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Starcraft 2 MAJOR Editor Update

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Archian

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STARCRAFT II 4.13.0 PTR PATCH NOTES

Untitled-2.jpg



Blizzard said: blizzarrow.gif

EDITOR UPDATE
We’re excited to announce a major update to the StarCraft II Map Editor!

Since Wings of Liberty, your feedback has been consistent: The Editor should be easier to use. This patch aims to address this feedback without losing depth of customization. As such, we’ve absorbed elements from the Warcraft III editor designed for ease of use without sacrificing existing capability of the StarCraft II Editor. We have also expanded the SCII Editor’s capability even further.

We encourage map makers and mod makers to jump in, explore, and send us your feedback as we’re always interested in adding more exciting changes in the future. This is the largest Editor update we've ever made, and we're excited to hear what you think! Below is an overview of some of the exciting new features. It is critical for us to get feedback about how your maps are behaving with these changes. So please try publishing your custom maps to the PTR and let us know if you run into any issues or strange behavior on our PTR forum.

Before you start: Please do not to forget to backup your maps before you try them on PTR as PTR is meant to be experimental.

Also: Please keep in mind that while War Chest XP can be earned on the PTR, progress will not carry over onto the other regions, and most rewards from the War Chest will not carry over from the PTR.

[...]


:fp: Read the full article: StarCraft II Official Game Site
 

deepstrasz

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Makes me wanna install the game again. Never used the editor because it was too complicated. But if indeed, it has become like the Trigger and Object Editors of Warcraft III's World Editor, then, yeah, that's really amazing, since it helps me not recreate loads of things in Warcraft III that are really complex especially with MUI.
 

deepstrasz

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Look at these goodie pomises
StarCraft II now supports transitioning a multiplayer lobby between two maps.

The two maps involved in the transition must be published by the same author.

A new “Campaign” genre has been added that can be assigned in the Game Variants menu.

The “Campaign” genre does not currently show up in the genre dropdown in-game, but you can still see these maps in your “My Published”.
 
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This makes me hopeful for Reforged that the developers are indeed working on something major in the background, they just fail to communicate it.
Yeah, hate to be a joy killer, but I'd like to remind people that Refunded is "handled" by classic games, which are probably focused on D2R right now, and StarCraft 2 still has it's own team who only work on that game. (And the two teams are likely the same size.) Which is kinda weird imo, cause to my knowledge Sc2 is mostly dead, and I wouldn't be surprised if ScR or even Warcraft 3 have more active players than Sc2.
 
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deepstrasz

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This patch is pure mythological resource.

  • Now the official War3 asset mod includes a whole set of working data that includes races, units, buildings, and abilities. We hope these examples help modders get up-to-speed.[/COLOR

UAI8FGUJUBUY1593119348054.png

  • StarCraft II now supports water pathing!
  • New Pathing types: Shallow Water and Deep Water.
  • New over Pathing Modes: Float and Amphibious.
  • Ground units can path on Ground and Shallow Water tiles.
  • Float units can path on Shallow Water and Deep Water tiles.
  • Amphibious units can path on Ground, Shallow Water and Deep Water tiles.
  • Flying units can go anywhere that does not have air pathing blockers.
  • These two new pathing types currently can only be painted by the pathing brush in Terrain Editor.
 
I suggested they fuse the games or maybe they could implement SCII stuff to Reforged.
I don't want to install 20+27Gb of content just for a 3Gb SD Wc3. The strength of Wc3 resides in its portability and performance. It can be easily run in anything from 2010. No problems when putting together LANs with friends.
On the other side we have CPU killers coupled with tons of GB of dead weight.
I understand what you say although. Just by increasing the pathfinding buffer and the selection amount would bring wc3 mapping into a new gold age : no longer derpy TD and RTS maps !!!
 

Bribe

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This is great! If you are already into StarCraft 2 modding.

What needs to happen is for the ability to port over existing WarCraft 3 maps that translate the Object Data and triggers into whatever-syntax StarCraft 2 uses.

