Update: The weekly batch (22 in number) is now up on the European StarCraft II forums. This week, Xordiah brought us a map making batch. Take a look:
Xordiah wrote:
Today we will continue the series we had started a couple of weeks ago. Dustin Browder and Brett Wood, Senior Software Engineer will answer questions from the Map Making Community. If you have questions concerning custom made maps and mods, wed like to invite you to ask them in this thread so they can be included in part 3 of the series. :)
Chat with Devs: One of the most popular questions we get when it comes to creating UMS (User Map Settings) games or mods is: Will there be a DotA for StarCraft II? For those who are not familiar, DotA (Defense of the Ancients), is a popular UMS game created for Warcraft III. StarCraft compared to Warcraft III, does not focus on heroes as much, and heroes or units do not have the same experience gaining mechanic as Warcraft III, making it difficult to imagine how a game like DotA could be reproduced for StarCraft. Nonetheless, after chatting it up with our devs, we found out the ability to allow heroes and units to gain experience is built into the Map Editor, though it will not likely be in single player or standard multiplayer. In addition, those units can also be toggled to have the ability to carry an inventory, which is also a characteristic needed in UMS maps such as DotA. With those two additions, we can rest assured that our clever community modders can handle the rest in creating some awesome custom games.
1) Will you finally be able to mix and match terrain types instead of being stuck on jungle, twilight, etc?
[Dustin Browder] Yes terrain texture is mixable now. Also tilesets are also mixable.
[Brett Wood] Essentially, you can define your own tileset in the editor, something that wasnt really supported even in Warcraft III.
2) Will the new StarCraft II Map Editor support text coloring, unit coloring, player ""12"" (i.e. neutral player) units?
[Dustin Browder] Yes, all of these features will be supported.
3) Will maps be larger than 256x256?
[Brett Wood] The maximum map size will still be 256x256, and we have no plans to increase that.
4) Will the new map editor support locking maps? People hate losing credit for a map.
[Dustin Browder] Yes, we are planning to support this feature. We hope that this feature will give the modding community more incentive to create their own original maps.
5) Will the new map editor support ""square"" terrain building as well?
[Dustin Browder] Yes. In the editor, users can adjust the footprint of buildings to whatever shape and size they like.
You can read the full thread here. Our poll has been updated according to the new Q&A:
""What do you think about a StarCraft II DotA?"". Go ahead and vote!
As for last week's poll,
""Do you like the new Firebat"", it seems most of our visitors have nothing against the changes Blizzard has made to the unit. Do you have a different opinion? Hop to our forums and express it.
Earlier today,
Cavez (AKA Dustin Browder) posted in the Battle.net forum that we will see Zerg as soon as it's ready. Here is what he had to say:
Quote:
We will give you Zerg stuff just as soon as we can. We aren't holding it on purpose, it's just not ready yet. We had a lot more time to work on the Protoss and the Terrans before the announcement that you guys didn't see (because the game wasn't announced yet).
I don't have an ETA but we won't be waiting for the next Blizzcon. We are quite happy to put stuff out on the web for you guys to check out. It doesn't HAVE to be a giant event to show a race, though when an event happens to match up with a race announcement that is a lot of fun.=)
Sources:StarCraft II Q&A Batch Archive - Batch 22
