Online Save & Load, WoW/Lineage 2 type

[Pharaoh_]

I was wondering; can Starcraft 2 support an online Save and Load system, so that everytime you load a map online, the player will receive the character they previously had? Sort of like Lineage 2/WoW/Guildwars.
I want to create a mod, RPG, but with a duration of League of Legeneds/DotA/Heroes of Newerth.

Can anyone confirm that?

Additional question: What kind of extra stuff I can do with online gaming in SC2, that War3 can't do?

 

[Dr Super Good]

SC2 supports local data storage. For example the NotD map stores your rank and skill level automatically while playing. There is a minor problem that it is not very secure due to being accessable to the owner in file format and people who know what they are doing can easilly generate a code for themselves. However for use in an RPG it should be perfect as long as you do not make it annoying or abusable if someone does generate a code.

Well there is a whole list of stuff SC2 can do that WC3 can not. Firstly you can use infinite data (in theroy) in a map due to the mod system but blizzard are looking into refining that so more models are easier to manage. There is also better custom UI support, allowing the creation of just about anything as seen in the demonstrations for blizzard's new custom maps. There is the ability to directly get button presses so WASD system are easy to set up and soon you will even be able to track mouse position (currently you can not but next patch you should). You can do more complex and impressive effects in SC2 than WC3 due to its enhanced graphic engine (like fire spells burn enemies to death while explosions blow them appart). You also can more easilly adjust user statistics with stackable buffs being able to alter units in nearly every way and triggers being able to modify some basic stats directly. Units can have 3 or more attacks and attacks can have complex effecs. Projectiles support more complex physics (skidding after units, being able to be shot down or even knocked out the sky).

That is a list of some of what SC2 can do. Do be aware that it can be more demanding at times than WC3.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

And those things that store your info are called SC2Bank. Banks hold the info about the campaign that is if you delete them, your missions settings upgrades and research are gone. They hold shared info as DRSG said like everyone could see I was rank 2nd in WGX Nagrand League in beta which was Micro Arena > current MorroW's microwars. Banks are GameCache but much better.

I think SC2 editor makes world editor look primitive. Really, I have that feeling even though eveyrthing's so much tidy in WE, NO WAIT it's not more tidy it;s more primitive! StarEdit (SC Brood War) - I got back to it - so few things, it's even more tidy, no wait more primitve . SC2 Editor is beyond all that war3 editor with all its tools and JASS could offer.

 

[Dr Super Good]

They hold shared info as DRSG said like everyone could see I was rank 2nd in WGX Nagrand League in beta

I do not get how it could possibly tell you were ranked second, especially considering that they are stored locally and thus are modifiable via a text editor.

SC2E does have problems, for example it can get into bugged states with game attributes and varients and also with some data editor fields.

 

[mrzwach]

Actually there are maps on B.net that simply store the top X players into each players bank at the end of each game. It then compares these players to the best players each player plays, and replaces them with the highest scoring player as fits.

Generally the best players will play a lot (and thus with many other players), so the high score ranking is at least somewhat reflective of who is the best. Obviously, banks can be hacked, but meh.

 

[BoneBreaker]

I do not get how it could possibly tell you were ranked second, especially considering that they are stored locally and thus are modifiable via a text editor.

SC2E does have problems, for example it can get into bugged states with game attributes and varients and also with some data editor fields.

I know the map Nexus Word Wars had a ranking system that was spread like a virus across players banks, so it was actually a solid global ranking system. (However, it was easy to abuse - you could spread false rankings to other players).

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I do not get how it could possibly tell you were ranked second, especially considering that they are stored locally and thus are modifiable via a text editor.

Well, I beat 80% of the micro arena battles and it adds to the bank. But if I changed the text it wouldn't appear for everyone so maybe the info isn't only about editing it with a text. There's something that keeps the results so.

Something like the map saves the results, a bank could be loaded in the map and then the next who play it will have the map updated, like the map auto-updates itself.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Thank you for the info, but now you woke up some more questions.

Dr Super Good, won't the SC2Bank be easily hacked? I mean a data storage of a text background can be easily manipulated. Isn't that a possible scenario?

The burn effect you mention, is it applied on every kind of model or the models need to have a specific event attached on them, to bear the exact effects the default SC2 models have?

Apart from what you mentioned, is there anything else we should wait for?

