Maybe if your 100 friends were actual friends (ie people you know) who play the game, and not random people you don't even want to know that you are online then it would work out better (this seems to be the only reason for an invisible mode).
Just last night I was playing and had 13 friends online, and to be honest I don't think I have more than 20-25 friends total who are online more than once a week. Furthermore, in Warcraft 3 the limit was 25 friends and I only rarely ran into problems with the friend limit. 100 friends seems like more than enough.
Also, adding yourself seems dumb, but I do support being able to suggest yourself to a game. In all honesty though, if you are just planning on sitting in the menus until the guy invites you back, what's the point? If you join any games then you can't be invited anyways, and pretty much all the BNet menus are accessible from inside the lobby.
Putting friends into groups also seems extraneous. I mean, I only care about the friends who are online 99% of the time, and they are all at the top of my friend list, and there almost never are so many people online that I have difficulty sorting through them.
But eh, just my personal experience (and comparing SC2 to WC3, SC2's friends list is much more complex and lets you do more). Having a bigger friend cap isn't about to hurt anyone, and I guess it could be useful.
Don't know what to say about this "new" system.
It could work, but I still can't believe it.
The problem with the old system was, that when the maps were at the top of the list they couldn't be taken down, so basically its now the same.
When the first page is full, everybody will join the first page, so you still can only play maps showed on the first page, so how is this system better?
This system is the same shit since its always like: 1. Page 2. Page 3. Page.....
Its a lot better because a map like The Final Frontier, which has up to 14 players and can last over an hour, can actually slightly compete with maps like Battlecraft with 4 players and 15 minute games.
It doesn't address the root problems of popularity sort really, but at least it doesn't screw you over for making long-lasting games with lots of players.
You shouldn't bother with explaining Galaxy in a tutorial teaching people about GUI. GUI exists because people don't like Galaxy.
Anyways a couple points you should probably fix:
Quote:
Local Variables Any local variables you want to declare for this function, it is damn good programming etiquette to create and set a local variable for every parameter variable you have.
Sorry, but this is blatantly wrong. Using parameter variables is fine, and its far better programming etiquette to not create useless extraneous variables.
Also you don't need to use custom script to call functions (and this is a pain for someone who uses GUI). Essentially, you only need to use a variable set action to call them - ie, Set variable myInt to value myFunction(). If you don't want to have a variable storing the value you get from the function, why are you making a return function anyways? You can use an action definition instead to do the same thing more efficiently.
Hint text is basically like comments regarding the function. For example, you could include notes on what the function does exactly or other things. I would say tis important for anyone making libraries, but if the functions are just for personal use in a map its pretty extraneous.
EDIT: Also you should include that the function needs to be able to return a value every time, outside of if/then blocks. For example, if you have a function that returns X if "2 + 2 == 4", then it will have an error saying that its possible for it to not return a value. Even though this is obviously untrue, you need to include a return statement outside of the if/then statement so that it can compile properly.
"Cocksucker" is also "just" a word. It's still quite offensive, and I would be willing to bet that you can easily find people who will be offended by it, even when it is just presented alone.
Dyke is also offensive to many people. Despite the fact that it is also used to refer to a dike, the slang usage (which, more often than not, is used in the same derogatory sense as "faggot") is the primary use of the word in many places.
There are two key things you need to realize - context and connotation.
The context of a word is as relevant as its meaning. This is why Nexus Word Wars was hit so hard - it wasn't some character saying shit in a campaign in a situation where it would make sense. You have to realize that a good amount of people actually have to be offended and report the map to even do anything - people don't get offended because the word "dyke" is used in reference to a levee, but when you remove any context from it, it could very easily be interpreted as offensive (also, in the US, I've never heard anyone use the word "dyke" in reference to a levee). It's probably just best to stay away from having words with ambiguous meanings that could be interpreted as offensive, especially when given without context. A word like "tug" would not be offensive, because no one would even think of that as sexual, and even if they did no one reasonable would be annoyed by it.
