[ORPG] Starcraft Universe

[Mille25]

[ORPG] Starcraft Universe
by Mille25

Warning: This post is outdated. Please always scroll to the last page where you can find my update posts. Thanks!

General Information

Hidden

Starcraft Universe (SU) is a big ORPG currently being developed. You can customize your character in many ways and explore a huge world with alot of quests, items and more.

Story

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More infos later...

Races & Classes

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SU has a very special class concept: There are no classes.

If you create a new character you can only choose your race. Every race has different starting attributes and an idividual racial ability. When you enter the world the first time you get your first spell point. Spell points can be used to learn new abilities. Like this you can customize your hero like you want to. You dont need to play a special class role.

There are four ways to make your character individual:

* Race (statring attributes, racial ability)
* Spells (you can learn all spells with spell points, more infos below)
* Talents (you can improve your character with talents)
* Attributes (you can improve your character by improving the attributes with attribute points, more infos below)

Spell and Talent system

Hidden

The spell system

Like i already said, there will be no classes in the game, every hero can learn all spells in the game. Every 3 levels you will get one spell point. This spell points can be used to learn a new ability. At the moment there are three ability trees (Offensive, defensive and support) and 8 spells for each tree. To avoid imba class mixes, you must spend a minimum number of spell points in one tree to be able to learn the more mighty spells of this tree.
Talent and attribute system

Everytime your character gains a level, he will get 2 attribute points and one talent point.

* Talent points can be used to learn talents. With talents you can improve your character through passive bonusses.
* Attribute points can be used to improve the four main stats of your character (Strength, Speed, Intelligence and Stamina).

Features & Systems

Hidden

* smooth WASD movement
* smooth 3dcam
* all characters get saved in bank files (with encryption for anti-edit)
* full custom ui
* up to 12 players
* 3 races
* nearly infinite possibilities to customize your character
* talent system
* spell system
* attribute system
* a lot of quests
* pvp content
* bosses

* and much much more...

Screenshots

Videos

Security System:

Options menu and quest system:

Chat and message box:

attributes, talents and xp bar:

working talent system:

 

[grygon]

Thats very descriptive!

 

[Mille25]

Thats very descriptive!

more infos to come, just wanted to save the name and show what ive got so far maybe i will reup the vid, cause the quality is not like i wanted it to be

 

[elfian]

There weren't much ORPG maps in Warcraft III, but I feel that 50% of the maps are going to be ORPG in SC2... And everyone is following the same idea Maybe you guys should work together?

 

[Mille25]

Update 6.5.2010

little update from my side

1) i made a new video, quality should be much better and its also a bit slower then the first one, because i think in the first one i was maybe a bit to fast for you to see what actually happens. it also shows the updated UI.

2) i worked on the ui and fixed a few bugs, also changed the style a bit. i am still not happy with the ui design, especially with the spell and exp bar at the bottom.
icons are still missing because the editor is leaking a "strech" option for dialog item images. the changes of the ui can be seen in the video.

more details about the (currently working) parts of the custom ui:

- on the top left a hero status dialog, witch shows shields, life and energy in real time. if you click on another unit a second statusbar will appear right of the herostatusdialog, witch shows all this for your target (it also gets updated in real time). if you click on an empty screen place, the target gets deselected and the second statusdialog vanishes.
- top right: minimap with name of your current region on top, minimap currenty doesnt show the players position, i might add this in the next update
- below minimap: the game buttons.

• character info
• game options (not yet implemented)
• questlog
• logout

- at the bottom: the exp and spellbar, both without function yet because all characters you see are just placeholders and not even heroes

3) detailes about the saving system:

the saving system is very far already, it saves right now:

• hero race+class
• hero level (in theory, not now because no heroes in the game atm, also im not sure how to read out the values actually ~~)
• hero attributes (in theory, not now because no heroes in the game atm, also im not sure how to read out the values actually ~~)
• hero position
• player property (minerals, gas, ...)
• quest progress

everything gets saved for every player and every character slot seperatly. so every player can have up to 5 savegames, with a maximum of 14 players this results in up to 70 savegames! you should be able to see it in the video.

