Actually, I did not mean I was moving on from mapping. I meant moving on to my next big idea. I have three big ideas lined up right now. Jetpack Girls were always meant to be a quickly made map. It only took a few days to implement the CTF part of the map. Like World War Three, first initial release was in a very poor state but it got played. Was hoping something like that happen - all luck. World War Three after a few more updates got extremely fun!
I'm moving toward making co-op maps. Co-op maps only need 3 or 4 players which should fill up fast. I only made one co-op map so far, and at the time when I made that there was no open map listing. The problem is, co-op takes far longer to make.
Ah, thank you! I just looked at the trigger events. There is a mouse click function that returns world coordinates. For some reason, I thought that was not possible or something.
But to answer your question, mouse tracking was used so the character can properly animate toward your mouse cursor. And for special abilities, you don't need to click twice. Just press once and the force field will drop at your cursor. However, you are right that if lag needs to be reduced, mouse tracking needs to be removed. Right now, lag seems good 3vs3. Haven't played 4vs4 too much so dunno how that goes.
The shooting mechanic originally was you can only fire every 2 seconds. The idea is you don't nonstop click to attack and break your finger. You carefully aim once and shoot. But after switching to nonstop clicking, its more fun to click fast and shoot fast. But people die very fast now, so dunno...
Anyways, my real goal was to impress people with the artwork. Seems very few people are impressed, so oh well. Gameplay can be refined only after I actually manage to play it. First release usually is bad, I don't think I ever release a first release map that was good without me actually playing it some.
Oh, I also had so many ideas for this map. Powerups, different weapons, upgrades, armors, items, abilities, and new characters. And switch by texture ID for different teams. But you know what? Seeing nobody playing this map just discourages me from working on it. So this is probably it, I'm moving on! I literally have a million ideas. Jetpack Girl had its day, and unlike World War Three and Kingdom Rush, this one is DOA. Good bye Jetpack Girls, *sniff*.
Wow, someone replied! I lied about not playing this map. I ended up playing a few games, and that Two Die gave this a 2 calling it a chiness map or something with some slurs!
Anyways, I have lots to say, so sit down comfy and put on your reading glasses. The lag was very bad with 14 players, sorry about those players. Mouse tracking doesn't work with too many people. I guess that's why pure CTF limited it to 8. Oh yeah, I did get one 14 player games going (score one for those who said b.net arcade works fine!). It was during day two release, some one was hosting for over a hour and I happen to join. There were lots people in lobby already, I think they were attracted by the map name and 'screenshots'. :) Anyways, that 14 game ends in disaster, lag was so unbearably, everyone left the game... and the host came back with a vengenance rating this a 1.
It is total murder trying to get a game going though. After a full weekend of afk hosting (and getting kicked), finally managed to played a few games. There are many bad reviews for the map, it is understandable. Those reviews were based on the first version which was very bad. I almost quit this map but one player suggested non-stop clicking for shooting. So I changed it and it is so much FREAKING FUN!!! Especially the one 4vs4 game I had later, it was insane.
There are also lots 5 star reviews. I checked their match history, they were just testing solo. They were pretty impressed by the map. But they obviously didn't actually play a game. Thanks Goa for the Temerinator image and 5 stars, but I see that you actually don't play any of my maps. :(
Okay, here comes the comparison with Pure CTF. Unlike Pure CTF, Jetpack Girls character is larger and easier to hit. And instead of the camera zooming out into space, you can actually see your character and they are fairly close to the enemy. It becomes more about aiming and dodging instead of mindless shooting rockets at long range that won't hit anything unless the enemy is standing still. There was one review in Pure CTF that said the skill came in when you blink next to enemy and have close fights. That's what Jetpack Girls tries to focus on, these close fights where you really have to aim and dodge.
Another big plus with Jetpack Girls, when you use the special ability, it automatically activates. There's no need to press ability and then click on target location. The map is also much smaller. Pure CTF map is way too large. Also game is set to 10 minutes. Pure CTF lasts way too long, its obviously who won already, no need to play 7-8 more minutes.
With all that said, I believe my map plays better than Pure CTF. But ultimately, its just my own opinion. I tried again to play more Pure CTF games, but like Jetpack Girl, no one joins... This genre is dead apparently.
This game also uses suggestive images in order to attract players. I say it kinda works, tons of people actually came in. Unlike Starcruisers for example, I can sit there 24 hours straight and no one coming in. Jetpack Girls actually have a lot of people coming in. Unfortunately, most see that its just me in lobby and leave right away. I opened a game up for 1 hour straight once, about 50 people came in. Lobby never filled up more than up to 3.
Unfortantely, I think I exhausted the entire open map listing players. They all know this game is dead and no one plays. So they don't come in as often now. Spent all day, and only got one 3vs3 game going. Rest of the time, barely any one join now.
