Major update. Bigger map, better enemies, etc. I was able to put the polish that I was unable to put into it due to contest deadlines, and hopefully much more updates to come.
Unfortunately due to the recent battle.net change with gametypes, the version on battle.net is unjoinable unless you look a little bit further down for the one with just the "Special Forces" gametype.
Anyways here's mine, I posted it to battle.net a full day after the contest ended, and it's grown to be #1 on multiple realms (according to scladder.com, but when I login to US battle.net I see another map over mine, is that one featured? I donno).
Anyway regardless, it's a rather small map and due to the time constraints, the fact I worked full time and was busy on two of the weekends during the contest (preparing for a big move), and actually started it a little bit after when blizzard announced the contest (I'm not sure if everyone did) but it's a fun one nevertheless. I plan on giving it a few updates to fix some of the imbalances and make the map a bit bigger.
The map may not stand out as much as some maps submitted that really change up the SC2 engine, but there's plenty of other things I did change you'll notice if you play it which are kind of cool (transforming planetary fortress, cool drop pod usage, splitting ultralisks, money for all players, building spawns and deaths using data editor, some neat abilities for some of the units, etc), it's primarily just fun.
When you select your race/unit in the lobby, is that just a name change or did you actually enable a choice of races? Just wondering as I've got custom races, which I can't select in the lobby atm.
That's a player attribute option I added. You can open the map to see how I did it, I don't lock any of my maps.
I wish I could remove certain dropdowns but I don't seem to be able to. Like the race selector is unnecessary, I tried making custom races too and it didn't work. You have to use attributes, and hope that sometime in the future blizzard adds the ability to remove unnecessary dropdowns in lobby.
Also it just reached #7 in north america, hurrah! :D
I think I'll do some gameplay commentary with someone else. I'll post it up here when I'm done (should be tonight), I guess "play it to find out what I added" doesn't really make people excited to play it.
I've made a special forces map for the map contest, here's an overview of some of the features:
- I've tried to capture the core gameplay of special forces, and add a few surprises and improvements since we're now on the starcraft 2 engine. Won't spoil them, you just have to play it.
- There's 15 units to choose from, all of them have their uses and their own special ability. Not the normal special abilities like stim pack and whatever (I felt that having that as an upgrade was always a cop out), but each unit has a special ability that is typically in the game and may have been altered or I made a new one. All units retain usefulness throughout the game and upgrades effect all units, so if you start with infantry and decide to get a few aircraft, you can have that kind of combination of units, which also adds a fair bit of re-playability.
- I've put in a fair bit of polish, I'm rather big on that, there's things like how you can pick your starting unit from the battle.net lobby.
So go ahead and give it a try, search for "special forces" and it'll be in that list (not a lot of special forces maps on battle.net it seems). I hope you enjoy it.
Two outstanding issues are:
- I have not done a whole lot of balancing work, especially since the mapping contest didn't let me do that really. I've done my best to balance it for 6 people, but I really won't know until people start playing it.
- The map appears smaller than the original, mostly out of time constraints for the contest, but it still has a lot of gameplay and depth.
I'm trying to think up a few good places to get some free music to include in maps.
Blizzard's actively taking down maps with any kind of sprites, sounds or music that are actually copyrighted or something.
As long as the content is good for personal use I don't see how blizzard would have a problem with it.
So I'm trying to think of a few good places for this. The only one that comes to mind is something along the lines of http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/ but there has to be some better sites for this, I only started looking recently.
Anyone got some good sites for free personal use music?
I've spent the last forever trying to figure out how to remove the number on the nuclear button, specifically on the odin (which doesn't even use a magazine for nukes).
I hope you don't expect every map to have an intro/outro, as most gametypes it's more irritating if you play it frequently then anything. Although in the case of this map I'll agree that something would of been in order.
My point is that usually when I'm waiting to load, it's far more interesting to see how far everyone else is done with their loading then it is to read a changelog you have read already 10 times.
As far as I know there isn't, aside from a custom background image (still possible with melee loading bars), where you could possibly add a bit of text and a title.
I've taking a liking though to making a custom map image which provides a bit of eye candy, which is visible also during the loading screen.
Generally, whenever possible, the map should be designed so that the map can get started, but to get started requires an ingame action, so everyone else can get started.
Regardless though, games are made extremely quickly on battle.net 2.0, so someone simply being afk will be a rare issue.
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Minor update, just a small bug fix and some lobby changes to hide the race selector and remove the icons only starting unit selector which was a terrible idea in the first place. Full changes: http://www.mikelat.com/2011/03/22/special-forces-elite-%E2%80%93-minor-patch-03222011/
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One final update to the map on 30/9/2010, check out the changes: http://www.mikelat.com/2010/09/30/special-forces-elite-%E2%80%93-minor-patch-09302010/
Download here: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/special-forces-elite/
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Major update. Bigger map, better enemies, etc. I was able to put the polish that I was unable to put into it due to contest deadlines, and hopefully much more updates to come.
