Right, so there is basically nothing we should actually be asking for because technically it is possible to completely rebuild almost the entire game's mechanics purely using JASS. /logic
It's kinda the basic logic behind "jass does more things than gui and if you want to do more things (and better) use jass instead".
This thread is about "Quality of Life" changes to the Editor. Changes that would make modding the game using the WC3 World Editor ultimately easier and more accessible. Your argument is invalid about what this thread is trying to do.
It's not invalid, it just questions whether that's meaningful in itself. You see, Blizzard is going to spend a certain amount of time, work and money to work on this patch, and if they focus on fixing things that aren't broken or can be made to work, that's just downright stupid, if they could be adding a completely new functionality that'd work well to begin with. Majority of the problems listed above are really nothing you can't fix without a bit of fiddling, and that's the point of the thread, but more on that...
You probably don't get this because you never had to deal with edge cases, but as somebody who has I want new and improved functionality for things that are badly done, and as long as things can work well if you're proficient enough, I don't really care about "quality of life".
Also almost all of those would be backwards compatible, if done right. Some of the things I mentioned are actually even bugs, and probably should be put on a bug list. (Such as Channel's projectile not working when the target is a point, or the model turning slower than the actual unit.)
Well, bug fixes are always welcome, of course, but what I meant is that improving already existing functionalities that can already work to a point or can be done differently while some other things would completely change the borders of wc3 modding (like mouse/keyboard natives). Channel projectile? Use a projectile system. It may not always be nice or handy for you but it also gives you more options in the process. As far as mouse tracking goes, trackables are so terrible that even if you are really good at coding they will still give you trouble (and they lag too). On the other hand, the projectile problem you're referring to is very easily fixable by somebody who can actually use a projectiel system, and there are plenty of GUI ones.
The vanilla jass globals/endglobals block would be nice, indeed. But why aren't you using vJass or something similar already? It's out there, and it works. That problem is solved.
Guys, Blizzard is going to spend a certain amount of time/money/work on this, so let's have them do something that we can in no way accomplish as of now. Quality of life might seem nice and all, but that's ultimately less new things and more... well, quality of life. There are obviously going to be different takes on this, but this is my take. If we can be certain that they are going to work on this for a while and implement almost anything that can be useful, than sure, let's have them do it. But I am not so certain they are going to go that far, even though I wish we could both get new functionality and have old functionality made easier at the same cost.
The problem is, people who are presently not using JASS are also likely to not understand programming at all, hence why they don't understand what kinds of things would have to be done to make those changes.
For example...
Allow custom shadow images. Also allow them to animate.
This would be cool, but that implementation would be silly. Otherwise, if you'd want lightning to cast a shadow that'd probably require the wc3 engine to be reworked a lot in order to work well.
For the love of god, just make Score Screen icons automatically generated based on the normal icon, if none is present.
This is something a batch script could do. But would be a nice feature, yes.
Icon positions in the command card should be unique to the unit, not to the ability. (Like SC2)
An easy workaround for this.
Multiple command cards per unit, Ability that changes command card, (So Advanced Build can be a thing) and allow changing the command card via trigger.
You can already do all of this if you know how.
Make AoE work with all weapon types, not just Artillery.
You can trigger this.
Custom weapon sounds and armor types.
What exactly are you referring to the second one? You can code the first one in.
Custom Attack and Defense types.
Blizzard would have to rework the whole damage table system for this. Unlikely but would be nice either way, and for more heinous reasons than you'd think (he he).
Make the Defense Upgrade stat for units actually work. (I've been told it doesn't work, but I haven't actually tested it myself)
This can probably be worked around.
More behaviors for projectiles, not just Arc/Parabola.
Codable.
Please make Custom - Campaign in the Tool Palette. (For more sorting potential)
That's actually a good idea, and shouldn't be too hard to implement.
Make Turn Rate function properly. As of right now, the actual model turn rate does not go higher than a certain point, but the actual unit's turn rate can go much higher.
I've never encountered this as a problem, they could've done that just to make it appear smoother anyhow.
Custom Movement Types. (More than just foot or horse) Also allow to check the movement type via JASS.
Like what? But yes, checking movement type via object editor through jass would be good, as would be getting ANY object editor data through jass.
Combine Food Cost and Food Produced into one statistic, and just make negative numbers provide food and positive numbers cost. (Like SC2)
This is one of the things that'd require major AI rework.
Hard-coded values broken on as many abilities as possible. (Such as Spiked Barricade's damage, or Death Coil/Death Pact/Dark Ritual behavior, Critical Strike and Evasion rounding to the nearest 0 or 5, reveal range of Faerie Fire, etc)
Most of it codable.
If an ability that normally requires a buff to function doesn't have one, let it function anyway without crashing. This way, you can use abilities for dummy purposes without having an extra buff on your target.
This would require a major redefinition of what a buff actually is.
Make Channel's projectile work if the ability targets a point instead of a unit.
Codable.
There are also some crashes with the Sphere ability. I can't remember them right now, but they need to be fixed.
Sure thing, bug fixes are good.
Make Chaos not reset the animation. Instead, it should carry over the current frame from the previous unit. If the current frame is greater than the new unit's total frames, then just reset the animation like normal.
Art Duration should be modifiable on all abilities, not just on Channel. (It would be useful on abilities like Frame Strike)
Well, instead of fixing chaos, how about they make it easier to morph into another unit? This is the problem with your line of thinking, you want to fix something that's already bugged, instead of getting a completely new (and easier to use) functionality that may be more meaningful and worthwhile to implement. Changing unit's object data value would require object data to be localized for the unit and it'd take more memory but units would be much easier and more versatile to work with. And this is a much better solution than what you suggested, but instead of simply "quality of life" it'd really broaden what we can do with editor.
Separate detection for illusions.
What do you mean?
Targets Allowed filter should allow or disallow for Undead, Giant, Tauren, Worker, Walkable, and Town Hall.
Yeah, for consistency at least.
Make all "frost" abilities have their own slow and color tint data.
Codable.
Also give Poison Arrows modifiable color tint data.
Codable.
EDIT: All the stuff related to Command Cards could be done by just letting units have more than 1 list of abilities and being able to change which list is active per individual unit. There could just be a hard-limit of 5 lists, that should be more than enough to work with.
You have to realize that what might seem like a simple quality of life fix for you, it could mean completely reimagining how things work on blizzard's side. Which is meaningful and worthwhile if it brings something new to the table. And that's my point. If they have to put plenty of work to fix something, it's much better if they do it in such a way that they grant a completely new functionality that was in no way available before.
