SC2Mapster

Wallpaper Vote

The Wallpaper Contest is now over and there are 30 submissions. The vote is going to be split in 3 batchs of 10 submissions. You will have 2 days to vote for each batch.

No Battle.net Improvement at Release

They say they will fix annoying bugs such as afk host for launch. However rework of the custom map listing is not planned for release.

Quote from Xordiah:

We have been monitoring the feedback around the map publishing features and the custom game functionality and we are aware of the need for improvement, especially for finding custom games and promoting your maps. The most pressing issues are going to be addressed by launch or in the first patch after release. Things like the abandoned lobby issue for example will be one of the issues that are going to be solved for launch.

We really appreciate all the great feedback we have recieved from you over the past weeks and months, which helped us find issues and think of ways to improve the system. The custom game and map publishing features will keep evolving to include more and better ways of searching, sorting, to include more testing options and a better UI.

Civilization Wars by God_Deathwing

This map concept is really nice. It's a board game in real time. You basically move your forces between points and capture other points by making big troups. This is definitively a clever use of the Galaxy Editor.

Death Baneling by Upcios

The version 1.1 of the Death Baneling has landed. This is a really polished game with custom sounds, textures and interface! Avoid banelings and stay alive for the many different rounds!

Reminder: Wallpaper Contest ends tonight, make sure you submit your wallpapers!

Model Contest Votes

NeoDeathXp started a 3D Modeling Contest of Final Fantasy characters. There have been 6 submissions and it's now time to vote the one you like most!

Reaper Arena by Timthetoolman

To be honest, I didn't understand what was the goal of the map. However the movement system and side-scroller camera is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure Timthetoolman will make it clear what Reaper Arena is about in a future release :)

Challenge: Map Larger than 256*256

I know there are many smart people around here. Let me give you a little challenge (Idea from this Battle.net post). As you know, the map is limited to 256*256, what about finding workaround?

• Give a map larger than 256*256 that is loaded by Starcraft 2.

Prize: 3-month Curse Premium

We don't know if it is possible to do so, if the editor or game have any hardcoded checks to break if there's a map > 256*256 ... It's time to get people work on it! If you don't know where to start, here are some leads/suggestions

• Edit the map files: most of them are documented on the wiki
• Reduce everything in the map to 50% scale, which would make the map 50% larger.
• Add a new value 512*512 in the Galaxy Editor map size list.

Dusty Dune Desert by PhantomTap

As promised, I'm now newsing terraining. Here is a remake of a old SNES game Dusty Dune Desert. From a 2D terrain pic he managed to make a 3D map and it looks really nice.

DotU by KorvinGump

DotU ... Yeah ... Another Another Dota. You might wonder why I news it. For two reasons. First, KorvinGump managed to solve the hero death issue, the hero keeps all his stuff and xp on rebirth. And, there's a full experience system with experience splitting in radius, denial ...

Spell Contest Results

Thanks you all for the amazing spells you've made for the contest. Many of them were done only with the Data Editor, it proves that Galaxy has been greatly improved since Warcraft 3.

• 19 - Reflective shield by gh0st00
• 18 - Abduction by slypoos
• 18 - Hellzone Grenade by slypoos
• 11 - Unreal Tournament Shock Rifle by depthsofchaos
• 9 - Portal Gun by progammer
• 9 - Meteor by asaphelps
• 8 - Power Overwhelming by Unabsurdity
• 8 - Partymode by Aenigma
• 8 - Shocking Grasp by rrowland
• 8 - Flamestrike by mathck
• 7 - Polarity Shift by rrowland
• 7 - Whirlwind by slypoos
• 6 - Frost Nova by slypoos
• 6 - Reverse Movement by progammer
• 6 - Power Matrix by Twinmold20
• 6 - Temporal Seperation by Grogian

Reminder: The Spell Contest Votes are ending tonight and the Wallpaper Contest is still running :)

Hydra Thriller by SkeleBlade

Just ... LOL!

Chain Lightning Tutorial by ProzaicMuze

A very interesting tutorial written by ProzaicMuze explains how to make a chain lightning using the Data Editor. Instead of using the common Missile and Marker combination, he chose to use Target Sort. This technique allows more flexibility, for example you can chose to focus units with the lowest life first or easily transform it into a healing wave.