I'm not about to reinvent the wheel in a new editor in a new game starting from absolutely nothing.

I agree with the posts above mine that the editor should just be unified with Warcraft 3, however that would be a logistical nightmare.

I'dmuch rather have preferred this StarCraft 2 editor update didn't happen at all and instead brought new features to War3.
 

deepstrasz

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Tempted to ditch wc3 for good and boot up the sc2 editor again.

Next reforged patch ->
Editor improvements: Fixed the penguin model's footprints being slightly larger than intended.
They have no interest to compete against themselves.
This is probably a sign that Reforged might get some strange update thing or something. Or, the Armageddon, Reforged dropped and SCII taking its place but that would require all Reforged/WcIII maps to be playable in SCII first.

From my point of view. It's the best move they could make, combine these two games into one. Wow, paradise.
 

deepstrasz

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Orb System (plus Multishot and Critical Strike)

New Effect flag: MainImpact

  • When on, this flag marks an effect as the main impact effect of a weapon effect tree so that attack modifiers can know when to fire their modifier effects.
  • Multiple modifiers added to a unit. The Unique Id field allows users to determine whether they can all work at the same time. In War3, only one Orb effect can take place even if a hero has equipped multiple Orbs. However, modders will probably still want to have the option for multiple Orbs work at the same time.
  • The Stack Max field determines the number of times the damage bonuses can be stacked.
  • The DamageInheritEffect field fires an effect after the impact occurs, inheriting the impact damage to the following effect tree. These effects allow users to create a Chain Lighting effect or deal AoE damage based on the impact damage.
  • Can enable weapon by index, so that melee Heroes with the Orb item can use their hidden weapon to attack Air.
I guess, SCII always had a damage detection system, right?
Read the whole Orb System, basically we get Warcraft III orb effects and more! Also chance (on hit) related passive abilities as well as multishot stuff. Wonder if there's any Evasion enhancements. Would be really neat to have various effects (not graphical but code based outside of the trigger editor) when a unit with an Evasion type ability gets hit/basically when that chance on hit gets activated. We could make stuff like Diablo's Charged Lightning or novas coming out of your heroes when hit.

Dynamic Ability Support

  • Modders can now use triggers to add or remove abilities from units.
Ability Swap
New function: UnitAbilityChangeLink()
  • This function allows users to swap an existing ability on a unit to another unit while keeping its old charges, cooldown, and level states.
  • The data version of Ability Swap will also affect the learnable abilities of Heroes.
Skillshot Support

  • StarCraft II now has skillshot support!
Improved Hero System

  • New CUnit class: CUnitHero

  • XP Receiving Fraction based on Target Type
    • New CBehaviorVeterancy field: XPReceiveFraction
      • This field is a Structure Array, which allows users to specify a target filter and an accumulate-able fraction value for each array.
      • Whenever a hero receives XP, the game will check the target filters on the victim unit and apply the XP fraction if the victim matches any of the filters.
      • Combined with the Accumulators, users will be able to easily create XP formulas such as “summoned units grant half XP” or “Heroes gain reduced XP from creeps based on the current level of the Hero”.
Wonder if Spellbook type abilities would be required anymore.

Item and Inventory System Improvements
  • Cast On Items in Inventory
    • CCommandButton now exposes its ButtonOtherUnit property. Now users will be able to use property bind to bind the item unit (the item itself, not the carrier) to either a target frame or other frames.
    • With this functionality, users will be able to cast abilities on an item inside their inventories, either to transfer or upgrade it.
    • With this feature, users can also now double click on Town Portals to auto-teleport to your highest-level Town Hall.
Globally Accessible Inventory Panel
  • Users can now override the Inventory Unit property of CInventoryPanel in order to show the inventory of a unit that is not current selected.
“Real” Power-up Items
  • New Item type: CItemAbilPowerUp
  • Powerup items can now be implemented as real items instead of having to mimic a unit.
  • CItemAbilPowerUp will test whether the caster can use the powerup ability in CItemAbilPowerUp. If it can't, it will throw an error message, and won’t make the caster move to the item.
  • A normal unit with an inventory but without the CanUseItem flag on will be able to pick up powerups and carry them to a hero.
Neutral/Allied Shop Support