Still, I didn't exactly got my answer on the MMORPG issue: In WoW, you create your character, you log in and your character is there, but this is what a server is: eternally on, where every player logs into a huge world, not just a map. Is this possible in SC2? To have a world online that any player can log in back at anytime, as if they play World of Warcraft? How can someone have an eternally hosted map? Isn't that sweeping off of SC2's capabilities?

I will put it this way: Can a game functionally similar to Lineage 2 be hosted in SC2?

Finally, do we know how many players at a time a map can support?

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

To your MMORPG question, I think could be done and it is done again with banks. I just compare the situation with the campaign - wherever you reached say mission 23, you can log off shut down the computer etc, when you 'Continue campaign' in Bnet you start from where you last stopped because it loads the updated content from the banks. Since it does so for some online maps like the Ranking in some maps, I suppose so. Anyway Dr SG can tell you better, so..

 

[Dr Super Good]

Multi maps currently is not possible bankwise I think unless you manually copy the banks into the new cache folders. Blizzard has admitted they are revising banks and maps to potentially allow for such a thing.

Fire death is done by separate models for each unit it affects.

SC2 banks are easilly hacked, anyone want to see my insane NotD one I made?

 

[Statharas]

Encryption.
I'm loving it..



Just make hard algorithms to hide your data, and if someone fails to hack them, reset the database.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Stathisdjs, there are some minor problems with that...
Firstly you use the maps own script code to do the generation for you, as such it is never wrong (sometimes invalid but thats only if you are not good at it).
Secondly you make backups of your banks before attempting such a thing, afterall they are just files so a simple ctrl+C and ctrl+V would sufice.

In the end, the ultimate and best option is to not be an ass of a map maker. By this I mean that your map should not require pointless grinding (some of us do not have hours to play a day and get bored) and does not allow you to load a rigged code (invalid or insane values).

The reason I hacked myself a code in NotD was purly because I do not have the time to grind 50K experience points to get commander. I respect people in some ways who did obtain the class fairly (I heard of atleast 1 such person) but such insane requirements can never be justified and are out of the reach of the average casual player of the map.

Like wise with night song ops I hacked myself a code because the map is just too long to play at higher difficulties. Most of us can not play 8 hour long games in one session nor do particually want to.

Both maps suffer from game breaking design faults with their achievements systems (what gets saved and loaded next game) and frankly my curosity ended up getting the better of me thus leading to the rather sad event of me having to generate banks for those maps.

Remember that skill should not be dictated by hours grinding, but by ability to play which was not the case in both of those maps.

 

[eric0912]

can i have the hacked code for NOTD in SC2

Dr. Super Good
Can you share the hacked code to me so i can play commandor directly...>"<

 

[Dr Super Good]

Sorry but I do not do request hacking, most of my hacks are for personal use only.

 

[Mooglefrooglian]

SC2 Editor is beyond all that war3 editor with all its tools and JASS could offer.

No dynamic arrays, all the scripting extenders suck terribly, no WE integration of tools that are available, and the fixed data type just doesn't replace a float/real. You can't stop chat, triggers are much more limited, you *have* to use the data editor for quite a few things and then use triggers to apply the stuff you made in the data editor. There's a 2^21 byte limit that maps like Battle Mages have already hit so they can't actually continue being developed (they crash every couple minutes because they run out of memory). WC3 maps had no silly memory limitation like that. Galaxy adds in potentially awesome things, like structs... but they are useless because they removed pointers which would actually allow you to use the things. We lost hashtables and GetHandleId, which basically made everything so much more efficient.

But GUI is better, right? It finally got locals which JASS had from the start. Totally worth all of that!

 

[eric0912]

Dr. Super Good
all i need is the save file for notd that can play commandor....i don'y watn to hack any one or the system@@ that's why i was asking for the saved code@@ or i should say the save file in the bank@@"

 

[Statharas]

To your MMORPG question, I think could be done and it is done again with banks. I just compare the situation with the campaign - wherever you reached say mission 23, you can log off shut down the computer etc, when you 'Continue campaign' in Bnet you start from where you last stopped because it loads the updated content from the banks. Since it does so for some online maps like the Ranking in some maps, I suppose so. Anyway Dr SG can tell you better, so..

Actually what you said isn't correct. Campaign Banks are used to save data locally, which is uploaded instantly on the Bnet. If you delete those banks, you will re-download the banks either you want to or not. Unless you make a new game. This isn't how multiplayer banks work. They simply save stuff locally. Their difference with the campaign banks are that they are saved online.