Secondly, about half of the "draconian restrictions" that Blizzard is enforcing specifically mention connotations, not reference. This means that it doesn't matter that your map references the continent of Europe or the countries within. What matters is if you try to imply that Great Britain is the worst country in the world to live in, that everyone who lives there is actually moderately retarded, etc.
@illegal drugs/activities, stimulants aren't necessarily illegal drugs, and stimpacks are obviously not illegal. If you want to depict illegal actions (someone mentioned the party game "Mafia"), try doing it in a way that doesn't actually imply illegal actions. For example, regarding Mafia, you could have the mafia be a bunch of shapeshifting aliens, and suddenly you can end up with the same game, but without anything that could even remotely imply illegal actions.
Extreme violence does not mean "people shooting each other". I would recommend you try to avoid including mutilation and brutally explicit torture.
Very few people are actually going to be opening maps to learn from them. It would be better for them to ask for help, then have someone actually explain how it works anyways.
Chances are, people will open these maps, take terrain/coding/whatever isn't bolted down, and give absolutely no credit to the original author (see: half of the spells in the original DotA). This is probably all fine and good if you never would care about this in the first place, but generally when people contribute resources to the community, they at least expect credit.
But eh. I admit, this is not nearly the problem it was on WC3, because people can't make hacked versions that are indistinguishable from real versions or get the popularity for anyone to play them. I still don't think that this site should be promoting the hacking of maps.
So you think we should delete every thread that talks about unlocking maps in order to hide it? You must not know how the internet works. One thread on a website other than Mapster and it's over.
The only thing I see people angry about is having their map stolen, which would suck. There's nothing anyone can do about it though.
Why would anyone need to post about hacking maps on other websites when they have the biggest SC2 modding site explicitly supporting it?
And one thread on another website wouldn't necessarily mean that it becomes common knowledge. But posting it on a site like mapster (endorsing it, even) almost guarantees that literally everyone who knows how to even open the map editor will know how to do it.
At the very least, you should delete this guide just so that you can preserve the reputation of sc2mapster. :\
Well, good job severely damaging this website's reputation.
By the way, the only reason you would be able to find out how to hack maps if someone posted a step by step guide on it. Which they did, and which the administration of this forum have not only failed to delete but also directly endorsed.
Look at that. This thread, and SC2mapster are now the premier sites for people to learn about how to open maps which people don't want to be opened. Have you guys even considered the implications this has (not just for your sites reputation, but for the entire mapping community as a whole)? You can't even encrypt banks files anymore, no matter how strong your encryption algorithm is, because anyone can just open your map using this tutorial and generate whatever code they want to.
There's a huge difference between promoting open source and basically teaching people how to steal maps.
Neat concept, but the reality is a unique new map can take dozens if not hundreds of hours of planning and development. The conversion to hourly pay out is pretty abysmal for 50$.
I don't think that most people mod games because they think they can earn a profit off of it. If you don't enjoy modding, why would you even enter a modding contest in the first place?
When returning the UnitType, it gets returned as Text rather than String which imo is a pain since I can convert from String -> Text but not the other way around. - Convert gamelink to string
It gets returned as a gamelink, which is a string with a fancy name for GUI users.
Also, there is a function called "Convert Gamelink to String".
On a side note, we do really need a text2string converting function, since literally, all text variables are is string with formatting tags. Would be helpful for encrypting bank files to a user's name, among other things.
The way it works is that it starts a timer at the map init, which runs the trigger every time it expires.
The only way you can use variables with it is by having them be constants, which means you can't change them ingame. If you wanted to be able to specify the duration ingame, have a custom action which is executed at the beginning of a map, spawns units, and waits a variable amount of time before executing itself again.
@s3rius: Go
About writing faster... meh, no. If you actually use both shortcuts and the search field (already knowing the functions, that is) the GUI is extremely fast and comfortable, unless you are able to code < pick each unit - if this - do something on them > loops in 10 seconds, also you have a MUCH clearer and coherent vision of the map/code structure itself when you need to change something later whether you commented your lines or not.