 

[Lemming3000]

if this becomes multiplayer then that would be very impresive and i would play it alot XD

 

[Mille25]

Update 7.5.2010

Races & Classes

in todays update i want to tell you a bit about my planned races/classes, even if i didnt start to create them yet.

there will be three races

• Terran
• Zerg
• Protoss

(wow, what a surprise!).
every race will threat all other races as enemies, so if you play a zerg hero all protoss/terran heroes will be enemys of you. it will be possible to have multiple races in one account, so you can play different factions (e.g. in wow you are only allowed to play one faction on one server)

each race will have 4 classes, but all 3 races will have the same classes. thats because of 2 reasons: first, i dont want to create too much classes, but i want to create GOOD classes that make fun to play, so i think quality > quantity. second, its important for balance. if all races would have different classes it would be very hard to balance it and there would be too strong/weak classes for sure.

im not sure about the exact classes right now, but i think they will consist of this 4 categorys:

• Defensive
• Melee
• Ranged
• Support

im planing 6 abilities for each class, and also one addicional race ability. so for example if you play a zerg melee he will have one addicional zerg ability.
im planing only 6 abilities because of the same reasons as bevore: quality and balance. when i have finished this 6 abilities for all 4 classes i might think about more classes/abilities.

the models of the classes will be standart sc2 models, because i think they look quite good and imported models just increase map size very much. i think the quality of the sc2 models is good enaugh to use them right now, it might also be possible that there will come a lot of cool new models when the game is released because of the campaign.


i hope you like my ideas so far, i will update the main post a bit with this ideas.
if you got any suggestions or questions feel free to post

 

[CloudMax]

Just a warning:
Custom UIs aswell as arrow key movement will both generate alot of lag when you have alot of it.
There is already ways to play custom maps online and i have huge delay and lag online, while it works perfect offline.

 

[Mille25]

Just a warning:
Custom UIs aswell as arrow key movement will both generate alot of lag when you have alot of it.
There is already ways to play custom maps online and i have huge delay and lag online, while it works perfect offline.

thanks for the warning, i will get a beta key the next days and make a few tests with some mappers to get my own view of it.

what do you exactly mean with "lag of custom UI"? you mean showing/hiding dialogs or reacting on dialog events? cant really see the point why this is laggy, in wc3 it worked very well but like i already said, i have absolutly no mp experience in sc2 right now.

i hope it will turn out good and not destroy my bubble of good orpg possibilites in sc2

greez
mille25

 

[CloudMax]

thanks for the warning, i will get a beta key the next days and make a few tests with some mappers to get my own view of it.

what do you exactly mean with "lag of custom UI"? you mean showing/hiding dialogs or reacting on dialog events? cant really see the point why this is laggy, in wc3 it worked very well but like i already said, i have absolutly no mp experience in sc2 right now.

i hope it will turn out good and not destroy my bubble of good orpg possibilites in sc2

greez
mille25

I do not really know why it lags either.. But for some reason, i get over one seconds delay and some lag. I havent looked far into it yet, but i almost only have custom UI in my map.

And i know that it works well in wc3, and the only thing i can say that i think causes it must be that is all the every X second triggers aswell as having alot of dialogs.

 

[Amigurumi]

At most events, there is a note of blizz, that tells (for example arrow keys), that you
should only use those, if you really need it, because it causes lag. Dunno if it's the same
with dialogs.

 

[CYrusmaster]

Help in history?

Yo, i am not a special and pro map maker, but i can help you to make the history! I have played starcraft 1 and broodwar and actually i even have them on a original CD! Anyways i would be more than happy to help you with the history quests and much things like that!!

Il be apriciated just to join the project, also THX in advance!