This concludes my report on Jetpack Girls CTF. Its awesome fun game now, but you just can't play it due to no one ever joins.
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edit:
oh one last very important thing. I tried very hard to get 4vs4 games going, but it only happened once. The lag was pretty bad early on for about a minute. Then it kinda went away and the game played fine. I suspect many people who actually play 4vs4 might lag depending on their location. I don't know, but 3vs3 or fewer played flawlessly.
and if someone gives the word, maybe'll I'll upload a frap of the 4vs4 game I had..
This is an old youtube video of the old map to show you what the platfomer is like. The gameplay is completely different from the old video though.
This is a CTF map much like pure CTF. In fact, it was that map that got me to make this map. Actually, I made a platformer map long ago but it didn't really have any gameplay. But after playing pure CTF, I decided to put in a CTF gameplay.
I'm not going to lie, I probably won't be playing this map. No one ever joins any lobby I create. Maybe if it gets popular, I'll try it! I just wanted to put in some kind of gameplay so that platformer map wasn't wasted. This means, this map is completely untested! And you guys get to test it! And I don't know what it plays like! You guys get to try it to see if sucks or what!
The gameplay coding is complete though. It is lacking a scoreboard which I'll put in later. And its missing some unimportant graphics right now like the loading screen and the arcade image.
One major concern is lag. This map uses a lot of mouse tracking trigger and key press event. Testing solo, this causes no problem. But with lots players, it may cause lots lag...dunno. If this is a huge problem, please report it so I can fix it by removing mouse tracking events. This means players can no longer aim, but fixing lag is much more important. (unless someone knows how to implement aiming without using mouse tracking? I assume pure CTF also uses mouse tracking for its aiming system)
And if you are trying solo, you can add AI players. The AI players don't really play, they just move randomly and shoot randomly.
Anyways, thought I make a post to test the water and see if anyone is interested. Yeah yah, no one reads these threads, but I like making posts of new maps. :)
The startools release is instrumental in the update. Also finally got rid of that fog when viewing ships from underneath and made the ship metal actually appear metal. A lot of changes to gameplay too, for those who tried the 2013 test version.
Arrg, why did you have to mention 4D TD? An idea just pop into my head on how this can be done, but instead of TD it would be more fun to do as tug of war. Maybe i'll whip up a quick simple 4D tug of war!
I got it to work, but is there a way to render the RTT channel into a dialog? I'm using 3rd person view, and picture in a picture doesn't really work well if it has to be rendered to a screen attached to a model.
But for other projects, there's a lot of potential to create TV screens of in game world.
Had to change your mover to guidance instead of a throw and changed the fireball ability to do a scan instead. The scan is there to return an ability target point for the trigger to use.
I have been trying to solve the mass unit lag for a long time. I think in sc1, it only appears that it can handle more, but sc1 units are huge. You can't fit as many units in sc1 as you can with sc2. I haven't played sc1 in a long time though, so only going by memory here...
Sc2 primary lag comes from units attacking. You can move 800 units across the map and it won't lag that much. But as soon as you give that attack order command, lag drops to like 5 fps.
My theory to reduce lag, remove all the non-essential actors from the map. Actors like showing your units shooting and firing projectiles. Actors showing impact on your units. Remove as many actors as you can, that may reduce lag. Anyone care to try?
Also in each actor, remove as many conditions as possible. Stuffs like helpers, constructions, etc... There's a lot of conditions in each actor. Not sure if any of it helps since the lag still comes from units actually attacking...
A line check just checks in a straight line from your current position. The purpose is to find a point just near the edge of map, and use that as your target point.
Yeah, if you set it to 500, the target point is likely off the playable map. The game engine will automaticaly change the point, so it slightly offsets.
You will need to do a line check to see how far to the edge, and set that as target point.
That's cool that they are asking for feedbacks. Open map listing is the one greatest change. That's why I think if they make open map listing the primary focus like many users are asking for, they can bring back the map scene.
Regardless, the final goal should be like the old b.net, where players can play any maps with different maps being popular at a time instead of the same stale map that's going on right now. Before people come in and claim you can't play any map, well, that's how b.net 1 custom map scene got so popular, people CAN. Perhaps not now with all the bots and small playerbase. But while the map scene was blooming, people could, and that's what we want.
0
Even Newer Update!!!
Map has been changed into a Risk game! The map uses gameboard rules.. in real time!
battlenet://starcraft/map/1/264900
Play while you can, likely this map will be taken offline at some point.
0
Actually, I did not mean I was moving on from mapping. I meant moving on to my next big idea. I have three big ideas lined up right now. Jetpack Girls were always meant to be a quickly made map. It only took a few days to implement the CTF part of the map. Like World War Three, first initial release was in a very poor state but it got played. Was hoping something like that happen - all luck. World War Three after a few more updates got extremely fun!