Really, gotta disagree with you here. For many tasks, the GUI is slower than Galaxy - take adding three variables together, or combining a string with multiple substrings, or setting the value of a unit type variable. Furthermore, you can use custom defined functions for common tasks to further speed up your coding. Being more clear/coherent is rather subjective, with proper indenting and such, your code should be rather easy to read (or at the least, no worse than GUI).
But anyways, regarding the thread, you should probably learn Galaxy if you already are good with another programming language, as it will come fairly easily. However, it is by no means a necessity, as almost everything can be done with GUI (the few things that can't, such as dynamic event adding, can be done with a custom script block anyways).
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Maybe if your 100 friends were actual friends (ie people you know) who play the game, and not random people you don't even want to know that you are online then it would work out better (this seems to be the only reason for an invisible mode).
Just last night I was playing and had 13 friends online, and to be honest I don't think I have more than 20-25 friends total who are online more than once a week. Furthermore, in Warcraft 3 the limit was 25 friends and I only rarely ran into problems with the friend limit. 100 friends seems like more than enough.
Also, adding yourself seems dumb, but I do support being able to suggest yourself to a game. In all honesty though, if you are just planning on sitting in the menus until the guy invites you back, what's the point? If you join any games then you can't be invited anyways, and pretty much all the BNet menus are accessible from inside the lobby.
Putting friends into groups also seems extraneous. I mean, I only care about the friends who are online 99% of the time, and they are all at the top of my friend list, and there almost never are so many people online that I have difficulty sorting through them.
But eh, just my personal experience (and comparing SC2 to WC3, SC2's friends list is much more complex and lets you do more). Having a bigger friend cap isn't about to hurt anyone, and I guess it could be useful.
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Its a lot better because a map like The Final Frontier, which has up to 14 players and can last over an hour, can actually slightly compete with maps like Battlecraft with 4 players and 15 minute games.
It doesn't address the root problems of popularity sort really, but at least it doesn't screw you over for making long-lasting games with lots of players.
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You shouldn't bother with explaining Galaxy in a tutorial teaching people about GUI. GUI exists because people don't like Galaxy.
Anyways a couple points you should probably fix:
Sorry, but this is blatantly wrong. Using parameter variables is fine, and its far better programming etiquette to not create useless extraneous variables.
Also you don't need to use custom script to call functions (and this is a pain for someone who uses GUI). Essentially, you only need to use a variable set action to call them - ie, Set variable myInt to value myFunction(). If you don't want to have a variable storing the value you get from the function, why are you making a return function anyways? You can use an action definition instead to do the same thing more efficiently.
Hint text is basically like comments regarding the function. For example, you could include notes on what the function does exactly or other things. I would say tis important for anyone making libraries, but if the functions are just for personal use in a map its pretty extraneous.
EDIT: Also you should include that the function needs to be able to return a value every time, outside of if/then blocks. For example, if you have a function that returns X if "2 + 2 == 4", then it will have an error saying that its possible for it to not return a value. Even though this is obviously untrue, you need to include a return statement outside of the if/then statement so that it can compile properly.
0
"Cocksucker" is also "just" a word. It's still quite offensive, and I would be willing to bet that you can easily find people who will be offended by it, even when it is just presented alone.
Dyke is also offensive to many people. Despite the fact that it is also used to refer to a dike, the slang usage (which, more often than not, is used in the same derogatory sense as "faggot") is the primary use of the word in many places.
0
You guys are really missing the point here.
There are two key things you need to realize - context and connotation.
The context of a word is as relevant as its meaning. This is why Nexus Word Wars was hit so hard - it wasn't some character saying shit in a campaign in a situation where it would make sense. You have to realize that a good amount of people actually have to be offended and report the map to even do anything - people don't get offended because the word "dyke" is used in reference to a levee, but when you remove any context from it, it could very easily be interpreted as offensive (also, in the US, I've never heard anyone use the word "dyke" in reference to a levee). It's probably just best to stay away from having words with ambiguous meanings that could be interpreted as offensive, especially when given without context. A word like "tug" would not be offensive, because no one would even think of that as sexual, and even if they did no one reasonable would be annoyed by it.