 

[Mille25]

Update 8.5.2010

Character Security

in todays update its all about character security.

as some of you might already have noticed, all hero data gets saved into bank files. the problem: this bank files are stored on everyones computer and every person can easiely edit them by using the normal windows text editor, because blizzard didnt encrypt them (even if i think they should have done it, but thats not the point right now).
so in fact, everyone could edit his character like he wants, this would really destroy an orpg and the fun for the "non cheaters" would be gone quite fast.

so i thought about what i could do against this and developed a prototype of an anti cheat system that tries to make it hard for the cheaters to edit their characters. i wont expain exactly how it works because i dont want to tell more about it as its necessary to make sure that its as save as possible, but you can for sure ask me if you have specific questions.

i made a new video for you that shows me trying to trick out my system.

the video is really a must watch! please only watch it in 480p and fullscreen, because otherwise you might not see whats going on. i have added some text this time to make it easier for you to understand what im doing, enjoy!

Yo, i am not a special and pro map maker, but i can help you to make the history! I have played starcraft 1 and broodwar and actually i even have them on a original CD! Anyways i would be more than happy to help you with the history quests and much things like that!!

Il be apriciated just to join the project, also THX in advance!

thanks for your help!
i think i could really need someone who knows starcraft well because i never played starcraft bevore and dont really know the story

greez
mille25

 

[CloudMax]

In you anti-cheat system, you just have another encrypted value that must be equal to the normal value, right?
Or did you just check the total stats (to see if it is equal to the levels total stats), and check if the level is equal to the experience or something like that.
I suggest using both methods.

 

[JeffreyQ]

Impressive stuff. Keep up the good work.. will be tracking this [:

 

[Mille25]

In you anti-cheat system, you just have another encrypted value that must be equal to the normal value, right?
Or did you just check the total stats (to see if it is equal to the levels total stats), and check if the level is equal to the experience or something like that.
I suggest using both methods.

thats correct. at the moment im using only one encrypted value, but im planning 2 to make it even harder, i think i will implement this today.

the problem is: i dont know how much lag it will be to read out a bank file for a player. it might be possible that it lags more and more as more security codes i save. so i need to find the balance between savety and smooth gameplay.

PS: i just implemented an auto save function that saves all heroes of all players automatically each minute. so if the host closes the map suddenly and you didnt log out you dont loose all progress. im also working on the quest system and its going quite good. maybe i will present a new video featuring the quest system tomorrow. i also worked at the camera and movement a bit.

greez

 

[CloudMax]

thats correct. at the moment im using only one encrypted value, but im planning 2 to make it even harder, i think i will implement this today.

the problem is: i dont know how much lag it will be to read out a bank file for a player. it might be possible that it lags more and more as more security codes i save. so i need to find the balance between savety and smooth gameplay.

PS: i just implemented an auto save function that saves all heroes of all players automatically each minute. so if the host closes the map suddenly and you didnt log out you dont loose all progress. im also working on the quest system and its going quite good. maybe i will present a new video featuring the quest system tomorrow. i also worked at the camera and movement a bit.

greez

Awesome
Actually, i am working on a StarCraft II ORPG myself, and i have made it quite far. I made character selection screen, etc, yesterday and i now want to store the characters.. But for some reason i cant load values from my bank, do you know why?
The bank is stored on the computer, i do load the Bank when map starts & i have checked to see if i made any typos.

It is weird becouse it can read values that was created during the same game, but if i start a new game, everything is back to 0, even though the valeus is saved in the bank file.

 

[elfian]

Awesome
Actually, i am working on a StarCraft II ORPG myself, and i have made it quite far. I made character selection screen, etc, yesterday and i now want to store the characters.. But for some reason i cant load values from my bank, do you know why?
The bank is stored on the computer, i do load the Bank when map starts & i have checked to see if i made any typos.

It is weird becouse it can read values that was created during the same game, but if i start a new game, everything is back to 0, even though the valeus is saved in the bank file.