I'm moving toward making co-op maps. Co-op maps only need 3 or 4 players which should fill up fast. I only made one co-op map so far, and at the time when I made that there was no open map listing. The problem is, co-op takes far longer to make.
0
@Hookah604: Go
Ah, thank you! I just looked at the trigger events. There is a mouse click function that returns world coordinates. For some reason, I thought that was not possible or something.
But to answer your question, mouse tracking was used so the character can properly animate toward your mouse cursor. And for special abilities, you don't need to click twice. Just press once and the force field will drop at your cursor. However, you are right that if lag needs to be reduced, mouse tracking needs to be removed. Right now, lag seems good 3vs3. Haven't played 4vs4 too much so dunno how that goes.
The shooting mechanic originally was you can only fire every 2 seconds. The idea is you don't nonstop click to attack and break your finger. You carefully aim once and shoot. But after switching to nonstop clicking, its more fun to click fast and shoot fast. But people die very fast now, so dunno...
Anyways, my real goal was to impress people with the artwork. Seems very few people are impressed, so oh well. Gameplay can be refined only after I actually manage to play it. First release usually is bad, I don't think I ever release a first release map that was good without me actually playing it some.
Oh, I also had so many ideas for this map. Powerups, different weapons, upgrades, armors, items, abilities, and new characters. And switch by texture ID for different teams. But you know what? Seeing nobody playing this map just discourages me from working on it. So this is probably it, I'm moving on! I literally have a million ideas. Jetpack Girl had its day, and unlike World War Three and Kingdom Rush, this one is DOA. Good bye Jetpack Girls, *sniff*.
0
@unclesatan: Go
Wow, someone replied! I lied about not playing this map. I ended up playing a few games, and that Two Die gave this a 2 calling it a chiness map or something with some slurs!
Anyways, I have lots to say, so sit down comfy and put on your reading glasses. The lag was very bad with 14 players, sorry about those players. Mouse tracking doesn't work with too many people. I guess that's why pure CTF limited it to 8. Oh yeah, I did get one 14 player games going (score one for those who said b.net arcade works fine!). It was during day two release, some one was hosting for over a hour and I happen to join. There were lots people in lobby already, I think they were attracted by the map name and 'screenshots'. :) Anyways, that 14 game ends in disaster, lag was so unbearably, everyone left the game... and the host came back with a vengenance rating this a 1.
It is total murder trying to get a game going though. After a full weekend of afk hosting (and getting kicked), finally managed to played a few games. There are many bad reviews for the map, it is understandable. Those reviews were based on the first version which was very bad. I almost quit this map but one player suggested non-stop clicking for shooting. So I changed it and it is so much FREAKING FUN!!! Especially the one 4vs4 game I had later, it was insane.
There are also lots 5 star reviews. I checked their match history, they were just testing solo. They were pretty impressed by the map. But they obviously didn't actually play a game. Thanks Goa for the Temerinator image and 5 stars, but I see that you actually don't play any of my maps. :(
Okay, here comes the comparison with Pure CTF. Unlike Pure CTF, Jetpack Girls character is larger and easier to hit. And instead of the camera zooming out into space, you can actually see your character and they are fairly close to the enemy. It becomes more about aiming and dodging instead of mindless shooting rockets at long range that won't hit anything unless the enemy is standing still. There was one review in Pure CTF that said the skill came in when you blink next to enemy and have close fights. That's what Jetpack Girls tries to focus on, these close fights where you really have to aim and dodge.
Another big plus with Jetpack Girls, when you use the special ability, it automatically activates. There's no need to press ability and then click on target location. The map is also much smaller. Pure CTF map is way too large. Also game is set to 10 minutes. Pure CTF lasts way too long, its obviously who won already, no need to play 7-8 more minutes.
With all that said, I believe my map plays better than Pure CTF. But ultimately, its just my own opinion. I tried again to play more Pure CTF games, but like Jetpack Girl, no one joins... This genre is dead apparently.
This game also uses suggestive images in order to attract players. I say it kinda works, tons of people actually came in. Unlike Starcruisers for example, I can sit there 24 hours straight and no one coming in. Jetpack Girls actually have a lot of people coming in. Unfortunately, most see that its just me in lobby and leave right away. I opened a game up for 1 hour straight once, about 50 people came in. Lobby never filled up more than up to 3.
Unfortantely, I think I exhausted the entire open map listing players. They all know this game is dead and no one plays. So they don't come in as often now. Spent all day, and only got one 3vs3 game going. Rest of the time, barely any one join now.
This concludes my report on Jetpack Girls CTF. Its awesome fun game now, but you just can't play it due to no one ever joins.