Turn Based Combat by Hamstroman

Since you are good geeks, you probably played some board game RPG. Hamstroman made a concept map attempting to bring the same gameplay in Starcraft 2. So far this is the best implementation I've seen. The author is waiting for feedbacks on the concept and how to make a full map out of it. Feel free to give your opinion :)

DNA Wars by xenrathe

xenrathe has been working for some weeks on DNA Wars, this is a bit like the previous one but in real time. You've got a hero that goes faster than light and your mission is to kill the opponents by deforming the terrain under them. He is no longer working on this but decided to make a small video to show it off, who knows, maybe one of you is going to use the concept to make a cool map :)

irninja told me I did not feature melee maps at all, and it's true. If you are a melee map maker and have some beautiful terrain to show off, make a youtube video of it and be sure you are going to make the headlights :)

Metal Slug by ArcadeRenegade

Metal Slug is a remake of the arcade side scrolling shooter game with the same name. ArcadeRenegade has been working hard on the map and now makes it available on beta stage. It is really polished and will give you about 15 minutes of gameplay. There is even a tutorial at the beginning :)

Elite Operations by ProxyTooMuch

Custom interface is mostly used for solo maps. ProxyTooMuch is working on an AoS-like map and decided to do all the spell, talents and stuff selection using dialogs. The result is pretty nice. As soon as Battle.net get back, this is a map to test.

Andromeda 0.1.3 by geX

Andromeda is a language extension for Galaxy. Andromeda is to Galaxy what C++ is to C. It is inspired by Java and allows you to do huge things :) If you are interested in programmig in Galaxy, this is a project to keep an eye on. The versio 0.1.3 has been released and here are the changes:

• Type extensions (disjoint and hierarchic) (See Specifications)
• Getting function names with the .name field (now you can properly use triggers!) (See Specifications)
• Many bug fixes
• Full changelog and download

Card Game vs AI by Clord

Last but not least, Clord is working on a card game that is playable against an AI. Having maps with AI is rare enough to be mentionned. And this one is quite smart.

Razer Gear

Do you want to be a custom map pro gamer, you will probably want to get some razer mouse, keyboard or headsets :) Just click the link and chose the one you want most!

Red Revenge by J_cup

Red Revenge is a stealth game like Metal Gear Solid. All the abilities are coded in the beta: you can stealth, distract, backstab and run! It is really well done with a visual acquirement system. You really want to test it! (Is that working? :) )

AC130K - The Temple by malu05

malu05's work on his AC130K FPS serie is remarkable. Here is another preview showing off weapon switching, precision loss when firing and duck. When the beta will be back up it's going to be fun to play it.

Vivi FF Model by Kanaru

Alright, we've got great modelers in here now! Look at this Vivi (Final Fantasy) model and imagine it inside Starcraft 2! He really deserved his collector edition.

There have been many awesome things done with the Galaxy Editor and I had the idea of making a mashup video of those. If you are a good video maker and interested in this project, leave me a PM :)

Also, we've been linked on the official Starcraft Facebook: "Do you already know SC2Mapster? If the answer is "no", check out this source of amazing custom maps for StarCraft II!". This is pretty cool from them to feature mapster :)

Spell Contest Votes

The Spell Contest went extremly well, 35 entries were submitted! Since the cinematic contest votes was a disaster (40 youtube videos in a single thread is overkill) we tried another thing for this one. I've been working on a website sc2movie.com as an aggregator of all youtube videos that are posted on mapster. The website is not finished yet but it's good enough to hold the contest entries (assuming the traffic is not going to kill my server).

In order to vote, just "Like" the video. I know it requires Facebook, but so far it's the easiest solution. But don't worry better solutions will come for the next contests! The voting ends in 3 days (Monday Midnight).

M3 Plugin Animation Support by NiNToxicated

The M3 importer and exporter by NiNToxicated is getting better and better. It now supports animations! He did a cool video featuring the Starcraft units in Warcraft 3 versus the real ones. He also imported some heros who renders really great.

Starcraft Survivor Preview by GnaReffotsirk

GnaReffotsirk is working on a solo campaign and made a preview including a chapter selection menu and a custom transmission menu. This shows another way to make great use of the UI dialogs!

Dust 2 by irninja

Dust 2 is probably the most played Counter Strike map and I would have never expected to see it on Starcraft 2, but irninja did it! This is at the moment a standard 1v1 map, but I'm pretty sure one of you will mod it to make it a FPS :)

Battle.net Lag Painter by progammer

In Battle.net custom maps, sometimes the game freezes but everyone stays in the game. When asking a unit to go somewhere the little arrows are drawn and stay in the map. progammer used this concept to make a "Paint" map. This is pretty clever and some artists did amazing pictures thanks to that!

Another Dota by ekcolnovkol

ekcolnovkol and his team have also been working on a Dota remake on Starcraft 2. This time this is not only a copy & paste but it tries to add new concepts. The most important feature added are Mercenaries.

Mercenaries are hired via the shop and provide support on the battlefield in the form of information acquisition, healing, chasing, or simply destroying towers/creeps. Like items in DotA, they are combined in later stages to call forth stronger mercenaries, but are subject to destsruction on the field. To offset this downside, players recieve a partial reimbursement when a mercenary dies.