I'm not sure if what I say is going to help but.. the bank system is quite stupid:
1. You load a bank and it gets cached into memory.
2. Whatever changes you make to the bank get written to the file and changed into cached bank in memory.
3. Even if you load up the bank again, it will just get what's cached in the memory, it will not open and read the file agian. Changing a bank by hand during the game will have no effect.
4. Removing a bank from the cache will screw you, because you cannot load it again. Even if you do, you will get all 0.
5. Loading a bank with a variable or a function instead of a pure constant string like this: "mybank" will also result in 0.
6. Blizzard banking system sucks.

 

[CloudMax]

Okay, so i still have no idea how the heck i am suppost to load something from the bank that was not created during the current game. I can load stuff that was created during the game, but if i start a new one, i cant. And i have no idea how im suppost to fix this T_T

 

[Mille25]

Okay, so i still have no idea how the heck i am suppost to load something from the bank that was not created during the current game. I can load stuff that was created during the game, but if i start a new one, i cant. And i have no idea how im suppost to fix this T_T

two words: preload bank.

 

[CloudMax]

two words: preload bank.

Someone else also said that, but it still does not seem to work.
This is the ini trigger:

• Global Ini
  • Events
    • Game - Map initialization
  • Local Variables
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • General - Pick each integer from 1 to 15, and do (Actions)
      • Actions
        • Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player (Picked integer)
        • Bank - Open bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player (Picked integer)
        • Variable - Set Bank[(Picked integer)] = (Last opened bank)

 

[Mille25]

Someone else also said that, but it still does not seem to work.
This is the ini trigger:

• Global Ini
  • Events
    • Game - Map initialization
  • Local Variables
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • General - Pick each integer from 1 to 15, and do (Actions)
      • Actions
        • Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player (Picked integer)
        • Bank - Open bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player (Picked integer)
        • Variable - Set Bank[(Picked integer)] = (Last opened bank)

thats because you want to sync the bank for player (picked player), but you are not allowed to use variables or instructions in the bank function. you are only allowed to do it manually.

like this:

Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player 1
Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player 2
Bank - Preload and synchronize bank "CloudMaxsRPG" for player 3
...

PS: i got 5 banks for each player so i have to sync 60 banks manually, yay!

 

[CloudMax]

thats because you want to sync the bank for player (picked player), but you are not allowed to use variables or instructions in the bank function. you are only allowed to do it manually.

like this:



PS: i got 5 banks for each player so i have to sync 60 banks manually, yay!

Wow.. that sucks! What were they thinking?

Edit:
IT WORKS, HELL YEAH! Now i can finally work on the save/load system.
Thanks alot!

 

[Mille25]

hey guys, some news for you:

i just got my sc2 beta key!
the problem is: i cant login with sc2 yet, it tells me that i should add the game to my account, but thats exactly what i did. i also downloaded the system spec tool and sent the information successfully oO
so i dont know whats wrong, someone has an idea why i cant play? does it take some hours until u can login? or is it possible that its a problem that my bnet account is german but my beta client is english? im quite unhappy^^

when my account does work i will start some multiplayer tests, im very excited!

would be good if someone could help me, screens in thumbnais =/

the orpg developement goes quite good, i will post some updates of the UI, the camera, the WASD system and the quest system later

 

[CloudMax]

I could login the minute after i attached the key to my account.

Also, i finally got my map to work again
Appeared that the problem was that some stuff in it were corrupt, so i had to manually open the map and replace some stuff with older files.

I will tell you if i get some nice ideas up if you want me to

 

[Mille25]

ok good news, i downloaded the client again and now it works.
but even if i downloaded the english version of the game i still got the localisation problem right now (i had the english version bevore, too) -.-

blizz really needs to fix this sh*t ~~

 

[CloudMax]

It is not really a problem.
The thing is that different Clients store strings in different places so that you can have different languages depending on your clients.

