SC2Mapster

UPDATE: The Diablo 3 Closed Beta has begun!

It looks like patch 1.4.0 has been released! Feel free to join in on the discussion, you can also check the patch notes there, courtesy of Dogmai. In addition, you can post any undocumented Editor changes here. Also, don't forget to join in on this weeks Weekly Terraining Exercise!

FantasyCraft by rkmx52

He got his Final Fantasy in my StarCraft! In all seriousness, this is a short tech demo for the UI and some of the towns for his in progress Final Fantasy-styled SC2 map, complete with custom UI, classic sound effects, and more, :).

Paypal for Battle.net by Blizzard

Yesterday, Blizzard announced that they would be using Paypal as their cashing out company for the Diablo III Auction House. What exactly does Paypal being added to Diablo III have to with us, you may ask? I would have to respond that this new partnership between Paypal and Blizzard will likely run deeper than just Diablo III, especially since such a system would need to be embedded into Battle.net itself. They also stated that Paypal will soon become a valid payment option for other Battle.net services (like digital downloads and WoW realm changes, etc). Yes, I am implying here that Blizzard is likely going to be using Paypal as the distributor for the SC2 Map Marketplace as well! In order to purchase a map, you link a paypal account to your Battle.net account and you're good to go as long as you have the funds. If you're the author, Blizzard dumps any money made into your associated Paypal account every X amount of time. Seems logical, no? Keep in mind, I'm just throwing this out there, it's just some guess work, but it seems likely, ;).

Project Support Groups by ProzaicMuze et al

ProzaicMuze has just recently started up a group for supporting projects. This is certainly something we need around the community, especially with the state of SC2 Mapping at current time. It seems like a lot of people feel like Blizzard has forgotten about us, though I am sure that is not the case, as we'll have a huge amount of updates in the 1.4 patch, any future patches, and I guarantee HotS will bring about some cool new things for us (and then of course, LotV as well). What exactly will their group do, you may ask? Simple, they'll choose a map every so often, play it, test it for bugs, and give the map author feedback. Now, this isn't just a dedicated quality assurance team for mappers, it's a team full of great tutorial makers (like OneTwo and PM himself) and other experienced authors (such as Dogmai and Mephs), who know the ins and outs of the editor and can not only give feedback on the playability of the map, but also how to better develop your map. Let's help them, help us by showing the support group some support! Some threads you may want to keep in mind are their Mini Tutorials Archive and their Testing Archive.

Photon Cycles on YogsCast by JademsSreg

A few months ago, we featured JademusSreg's Photon Cycles map project and it seems as if it's caught the attention of the popular gaming podcast, YogsCast. It's very interesting to listen to what these guys have to say about the project, because they are clearly not SC2 players. That isn't bashing at all, it's just always interesting to get some feedback from outsiders of our normal community, :).

Diablo III Friends & Family Alpha has started a couple of hours ago as well, :). Feel free to join the discussion here. For more coverage, be sure to check out DiabloFans!

HiveKeeper by Bibendus

Looks like Bibendus is back at it with his Hive/Dungeon Keeper map! In his dev diary/tech demo, he's demonstrating an AI-based scripted hero invasion on the player's Hive. Seems pretty sweet and it's something I know Bibendus has been working on for quite some time now, so feel free to check it out!

Diablo-style Control System by OneTwo

In light of all the recent Diablo 3 news and hype, I thought it'd be cool to share some Diablo news! OneTwo shows us how to create a very accurate Diablo-styled control system through Triggers and a hint of Data.

At the ActivisionBlizzard Analyst Day Webcast, Mike Morhaime announced that the Map Marketplace would be coming with HotS, and that Blizzard DotA would be a new game mode in HotS as well... He said game mode, not map or mod. This means that we'll be able to "quick join" Blizzard DotA matches on a Ladder, exactly like how we do in Melee. Seems like a great idea... Automated Matchmaking system, ladder, etc for Blizzard DotA.

Night of the Dead by Ability1

Night of the Dead has received a major update just recently and is slated for some even bigger ones once the Heart of the Swarm is released by Blizzard. For those of you that don't know what NotD is, you can check out all previous videos/trailers released by Ability1 over the last year or so in his thread. Essentially, NotD is an 8-player co-op survival game, so think: Call of Duty Nazi Zombies, or Gear of Wars' Horde Mode.

Looks like major press sites and fansites are receiving pre-invites for the Diablo III Beta. Be cautious, because if you do not own/run either, be careful!

Patch 1.4 on PTR by Blizzard

Looks like Patch 1.4 went live on the PTR yesterday afternoon, with a ton of stuff in regards to the Editor! Since the list is so big, I've stuck it in the forum thread, check out the patch notes there. There are Editor changes/improvements as well as bug fixes to Custom Maps in general, along with the Editor. I'm excited, there's a lot of stuff!

Blizzcon 2011 Pet Revealed by Blizzard

Quote:

An ill omen streaks across the sky over Azeroth's Great Sea, heralding the arrival of this year's BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft in-game companion: the fearsome-ish Murkablo, aquatic protégé of Diablo III's eponymous Lord of Terror! Anyone who attends BlizzCon 2011 or purchases this year's BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will receive a Murkablo to call their own, along with a yet-to-be-revealed StarCraft II in-game gift.

For those curious, Blizzard opened up the new Diablo III Community Site, :).

Lunar Harvest by BoldyGo

Over the Summer, BoldyGo was hired by NASA's Langley Research Center (presumably as an intern/temp) to build map in Starcraft II. Before I begin about his map, think about that: his job was to make SC2 Maps for a NASA Research Center. How epic is that?! Not only that he was able to get paid to make SC2 Maps, but the sheer fact that NASA has research jobs available for SC2 Map Developers.