The core mechanisms are done and they are working on heros abilities. Balancing will be done when the beta will come back. Stay tuned it looks like a great project!

New Theme by Profet

Profet from sc2galaxy.net (french) worked hard on the new Mapster design. Before releasing it to all of you, we would like to make a beta test. If you want to get a preview of the new theme just click the "Switch" button in the following links:

• Switch to the New Theme
• Switch back to the Old Theme

If you see glitches with the new theme, please report them in the comments!

Thanks :)

Solo Maps

It is Tower Defense time! All those are playable solo and you should have fun with them :)

• [Edit] Maul Spiral Turret Defense by Maul
• Red Circle TD by Hydr00
• Standard Tower Defense by maverck
• Shrink TD by Team Kirby
• Hell TD by Fropper and Nashoa
• More on mapster ...

Melee AI Contest

The AI Contest is now over. Making an AI is an extremly difficult task and 5 people took that challenge. At the beginning of the contest making an AI with the Galaxy Editor was a completly unexplored path and innovative entries came alive! Behemoth AI by rrowland is focused on micro whereas Mimic AI by Callex, his main challenger (2 votes of difference) is designed to learn and reproduce behaviors!

Thanks to Vortexx2010 and Andernerd for their participations and Th3LaughingMan for making an AI framework that will get better and better in the future :)

• Winner: Behemoth AI [Fledgeling] by rrowland - 38 votes
• Honorable Mention: Mimic AI by Callex - 36 votes
• Assault of Zuc'chukah Mtn (AI Map) by Vortexx2010 - 1 vote
• WOPR AI by Andernerd - 0 vote
• Special Thanks: TLM AI Framework by Th3LaughingMan

Moving Minimap by Helral

Helral used the camera bounds triggers to make the minimap move along with the user view. This is pretty clever!

Best Practises by Pandepic

Pandemic wrote a pretty interesting tutorial with many Galaxy Editor Best Practises. He covers a great part of the Trigger editor abilities and how to write code that doesn't become a mess after a while. It takes 5 minutes to read it and save you a lot more from headaches!

• Commenting, Naming conventions, Virtual folders and organization, Libraries, Constants versus magic numbers, Variables, Arrays, If-Then-Else, Switch-Case, Trigger Execute versus Events, Timers, Loops, For Each versus Pick Each versus While, Defining actions and functions, When to script in Galaxy

Sc2 Jam by pablols

To finish this news, a Guitar Hero like game called Sc2 Jam. It's pretty cool, I hope we can see more of these in the future :)

Solo Maps

Another shot at solo playable maps. Today we feature missions that looks like the real campaign. Thanks to Ultraling for the listing :)

• Vendetta by ChewableProzac
• Kerrigan's Fall by Wunterwaffen
• Verdant Skyway by ChewableProzac
• Extraction by Ultraling
• Deadwind Plateau by ChewableProzac

Trigger Libraries by SerraAvenger

I've been over the the other Starcarft 2 Mapping websites and would like to feature what's best out there! Let's start with The Helper and SerraAvenger who did two nice libraries.

• TeamLib
  • PlayerSetTeam(player, team)
  • TeamCreate() -> team
  • TeamSetAlliance(team, relation, allianceSetting)
  • PlayerGetTeam(player) -> int
  • PlayerGetTeamGroup(player) -> playergroup
  • TeamGetPlayerGroup(team) -> playergroup
• UnitIndexing (GUI Interface)
  • GetUnitIndex(unit) -> int: Get a unique index for every unit
  • GetCustomValue() -> int: Return a new, unique custom value every time it is called.

Shadow Contest

Starcraft Mapping.de recently did a contest with a 3-words rule: "Shadow, Marine, Zergling". The entries are really cool and you should get a glimpse at them!

Andromeda STL by geX

geX has been working hard on the Andromeda language extending Galaxy. He is looking forward people to contribute a Standard Library. This project is going to be a huge step forward for the mapping community!

A few examples of what it adds to Galaxy:

• Implicit and Explicit Casting
• Function overloading and overriding
• Variable declaration enhancements
• For loop and no more required brackets
• Enrichment
• Classes, Generics
• Packages, Libraries
• Full Specification ...