Unfortunately due to the recent battle.net change with gametypes, the version on battle.net is unjoinable unless you look a little bit further down for the one with just the "Special Forces" gametype.
For complete list of changes, go here: http://www.mikelat.com/2010/09/27/special-forces-elite-major-patch-09272010/
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Ah I didn't know there was a thread for this.
Anyways here's mine, I posted it to battle.net a full day after the contest ended, and it's grown to be #1 on multiple realms (according to scladder.com, but when I login to US battle.net I see another map over mine, is that one featured? I donno).
Anyway regardless, it's a rather small map and due to the time constraints, the fact I worked full time and was busy on two of the weekends during the contest (preparing for a big move), and actually started it a little bit after when blizzard announced the contest (I'm not sure if everyone did) but it's a fun one nevertheless. I plan on giving it a few updates to fix some of the imbalances and make the map a bit bigger.
The map may not stand out as much as some maps submitted that really change up the SC2 engine, but there's plenty of other things I did change you'll notice if you play it which are kind of cool (transforming planetary fortress, cool drop pod usage, splitting ultralisks, money for all players, building spawns and deaths using data editor, some neat abilities for some of the units, etc), it's primarily just fun.
Best of luck to everyone in the contest!
Oh yeah here's a run I did with commentary:
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Yes, people manage and mirror my map in the EU and AUS servers as far as I know. I can't check how well they're doing though.
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That's a player attribute option I added. You can open the map to see how I did it, I don't lock any of my maps.
I wish I could remove certain dropdowns but I don't seem to be able to. Like the race selector is unnecessary, I tried making custom races too and it didn't work. You have to use attributes, and hope that sometime in the future blizzard adds the ability to remove unnecessary dropdowns in lobby.
Also it just reached #7 in north america, hurrah! :D
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@mikelat: Go
Alright I caved in and made a video of me completing it, you can check it out here (its a 3 parter):
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
It hit about page 2 of popularity today, enjoy the videos.
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No you're allowed to after the contest entries are submitted on sept 11. I even waited a day just to be safe.
I think I'll do some gameplay commentary with someone else. I'll post it up here when I'm done (should be tonight), I guess "play it to find out what I added" doesn't really make people excited to play it.
0
I've made a special forces map for the map contest, here's an overview of some of the features:
- I've tried to capture the core gameplay of special forces, and add a few surprises and improvements since we're now on the starcraft 2 engine. Won't spoil them, you just have to play it.
- There's 15 units to choose from, all of them have their uses and their own special ability. Not the normal special abilities like stim pack and whatever (I felt that having that as an upgrade was always a cop out), but each unit has a special ability that is typically in the game and may have been altered or I made a new one. All units retain usefulness throughout the game and upgrades effect all units, so if you start with infantry and decide to get a few aircraft, you can have that kind of combination of units, which also adds a fair bit of re-playability.
- I've put in a fair bit of polish, I'm rather big on that, there's things like how you can pick your starting unit from the battle.net lobby.
So go ahead and give it a try, search for "special forces" and it'll be in that list (not a lot of special forces maps on battle.net it seems). I hope you enjoy it.
Two outstanding issues are:
- I have not done a whole lot of balancing work, especially since the mapping contest didn't let me do that really. I've done my best to balance it for 6 people, but I really won't know until people start playing it.
- The map appears smaller than the original, mostly out of time constraints for the contest, but it still has a lot of gameplay and depth.
0
I'm trying to think up a few good places to get some free music to include in maps.
Blizzard's actively taking down maps with any kind of sprites, sounds or music that are actually copyrighted or something.
As long as the content is good for personal use I don't see how blizzard would have a problem with it.
So I'm trying to think of a few good places for this. The only one that comes to mind is something along the lines of http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/ but there has to be some better sites for this, I only started looking recently.
Anyone got some good sites for free personal use music?
0
I've spent the last forever trying to figure out how to remove the number on the nuclear button, specifically on the odin (which doesn't even use a magazine for nukes).
Here's some clarification: http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/1930/whatxw.jpg
Can anyone lend a hand?
0
I hope you don't expect every map to have an intro/outro, as most gametypes it's more irritating if you play it frequently then anything. Although in the case of this map I'll agree that something would of been in order.
0
My point is that usually when I'm waiting to load, it's far more interesting to see how far everyone else is done with their loading then it is to read a changelog you have read already 10 times.
You can still have a custom background.
0
As far as I know there isn't, aside from a custom background image (still possible with melee loading bars), where you could possibly add a bit of text and a title.
I've taking a liking though to making a custom map image which provides a bit of eye candy, which is visible also during the loading screen.
0
Generally, whenever possible, the map should be designed so that the map can get started, but to get started requires an ingame action, so everyone else can get started.
Regardless though, games are made extremely quickly on battle.net 2.0, so someone simply being afk will be a rare issue.