. . . . .
edit: oh one last very important thing. I tried very hard to get 4vs4 games going, but it only happened once. The lag was pretty bad early on for about a minute. Then it kinda went away and the game played fine. I suspect many people who actually play 4vs4 might lag depending on their location. I don't know, but 3vs3 or fewer played flawlessly.
and if someone gives the word, maybe'll I'll upload a frap of the 4vs4 game I had..
0
Just finished making the gameplay for Jetpack Girls CTF. game link: starcraft://map/1/231330
This is an old youtube video of the old map to show you what the platfomer is like. The gameplay is completely different from the old video though.
This is a CTF map much like pure CTF. In fact, it was that map that got me to make this map. Actually, I made a platformer map long ago but it didn't really have any gameplay. But after playing pure CTF, I decided to put in a CTF gameplay.
I'm not going to lie, I probably won't be playing this map. No one ever joins any lobby I create. Maybe if it gets popular, I'll try it! I just wanted to put in some kind of gameplay so that platformer map wasn't wasted. This means, this map is completely untested! And you guys get to test it! And I don't know what it plays like! You guys get to try it to see if sucks or what!
The gameplay coding is complete though. It is lacking a scoreboard which I'll put in later. And its missing some unimportant graphics right now like the loading screen and the arcade image.
One major concern is lag. This map uses a lot of mouse tracking trigger and key press event. Testing solo, this causes no problem. But with lots players, it may cause lots lag...dunno. If this is a huge problem, please report it so I can fix it by removing mouse tracking events. This means players can no longer aim, but fixing lag is much more important. (unless someone knows how to implement aiming without using mouse tracking? I assume pure CTF also uses mouse tracking for its aiming system)
And if you are trying solo, you can add AI players. The AI players don't really play, they just move randomly and shoot randomly.
Anyways, thought I make a post to test the water and see if anyone is interested. Yeah yah, no one reads these threads, but I like making posts of new maps. :)
0
Its another year, so here's another update!
The startools release is instrumental in the update. Also finally got rid of that fog when viewing ships from underneath and made the ship metal actually appear metal. A lot of changes to gameplay too, for those who tried the 2013 test version.
Next update, 2015, stay tuned!
0
@JademusSreg: Go
Arrg, why did you have to mention 4D TD? An idea just pop into my head on how this can be done, but instead of TD it would be more fun to do as tug of war. Maybe i'll whip up a quick simple 4D tug of war!
0
I got it to work, but is there a way to render the RTT channel into a dialog? I'm using 3rd person view, and picture in a picture doesn't really work well if it has to be rendered to a screen attached to a model.
But for other projects, there's a lot of potential to create TV screens of in game world.
0
This is so cool! I'm totally going to download the map and use it in my game!
0
@rtschutter: Go
Okay, I found the problem, the problem also exist in my version.
Its the fireball mover. I switched it to Missile Default, and it now fires at pinpoint accuracy.
0
@rtschutter: Go
okay, here's a modified version of your test map.
Had to change your mover to guidance instead of a throw and changed the fireball ability to do a scan instead. The scan is there to return an ability target point for the trigger to use.
Rest of the changes should be easy to figure out.
0
@bulletbutter: Go
I have been trying to solve the mass unit lag for a long time. I think in sc1, it only appears that it can handle more, but sc1 units are huge. You can't fit as many units in sc1 as you can with sc2. I haven't played sc1 in a long time though, so only going by memory here...
Sc2 primary lag comes from units attacking. You can move 800 units across the map and it won't lag that much. But as soon as you give that attack order command, lag drops to like 5 fps.
My theory to reduce lag, remove all the non-essential actors from the map. Actors like showing your units shooting and firing projectiles. Actors showing impact on your units. Remove as many actors as you can, that may reduce lag. Anyone care to try?
Also in each actor, remove as many conditions as possible. Stuffs like helpers, constructions, etc... There's a lot of conditions in each actor. Not sure if any of it helps since the lag still comes from units actually attacking...
0
@rtschutter: Go
A line check just checks in a straight line from your current position. The purpose is to find a point just near the edge of map, and use that as your target point.
0
Yeah, if you set it to 500, the target point is likely off the playable map. The game engine will automaticaly change the point, so it slightly offsets. You will need to do a line check to see how far to the edge, and set that as target point.
0
That's cool that they are asking for feedbacks. Open map listing is the one greatest change. That's why I think if they make open map listing the primary focus like many users are asking for, they can bring back the map scene.
Regardless, the final goal should be like the old b.net, where players can play any maps with different maps being popular at a time instead of the same stale map that's going on right now. Before people come in and claim you can't play any map, well, that's how b.net 1 custom map scene got so popular, people CAN. Perhaps not now with all the bots and small playerbase. But while the map scene was blooming, people could, and that's what we want.