rrowland Interview
Many of you are doing amazing things with the Galaxy Editor. So far I have focused on promoting projects, however I would really like to feature you guys. This is why from now on I am going to do interviews. Today we start with rrowland.
Quote:vjeux: Hello rrowland, could you introduce yourself?
I’m Ryan Rowland, I’m 22 and live in Southern California. I have worked on a lot of projects in the SC2 Mapping community during both phases of the beta.
vjeux: Your Thaddius fight entry for the Spell contest has been featured by Blizzard on their Facebook page. It must have been a great pleasure to get that much promotion!
Well I was definitely surprised! I did not expect to get such attention for this video. Of all my projects, it took the least amount of time to create. :P It was actually just something I threw together for fun!
vjeux: Let’s talk about your others projects then! I see you have done an interesting AI: Behemoth AI. Could you tell us what it does and if it was hard to do within the Galaxy Editor.
Behemoth AI is basically a custom AI that is designed to play against players utilizing micro as well as macro. It was started back in the beta when “Very Easy” was the only AI available, however I feel it is still comparable (Even in its current unfinished state) to some of the harder Blizzard AIs. Some examples of the custom micro techniques I have implemented thus far would be the phoenix micro: One phoenix can (slowly) kill 200 food worth of mutas without taking damage. Also, there is custom sentry micro AI that calculates the perfect positions to cast force fields to minimize incoming damage and cut enemy armies in half.
I actually didn’t use the Galaxy Editor to script this AI, I opened, studied and added onto Blizzard’s default AI files, which are written in pure Galaxy code.
vjeux: You are using advanced features of the scripting abilities of the Galaxy Editor. The map Reaper Madness is another example of it. You managed to add physics inside the map. Did you encounter any difficulty in the process?
Reaper Madness was actually the very first map I worked on with the SC2 Editor. I guess I like to jump head-first into the most difficult stuff! I actually didn’t know how vector-based physics worked before working on this map, so I took a couple days to get acquainted with it before implementing it into the map. I actually had a lot of help from the SC2Mapster.com wiki, one page in particular listed every native Galaxy function, which was very helpful for scripting in pure Galaxy.
This map actually got put on ice, and I no longer plan to finish the map due to latency issues on Blizzard’s part. The Battle.Net service has a minimum delay of 125ms, plus WASD movement and tracelines serve to make the experience much laggier; Too laggy for a First Person Shooter game.
vjeux: Ah okay, so I believe you moved on to another project. What is it?
My most recently started project is a custom sprite engine. Basically, using text tags, I’ve been able to implement animated 2D sprites, similar to what you’d see in an old RPG, into an SC2 map. There are a couple hitches that are getting ironed out which are delaying the process (I’m currently waiting). I plan to make a full-feature RPG reminiscent of the old Chrono Trigger and 2D Final Fantasy series once the sprite engine is completely finished.
vjeux: I am pretty sure you are working on some more standard maps that will eventually be playable! :)
Yep, one of my favorite projects is called Sniper Wars (May change in the future, not decided yet). It’s a very classic style of UMS map. Basically, I brought type maps from WC3 and am porting them into SC2. I am aiming to make this map a very in-depth team game (5v5) with a substantial learning curve and a high skill cap for competitive play. I’m still working on this map, but I plan to bring it to Battle.net in the near future.
I have a lot of custom UI and system work invested into this map as well. For instance, I completely remade the inventory and shop system. I also added custom missile handling, custom dialogs and the ability to pick and choose which abilities the player’s sniper starts with.
vjeux: Great, you are working on a lot of awesome projects. As a final word, can you tell us what you think about the Galaxy Editor. What did you like most and what you would like to see improved?
The Galaxy Editor is amazing! There are very problems I have with the editor. I do wish it came with the ability to edit the raw Galaxy file inside the program, although I understand why the limitations exist. I would also have liked to see more support for importing custom models using SC2 textures. Some documentation would have been nice as well. :P Overall, I just think it’s an awesome tool and definitely the most powerful editor in its field.
Planetary Boss Arena 3v3 CTF by Bounty_98
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ZerEvolves by Zeragon
Zeragon and his brother have been working on an Evolve map like in Starcraft 1 and are now publishing it on EU. Have fun playing it :)
Starcraft Commandos by Decay
Decay is pretty new to the Galaxy Editor and is working on a map called Starcraft Commandos. His project starts looking great and he is looking for help :)
Fan Arts
Four new Starcraft fan arts have been added to the Blizzard section.
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