Blizzard Video Contest Winners

Blizzard organized a video contest and the results have been revealed. The videos are of great quality and two even featured video made using extensive use of the Galaxy Editor :)

<div style="text-align: center;">

EU Winner: Markus, Stuttgart, Germany

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="videoContainer1" name="videoContainer1" data="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/video_loader.swf" width="600" height="336" style="visibility: visible; "><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="base" value="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="flashvars" value="somevideo=1272628146361&amp;dir=/blizzard/movies/games/sc2/videocontest2010/eu&amp;optimg=1272628146361&amp;ht=336&amp;wd=600&amp;autoplay=false"></object>

Peter, BadenWürttemberg, Germany

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="videoContainer3" name="videoContainer3" data="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/video_loader.swf" width="600" height="336" style="visibility: visible; "><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="base" value="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="flashvars" value="somevideo=1273166536535&amp;dir=/blizzard/movies/games/sc2/videocontest2010/eu&amp;optimg=1273166536535&amp;ht=336&amp;wd=600&amp;autoplay=false"></object>

Richard, Vancouver, Canada

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="videoContainer3" name="videoContainer3" data="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/video_loader.swf" width="600" height="336" style="visibility: visible; "><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="base" value="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="flashvars" value="somevideo=1273254407779&amp;dir=/blizzard/movies/games/sc2/videocontest2010/us&amp;optimg=1273254407779&amp;ht=336&amp;wd=600&amp;autoplay=false"></object> </div>

I'm going from time to time to give open problems that are not yet solved. If you want to take the challenge, this would help the map making community and get you fame!

• Open Problem: When a hero dies, he loses all his XP and Abilities. Find a workaround!

Some leads: Save the xp and abilities everytime they change. When the hero is about to die, hide it and play the death animation on a temporary hero. Make a "feign death" ability with the Data Editor.

Play Solo

Battle.Net is down, I am going to feature solo playable maps every day. Today I'm going to present maps that feel like the normal game.

Improve your Build Order Skills:

• Yabot - Yet Another Build Order Tester
• Build Order Tester

Destroy the computer AI:

• Mimic AI: Make the computer learn your macro, and play against yourself!
• Behemoth AI: Pretty good AI :)

Marine Hero Selection by zKyuuketsuki

Today I am going to show off impressive stuff done with the dialogs. Beginning with zKyuuketsuki that did a custom UI to select marine characteristics. It's pretty cool :)

Team Selection by SC2Strategies

We continue our journey with SC2Strategies that made a team selection library. It is freely usable in your projects if you want to have one too! He also made some video tutorials on how it works behind the scenes!

Lights Out by moronsonofboron

You probably know the game Lights Out: each time you click on a spot, it inverses the color of the neighbors. moronsonofboron decided to give it a try and code it inside Starcraft II. The result is pretty cool. If you want to exercize your brain (and don't have a DS), this is for you!

Moonlite IDE by Vestras

The Galaxy Editor is friendly for people working with the Trigger Editor but it is a nightmare to write direct Galaxy code in it. Several people are working on solving this issue ( Milky Way Edit, Sparsile, ... ) and Vestras is coming with an IDE targetted at Galaxy (and Jass for Warcraft 3). It is in beta and already has pretty cool things in it:

• General: Project manager, Function list, Live code preview, Rich user interface, Object Browser, ...
• Galaxy: 100% Andromeda support, Dynamic error checking, Xml object creating through Xml files, ...

Dialog Inventory System by Atl0s

Do you want to give items to your heroes, Atl0s decided to make a completly dialog based inventory system. It enables more interaction than the integrated inventory system and is available to download and integrate inside your maps :) At the end of the video he also shows his Ammo system.

Starcraft 2 TV Spot

Blizzard just did a TV spot to promote Starcraft II:

Final Fantasy 13 by Team Pandora

The Team Pandora (NeoDeathXp, GolbezzAnewco and Mokse) is actively working on the map Final Fantasy 13. The aim is to recreate a final fantasy game and the current previews look really great. This is a project to follow!

Note: The video on vimeo has been deleted due to the traffic ...

I'm sorry for the lack of news the previous days, but I was actively working on a research report as I am in my school research and development lab.

Hex'd by Qancakes

You've probably played Hex'd on Battle.net, and if you didn't it's time to! The concept is pretty simple: 4 gladiators in an arena, let the best win! The quality of the map comes with how balanced are the spells, only the one with the best micro and best use of the right spell at the right time is going to be first. And, the night play is really good looking with the blue and red spells :)

Yabot by xorpwnz and ScQuebec

Yabot, Yet Another Build Order Tester, is a map that let you train and become expert in your build order. This is the first time I news a tool that helps "normal" Starcraft 2 players. If you want to get better at BO, you should give it a try.

Crush Company by Enclave Studio

Here's a map being made by the team Enclave Studio (Bibendus, kaede89, Utilize123, xavierddr). It's a beat them up map and pretty fun to play. Another game concept added into Starcraft 2 ... It's never going to stop, the game allows endless different gameplays :) It's on Battle.net if you want to give it a try.