SC2Mapster

Patch 1.3.5 has recently been thrown up on the PTR with a couple of Mapping related changes...

Quote:

• A special sneak peek at new ladder maps is now available! (not related to the Editor, but new Ladder maps are maps!)
• UI errors will now go into a newly-created Error Display Message window.
• Cooldowns shorter than ¼ of a second no longer display on the command card.

StarCraft Universe by the SCU Team

It's been almost 6 months since the project became public, which only took about a week for Blizzard to notice, when they sent him a C&D and a public response. RyanWin (Creation) and the rest of his team have been hard at work on this SC MMO (that was made completely in the Editor *chuckle*) recently, and are now ready to present the first official alpha trailer.

UPDATE: Don't forget, our Themed Creature Contest has been extended until Friday!

Battlefield Egypt II by Bounty

Battlefield Egypt II is a Team/Class Based third person shooter. The goal is simple, capture as many control points as possible and get the enemy teams victory points to 0! Each Control Point has a timer displayed at its location showing when the next player count will occur. When that timer hits zero whichever team has more players at that point will control it. If there are no players at that point then it will become neutral. Those of you familiar with the Call of Duty franchise, this seems to me like it's a play off of the "Domination" mode. Also FYI, the map is currently available for play on Battle.net.

Luna by Vestras

Vestras has been hard at work on a Galaxy Compiler that will likely be used in Moonlite, his Galaxy IDE. Those of you that do a lot of Galaxy scripting, this compiler could use some QA work, so go help him Beta test it!

We're currently in the process of moving knowledge base articles and wiki's around. This means some links won't work until everything is transitioned.

Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE: Blizzard has announced their plan for region linking. At the start of Season 3 it will link North America and Latin America, EU and Russia, Korea and Taiwan together. Hopefully all regions will be linked to one in the near future when we have the technology.

Galaxy Vampirism by KorvinGump

This map implements the mechanics of the classical Vampirism Fire 4.02b of Warcraft 3, but will not be a complete replicate. That in mind, it will only be using the mechanics, all other data, such as units, icons, etc, will be created fresh and used specifically for this project. For more information (and 3 more videos) check out the project thread.

Warcraft: A New Dawn by RoarMan

Has anyone been longing for a continuation on the War3 storyline? Have you been waiting for Warcraft4, even? RoarMan and his team of developers have been working hard on recreating War3 on the SC2 engine as well as creating campaign missions that take place after Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. They have a ton of race/hero information on their website as well as a cool teaser trailer below. If you want to leave them feedback, don't forget to drop by their project page.

StarCrap Episode 1 by Demonik420

StarCrap is a machinima series from Demonik420 done completely with sc2 editor. The story revolves around several main characters from all 3 races. The first episode is about the the protoss and terran fleet in a race to retrieve an artifact. Every character has his own unique voice actor. The story might be cheesy and voice might be unclear at times but the series's cinematic and terrain work is just amazingly impressive. Check out the trailer for this series that parody SC2's official trailer and the 15 minute long first episode below. Episode 2: Betrayal will be coming soon.

Sc2streamster

We're looking for a new person to run Triggering Thursdays from now on. If you're interested, send Mozared a PM with "Triggering Thursday" as the subject. Unfortunately, today's show has been cancelled due to some scheduling issues. Terraining Tuesday will instead take place this Thursday, after which the schedule will return to normal.

Element TD by Karawasa

After months in the work and countless delay, Element TD has finally been released. Karawasa, author of the wc3 version has kept the gameplay true to its competitive nature. With 30+ towers and upgrades, 60 waves of enemies with different attribute and special abilities, there are many different strategies to build your defense. The competitive multiplayer TD also guarantee a risk-rewards scenario for all player involved (for example, once a person cleared his way, the next wave start for everyone else regardless of their status.) You can visit its website for more information on tower, rules, etc ... Otherwise the map is published for NA and EU. Enjoy this remake of the famous TD map from wc3 that I once took part in its development process. See the video below for all kind of visual pleasure that you demand

Just FYI for everyone, i'll be going on a short vacation (will be back Thursday), though I trust the Moderating team will be able to take care of everything, ;).