As far as his map goes, it seems to me like a simply extended melee-type map, where you have to collect/mine resources and fight against other players to obtain them. Think something along the lines of Blizzard's Burning Tide map.

Blizzard announced at GamesCom that Blizzard DotA will make an appearance at the upcoming BlizzCon and should be released around the same time as Heart of the Swarm. Considering the Map Marketplace is also slated for "around HotS," one could assume that BDotA will be sold on the Map Marketplace when it launches.

Frontline by Nash

Frontline is a class based cooperative Hero Survival/RPG where you play a persistent hero character in short battles (around 15 minutes) against waves of AI enemies in different arenas. The goal in each arena is to survive the waves and then defeat the boss. What enemies, bosses, the number of waves, and the strength of the enemies you will face is determined randomly depending on settings for the game in that arena. By successfully completing games in arenas, your hero will gain levels, improving in different ways and being able to learn new abilities.

As we already knew, Blizzard would be attending GamesCom this year to show off some D3, WoW, and HotS stuff. It looks like the HotS Demo they showed at GamesCom was the two missions that I covered in the Press Event from May though. In addition, Blizzard has added a few new pieces to the SC2 Fan Art section! I also suppose I should've let you all know this earlier as well, the 2011 Blizzard Global Writing Contest has begun, so be sure to submit your best fan fiction stories!

Chess Wars by SamirLugel

Looks like progammer's ol' ChessCraft will be seeing some competition with Samir's release of Chess Wars! I think the gameplay, for the most part, is self-explanatory, ;). Though, it is worth mentioning that there are some awesome Multiplayer modes, which allow for 1v1, 1v2 and 2v2 games.

Naz^Zombies: The Void by thepumaman1

The object of this game is to simply survive the waves of flesh-eating zombies that pour at you throughout the game. You choose one of six characters and defend yourselves by purchasing weapons, opening doors (to get better weapons, but allowing more zombies), using teleporters, cool perks, and special powers. If anyone have played the Nazi Zombies maps on Call of Duty, you'll be completely familiar with the concept of this project.

The Battle.net Invitational has been all over the BlizzCon Site these last few days. If you're up for watching some pro maps, check out the videos, commentated by Day9 and JP. Maybe this will give some of you guys a little encouragement into making some Melee maps that could potentially be used by the pros in these kinds of tournaments.

Versus TD Tutorial by OneTwo

This is what I believe to be the longest tutorial in the history of tutorials, and it covers the following...

• 4 players, split onto 2 sides, competing to last the longest.
• Mobs will spawn continuously on a timer.
• Players can choose between 2 races (choose in a dialog at the start).
• One tower for each race (yeah, just one for each... but you can easily keep duplicating).
• Fully working leaderboard
• Player-leaves-game trigger
• Anti-block
• Tower selling
• Few more minor things too.

Convert .WMO files to .M3 by Saeris

This tutorial covers how to convert .WMO Files to .M3, which means that we can now grab most, if not all, of the buildings used in WoW, within SC2. Previously, all the models we have been using to do so have been the .M2 files that were automatically converted by the WoW Model Viewer, which somewhat restricted us.

Nuke Tac Toe by Olsenn

It's just a simple game of Tic Tac Toe... with a twist. You play tic-tac-toe against your opponent by dropping nukes on the square where you want to place your X or O. Each square has neutral units engaging in battle so the nukes have something to destroy, and the camera zooms in and pans around while the nukes are dropped, so you can see the destruction up close. This map is short, sweet, and to the point! Not only does it support play against a human, but you may also play versus an AI if you wish!

Do you have any feedback for Blizzard's Tutorials in the Maps n' Mods section? Let me know about it either on the Battle.net Forums or right here on Mapster! Like I did previously with the Editor and Popularity System Feedback/Suggestions, I plan on creating a document and sending this into Blizzard to hopefully help them help us!

Cube³ by Doubotis

Seems like Doubotis has released a proof of concept for his EDGE-styled project within SC2. It really reminds me of the old marble game from years ago, where your goal was to just roll it around an obstacle course to the end (kinda sorta like Labyrinth, I suppose). Not only do you get to roll around as an awesome cube throughout the game, but you also have access to an in-game "editor", where you can adjust different tile data, as well as place new blocks down to create your very own boards. Whether or not he comes out with a map of this style, I do agree, this is another good example of the many possibilities we have with the GalaxyEditor.

Looks like we've got some cool new news, Rodrigo dug up an article by IGN from Dustin Browder just recently. In addition, Blizzard released a Starter Edition of SC2, which allows you to play several online maps, like StarJeweled. Lastly, the BlizzCon Virtual Tickets are online and available for purchase now!

Also, for anyone interested, I went ahead and uploaded the BlizzCon 2010 Custom Maps Panel to our YouTube channel.

Project StrikeCraft by gamvfr

If you are familiar with counterstrike or shadowrun, bascially everyone starts with a set amount of money and can buy weapons before each round starts. Players gain money as they get kills or win rounds. This map will be round based so each team will get equal chance to play the objective or play each side of the map. There will be 2 teams, the ghosts and the spectres. Both have the same stats its just how you build your character will be the difference. How will this be different than any other FPS map, you ask? Simple...

• The ability to detect headshots (and accuracy, depending on the recoil of the weapon and the accuracy of the weapon itself)
• The crosshairs move as your character either moves or aims so accuracy changes
• The ability to fire between cliff heights and flying vs ground
• Hit marker detection relative to your camera facing.
• Smooth first camera view.
• Able to pick up weapons and drop them while keeping their ammo clips saved.
• Instead of key events it is replaced by ability movements by command card. Lag is non-existing.