Advice For Complete Newbie thinking of making custom campaigns

[tulee]

Hi guys,

Sorry to bother you all. After playing so many amazing war3 custom campaigns during my time, i feel like i would like to contribute something to the warcraft 3 community. My question is though, i have 0 experience with any coding, and will be starting completely afresh. Am i too old to think of making a custom campaign, especially since my college in major is not related to coding or what not.

If i follow the guidelines and walkthroughs on this forum, will i have a descent chance of making something great? ( I realize great campaigns are not built in a day, I would be willing to work on it over a very long period of time ).

Many thanks,

-Tulee

 

[deathismyfriend]

You will be able to make a good map if you try to.
You do not need any coding background.
There are plenty of people here to help you out.

 

[PurgeandFire]

You can never be too old for Warcraft 3.

And yes, you'll certainly have a chance of making something great--especially since you've already played several campaigns (you'll know what is good and what is bad).

It will take some patience and determination (as with every new hobby), but as long as you have an idea that you're genuinely interested in, I doubt that will be an issue.

And don't hesitate to ask questions!

P.S. Check this out:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/general-mapping-tutorials-278/making-basic-campaign-6287/
For some basic guidelines. And just have fun experimenting in the editor. Mess around, and maybe look at some of Blizzard's preset maps to see how they did things. You can even look at their campaign maps if you want to see how they created a certain item, or added a certain event/cinematic, etc.

 

[Dr Super Good]

If you are starting new and have little idea about how WorldEdit works, I must advise you to look at StarCraft II instead of Warcraft III.

Although Warcraft III is a good game, it has unfortunately aged over the last decade. Getting enough skill to produce something great will take a year or so. A really good campaign might take several years to finish on top of that. By the time it is finished the exact state of WC3 is unclear and for certain there will be even fewer people playing it than now.

StarCraft II is still a reasonably new game and so will age less than WC3. The biggest complaint with developing for it is the complexity of the editor however that is only a problem for people who are used to using the nonsense WorldEditor as it does some stuff considerably differently (but more logically). What is even better is that StarCraft II allows players to play custom maps completely free (you do not even need to own a Blizzard game!) which potentially opens up a larger market to play your map.

Obviously no one is forcing you to change, but you should certainly consider if it will be worth it creating for nostalgic over 10 year old game (by the time you finish) or if you should target a more modern game which has a different feel to it.

I can tell you out right that some things in SC2 are much harder to do such as damage types (a core feature of WC3), creating units, creating abilities, dynamic triggers. Other things are considerably easier to do in SC2 such as full screen interfaces, custom UI, special effects, complex attachment based unit models, complex movement systems (yes you can do WASD and even third person with mouse control in SC2), changing unit properties with triggers, voice overs for dialog, localization into many languages and many more.

 

[tulee]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

Its great to know one doesn't need to know coding to contribute!

In terms of moving to Sc2 for making a campaign, I am quite certain i won't. Basically, I want to give back to the warcraft 3 community, and i feel like not all the warcraft 3 community moved onto Sc2 (like me). I was however, originally thinking of waiting for warcraft 4 to come out, and then make it there because most war3 players would naturally progress towards warcraft 4.

One quick question though. Obviously no-one knows what the editor for Warcraft 4 would be like, but from your experiences, would there be anyway to convert in some way progress made in the Warcraft 3 editor to a completely different editor used in Warcraft 4 ( or even the Galaxy editor for Sc2 ). It wouldn't need to be everything converted, but enough to justify the risk of starting on the Warcraft 3 editor with the possibility of changing to a new editor in the future?


Thanks again for your great replies guys!

 

[deathismyfriend]

I doubt there will ever be a Warcraft 4

 

[PurgeandFire]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

Its great to know one doesn't need to know coding to contribute!

In terms of moving to Sc2 for making a campaign, I am quite certain i won't. Basically, I want to give back to the warcraft 3 community, and i feel like not all the warcraft 3 community moved onto Sc2 (like me). I was however, originally thinking of waiting for warcraft 4 to come out, and then make it there because most war3 players would naturally progress towards warcraft 4.

One quick question though. Obviously no-one knows what the editor for Warcraft 4 would be like, but from your experiences, would there be anyway to convert in some way progress made in the Warcraft 3 editor to a completely different editor used in Warcraft 4 ( or even the Galaxy editor for Sc2 ). It wouldn't need to be everything converted, but enough to justify the risk of starting on the Warcraft 3 editor with the possibility of changing to a new editor in the future?


Thanks again for your great replies guys!

It is possible to at least convert the terrain, but other parts may be harder. It is rather difficult to convert triggers and objects since they aren't 1-1 between games.

But all in all, it shouldn't really be that difficult to convert manually (as long as you have the knowledge). You'd be surprised how much time planning takes up. When you're just converting, usually that aspect is massively reduced.

As for Warcraft 4, we're all among the hopefuls. But I wouldn't count on it enough to delay modding. DotA 2 modding will probably sooner be a thing (and I think someone made a tool to convert wc3 terrain to DotA 2's editor). Still, mod the game you like. There is still a community in this game, and it is worthwhile (maybe even life-changing) to experience wc3 modding. Just have fun with it.

 

[Dr Super Good]

One quick question though. Obviously no-one knows what the editor for Warcraft 4 would be like, but from your experiences, would there be anyway to convert in some way progress made in the Warcraft 3 editor to a completely different editor used in Warcraft 4 ( or even the Galaxy editor for Sc2 ). It wouldn't need to be everything converted, but enough to justify the risk of starting on the Warcraft 3 editor with the possibility of changing to a new editor in the future?

Warcraft 4 (if it ever exists) will probably be based on the SC2 engine in some way. Due to it being much more logical it might be possible to port from SC2 to WC4 but it is impossible to directly port from WC3 to SC2 due to how different they are.