[General] Request Tutorial "World Edit Update Roadmap"

[Nemesis DSGB]

Hi guys,
I'm requesting a tutorial or "guide" for everything that changed mod-wise in world editor since I was a teen.
(if i can get enough info maybe ill make this guide)

Examples:

Core Differences
-WC3 TFT-
-12 Players
- 255x255 Map dimensions
-Object Names
-Ability Model/icon
-No Hero Skins
-4mb Max Filesize (map total)

-Reforged-
-24 Players
-480x480 Map dimensions
-ABCD object name (New way of indexing Units & Data)
-Ability Skins (unsure of function)
-Hero Skins (unsure of function)
-Unlimited Filesize for map hosting



Editor Preferences/Settings Additions
-Hashtables
-Toggleable "Allow negatives" (this can allow you to set hp or mana regen to -1 per sec)
-Custom Script (JASS) Editor
-

I'm looking for any additional data on this subject to help people like us!
Note: I'm a "veteran" returning mapmaker, 12 years before I made this account in fact.
I don't have an extensive knowledge of today's editor, but I still remember most of it, like riding a bike!
I'm looking to learn all the nuances and differences that have been added and changed in a 12 year span.

Example of Data I'm Seeking:

Legacy Warcraft III was limited to 2 GB of memory due to being a x86 application without large address awareness. Shortly before Reforged it was made large address aware allowing up to 4 GB of memory on 64 bit Windows. Now Warcraft III is x86-64 and large address aware so has no practical memory limit. It may still have an artificial memory limit due to how it was coded.
-Dr Supergood

- Reforged supports Lua now, instead of only JASS, as the map scripting language. Lua is really powerful compared to JASS and is supported by a much large community. (Some are even compiling Typescript to Lua for maps, myself included)
- Reforged added many new natives to the game. Stuff like changing ability descriptions for individual units, setting unit stats, or changing the abilities an item has can all be done in game now. I don't have a good list of all the new functionality, but there's a lot to find.
- Map filesize limit is removed AFAIK. There's >100mb maps now. Feel free to use that 4K load screen
- All custom games are hosted on Blizzard servers now. No more P2P hosting required, so no more port opening stuff anymore.
-Halithor

 

[Halithor]

A couple more changes to add to your list:

- Reforged supports Lua now, instead of only JASS, as the map scripting language. Lua is really powerful compared to JASS and is supported by a much large community. (Some are even compiling Typescript to Lua for maps, myself included)
- Reforged added many new natives to the game. Stuff like changing ability descriptions for individual units, setting unit stats, or changing the abilities an item has can all be done in game now. I don't have a good list of all the new functionality, but there's a lot to find.
- Map filesize limit is removed AFAIK. There's >100mb maps now. Feel free to use that 4K load screen
- All custom games are hosted on Blizzard servers now. No more P2P hosting required, so no more port opening stuff anymore.

 

[Daliox1]

Hey there,

I had few problems with my map (hosting it on battlenet), so I though it was because of my map size (400MB haha). So I decided to remove imported models one by one, to see what size I could reach. I may be wrong, but my map was working once I was reaching around 250-260 MB. So I guess it is the map size limit

 

[Uncle]

I remember reading that the map size limit for bnet hosting was 256 mb.

And regarding Ability Skins, I'm pretty sure that this field is only used by a few abilities. It was stupid of Blizzard to add this field to every single ability when only a few of them can actually make use of it.

Unit Skins on the other hand do work, and actually swap a unit's Model. So now you can change how your unit looks without having to use the old method of Morph abilities or Unit replacement. This is how players on Reforged can use the female/male DK/DH models.

Also, an important thing to note is that a lot of the new natives don't work yet or have inconsistent behavior.

For instance, if you work with the new Field natives you should keep in mind that the Index for things starts at 0.

Example: This action allows you to modify a Real field associated with a unit's specific ability:

• Actions
  • Ability - Set Ability: (Unit: (Triggering unit)'s Ability with Ability Code: Storm Bolt)'s Real Level Field: Damage ('Htb1') of Level: 0 to 1000.00

The catch, Level: 0 is actually Level 1, because Blizzard indexed these new natives starting at 0. This is inconsistent with every other function in the Trigger Editor, at least for GUI mapmaking.

There's some other tricks to get these to work properly. Sometimes you have to "refresh" an ability to get it to update with the new Field values. This can be done by increasing it's Level by 1, and then reducing it's Level by 1. I believe this is necessary for Item abilities that add passive bonuses like bonus Armor/Attack Damage.

There's another rare situation where you may even have to remove/add the ability and disable/enable it to "refresh" it, I believe I had to do this to get my Auras to update properly.

These Field natives are extremely useful and give you a lot more power as a mapmaker so it's important to learn how to use them. Just remember that Blizzard may "fix" them causing the tricks to become unnecessary.