Newbie Map making

[Talonxlll]

...

Ok, where to begin.

Hi, my name is Talon, and I'm going to be 17 years old in a few days (aug 10th). My primary hobby is games, and right now I'm playing wc3. I used to play starcraft back when it was really popular, and was an expert map maker back then (Because starcraft was really simple.)

I nearly released an rp map, but I never did get around to making the spawns for the special buildings, and ended up deleting it because I figured that their was already enough rp maps out there.

Now I'm on wc3, and I'm going to make a map. My first reason for making this was to have a 'playable test map.' Basicly this would allow me to test my map making skills to their limit. The first idea was to make a map of mini-games, then it turned into a loap-mini-game map, then it kinda degraded into a game where I could strap bombs to remote control cars, send it up to someone, and make it explode.

-sigh-

Now I've actually decided to make a proper map, my first 'real' map will be called "Urban Warfare." For those of you who remember Urban Combat out on starcraft, you'll see alot of similiarities.

A quick breakdown onto my game.

Urban Warfare:
Type: Loap Mutation
Objective: Survival
Players: 1-8/9/10, max number of players has not been determined yet.

Notes: It will mainly be a giant city, complete with fast food resturants, banks to rob, houses to live in, and everything else you could think of. The winter theme in it will allow for snowball wars, ice skating, and other winter abilites. The city ascept will allow for crime sprees, such as kidnappings, bank robberies, and even stealing equipment from a nearby goverment facility (Provided that you have the smarts and rescources for it.)

Reason of posting:

I need help. Although I know how to do very complex Gui stuff, such as save/load code complete with encoding, I am a complete newbie at Jass. Which is a problem due to memory leak. I remember reading about it somewhere, and I have a general idea, but because I can only use GUI, I can't fix it.

I also cannot import icons, or change my mini-map, or loading screen for that matter. I will not import ANY models/skins, so please disregard any advice on that. Alot of skins/models are really shitty, and the few I do like will simply not work in my map.

As a final request for help, I'm looking for ideas. Really it doesn't matter what it may be, (As I plan to have a rail gun sooner or later once I make it), but just fun stuff to pull this forth from your every average other map. Also I need someone to prod me along so I don't just give up on it.

Thanks in Advanced,

Talon

 

[Talonxlll]

First order of buisness: Terrain.

I'll be the first to admit, I suck with terrain. I can't terrain, dooddad, or make a decent waterfall to save my life. But because this is a city terrain, I should be able to get away with pretty simplistic cities.

That brings me to my first problem. I want to use the cityscape cliff terrain (The kinda peach colored one? I dunno, my friends say I'm colorblind.) And, I want to use the Icecrown Glaicier natural cliff, but I don't think I can get those two together in one map. If I can, please let me know.

I'd also like some pointers for city building, with open buildings (Not the doodad buildings, but the kind like you see on moronsonofboron's real life).

Ontop of wanting a large city, I'd like a good area set for mini games (Laser tag, Ice Skating, ect.)

I'm thinking about using an epic map, but I'm thinking I won't have enough area to fill it up, but if I use a huge, I'm afraid that I won't have room to add-on in future versions.

My head's on straight, and I know what I want, but I have no idea where the hell to start and where to start walking.


Also, as an afterthough, Why is this community against map protection? I thought it would be a good thing not to have a bunch of people editing your map for the sake of their own purpose, then passing it around even though its not what you wanted?

 

[Preskooldude]

They're against map protection because they want people to learn from other people's maps, as apposed to simply having to ask someone everytime.

Although I think that simply protecting the map, then submitting a second copy with all major functions removed and it simply outlines the various systems used is okay:

In any case, memory leaks only occur in JASS when a variable (If you're familiar with GUI then you should know what that is) created in JASS is not emptied out when it is done (Like when you use an integer to create a loop, then forget to set it back to null).

If thats unclear, think of a box as a variable. You fill the box with the object and stuffing, then use it to send something over. If the box is still filled with stuffing after you use it, it just sort of becomes a useless piece of junk unless you take the stuffing out before using it for something else.