Idea: "Happy Medium Map Protector" (Anti-Save Protection)

[Tonks]

I've been playing with this idea of a map protector that makes it so you can open a map, look at it, do what you want with it, but not save it.
I think that the best way to do this would be to have a 'hidden' trigger that references a non-existing variable.
The difficult part about this would be hiding the trigger and deleting the variable.

So; my questions.
1 Would it be possible to hide an individual trigger, and if so, how could I do it?

2 What file in a map stores the variables, and what would I use to open it?

3 If I saved a map, then externally deleted a variable that a trigger references, would it still be playable? Said trigger would have no event, so it would not run.

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

I have no idea if this would be possible but it sure would suck as everything in a map can just get copy/pasted or exported anyways.

 

[Tonks]

I have no idea if this would be possible but it sure would suck as everything in a map can just get copy/pasted or exported anyways.

The point would be that nobody could simply open your map, change a few things, change the credits, and release it as theirs. This seems to be the majority of mappers' concern, so I thought I would try to do something to at least make it more difficult.

All map protectors suck, you can simply fix the corrupted files and open it anyways. The only one that causes any real difficulty is Vex's Map Optimizer.

But in this case, most noob'ish mappers wouldn't be able to do anything about it, and noob'ish mappers are the only ones that really steal maps.

 

[Xlightscreen]

Personly I rather just put a 128 byte encription code on my maps but thats just me lol. But as for your mapping idea it would be nice espicly since there alot of maps I would just like to see just to see how they did a certain trigger or something. Maybe if you know C++ you could make a map viewer?

 

[Tonks]

Personly I rather just put a 128 byte encription code on my maps but thats just me lol. But as for your mapping idea it would be nice espicly since there alot of maps I would just like to see just to see how they did a certain trigger or something. Maybe if you know C++ you could make a map viewer?

Well, you're all for protecting completely and that's that, but I'm avidly against map protection, as well as map stealing.
I have no knowledge of scripting languages. I understand the file structure, the concept, and how to edit most everything that Blizzard uses, but I'm pretty much limited to that.

I was going to try to recruit someone to create the program to automatically perform the actions necessary, once I find out how to do it.

>it would be nice espicly since there alot of maps I would just like to see just to see how they did a certain trigger or something.

That is the intention of this protector.

>128 byte encription code

Pointless overkill. This won't stop anyone that has any knowledge of the style and structure of Wc3 maps. Sure, it'll stop noobs, but so will Vex's map Optimizer, which will also improve your map.

 

[Xlightscreen]

mmm dude a 128 encription code woulden't even allow you to acsess the file...acutly it woulden't even allow you to play the map lol

 

[Tonks]

mmm dude a 128 encription code woulden't even allow you to acsess the file...

If Wc3 can open it so you can play it, then anyone else can open it, as well.

EDIT: Well, it turns out that someone beat me to it. They used a different method, a little less secure than my idea, but the same concept;

http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=52887&page=2
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=52886&page=2

 

[Mechanical Man]

This site is not against map protection like wc3sear.ch was?

 

[Tonks]

This site is not against map protection like wc3sear.ch was?

That's kind of what the whole point of this tool would have been; to find the "happy medium" between protecting and Open-source.