch 1.4.2 was released earlier today... Just a few bug fixes (including fixing an issue which prevented footprints from being edited in the Footprint Editor), but otherwise, mainly just some Protoss buffs and a nerf to EMP!
Not too long ago, MageCraft was featured on Battle.net. A PvP Arena where players get to choose every skill they wish to use. From Fireballs that push players back to the Gravity Flux that pulls everything around it into it. Using the spells players buy and upgrade to player’s liking, and a large amount of player skill, the objective is to dominate the arena.
I'm actually really excited for this, it seems like a great project. The campaign is based on the SC novel, Shadow of the Xel'Naga, set to take place in between the classic SC1 and it's expansion, Brood War. It features Blizzard-like maps, classic objectives, cinematics, transmissions, several difficulties, new terrain/weather/sounds, and most importantly, can be played in a 2-player co-op mode!
Here's a pretty sweet mod that I thought you'd all like to use; it lets you add Achievements to your maps! It's a pretty sweet system that appears to function just as the internal Battle.net achievements work. You can just go ahead and store their achievement data in the bank files to keep track of 'em and setup some pretty sweet custom achievements for your maps! Feel free to check out his thread or project page to leave feedback.
Quite some time ago I told you all about freespace's previous films as well as the trailer for this particular video. This is simply a fan made video about the Starcraft universe, starring Kerrigan, Zeratul, and Ul'Rezaj. I cannot even begin to express how amazed and impressed I am with the quality of his work... You'll just have to watch the video yourself!
BlizzCon is now over, feel free to peruse the complete coverage of everything SC2/Mapping/BDotA below. In addition, check out zelda's very thorough Blizzard DOTA Information write-up/article.
Cya next year everyone, :).
- Gallery http://imgur.com/a/zful4
- Official Blizzard write-up
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Multiplayer Unit:
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Environment & Engine:
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DotA Environment & Character Design:
- Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/RWHDv
- Official Blizzard write-up
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DotA Mechanics:
Myself (Sixen), Ryan Winzen, and ProzaicMuze were able to get a short interview with Alan Dabiri, lead software engineer on StarCraft 2. We were unable to record the interview, but here are some quick notes. In addition, we attended an hour long fansite group interview that our buddies over at SCLegacy will be posting the audio for Soon(TM).
Quote from Blizzard:What is Blizzard DOTA™?
Blizzard DOTA™ is a new official custom game for StarCraft® II, inspired by the Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) custom map for Warcraft® III. Much like other DOTA-style games, Blizzard DOTA is a team-based competitive game in which each player controls a powerful hero with unique abilities, and works with his or her team to invade and destroy the enemy team's base. We're taking a fun approach to Blizzard DOTA and hope that players enjoy battling each other with heroes from across the various Blizzard universes.
Over the course of a match, waves of computer-controlled creatures for each team advance automatically across the map along different pathways. Players fight alongside these creatures to advance the battlefront, destroy enemy towers, and eventually push into the enemy base. Other points of interest are guarded by neutral hostile creatures; capturing and controlling these points grants bonuses to your team.
As your team kills computer-controlled creatures and other players, your hero will gain experience and levels to strengthen his or her special abilities. You'll also earn gold which you can use to purchase upgrades and items to customize and improve your hero over the course of a match.
What makes Blizzard DOTA stand apart from other DOTA-style games?
We've always enjoyed the original DOTA and other DOTA-style games, as they're known for deep and compelling team-based gameplay. One thing they're also known for, however, is a demanding learning curve. We're excited to do our own take on the genre, with the goal of applying Blizzard’s "easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master" philosophy to the overall design. We're also adding gameplay elements to encourage more aggressive, fast-paced gameplay, as well as team fights all over the map.
One example of how Blizzard DOTA handles things differently is how towers work. The towers in the lanes are powerful entities that can quickly decimate enemy heroes that wander into their range. But unlike many other DOTA-style games, the towers in Blizzard DOTA have a limited amount of energy that slowly recharges over time. This means that a team making a concerted push against a tower can force that tower to run out of ammo, making it easier to overrun the position. This encourages more team-based aggression and reduces the amount of defensive, tower-hugging play in the early-mid game.
The "jungle" (the neutral area between lanes) is also handled a little differently in Blizzard DOTA. Many traditional DOTA-style games offer neutral creep camps that confer individual bonuses to players that clear out these camps. In Blizzard DOTA, the primary features of the jungle are power nodes, guarded by neutral creeps. Teams that take control of these nodes will add strength to their team's creatures in the lanes. This means that gaining control of the jungle will push the battlefront in the lanes into your team's favor, thus making the jungle nodes key points of interest on the map, ripe for team fights.
While those are just a couple features of Blizzard DOTA that we hope will encourage more aggressive gameplay and more team-based play styles, we also have an eye to making the learning curve easier. We don't think players should feel compelled to spend an inordinate amount of time researching game guides and item builds before they're even comfortable trying a different hero. Primarily, we're interested in adding clarity by eliminating redundancies in hero abilities and items, and we think players will find this reflected in the design of the heroes and in-game item shop.
