Map Makers who protect their maps: please read!

[Hokibukisa]

I understand you don't want people messing with your maps if they are competetive maps where people may make their own version just to cheat and you end up with 300 different versions.
Please consider doing the following:

1)If the valuable thing about your map is the triggers and units, then export your trigger and unit information to a blank map, leave it unprotected, and upload it to this site under the same name as your map with "+source" at the end, so that other people with artistic talent can build on your idea and make their own beautiful version and even learn from your triggers and unit data without investing all the time.

2)If the valuable thing about your map is the map itself, like say one of those beautiful awesome open RPG maps, then delete all the triggers and unit data for the map and save it unprotected and upload to this site under the same name as your map with "+empty" at the end, so that other people with great ideas for games can focus on gameplay and use your map as an empty canvas.

WC3 map making community needs to be a helpful giving place. The more we protect our maps and keep the data to ourselves the more time we must put into map making the also the poorer quality.
Our community when most good maps are protected is like the Blizzard War3 team making an expansion but with everyone not sharing. This is why most maps are just a bunch of half-assed, ugly, poorly balanced, unoriginal same ol' same ol'.

Please remember your not getting paid to make these maps. Making these maps will not get you a job anywhere. The worst that could happen if you do one of the two things that I suggested is that somebody else uses your map data/empty map and builds onto it.
Or say person 'A' downloads map data from person 'B' and a masterpiece blank map from person 'C', but person 'A' is not an artist or a coder or a unit balancer, but instead person 'A' just has a really good story to tell.
Person 'A' using other people's triggers, units, and map creates a masterpiece tale that everyone with WC3 DLs and praises. Person 'B' and 'C' get credit for their talents, and everyone gets a fun, new map to play.

Ok? Thanks.

 

[Eusira]

Well, not everyone has your view, but I agree we should be allowed to learn. My projects will probably have the mapping triggers to show in the Spells section if I finish the project, but it's those retarded bastards on the internet who think they are safe behind their screennames, and because they stole a map, they always host it, download a version of the unstolen map, and get ACCOUNT BANNED. I am also trying to see if I can use a game-cache ban as well.

 

[Hokibukisa]

Yeah man I hate people who take credit for other peoples work, or fake the real thing.
Hopefully starcraft 2 or warcraft 4 map editor will have built in non-removable watermarking, that would eliminate all legit reasons for damaging a map.

Just something to say, "hey, this is the original, the real deal".
And if the map creator wishes to, put a message to display in map description if the map is rigged like "this is not a legit release, it is rigged, dl the real deal from [email protected]". That would be great.

 

[Angelusz]

or, just play the maps made by people who are good at all aspects of mapping, thus creating an overall good map. - you left that one out.

Now, i protect my maps, and i will keep doing so.
Ofcourse this wont get me any jobs, but it would just damn hurt to see someone running away with his name on my map, my months of work, my hours and hours of thinking, pondering, coding, testing, and putting my heart in it.
Now way i'm gonna let all that go easily.
If respectable mappers want to see my maps and my code, sure, no problem, but there's too many thieves out there.

 

[jumpyg1258]

Well as I have said before I do copy protect my maps. But I know that peeps want to learn from what I do so I unprotect my older maps so that peeps that do want to learn something can do so and it wont affect my most recent map releases.

 

[Hokibukisa]

I tried to message the DoB guys to get an unprotected maps but they ended up being a bunch of jackasses and children over there.
Too bad too, they can make some real pretty maps.

I just read the FAQ and i gotta tell it its a bit ironic. Hes totally against map protection yet I can't seem to find his script for the life of me. Is he 'protecting' his 'intelectual property'?

 

[MrMaestro]

Eusira, That is a very good idea using the in-game banning. Simply putting a threatening warning at the start of the game or on the loading screen would most likely reduce the amount of fake copiers. I generally like to protect my maps- but if anyone asks for them, I will give them an unprotected version. If my map becomes popular, I may upload just the triggers (as you said). As it is, you can already load my map, just cant see any of the units, triggers, or anything else. Just the terrain itself.

 

[Eusira]

This would work for RPG cheaters. When the play single, you would insert a game cache that registers an integer which would be either 0 or 1. Then you owuld save it on their comp, which would load the cache each game and examine the integer within the cache, and defeat them like that. I just need to figure out how to make sure I don't end up banning a full house's worth of people by seeing if game caches can save online on a single player. I would ban the people I hate on this site as well

And for the DOBRP, Just extract the scripts with WinMPQ and import them into a dummy map under, let's say, war3map.w3j or something. This should imprint the map's triggers onto the map, but if used on a real one, overwrites the data. This concept came out of Open Source protection at wc3c.

Also, using open source makes those noob riggers have no luck at all rigging the map, because the data you reimport from your map simply reimprints and overwrites changes, and sometimes makes saving the map a failure. I just need to further test that technique