Other Behavior System Changes

    • Actor Damage Response Floating Text Support
      • When CActorMsgBehavior fires an event with a DamageHandled sub name, using SetTextLocalized and SetText messages after the event will now automatically set text via the modified damage amount.
      • The damage will replace the '%AMOUNT%' token in the target text.
      • This is useful for creating damage floating text for damage responses.
      New Behavior state: Cannot Die
      • Marks a unit as “not able to die” unless the behavior is removed.
      • Though the use of damage responses is able to achieve a similar effect, death responses can only prevent death by damage. This behavior state prevents death for any reason, e.g., life set to 0.
      • This state provides a simple alternative for a trigger-based death prevention system.
      New Death Type: Reincarnation
      • This prevents units from dropping loot and items on death.
Better Corpse Support

  • New Unit Filter: Raiseable
  • New flag: Allow Corpse

    • With this flag on, transport abilities will be able to carry corpses in their cargo.

Wonder if there are any Diablo corpse explosion capabilities.

And... I accidentally pressed SPACE and it posted...

EDIT: man, it's one of the most comprehensible lists I've seen in a patch. What a treasure.
So many useful things that you can feel complete.
 
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actual improvements? wow imagine if they could have done this to the original warcraft 3 aswell,
i'll never not be mad
 

deepstrasz

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actual improvements? wow imagine if they could have done this to the original warcraft 3 aswell
i'll never not be mad
I'm foreseeing cross compatibility between Reforged and SCII if not more.

@Bribe no more need for a DDS?

Other Damage System Changes

  • New CEffectDamage field: DamageInheritEffect
    • The effect set in this field will be fired after the primary damage is done.
    • It will inherit the damage amount of the primary damage.
  • New CEffectDamage flag: NoZeroDamageInherit
    • This tells DamageInheritEffect to not fire when damage done is 0.
  • New CEffectDamage: Fraction
    • An extra fraction that will be multiplied to all other existing fractions.
    • This field supports accumulators, so modders will be able to create formulas based on this fraction.
 
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Having read the whole changelog, this is crazy.

It's not like they evaluated the top 5 nicest features of wc3 bringing them as a gift to an aging sc2.

It's like they took 90% of every mechanic and editor feature in wc3 which was hard to achieve in sc2 and copied it over, building a wc3 inside sc2.

That must have taken a small team of sc2 engine gods years to complete.

Why, why, why?
 
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So do this mean, we can now port all Warcraft III stuff to work well with Starcraft II editor?
Shit, if I am asking the right question, I will be overjoyed.

I think I will have to abandon the JNGP and the old ancient ways of modding and get to this new environment. :)
 

Dr Super Good

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I guess, SCII always had a damage detection system, right?
Yes it has had one pretty much since WoL released. Just these extensions are for ease of use or additional feature support.
Why, why, why?
That is the huge question. Every one of the huge list of changes could have been a partial feature that was included with a previous update. They were all requested since day 1 of WoL being released pretty much.

The fact that all of them hit together in one huge patch after so long is surprising. This almost rings that the SC2 engine is getting a full development team working on it and will be used for the basis of another RTS game.
 

deepstrasz

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This almost rings that the SC2 engine is getting a full development team working on it and will be used for the basis of another RTS game.
Warcraft IV perhaps :D?