Zone Control by playlessNamer

Anyone want a different version of Zone Control from the original? This project will be for you - it's being developed to not be an exact replicate of the original SC1 Zone Control Map. There's several different unit choices with some pretty sweet unique abilities on each, but of course, the original concept is still there... Use those units to take control of the map! I have to admit, I really dig the terrain; someone could totally use that for a Chess map. The video below showcases the terrain and plenty of gameplay for those of you curious about it.

Custom Map Spotlight by Blizzard

Earlier today, Blizzard updated their featured map spotlights with the following maps...

Name: MageCraft
Category: Magic Fight
Mode: Clan TTG
Author: Aphotic
Description: A PvP Arena where players get to choose every skill they wish to use. From Fireballs that push players back to the Gravity Flux that pulls everything around it into it. Using the spells players buy and upgrade to player’s liking, and a large amount of player skill, the objective is to dominate the arena.

Name: Save Sarah
Category: Hero Defense
Mode: Protect Sarah
Author: Timothy Yang
Description: Arcturus Mengsk has sent Sarah Kerrigan to defend the New Gettysberg base, but betrays her by leaving her to a Swarm of Zerg. Players must protect Sarah until a dropship arrives.

Fields of Glory by CloudWolf

CloudWolf and his team have decided to make a Total Conversion project, and turn the space-age atmosphere of SC2, into an old-time medieval environment. The map is going to be atwo-teamed AoS map, with each team periodically spawning units that race towards the enemies base via two main combat lanes. There will be 5 Players on each team that will control one of several heroes in an epic struggle to capture key positions, and ultimately crush the opposing forces. So essentially, a medieval DotA! Below is a terrain showcase of the map. For some cool screenshots, check the project thread.

PortalCraft by Eiviyn

I'm sure we all know what Portal is... What gamer doesn't at least know of the legendary Portal? After the release of the sequel of the game, I was thinking of how I could potentially bring it to the SC2 engine and ironically, Eiviyn beat me to it. Whether or not this becomes a full blown map, this is still awesome. Check out the demo's below, because who doesn't like playing with portals? Right?

Bomberling by Dustin

I think everyone can remember that old SNES Bomberman game, where you can play with up to 4 friends and just bomb the hell out of each other, right? For those of you who can, and those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about, I highly recommend checking out this project, which is essentially the same thing: a 4-player Bomberman FFA. You maneuver your character around a randomly generated map dropping bombs and blowing stuff up, simple as that!

We're going to be bringing the repositories down temporarily for a migration. I'd expect the downtime to be less than an hour and will start within the next 10.

Update: We started a few mins late, but we're doing the final catchup sync now. We'll be done shortly.

Update: We're waiting on the final sync to finish, then we'll be turning services back on. Sorry for the delay.

Update: We're complete and back online, please report any issues with any repositories.

Hi guys,

We've posted a story on curse.com explaining what happened in the last few days to cause this downtime, and what we're doing to prevent it ever happening again.

Murphy's law being what it is, luck would have it that our SSL certificates for CurseForge and WowAce expired just as the downtime bagan, on June 23rd. Please rest assured there's no security breach, they are simply certificates that expired at about the worst possible time. We will be updating them on Monday, June 27th.

Update June 27th: The SSL certificates have now been updated.

I sincerely apologize for the downtime guys, Curse's servers had some major hardware failures... In light of this event, i'm extending the contest another week, so you'll have until July 12th to complete your submissions. Those of you curious about the downtime can read a further explanation from Curse.

For those of you who play a lot of melee, you'll want to know that the map pool will be changing slightly come Season 3. You can read all about it here. Also, anyone interested in Diablo 3 should know that I was also invited to a D3 press event at the end of next month! For more info, check out the DiabloFans newspost.

Themed Creature Contest

Quote:

What to do?