I myself do not know how to make the text appear for different clients, but there is a way to do it. MPQ Editing is one way to do it

 

[RaiN.]

http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/tutorials/1358-misc-easiest-way-to-localization/

U better check that to see how to fix ur issues

 

[Mille25]

http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/tutorials/1358-misc-easiest-way-to-localization/

U better check that to see how to fix ur issues

wow thanks man, it works! +rep for you

but you have to do it ALWAYS again because when i save my map in the editor its bugged again..
so EVERYTIME i make a little change on the map i cant test it properly beacuse of localization ~~

 

[CloudMax]

Woah.. Thats what i did.. I thought it was a bad way :O

And for you Mille25, this is a great fix, if you have the right client.
So in other words, i for example do not have to do the process again everytime i do a change, i just have to do it before i release a version of my map.

I understand that it is frustrating for you, and i would get crazy if i had the same problem as you. As a gift, i will send you the latest version of my RPG map in a PM later so that you can try it out if you are interested I think you will be able to find a useful thing or two in the map.

 

[Mille25]

ok guys, i have good news.

i messed around a bit with the mpq file myself, and now the locale changed completly. with other words: i can edit the map and test it again perfectly without localization problems. the problem was, that my locale changed from enUS to enGB.
i just deleted the enUS folder completly and moves all its files to the enGB folder.

work can go on

 

[Ice Bane]

Very impressive work! Keep it up mate!

 

[Mille25]

Update 11.5.2010

Options-Menu and Quest-System

after some problems with the localisation and my beta key i got all to work again and was able to continue work

today i want to show you the new options menu and the new quest system.

Options menu:

• in this menu you can customize your game settings
• the settings are individual for each player and each character
• the settings are saved even after map exit (bank files)
• see video for more!

Quest system

• every npc who has a quest for you has a text above his head
• if you select the npc and are to far away you cant talk to him
• if you are close enaugh it will check if you already have this quest in qlog, if not a new window will appear with quest name and quest decription
• if you click accept the quest will automatically be added to your questlog
• all quests and quest progress gets saved for each player and each character even after map exit
• every finished quest will be shown with "Done" behind the name in the queslog

whats so cool about the quest system is, thats its very easy for me to add new quests. i coded it very flexible. so if i want to add a new quest i just have to define a new questid, questname and questdescription and "give" the quest to an npc with a special function. the rest is fully automatic, so the questwindow and so on will automatically get the correct questname and description of the clicked questgiver. i try to code everything flexible and simple, because i hope that i can avoid bugs and add new content faster with this concept.

i hope you like the new features! feedback and questions always welcome!
please watch the vid only with fullscreen and 480p because otherwise you might not notice whats going on there
you can find some new screens in the attachments

preview vid nr 3

 

[CloudMax]

Hey mille! i have a feq questions regarding you map.

Also, do you visit UDMod? Alot of the stuff in your UI looks very similar to stuff that was seen on that site just a few days after release. Like your minimap for example.
Which itself is bad, becouse it is zomed out and not helpful in a map like this, and it looks bad.

And you really should start to show some real stuff to be honest.
Alot of things you show, and even make videos about is not really that special.
The first few days it was awesome with custom UI and stuff, not to mention that your quest box, to be perfectly honest, does not look good :/
It is just alot of dialog boxes on each other? What about getting some nice graphics and some nice touches to it. All dialogs in your entire map have the same graphics for gods sake : /

Also, why dont you hide the top part of the standard UI? I find it quite useless

If you want, i could send you my map and you could take a look on for example my minimap, and how it works, becouse i think you may find it quite useful.
Also you may learn a thing or two about dialog graphics.

Just one thing though, how the heck did you get the scroll to work in the dialog? That is the only thing i have tried to do and failed with! and im getting crazy.

 

[Mille25]

Hey mille! i have a feq questions regarding you map.

Also, do you visit UDMod? Alot of the stuff in your UI looks very similar to stuff that was seen on that site just a few days after release. Like your minimap for example.
Which itself is bad, becouse it is zomed out and not helpful in a map like this, and it looks bad.

i never visited that site, the ui is enspired by wow and not by udmod actually.
btw: i just finsished the minimap, it moves now and has an arrow in the middle witch faces the characters facing, the old one was just WIP noting more

And you really should start to show some real stuff to be honest.
Alot of things you show, and even make videos about is not really that special.

