Customizable Altered Melee Engine

[FailsWithTails]

What is C.A.M.E.?

C.A.M.E. stands for Customizable Altered Melee Engine. Simply put, it is a template map that takes much of the complicated work out of making quality* altered melee maps.
*quality is in no way, shape, or form promised or guaranteed. I disclaim all liabilities for how anyone uses C.A.M.E.

What does C.A.M.E. have?

C.A.M.E. comes with a Random Base Distribution system. The RBD system handles the dirty work involved with "random start locations" commonly associated with standard melee maps.

This template also includes some basic commands you wouldn't get in a normal melee game. Currently supported commands: -ma, -forfeit

C.A.M.E. also provides instructions and tips integrated within the triggers to tell you what you need to do and warn you of what you shouldn't change (unless you know what you're doing).

In short, C.A.M.E. is the ultimate framework and foundation for creating an altered melee map.

What do I do with C.A.M.E.?

That's easy. Grab yourself an e-shovel and start terraining*! There is a well made tutorial [here] for creating melee maps. Once you've got that ready, open up the C.A.M.E w3x file. Transfer over triggers, objects, imports, regions, variables, etc. and then the only remaining task is to design your custom races. The Hive Workshop has a nicely written tutorial [here] on how to make custom races. C.A.M.E. provides simple, clear instructions on any modifications you need to make to the existing triggers.
*Or if you're lazy, you could open up one of Blizzard's melee maps... >.>; I used Battleground, shush.

Regions in WorldEdit

User Friendly Race Selector

Sample Demon Race

Credits for Chaos Citadel go to HappyTauren. Sample Demon race not included in map.

Sample Ancient race

Sample Ancient race not included in map.

Demonstration of Matchup Request command

Note that players who select random will be displayed as "Name (Color) is Random." Player names were created at random. Any similarities to real life persons or usernames is purely coincidental in nature.

What is happening with C.A.M.E.?

Currently, I am working on an altered melee. After years of on and off work, I decided to at the very least release the core sitting at the center of my map. So, I stripped it down, cleaned it up, and laid out tips and detailed instructions on how to use it. In the end, if my map dies before it finishes, I'll at least have this template to call an accomplishment/contribution to the gaming community.

What do I want you to do with C.A.M.E. right now?

I would ask that you do not make or release any maps using this unofficial release of C.A.M.E., but if you do, you must credit the following people:

• Ochibi, of The Hive Workshop - Creator of C.A.M.E.
• Maker, of The Hive Workshop - Helped me greatly with the Random Base Distribution system.
• assasin_lord, of The Hive Workshop - If you used the Hero Glow model included with the map for convenience.

As I see it, C.A.M.E. is near the final stage. I don't see any major overhauls ever coming into the picture - only feature additions and improving user-friendliness. Speaking of which, I am openly accepting comments, critiques, suggestions (especially additional commands), and questions. Any feedback is appreciated. I hope to be able to push out a full solid release sometime soon.

FAQ*
Q: Help! Help! I'm being oppres- erm, I mean, when I start up the game, I only have a floating circle thing! How do I play?
A: That circle is known in the World Editor as the Start Location. In normal melee games, that start location determines where your base would spawn. In C.A.M.E.-made maps, the race you select at the game lobby will only define your user interface (ie. borders, reminder voices, etc.). By default, your "start location" is a building called "Select your Race" automatically selected at game start. The standard hotkey layout for the 12 icons makes it easy to choose your race immediately at game start to minimize any delays. I found that to be the most streamlined solution for adding custom races without removing/editing Blizzard's four playable races.
Q: Why have there been changes made to the original objects in the object editor? You said you didn't edit Blizzard's four playable races.
A: That's true. As far as I can tell, I didn't. What I noticed while playing with the World Editor was that one, you could make the Entangled Gold Mine place-able in the world editor, two, the Faerie Dragon has the Ultravision ability, but no Ultravision upgrade compatibility, third, Shadow Strike (neutral hostile) for some reason doesn't have name data filled out, and fourth, the tavern left out some heroes, and I thought it would be a good idea to enable these by default. Speaking of which, I would like to remind you that you need to update a handful of things in Advanced>Gameplay Constants, under Techtree - Dependency Equivalents when you add your own races. Now, I don't know if the first three things I listed is a World-Editor-Only bug that gets ignored in the game you're playing, or if they are actual gameplay differences that affect every map ever created. Probably the former, but it doesn't hurt to tweak it, right?
*Questions listed are not necessarily frequently asked.

What's with the title?
I originally called this project the Altered Melee Engine. Then I decided to acronym it. I tacked on a C, and then wanted a catchy [read as: overused] phrase on the internet. Seeing as how it paralleled nicely with the Latin original, a language which I knew nothing of, I tagged it in. "Veni, vidi, vici" is frequently translated as, "I came, I saw, I conquered," and I feel that appropriately describes what my project hopes to do to the altered melee map-making scene.



Updates
Last updated: 1:02 PM PST March 1, 2012
- Caught a crucial typo that would have caused the winning player to receive a "Defeat" screen.
- Just sprucing up the page for when it is finally ready to be considered complete.