Secondly, about half of the "draconian restrictions" that Blizzard is enforcing specifically mention connotations, not reference. This means that it doesn't matter that your map references the continent of Europe or the countries within. What matters is if you try to imply that Great Britain is the worst country in the world to live in, that everyone who lives there is actually moderately retarded, etc.
@illegal drugs/activities, stimulants aren't necessarily illegal drugs, and stimpacks are obviously not illegal. If you want to depict illegal actions (someone mentioned the party game "Mafia"), try doing it in a way that doesn't actually imply illegal actions. For example, regarding Mafia, you could have the mafia be a bunch of shapeshifting aliens, and suddenly you can end up with the same game, but without anything that could even remotely imply illegal actions.
Extreme violence does not mean "people shooting each other". I would recommend you try to avoid including mutilation and brutally explicit torture.
0
Very few people are actually going to be opening maps to learn from them. It would be better for them to ask for help, then have someone actually explain how it works anyways.
Chances are, people will open these maps, take terrain/coding/whatever isn't bolted down, and give absolutely no credit to the original author (see: half of the spells in the original DotA). This is probably all fine and good if you never would care about this in the first place, but generally when people contribute resources to the community, they at least expect credit.
But eh. I admit, this is not nearly the problem it was on WC3, because people can't make hacked versions that are indistinguishable from real versions or get the popularity for anyone to play them. I still don't think that this site should be promoting the hacking of maps.
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Why would anyone need to post about hacking maps on other websites when they have the biggest SC2 modding site explicitly supporting it?
And one thread on another website wouldn't necessarily mean that it becomes common knowledge. But posting it on a site like mapster (endorsing it, even) almost guarantees that literally everyone who knows how to even open the map editor will know how to do it.
At the very least, you should delete this guide just so that you can preserve the reputation of sc2mapster. :\
0
Well, good job severely damaging this website's reputation.
By the way, the only reason you would be able to find out how to hack maps if someone posted a step by step guide on it. Which they did, and which the administration of this forum have not only failed to delete but also directly endorsed.
I mean, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=opening+locked+sc2+maps (also note how it is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to find any other site that has such a tutorial).
Look at that. This thread, and SC2mapster are now the premier sites for people to learn about how to open maps which people don't want to be opened. Have you guys even considered the implications this has (not just for your sites reputation, but for the entire mapping community as a whole)? You can't even encrypt banks files anymore, no matter how strong your encryption algorithm is, because anyone can just open your map using this tutorial and generate whatever code they want to.
There's a huge difference between promoting open source and basically teaching people how to steal maps.
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I don't think that most people mod games because they think they can earn a profit off of it. If you don't enjoy modding, why would you even enter a modding contest in the first place?
0
Actually, you can use accessors in enrichments to emulate non-static fields.
For example,
You can also add in static fields/methods as well as normal methods via enrichments.
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It gets returned as a gamelink, which is a string with a fancy name for GUI users.
Also, there is a function called "Convert Gamelink to String".
On a side note, we do really need a text2string converting function, since literally, all text variables are is string with formatting tags. Would be helpful for encrypting bank files to a user's name, among other things.
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The way it works is that it starts a timer at the map init, which runs the trigger every time it expires.
The only way you can use variables with it is by having them be constants, which means you can't change them ingame. If you wanted to be able to specify the duration ingame, have a custom action which is executed at the beginning of a map, spawns units, and waits a variable amount of time before executing itself again.
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Just wondering, why don't you use the \ character?
I've been able to save it perfectly fine with banks/strings.
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Really, gotta disagree with you here. For many tasks, the GUI is slower than Galaxy - take adding three variables together, or combining a string with multiple substrings, or setting the value of a unit type variable. Furthermore, you can use custom defined functions for common tasks to further speed up your coding. Being more clear/coherent is rather subjective, with proper indenting and such, your code should be rather easy to read (or at the least, no worse than GUI).
But anyways, regarding the thread, you should probably learn Galaxy if you already are good with another programming language, as it will come fairly easily. However, it is by no means a necessity, as almost everything can be done with GUI (the few things that can't, such as dynamic event adding, can be done with a custom script block anyways).
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@fireblade212: Go
Put each condition inside of one "or", rather than multiples.