What you mean by "real stuff"? classes, spells, terrain? well, i just wanted you all to take part of the development progress and tell me what you think. the sense of the videos isnt to show a finished game, its just to show the working features a bit. with terrain i wanted to wait until sc2 release, because of the doodads. with heros and abilities i also wanted to wait a bit until some bugs like revive bug are fixed and maybe the support will get a bit better for heroes

The first few days it was awesome with custom UI and stuff, not to mention that your quest box, to be perfectly honest, does not look good :/
It is just alot of dialog boxes on each other? What about getting some nice graphics and some nice touches to it. All dialogs in your entire map have the same graphics for gods sake : /

ive always claimed that the shown ui isnt final at all. like i already said i just made the minimap work this evening and i also changed the style of the live/mana/shield bars to images instead of progress bars (i still got some problems with it but i hope they will be gone in some time). addicionally i think that its not good to use much different dialog styles in one map, because every map should have a specific "style" that u can find in each part of the ui. and for me its the "dialogs in dialog" style, i quite like it.

Also, why dont you hide the top part of the standard UI? I find it quite useless

hehe yes, at first i also had it hidden but then i decided to show the game menu and the ressource panel. the game menu just because to give the players some basic features, like adjusting graphics settings or view message history. the resource panel i might use for my money/honor, im not sure about this yet but i quite like the style of it.

If you want, i could send you my map and you could take a look on for example my minimap, and how it works, becouse i think you may find it quite useful.
Also you may learn a thing or two about dialog graphics.

Just one thing though, how the heck did you get the scroll to work in the dialog? That is the only thing i have tried to do and failed with! and im getting crazy.

maybe i will post some pics of the updated ui later

 

[CloudMax]

Okay, now your minimap works exactly like my.. yay xD
And i have arrow pointing it your units direction aswell, yay again xD
We probably use the same image for the arrow aswell <.<'

And with real stuff i mean the actual gameplay. UI is just there for the looks of it, it isnt really anything required. A map can function without alot of custom UI.
I want to see some real action, if there is anything like that at all yet.

And for the bars, i actually have a tutorial on this site that tells you how to create health/mana/shield/etc. bars that uses images, and it looks like real healthbars and they sure look very nice. You should take a look.
And i suggest you to change the dialgos in dialog style, you have the same borders on the entire screen, it gets used to much, making it look boring. Why do you even need the borders anyway? Why not just have one dialog with nice buttons on it?

And insted of having the game menu and resource panel, why not hide it and create for example your own game menu? When i press escape i can choose to go back to character screen, or quit the game. And i will add an options button aswell so that i access options through that insted.

And why cant you put for example money in your bag (if there will be one), and then honor in you character information, or also put that in the bag.

And i still want to know how you got the scroll to work in your options dialog.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

@ Mille25: I can just hope for you that you wrote a registry system for quests. Hardcoding quests with thousands of triggers or if/then/else is definitely not the way to go.

For my Warcraft III map Gaias Retaliation ORPG, I managed to make simple quests by just a 5-liner.

 

[Mille25]

@ Mille25: I can just hope for you that you wrote a registry system for quests. Hardcoding quests with thousands of if/then/else is definitely not the way to go.

For my Warcraft III map Gaias Retaliation ORPG, I managed to make simple quests by just a 5-liner.

hehe yeah, to create a quest i just need a new questid, name, description and questgiver. if my system is the optimum right now i dont know, but it already works quite well. the only thing thats really work is scripting every quest individually, but for sure every quest is different so i think its the only way^^

my system has 2 weaknesses right now

• the questgivier is always the unit you have to return after you finished the quest (should be easy to change)
• the questlog doesnt work, because if you click on a questname in the scrollbox at the top i dont know how to identify the quest to display the correct quest description. the only think you can read out from an list box is the item ID, but every player can for sure accept the quest in another order so its not enaugh. my plan was to read out the quest name and then look what quest id has this name, but thats impossible because you cant compare texts and also cant read out a list item value, only the id

greez
mille25

ps: i worked a bit at the UI and have a simple question for you:
in the attachments you see two screenshots that compare new ui (left) to old UI (right). what you like better? i know that most people think that progress bars are ugly, but i quite like them ~~ i just think the progress bars look cleaner and better readable. they are also easier to manage

