Presenting my map: Peanut

[Ezekiel12]

I'm pleased to present the first map on the Hive, I hope many will follow.


Peanut Workshop link

The concept is simple, it is a best-of-5 rounds battle map having very limited size and uses the normal DotA heroes and items.

The map is best played with a larger number of people, up to 10.

Currently there are no bots and only All Pick due to restrictions in the Workshop tools.

If you like it, rate it and leave some feedback in the comments.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Very nice of you to get your hands on the workshop and let us know. Can you tell us how it is like, if the editor is hard and other details?

Do you plan to develop your project further?

 

[Ezekiel12]

Can you tell us how it is like, if the editor is hard and other details?

I am not a pro by any means but yes I can. Specific questions are prefered though, so I can outright say whether I know the answer or not.

A very good general overview can be found here.

You subscribe to maps/addons and get automatic updates as soon as the creator uploads them. As far as I can see there is no map size limit currently, though the map is built to one file, which means it should be somewhere below 2GB, as 32-bit systems will in the future also be able to play custom maps.

The new version of the Hammer (level) editor is swift and capable. Of course being capable means you need some training. Hammer is where the Workshop Tools currently shine. The terrain editor is great, you can create your own meshes with your own textures and use them as terrain or create new tilesets by yourself. Along with that it has many basic tools (moving, rotating, scaling, clipping, mirroring, texture projection, painting, displacing) for modifying objects/meshes/faces/...
You can also make prefabs or group objects for more efficient editing. Additionally its possible to create variables and in-/outputs for every object which can connect to lua or the KV files.
One thing that I did not like is that the pathing map is 2D like in wc3. It makes a lot of things easier, as pathing is done automatically even if you just insert a block mesh in the terrain, in the long run it will pose limitations though.

Then there are the units, heroes, abilities, items files which use the KV (key, value) system. An example is here:

// Units File
"DOTAUnits"
{
	"Version"	"1"
	
	//=================================================================================	
	// Creature: Gnoll Assassin
	//=================================================================================
	"npc_dota_creature_gnoll_assassin"	
	{
		// General
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"Model"						"models/creeps/neutral_creeps/n_creep_gnoll/n_creep_gnoll_frost.vmdl"	// Model.
		"BaseClass"					"npc_dota_creature"
		"SoundSet"					"n_creep_Ranged"
		"GameSoundsFile"			"soundevents/game_sounds_creeps.vsndevts"
		"Level"						"1"
		"ModelScale" 				".9"

		// Abilities
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"Ability1"					""			// Ability 1
		"Ability2"					""			// Ability 2
		"Ability3"					""			// Ability 3
		"Ability4"					""			// Ability 4

		// Armor
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"ArmorPhysical"				"1"			// Physical protection.

		// Attack
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"AttackCapabilities"		"DOTA_UNIT_CAP_RANGED_ATTACK"
		"AttackDamageMin"			"30"		// Damage range min.
		"AttackDamageMax"			"36"		// Damage range max.
		"AttackRate"				"1.6"		// Speed of attack.
		"AttackAnimationPoint"		"0.4"		// Normalized time in animation cycle to attack.
		"AttackAcquisitionRange"	"800"		// Range within a target can be acquired.
		"AttackRange"				"500"		// Range within a target can be attacked.
		"ProjectileModel"			"particles/neutral_fx/gnoll_base_attack.vpcf" // Particle system model for projectile.
		"ProjectileSpeed"			"1500"		// Speed of projectile.		     

		// Bounds
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"RingRadius"				"40"
		"HealthBarOffset"			"170"

		// Bounty
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"BountyXP"					"24"		// Experience earn.
		"BountyGoldMin"				"21"		// Gold earned min.
		"BountyGoldMax"				"29"		// Gold earned max.

		// Movement
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"MovementCapabilities"		"DOTA_UNIT_CAP_MOVE_GROUND"
		"MovementSpeed"				"270"		// Speed.			