Create a THEMED creature that is complete with spells. There are a few rules:

• The creature must not be static: it should walk and attack!
• Imported models are NOT allowed. You can only combine existing models.
• At least two spells are required.
• Some sort of easily visable theme should be with your hero.
• This can be done within the Data Editor or Trigger Editor.
• You can submit as many entries as wanted as long as they are all differents.

What you have to give

• You have to provide a youtube video
• You have to attach the map used to take the video

Help

Possible ideas might come from a previous contest that was similar.

For those who want to delve into attachments here is a good tutorial for that. If you don't know how to start, ProzaicMuze made a step by step tutorial: How to make an Uberlisk. Don't be afraid by the length of it, it really goes into great detail to explain why things were done, it takes no more than 10 minutes to do the Uberlisk.

For information on the deadlines and rewards, view the contest thread.

Happy Fathers Day to those of you dad SC mappers out there!

Banana Cheaters by Rodrigo

Yes, that's right, Rodrigo says he's now back in action! Once again, Rod has come out with a very unique map, this time it's similar to Phantom Mode, however instead of being totally melee, it's an RPG/Survival type map. Essentially, every play has a hero and their goal is to work together to stay alive. However, the player that collects the most bananas wins the game, so while you are working together to stay alive, you're also competing to collect nanners. This is where the "Phantom Mode" aspect of the game comes in: one player is secretly cheating. This player can see the position of all the bananas (which are normally hidden throughout the map), giving him a better chance of finding them and winning the game. The cheater needs to convince everyone else that he is not cheating, otherwise he will have his powers stolen by another player.

Those of you using Authenticators, note a new change to the system where you will not always be asked to authenticate now.

Mineralz Review by SC2Eagle

I've been seeing more and more talk about this new (newish, whatever) map named Mineralz, that seems to have jumped right to the popularity list and stuck. Those of you curious to know what the rage is all about, check out the commentary/review by the SC2Eagle team.

Customizing UI in Custom Maps from Blizzard

More Custom Mapping goodness from Blizzard today. Looks like we've got a patch incoming soon, that will include more UI changes and... documentation!?

Quote:

As previously announced, in our next client patch we will be disabling the unsupported method of replacing built-in SC2Layout files in custom maps. To avoid potential issues that could be caused by this change, all map authors who are currently using this method should convert their maps to use the Custom Layout File system as soon as possible. If you're unfamiliar with what's changing or how the Custom Layout File system can be used to customize your maps, please be sure to review our earlier announcement for more information: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2267589748

We also plan to introduce further improvements to both the UI system and associated documentation in the future, and greatly appreciate your feedback on the topic in the meantime.

Thanks!

The Final Frontier 2 by Hookah604

Here we have a sequel to Hookah's original, The Final Frontier! Again it's very much like the oldschool SC1 Asteroids map, however you duke it out! The map has a large research system, claiming millions of combinations and a unique result every time. In addition, it has a "map" generator that randomly generates planets, stars, and a whole galaxy, making the environment completely unique every time you play as well. The project also sports customizable space ships, weapons, and races, an alliance system, a nice customized UI, and can support up to 14 players (or AI)!

Go join in on the fun that is the Galaxy Editor Memes thread, :). Blizzard also released some new fan art and more comics!

Custom Map Storage Increased from Blizzard

All I have to say is, yay!

Quote:

In an effort to help make StarCraft II map publishing more flexible and convenient, we've recently made several changes to custom map storage, increasing all three storage variables for publishing maps online:

• Total custom map slots increased from 10 to 20
• Individual custom map space increased from 10 MB to 20 MB
• Total storage space increased from 50 MB to 100 MB

Whether you're someone who enjoys creating a large number of smaller melee maps, or if you prefer creating fewer, but significantly larger maps, we hope mapmakers of all shapes and sizes will benefit from these changes.

If you haven't yet taken a crack at the StarCraft II editor, head on over to our Maps and Mods page (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/maps-and-mods/) for some mapmaking tutorials, as well as more information on official Blizzard mods we've made to show off what the editor is capable of.