 

[tagg1080]

ps: i worked a bit at the UI and have a simple question for you:
in the attachments you see two screenshots that compare new ui (left) to old UI (right). what you like better? i know that most people think that progress bars are ugly, but i quite like them ~~

I like the old ones, I think the progress bars are kewl looking, but that is just me.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I can just tell you how I wrote my quest system for Gaias Retaliation back then:

I created the following functions:

QuestStart, which takes the Quests ID which is unique for every quest and the player. This function also read out pre-defined descriptions in a Quest database trigger.

QuestAddReq, which simply takes a QuestReqId, the QuestId and the player, such as the number of values for the req (for example for killquests where you need to kill 15 mobs). This function adds the Req with the right ID to the quest and takes all the required strings from the database trigger.

QuestAdvanceReq takes QID, QReqID, player and simply increases the value for the Req by 1; if the req is completed (by having 15/15 or simply 1/1 in case its a do-once req), then it automaticly gets marked finished and stuff.

QuestFinish ... checks if all added reqs are completed and if so, deletes the quest and marks it as done in the player's database (For future conditions important! You may want to have follow quests).

You may also want to create a marker script that puts up "!" or "?" above the questgivers heads.


I recommend you seperating the NPC talks from the quest system. That makes it more flexible. Instead, create an additional talk system that calls your quest systems functions.
You may need more conditionals in that case, but its a lot more flexible.

 

[CloudMax]

I can just tell you how I wrote my quest system for Gaias Retaliation back then:

I created the following functions:

QuestStart, which takes the Quests ID which is unique for every quest and the player. This function also read out pre-defined descriptions in a Quest database trigger.

QuestAddReq, which simply takes a QuestReqId, the QuestId and the player, such as the number of values for the req (for example for killquests where you need to kill 15 mobs). This function adds the Req with the right ID to the quest and takes all the required strings from the database trigger.

QuestAdvanceReq takes QID, QReqID, player and simply increases the value for the Req by 1; if the req is completed (by having 15/15 or simply 1/1 in case its a do-once req), then it automaticly gets marked finished and stuff.

QuestFinish ... checks if all added reqs are completed and if so, deletes the quest and marks it as done in the player's database (For future conditions important! You may want to have follow quests).

You may also want to create a marker script that puts up "!" or "?" above the questgivers heads.


I recommend you seperating the NPC talks from the quest system. That makes it more flexible. Instead, create an additional talk system that calls your quest systems functions.
You may need more conditionals in that case, but its a lot more flexible.

You can now make many actions into one by creating custom librarys, which is very helpful.

So now i just need one single trigger to set up an entire NPC conversation with options, buttons, etc, and all i have to do after that is to choose what the buttons does.

So in starcraft II everything will be so much easier.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

You can now make many actions into one by creating custom librarys, which is very helpful.

So now i just need one single trigger to set up an entire NPC conversation with options, buttons, etc, and all i have to do after that is to choose what the buttons does.

So in starcraft II everything will be so much easier.

Errr ... what do you think I am talking off, lol?

Libraries were possible in WC3 too, using vJASS.

And besides ... the point of writing a quest system is, that you don't have to create a custom trigger for every damn quest, but just need a small registry func and that's it.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Your security code system is pointless. The fact still remains that you can just use the game to generate you your random and crazy stats instead of having to edit them manually.

Also as long as your RPG does not waste time, no one will ever consider cheating.

 

[Mille25]

Your security code system is pointless. The fact still remains that you can just use the game to generate you your random and crazy stats instead of having to edit them manually.