		// Status
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"StatusHealth"				"75"		// Base health.
		"StatusHealthRegen"			"0.5"		// Health regeneration rate.
		"StatusMana"				"0"			// Base mana.
		"StatusManaRegen"			"0.0"		// Mana regeneration rate.		 
		
		// Vision
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"VisionDaytimeRange"		"400"		// Range of vision during day light.
		"VisionNighttimeRange"		"400"		// Range of vision at night time.

		// Team
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"TeamName"					"DOTA_TEAM_NEUTRALS"						// Team name.
		"CombatClassAttack"			"DOTA_COMBAT_CLASS_ATTACK_PIERCE"
		"CombatClassDefend"			"DOTA_COMBAT_CLASS_DEFEND_BASIC"
		"UnitRelationshipClass"		"DOTA_NPC_UNIT_RELATIONSHIP_TYPE_DEFAULT"

		// Creature Data
		//----------------------------------------------------------------
		"Creature"
		{
			//Level Up
			"HPGain"					"50"
			"DamageGain"				"2"
			"ArmorGain"					"0.25"
			"MagicResistGain"			"0.1"
			"MoveSpeedGain"				"1"
			"BountyGain"				"3"
			"XPGain"					"15"
		}
	}
}

Its quite confusing what subvalues are allowed in which parent category and what they do exactly, as documentation is in no way perfect. This would be the section that would have really needed something like the Object Editor in wc3. It might come though, as the tools are alpha..

Then we have the lua scripting. The documentation on the API and the API itself are in no way complete so currently you will spend some time with this. This is going to be the place to be for complex maps. We have game events on masse and the API will grow by a significant part in the future to ensure greater game modifying capabilities.

Finally there is the custom UI, which is very powerful. The big problem with it though is that it uses as3 (ActionScript 3) and that you need the non-free Adobe CS5 or 6 for it. Thats not only paying (or pirating) something, its also learning another new thing apart from the concept of lua and KV.

All in all I can say I like the tools and whats going to come in future updates (which is a lot). Coming from a Java (and JASS) background though, I have a big problem with Strings and dynamic types flying around everywhere, where you (currently) often have to magically know in which place a thing you entered can be used again. Also as I already said in some other place, the development speed of Valve is super slow.

edit: I might add my (humble) opinion on mass addoption here:
If everything remains as it is (which it won't but it's also important what exactly gets improvement) then the Workshop Tools will fail to reach the masses like Sc2 and not create such a vivid modding community as in the sense of wc3 but rather one comprised of far less but more educated mappers.
This is not a blame though, as it is next to impossible to create something very capable with logical appealing structure fitting for pros and equally for total beginners.
It all depends on what Valve has planned, the Workshop for cosmetics works out from what I heard.

Do you plan to develop your project further?

Yes for sure if I get feedback. While being a very simple map concept wise, it cost me more than 120 hours for the playable published version.

 

[Eagle XI]

hurr durr herp derp

Is it possible yet to setup the core rts elements that is required to recreate wc ? Y'know things like:
a goldmine, a town hall, a peasant which gathers gold, wood, constructs buildings and repairs, an farm that delivers popcap resource, barracks that produces a footman, altar that calls and ressurrects a hero, blacksmith that researches armor and dmg for that footman, buildable shop that sells a healing potion, etcetc.

 

[Ezekiel12]

Is it possible yet to setup the core rts elements that is required to recreate wc ? Y'know things like:
a goldmine, a town hall, a peasant which gathers gold, wood, constructs buildings and repairs, an farm that delivers popcap resource, barracks that produces a footman, altar that calls and ressurrects a hero, blacksmith that researches armor and dmg for that footman, buildable shop that sells a healing potion, etcetc.

It surely is possible. The UI customizing has rather no bounds if you know what you do. As you will have guessed though, nothing you mentioned except the shop is predefined, so you will have to do it all by hand. Recreating a form of wc3 will certainly be done by some point but depending on how good it shall function/look, it requires a medium to high amount of skill and experience.