Hey, can the Galaxy Editor read .mdx and .mdl? I would hate to have to convert models to .m3 or whatever SCII uses.
Better Legacy Map Converter

  • Improved the Legacy Map converter. When converting WarCraft III maps, it will no longer only convert terrain mesh, but also terrain textur, and preplaced units, doodads, destructibles, cameras, and regions.
So, then, I guess so?
 

deepstrasz

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ive heard "sc2 modding will kill wc3" since 2012
In terms of gameplay, they are different games so there's no actual competition between them. In terms of modding, it was seen that simplicity was the key of keeping great numbers. And with this SCII update, Reforged grows ever less. However, I do not think their idea is for people to forget Warcraft III since SCII now has Warcraft III material. There are still things to be done before they can fully incorporate Warcraft III into StarCraft II, and that includes Custom Campaigns!
 

deepstrasz

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In essence: The update went in the wrong game...
Yeah and no. SCII has so much more going and had so for so long in terms of editor capabilities and engine.
Imagine having to recreate the zerg and protoss in Warcraft III for instance (with all their stuff like shields, larvae etc.).
In fact: this update arrived too late to SC2. It should be solved many years ago...
I see it as a better way of game revival than a cheap remaster like nowadays.
 

Dr Super Good

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So, then, I guess so?
No the models must be converted using external conversion programs. This is because SC2 models are rigged quite differently from WC3 ones and contain different meta data.

That said WC3 textures being DDS will just work in SC2 without the need for conversion. Legacy BLP textures logically need conversion, but between BLP lab to save the texture as a lossless file format and GIMP to convert that lossless file format into DDS this is kind of trivial to do.
 

deepstrasz

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Ok, so I still had the game installed for a while now.
I can't figure out how to get to the newest PTR editor version.

EDIT: Never mind, in the B.net application under regions I had to select PTR but it requires a full new install sadly...
 
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This almost rings that the SC2 engine is getting a full development team working on it and will be used for the basis of another RTS game.
You know, it's not a secret that StarCraft II has had it's own development team for the past 10 years. And it's likely at least as big as Classic Games team, if not much bigger. And they work on the engine. As somebody here already stated, they planed to release this (a) year(s) ago, but since the team and resources got cut, it took longer.

I wouldn't get too excited if I were you, but....If we're indeed gonna get StarCraft III, they won't announce it at least till November 2021. For such an announcement, it would "have to" be a big opening cinematic of a Blizzcon(like D4 had at Blizzcon 2019), and the nearest Blizzcon is November 2021.
 
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Wow, nice, interesting. I dont get it. Do they want to lure wc3 mapmakers to sc2 or something ? I wonder what their plans are. This is really weird imo ) almost feels like sc2 team wants to troll wc3 team, lol
 

MrRious

M

MrRious

Look at these goodie pomises
StarCraft II now supports transitioning a multiplayer lobby between two maps.

The two maps involved in the transition must be published by the same author.

A new “Campaign” genre has been added that can be assigned in the Game Variants menu.

The “Campaign” genre does not currently show up in the genre dropdown in-game, but you can still see these maps in your “My Published”.
Christ, this is so good. Makes me wish WC3 got this too
This patch is pure mythological resource.

  • Now the official War3 asset mod includes a whole set of working data that includes races, units, buildings, and abilities. We hope these examples help modders get up-to-speed.[/COLOR

UAI8FGUJUBUY1593119348054.png

  • StarCraft II now supports water pathing!
  • New Pathing types: Shallow Water and Deep Water.
  • New over Pathing Modes: Float and Amphibious.
  • Ground units can path on Ground and Shallow Water tiles.
  • Float units can path on Shallow Water and Deep Water tiles.
  • Amphibious units can path on Ground, Shallow Water and Deep Water tiles.
  • Flying units can go anywhere that does not have air pathing blockers.
  • These two new pathing types currently can only be painted by the pathing brush in Terrain Editor.
My god
 

deepstrasz

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Can't convert Warcraft III maps on the x64 version. Either it tells me they're bigger than 128x128 or the editor crashes.
RoC .w3m cannot be converted. The editor says they're saved with a version that can't be recognized or something like that.

But the non-x64 version seems to work.
Ha-ha, take that Reforged!

conv01.png
conv02.png
conv03.png
conv04.png

Read the whole list on the official site.
It only takes about 2hs of pure joy :D
 

MrRious

M

MrRious

Is it just me, or are they aware of the flop they made and wanna move the WC community to SC?