Also as long as your RPG does not waste time, no one will ever consider cheating.

sorry, but i cant follow you. how should anyone do this?
the map will be protected on release as save as possible, so nobody can just use the game to create his dream character.
if someone unlocks the game he can do whatever he wants, anyways.

so there would be two ways to cheat

• unlock the map, log in, and generate your dream char, then save it and load it later in a real SU game
• editing the bank files

both wouldnt be easy. (depends on how good map protection will be later)

correct me if i understood you in the wrong way^^

greez

 

[CloudMax]

Errr ... what do you think I am talking off, lol?

Libraries were possible in WC3 too, using vJASS.

And besides ... the point of writing a quest system is, that you don't have to create a custom trigger for every damn quest, but just need a small registry func and that's it.

I know that it was possible in wc3 jass <.<'
But i am pretty sure that mille is using GUI, so this was not possible for us in starcraft II.
If mille do use JASS, then correct me.

I am just saying that they made the process a hell of alot easier for us, even if we use GUI. GUI is not even close to how bad it was in warcraft 3.

And yeah, try to create an entire quest with one small registry function.
What about quest description, requirements, etc... If you use Libraries it will make the process easier, and that is all i wanted to say, no need to go all out on me like i did something wrong :|

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I know that it was possible in wc3 jass <.<'
But i am pretty sure that mille is using GUI, so this was not possible for us in starcraft II.
If mille do use JASS, then correct me.

I am just saying that they made the process a hell of alot easier for us, even if we use GUI. GUI is not even close to how bad it was in warcraft 3.

And yeah, try to create an entire quest with one small registry function.
What about quest description, requirements, etc... If you use Libraries it will make the process easier, and that is all i wanted to say, no need to go all out on me like i did something wrong :|

I can't say that I'm happy about that. Blizzard even forces people that want to use galaxy to use GUI, because of the weak implementation of galaxy support. This encourages people to script less efficient than it is actually possible.
If you ask me, for a good rpg, you should be able to use galaxy, just for optimization purposes. That's one of the main reasons why the editor still sucks in my oppinion.
Anyways, I just hope ralle knows what he is doing and does not produce weird, badly optimized sphagetti-scripts. As far as I see, this map is going to be the most promising and professional map from all published projects right now. It would be sad to see lots of awful hardcoding in this.

PS: I recommend adding a threat system to this game!
You can find an example of a threat system for WC3 here:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...hreat-system-2-4-a-156179/?prev=u=Zwiebelchen
You just need to port it to SC2 and you are done.

 

[Mille25]

thx for your help guys, especially zwiebel!

im working at the ui to make it a bit better looking.
some screen of the current status in the attachments
all WIP, everything can change everytime.

if you compare it to the old ui u will notice some changes, especially the spell and exp bar are new and the minimap also got a nicer layout now and works

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I see you want to have buyable spells? Good idea for money sink, but aren't you going to add talents or a skilltree? From my experiences with Gaias Retaliation ORPG, I can just tell you that its a good idea not to have scaling spells, but rather force the players to buy new versions of their spells every x levels.
Do that or create a money sink by giving a % gold loss at dying, which is pretty effective, too.

Adding a good money sink is the most important thing in a rpg map.

The new interface looks good, but the terrain is definitely awful. I hope the terrain is just a placeholder

You should put the XP bar below the spell buttons. Also, you are still missing some important parts of the UI:
The weapon quickslots for fast changing during battle such as some menu buttons that allow you to access the game sub interfaces: Inventory, Spells, Talents, etc.

 

[Snigel]

if this becomes multiplayer then that would be very impresive and i would play it alot XD

Its an ORPG...
That means it's played online, wich generaly is a criteria for a multiplayer game.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I can just tell you that its a good idea not to have scaling spells, but rather force the players to buy new versions of their spells every x levels.

I could vouch for the opposite of having few spells/abilities which improve in effect over level. TKoK or FF13 are good examples of this.

Although it would work if you make a clear obsolete point on the abilities so that you can not choose usless abilities.