Abandon the star rating system. Any popular map is going to have 4.5 to 5 stars. The star system only serves to knee-cap new maps.
Reviews should decay over time, like youtube comments. It's extremely common for a map to have the same top review for it's entire life. If the first person to review your map gives you a grating score, your map is going to have that nailed to it's front page for all eternity, even if you fix/change the things mentioned in it.
Sometimes, battle.net will forget to download the map of the lobby you just joined, leaving you perpetually stuck on the "entering lobby" screen. The only escape from this is to exit the game. It also happens pretty frequently.
Sometimes, when you open the arcade, the maps just won't load. 12-14 of the 16 maps will remain black and unselectable. This happens less frequently than above, but it happens.
You gave us the ability to link our maps in web browsers. This is awesome. Please take it one step further and remove the limitation of having to select the proper region. Right now, a map link looks like this;
starcraft://map/1/223329
starcraft://map/2/155029
starcraft://map/3/77289
starcraft://map/6/20540
starcraft://map/5/29241
That "/1" number is your region, and you must select the right region for the map to open. Let us combine the above into;
starcraft://map/1/223329/2/155029/3/77289/5/29241/6/20540
Our starcraft client would then pick the region that it is currently set to, and open the appropriate map. This would let us make big "PLAY NOW" buttons, without having to list every region afterwards.
There is a "Launch editor" button on the StarCraft II client button in the battle.net client. How about a "Launch Arcade" button that takes you straight to the arcade menu? I know it's only skipping one screen, but it advertises the arcade so much more.
@TyaStarcraft: Go Thank you for the info. What about extension mods?
Not tried. Would take 5 minutes though. Just stick a 2mb image in a map, reference the image with a quick trigger, and upload it. Grab a friend or use a second computer and download away.
I've also not tried regular mods. Just maps (both with and without mods active, but the mods in question were sub-200kb).
Your map will become un-downloadable if it's larger than 1mb. All popularity will be lost since nobody will be able to download your update, and hence nobody can download your map. This does not affect other servers.
All game data is being applied twice, once by the mod you're running, and once by your test map calling your mod.
Let's say you have a set effect that creates a zergling and a roach.
Your mod tells the set effect to create these two units. It does so.
However since your test map is loading data from your mod a second time, it's duplicating the set effects and spawning a second zergling and roach.
Just assume that everything in the "effect" editor is being run twice, and it'll help. It spills over to other things, such as if you have an effect that applies a stackable behavior, it'll apply double the number of stacks.
Interestingly, the trigger editor seems to be immune to this.
If I make a custom attack ability (for argument's sake, it uses different smart-cast filters) and apply it to, say, zealot charge's "Ability Command" filed, it returns the following error;
Unable to write value: AttackCustom,Execute; reason: Core: invalid object type identification Source: C:/Users/Tya/Desktop/Test.SC2Mod Entry: Charge Scope: CAbilAugment Field: AbilCmd
Themed contests seems very meh. If the goal of the contests is to improve the quality and quantity of arcade maps, then themes only serve to hinder that over just having freeform submissions.
The people with the power to change this site left years ago. There's still competitions from 2012 on the front page advertising Heart of the Swarm beta keys. Apparently they were even going to take the site down at one point.
And to show our gratitude to the Arcade community for participating, we’ve also made the following portraits available to everyone to commemorate our winners for our first ever “Rock the Cabinet” Arcade contest!
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Abandon the star rating system. Any popular map is going to have 4.5 to 5 stars. The star system only serves to knee-cap new maps.
Reviews should decay over time, like youtube comments. It's extremely common for a map to have the same top review for it's entire life. If the first person to review your map gives you a grating score, your map is going to have that nailed to it's front page for all eternity, even if you fix/change the things mentioned in it.
Sometimes, battle.net will forget to download the map of the lobby you just joined, leaving you perpetually stuck on the "entering lobby" screen. The only escape from this is to exit the game. It also happens pretty frequently.
Sometimes, when you open the arcade, the maps just won't load. 12-14 of the 16 maps will remain black and unselectable. This happens less frequently than above, but it happens.
You gave us the ability to link our maps in web browsers. This is awesome. Please take it one step further and remove the limitation of having to select the proper region. Right now, a map link looks like this;
starcraft://map/1/223329
starcraft://map/2/155029
starcraft://map/3/77289
starcraft://map/6/20540
starcraft://map/5/29241
That "/1" number is your region, and you must select the right region for the map to open. Let us combine the above into;
starcraft://map/1/223329/2/155029/3/77289/5/29241/6/20540
Our starcraft client would then pick the region that it is currently set to, and open the appropriate map. This would let us make big "PLAY NOW" buttons, without having to list every region afterwards.
There is a "Launch editor" button on the StarCraft II client button in the battle.net client. How about a "Launch Arcade" button that takes you straight to the arcade menu? I know it's only skipping one screen, but it advertises the arcade so much more.
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Not tried. Would take 5 minutes though. Just stick a 2mb image in a map, reference the image with a quick trigger, and upload it. Grab a friend or use a second computer and download away.
I've also not tried regular mods. Just maps (both with and without mods active, but the mods in question were sub-200kb).
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http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/14056995620#5
Your map will become un-downloadable if it's larger than 1mb. All popularity will be lost since nobody will be able to download your update, and hence nobody can download your map. This does not affect other servers.
Fair warning!
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You're not alone. Made this post earlier today.
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/14056995620#5
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Can you search for it now? I've refreshed the upload and I'm hoping that fixes it!
Edit: Just found it on page 15. Seems it's popularity was reset on US servers.
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Is this okay?
I'm sure after HotS is released, Blizzard won't care. However I'm sure this will at least turn a few heads.
Want to make use of it. Don't want to get banned. Tough call!
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Is that still the case? I've only had a week-old email about it!
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All game data is being applied twice, once by the mod you're running, and once by your test map calling your mod.
Let's say you have a set effect that creates a zergling and a roach.
Your mod tells the set effect to create these two units. It does so.
However since your test map is loading data from your mod a second time, it's duplicating the set effects and spawning a second zergling and roach.
Just assume that everything in the "effect" editor is being run twice, and it'll help. It spills over to other things, such as if you have an effect that applies a stackable behavior, it'll apply double the number of stacks.
Interestingly, the trigger editor seems to be immune to this.
0
If I make a custom attack ability (for argument's sake, it uses different smart-cast filters) and apply it to, say, zealot charge's "Ability Command" filed, it returns the following error;
Unable to write value: AttackCustom,Execute; reason: Core: invalid object type identification Source: C:/Users/Tya/Desktop/Test.SC2Mod Entry: Charge Scope: CAbilAugment Field: AbilCmd
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How big is your map file?
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Themed contests seems very meh. If the goal of the contests is to improve the quality and quantity of arcade maps, then themes only serve to hinder that over just having freeform submissions.
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I would assume it is because they have no reason to pass ownership to someone else.
I'd just be thankful that the site still exists at all, to be honest.
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The people with the power to change this site left years ago. There's still competitions from 2012 on the front page advertising Heart of the Swarm beta keys. Apparently they were even going to take the site down at one point.
I'd focus your time elsewhere!
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HYPE.
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There are a lot of things that Valve needs to get right in order to "win".
Furthermore, if there's one thing that Blizzard are good at, it's taking other people's ideas and making them better.
We'll see what happens. One thing is for sure though, we're the ones benefiting from this, no matter who "wins".