I'd love these games to be merged, but as far as we don't get the original tilesets it just won't feel good.
 

deepstrasz

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I'd love these games to be merged, but as far as we don't get the original tilesets it just won't feel good.
Only the beginning, my friend. I now actually have courage to hope once more.

Well, the conversion isn't perfect of course, you don't get Warcraft III starting units, gameplay, triggers and whatnot. But the funny thing is that the Tavern has the heroes :D.
Scrap that :D Just add the melee triggers yourself and voila!
For the AI to appear you have to make those players be computer controlled in the Player Options. However, the AI doesn't know more than gold mining. I guess there aren't any AI scripts.

Jesus Zoroaster Moses Mohamed!

I've uploaded a gameplay video.


Wait for it to be processed for better quality. Note that PTRs usually don't let you use the full graphics options.

Still needs work but what we have until now is grandiose:
  • idle worker icons
  • hero icons put where they should be
  • first hero not requiring resources
  • working AI
  • maybe very slow/slow/medium/fast for movement and attack speeds instead of numbers like in StarCraft
  • some FX aren't quite like in the original; for instance Scroll of Speed
  • the unavailable stuff icons are too gray out that you can't make out what they are
  • proper item positioning in the Goblin Merchant shop
  • better minimap creep camp icons; orange is not quite visible near gold mine icons
  • proper positioning of the worker icon inside buildings under the building work process bar; right now it's in the command card
  • workers should get out after finishing construction on the southern side not northern
  • experience gain for heroes
  • if possible change the portrait television FX and green aura when units are selected; also the invisible-visible FX (cloaking field)
  • not sure if creeps have camp range; that's important for Warcraft III melee
  • original tilesets are also pretty important since some are unrecognizable now; for instance: this is supposed to be Sunken Ruins
    conv05.png
  • the neutral hero spells seem not to work; also the spell icons aren't visible in the learn ability menu
  • can't set the hero levels within their properties in the editor via accessing them directly when the units are on the terrain
  • Silence cannot be cast directly on a friendly unit which kills casting the spell since it's an AoE one during combat when units move around
  • the Tranquility FX needs some work
  • Trueshot Aura should not appear on melee units for instance
  • Searing Arrow looks weird; Starfall doesn't have any falling stars
  • Healing Wave also looks weird especially because it looks as if an attached rope on the Shadow Hunter when he moves during the animation
  • the Phoenix Egg has some weird pathing square over/on/under it
  • Earthquake has no FX and terrain modification
  • Reanimated units need to look much more different; illusions are OK looking
  • the Alchemist has no Chemical Rage change FX; the model remains the same; also it stops the Alchemist's order when cast; Acid Bomb does not bounce but just explodes and hits surrounding targets as well
  • Tinker doesn't have Demolish in tank form
  • Earth doesn't have Taunt
  • the Eagle's lightning creates an explosion when hitting the target :D
  • Holy Light's FX seems tad different without an actual ray coming from above
  • the Blademaster can use Bladestorm during Wind Walk
  • Shockwave doesn't bend time space continuum
Many of those could be custom triggered but since we have so much right now, completion would not hurt.
But do not take this as negative criticism. What you have achieved until now is totally splendid.

StarCraft (+Brood War) maps are either totally black or without any cliffs when converted.

As for the Warcraft III maps, currently only melee ones can be converted and as mentioned only .w3x and at a max size of 128x128.
 
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I've experienced AI scripting in this editor years ago and it's just a piece of cake to deal with.
Many functions to make AI build this and that. Plus, I didn't even bother with memory leaks. (As far as I know, the game takes care of it)

However, its object editor is hard to deal with and takes time for me to understand it at least from those times.
But yeah, if this update makes the editor friendly now then It'll surely be appreciated. (A migration might begin soon if Reforged thrives slower)
 
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