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Our first blizzcon recap is finished. If you missed it, you can watch the recording here. If you missed it, you can still catch then next few shows. Check out the schedule here
- Gallery http://imgur.com/a/FHX5I
- Official Blizzard write-up
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- Gallery http://imgur.com/a/NQDtM
- Blizzard write-up as well as new concept art
- Diablo 3 Cinematic trailer revealed. WoW Mist of Pandaria trailer revealed
- Diablo 3 Box Art annouced. Collector Edition annouced. WoW Annual Pass with free D3 access announced
- Opening ceremony has started. You can watch it for free with a free bnet account
- Opening ceremony is starting soon. However multiplayer units for HotS has been leaked as they're shown on the convention floors. Check it out in this posts
That's right! Sc2mapster is the place to be for blizzcon 2011. While Sixen is at Blizzcon, we're going to be giving you live updates as they happen, in-depth articles, video coverage, and even live discussions each day to recap the highlights. If you're interested in Blizzcon 2011, make sure to stay with us during October 21st and 22nd this weekend!
You can check out this thread for all the glorious details.
For exclusive information about Diablo 3 and WoW, you can check out other Curse sister site DiabloFans and MMO-Champion
s1fizik on Squidoo.com got the Blizzard Goodie Bag early (if you want to see the rest of the content you can clicky here), and we get a small teaser at the StarCraft II portrait Blizzcon goers and viewers will get.
What is it? Blizzard's Opening Ceremony will tell.
If you haven't seen it already, check out the iPhone/Android BlizzCon 2011 app to help plan your stay at the event! The schedule is not yet up on the BlizzCon site, but as we said the other day, there's the Blizzard DotA & Modding Tools panel that we'll have full coverage of, as well as the Multiplayer Battle.net panel.
Quote:Headed to BlizzCon 2011? Bring a guide along with you! The free BlizzCon 2011 Guide mobile app, available now for Android™, iPhone®, and iPod touch®, is part calendar and part event planner. This convenient app is designed to help you make the most of your BlizzCon experience - you can browse for times and locations of developer panels and tournaments, set reminders to make sure you don’t miss out on a single event, and find your way through the exhibit halls with an interactive floor map.
Read more on the BlizzCon 2011 Guide page, or download the app for free now through iTunes or Android Market.
You can purchase the Virtual Ticket whenever you want from here. It's only $39.95 and you can watch the Convention from the comfort of your house!
ALl normal tickets are now gone gone and gone! however, there will be a $500 ticket sale going on, but otherwise thats it! You may also purchase the DirecTV stream at a later date as well.
Quote:BlizzCon 2011 tickets are now sold out!
If you were unable to purchase tickets, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m. PT (BlizzCon admission included). For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which is offered as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via DIRECTV in the United States.
BlizzCon 2011 will take place October 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Tickets to the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner cost $500 USD each and include BlizzCon admission. For further information, check out the official BlizzCon site.
As of 10:25 AM PST, the first round of tickets are sold out.
Quote:The initial allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2011 has now been sold out. If you weren't able to get tickets this time, you'll have another chance on Thursday, 26 May at 04:00 CEST, when a second batch goes on sale. In addition, tickets to special pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, 28 May 28 at 19:00 CEST. In-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which is offered as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via DIRECTV in the United States. Keep an eye on BlizzCon site for more details in the near future.
The Protoss silhouette just went live earlier today, check it out and let us know what you think it is! It kinda looks like a Kabuto to me... If you missed the previous Terran and Zerg ones, you can check them out at our BlizzCon 2011 post.
We previously updated you guys on this project back in May and it seems like the project is a bit closer to release than we think. The long anticipated SCU developer trailer was also just released earlier today and it looks extremely polished. I actually got a chance to playtest it the other day, the game feels great, definitely something that the community should be looking forward to.
Tactical Squads is a turn-based strategy game where you exercise map control and unit takedowns. You will battle your opponent(s) on 1 of 4 different types of battlefields using a slew of troops, upgrades, and tactics, whilst taking advantage of the income flowing in. The more cities you take over, the more income you gain, making this an integral part of gameplay.
Curse.com has a fresh new user-friendly design and laser focus on online game downloads! It supports an expanded list of games and genres. In addition to add-ons, Curse.com offers custom maps, high-quality/exclusive demos, client downloads, and beta key programs. Premium users will greatly benefit from their faster download speeds as file sizes for demos and game clients are much larger than add-ons. Check out the new Curse.com and download everything you need for a superior online game experience!
The StarCraft Facebook. just posted the silhouette of the new HotS Multiplayer Zerg unit not that long ago. For those of you that missed the Terran unit, check out the post. Otherwise, discuss what you think it is going to be in this thread. Next week, we'll see the Protoss unit and then we'll be able to play them hands on at BlizzCon!