Formation Defense 2.0 by wingednosering

Test your skills as a commander in this tactical defense game, where you and up to six other players attempt to protect your colony from hordes of enemies, while saving as many refugees as you can. The map has a very simple layout, allowing newcomers to sink their teeth into the standard defense formula while rewarding those who stick with the map with a wealth of strategic choices and abilities. Be warned: reaching and completing the final level, even on the easiest settings, is no easy task.

Equipped with its own set of achievements, nine factions to play as, multiple difficulty settings, multiple ways to win, and a simple, yet effective tech tree, this game provides a ton of replayability, while giving everybody enough options to grant them a comfortable challenge.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and defend your colony!

Baneling Run by Feral

The goal of Baneling Run! is simple: survive as long as possible. Those of you who enjoyed those old school bound-styled maps from SC1 may enjoy this map. This map features some really cool things, like a saving system, achievements and statistics, spectator mode (so when you die you aren't out!), powerups, difficulties, and much, much more!

Star Piano by shardfenix

A few years ago, the Protoss and the Terran constructed a giant piano out of spare Templar Archives and Engineering Bays. It was lost during the Brood War, but has been rediscovered in nearly perfect condition.

Essentially, this is a giant Piano, with a back story! You select keys to play their sound, simply by clicking on each building. A pretty sweet function is the ability to hotgroup keys to make chords. Originally, the map was something fun for a birthday, but shardfenix recently published the map for everyone to play with, so go play some cool songs!

UPDATE: While we're on the topic, Shadow also released a cool Data duplicator tool.

Item Creator by ShadowDancer93

I came across this tool just recently that I thought was actually really cool. It works along the lines of templating data. Essentially what the program does, is it takes a pre-defined template of the item data, and changes it according to any specifications you set while creating the item. This is the beginning of something much bigger, as data templates can be used for many things, like hero creation, etc. I would stay tuned for more templating programs in the near future, as it's something i've been looking into as well, ;). Currently, this program can be used to create the following:

• button (with description, name and icon),
• unit (immortal, sellable)
• actor (w/o any bars, armor icons, etc.)
• item (with class, also new item have equip behavior and weapon set to item name, so you can add them just by creating behavior/weapon with name same as item)
• behavior (base for weapon, but can be created w/o it)
• weapon (melee or ranged)
• effect damage (for weapon)

  

Physics Engine Tutorial by LosTacos

This is a pretty sweet tutorial that will help you implement a Physics Engine into your map, if you choose to... so... those of you that are interested or in need, go check it out!

Infested Arena 2 by Etravex

It has been 43 years since your last encounter with the Infested, which took place on a space station in a remote part of the Universe. You thought you were victorious after defeating the Broodmother. Little did you know that the Infested followed you back to your home planet in the Galminus system and have since been mutating, evolving and multiplying directly above you. It is clear to you that the Infested are far more powerful than they were last time. Mutant strains and cross breading has brought about new and terrifying Infested units. But, you are not easily discouraged... 43 years has brought about advancements of your own. Prepare yourself the Invasion is about to begin...

Scene Recreation Contest Results

I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who participated in this Contest, I really enjoyed seeing all these memorable video game/movie scenes come to life in the world of Starcraft. Makes me want to go watch some movies I haven't seen in a while.... Anyway, thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to our top 3: Sephiex, xil_theMINISTER, and Qancakes! If you enjoyed this contest, keep your eye out, we're going to have another one in the somewhat near future.

To see their entries, check out the contest thread!

PeepMode by IcculusLizard

PeepMode is a melee spectator system that builds on features of the popular 1v1 Obs - Xel'Naga and iCJug maps. Players compete in 1v1, 2v2, and FFA matches (KOTH style) while everyone else watches, bets, discusses, etc. This project has a whole slew of features, including 14player support, a KOTH system, global ratings, the Blizzard Observer UI, a betting system, and much, much more. Those of you interested in playing Melee, and wanting to get the Melee scene mixed into the Custom Maps scene, support this project!