There are two completly different mercenary squads on an abandoned planet. They fight for the valuable resource of Terrazine. You start as one guy of those squads. The squad consist of different specialist with a variety of cool abilities. They can calldown units, use skills and construct buildings to defend, attack or secure locations. Your teams goal is to control as much as possible Terrazine veins. The more terrazine veins are controlled the more income your team will receive. Due to more cash you can order better units, and buildings to support you in fight.
The map is oriented as a "team rts" map. Every mercenary fullfills a different role. You have to work together in scouting, attacking, defending or securing places. Wether some of your team start a harass while others build up a strong army to break defenses. Whether you rush or set up a trap there are dozens of different strategies to be discovered.
If you haven't seen it already, check out the iPhone/Android BlizzCon 2011 app to help plan your stay at the event! The schedule is not yet up on the BlizzCon site, but as we said the other day, there's the Blizzard DotA & Modding Tools panel that we'll have full coverage of, as well as the Multiplayer Battle.net panel.
Quote:Headed to BlizzCon 2011? Bring a guide along with you! The free BlizzCon 2011 Guide mobile app, available now for Android™, iPhone®, and iPod touch®, is part calendar and part event planner. This convenient app is designed to help you make the most of your BlizzCon experience - you can browse for times and locations of developer panels and tournaments, set reminders to make sure you don’t miss out on a single event, and find your way through the exhibit halls with an interactive floor map.
Read more on the BlizzCon 2011 Guide page, or download the app for free now through iTunes or Android Market.
In what appears to be the first 2D RPG on Battle.net 2.0, egodbout (creator of the Diablo: The curse of Tristram RPG) is working on a remake of the original Zelda, within StarCraft2. It's pretty clear some work still needs to be done, in regards to pathing and what not, but it seems to be shaping out quite nicely! Check out his thread for more videos! As you can see below, he's showing off the functioning animations, music, sounds, and attack/pickup functionality.
Update: Blizzard has released their Blizzcon 2011 schedule through their mobile apps. Aside from several panels covering lore and gameplay of HotS, these two panels should be of interest to us. Visit the thread to read/discuss the full schedule, however the schedule has not yet been released on the website.
Quote:Friday: StarCraft II: Map Development 2:00pm – 2:50pm, (BlizzChat: Live Forums)
Saturday: StarCraft II – Blizzard DotA & Mod Tools 12:30pm – 1:30pm, (Panel Discussion Stage)
Although, the second is a panel, the first is just a public discussion.
As war rages across the galaxy, the Terran, Zerg, and Protoss are all vying for supremacy in the Koprulu sector. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is going to see a cast of new units, including three (one for each race) that will be playable in Multiplayer. These new units and their abilities will be playable at BlizzCon, and Blizzard will be showing off their silhouettes on the official StarCraft Facebook page. The first of which was just shown off earlier today, the new Terran unit. Next week, we'll see the new Zerg unit, and lastly the new Protoss unit.
Quote:Quote from Zarhym
Just for those wondering, the unit we're teasing in this image is planned to be a new multiplayer unit. Stay tuned for more mysterious pictures of new Heart of the Swarm multiplayer units!
Spine Crawler Madness is a unique form of madness-style maps where players control a Spawner which they move around the map. The Spawner constantly creates Spine Crawlers beneath it. The goal of the map is to destroy all enemy Spine Crawlers or reach 750 kills, whichever comes first. For every Spine Crawler you destroy, you gain 1 mineral. Minerals are spent on various upgrades to improve your Spine Crawlers, including elemental upgrades with strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, reaching certain amounts of kills will reward you with special units which you can use to gain a strategic advantage over your opponents. It is a simple map by design, so it won't take long for you to pick it up. The introduction of elements, however, guarantees a certain level of risk and strategy that must be mastered to achieve victory. Don't forget to leave feedback in his thread (click the title).
UPDATE: Make sure you vote for the 2nd map for the MOTW program. Additionally, if you have any video editing skills, you may be able to help us make a MOTW trailer. If you are interested, send us a PM.
The recent 1.4 patch brought about a bunch of balance changes, as well as a Situation Report to explain some of the ideas behind the changes that were made. For some reason, the infamous Protis Sniper meme that has been on the Bnet Forums popped back into my head (seems like it always does when balance changes are discussed, :X), and I thought that it'd be awesome for us, as a community, to make a playable unit out of him. That being said, as a community, come up with a Protoss Ghost unit and an accompanying Protoss Ghost Academy (name still up in the air!). Yes, we need to come up with everything for both the unit and the building, as I want this to be a full blown custom unit. Once everything is complete, someone (myself?) will put it all together and put the unit/building into a Mod to be used as a Dependency for anyone who wants to use it!
And some number crunching...
I've also locked this newspost so we can keep the discussion to the thread.
With the release of patch 1.4 just yesterday, Mexa has spotted some new additions to the Galaxy API! Those of you interested, check 'em out!
TheHolyArk has been working on a beautiful remake of the WoW city, Moonglade, where the Night Elf and Tauren Druids unite and dwell peacefully, sharing the Nature's secrets amongst themselves. This is an amazingly done remake of the city, which takes advantage of the exact WoW models, via Molsterr's WoW to SC2 in 30 seconds tutorial.