State of Campaign Creations - May 6th, 2008

[Lavarinth]

Every sporadic moment (typically every 2-3 months) I get around to writing an update on the Staff Forum as to what I have been up to on the site and how it is holding up. For the moment, I've decided there is no reason to keep this information silent to the community as well, so I decided to post portions of it to the public (along with edits from the past week); so without further ado: The State of Campaign Creations:

So, I've been working on the RSS feed for a while. I got it pretty much down to how I wanted it to be, you can view it online now. The only issue is currently they all say "by Campaign Creations" since the author tags are not working. The parser is RSS2HTML so I just posted in their forum to attempt to get that issue resolved.

The contest reviews are almost completed. Activity in the "real world realm" has caused a short delay. Prizes will be asked from immediatly to the winners, and possible replacement prizes, as I am noticing Blizzard has shortages on their site for some items after their recent addition of a new Blizzard Store.

Currently, there has been brainstorm to redo the Resources section, which obviously our most vital part of the website aside our projects. If anyone has any additional programs that they believe need to be added, please let me know in this thread.

Also planning for the next contest is underway as well as finalizing with the StarCraft portraits database, and some other tidbits of site additions.

For those looking forward for our very delayed Podcast, expect is soon.

That's all for this State of Campaign Creations. Any comments are appreciated.

[Jadefang]

Hi Lav,

thanks for sharing this post with the community.
I was thinking about resources and wandering if this could be expanded beyond the basic MPQ editing, map design level. How about tutorials on basic animating (or insider reviews/advice on software). I would love to do something like a small video clip for both custom SC campaigns as well as another unrelated game project. If that would be in any way feasible I would really appreciate it.

Regarding the Contest review, as much as I am looking forward to the resolution, I have to admit that I have not played through all campaigns yet (Marine's and Tharaxal's are still missing). It is obviously a huge task to do that (although not the most unpleasant I might imagine). Like Legion said in his contest thread, I am also thrilled how such an old game can still cast such fascination upon all of us. I am  amazed about all the material that has been collected here. I wish I had known about this community a few years earlier

[IskatuMesk]

It wouldn't be hard for me to write a primer to Sony Vegas for video editing, buuuuut yeah not anytime soon

[AA7Dragoon]

Thank you Lav, for the update!  ¡Si se puede!

[Lavarinth]

Hi Lav,

thanks for sharing this post with the community.
I was thinking about resources and wandering if this could be expanded beyond the basic MPQ editing, map design level. How about tutorials on basic animating (or insider reviews/advice on software). I would love to do something like a small video clip for both custom SC campaigns as well as another unrelated game project. If that would be in any way feasible I would really appreciate it.

Regarding the Contest review, as much as I am looking forward to the resolution, I have to admit that I have not played through all campaigns yet (Marine's and Tharaxal's are still missing). It is obviously a huge task to do that (although not the most unpleasant I might imagine). Like Legion said in his contest thread, I am also thrilled how such an old game can still cast such fascination upon all of us. I am  amazed about all the material that has been collected here. I wish I had known about this community a few years earlier

As a graduate in animation, I was actually looking to the possibility of gathering up any tutorials I had for animation or writing my own, but my priorities lied with updating the old pages first. This will be looked into in the near future though, with SC2's upcoming release.

It wouldn't be hard for me to write a primer to Sony Vegas for video editing, buuuuut yeah not anytime soon

Whenever's clever.

Thank you Lav, for the update!  ¡Si se puede!

Si, fly.

[Marco]

You should make a StarCraft campaign Lavarinth.  Just for practice.  I would actually practice with WorldEdit, but that might be a bit too much if you've never opened the editor before.

[AA7Dragoon]

^ footlong sandwich.

You're a necrophiliac.

[Lavarinth]

You should make a StarCraft campaign Lavarinth.  Just for practice.  I would actually practice with WorldEdit, but that might be a bit too much if you've never opened the editor before.

I simply never released anything for StarCraft.. I feel bad since Maglok worked closely for me for my main project, producing a full sound track for it. I played the fool and did what any newcomer to any project of theirs would do.. I added, I added, and I added. I couldn't stop adding until it was overflowing with content, and even then I wanted to add more.

With WarCraft III I touched with two projects only. One was a cinematic which was is truly my higher interest in the engines. However I started crafting this upon release like many of our projects, rushed it too much to feel it competent to hold up. Next I got together with Maglok again to work on Tavern, featuring voicework from Archangel.. Triggering by Aiursrage2k at points, and a few others. I simply didn't have the understanding of the editor to be able to do it all myself.

With StarCraft 2, Maglok knows some things in the language they'll be working with so that will surely be of aid, and of course, I sadly believe the older you get the more professional one is with tasks, so with that is the reason this project is already in the works for months before release.

But perhaps, all in all said.. I wouldn't mind actually producing a spoof campaign relating to, well, the community. But that's only a dream for now.

[Marco]

Wow, your replies are actually getting easier to respond to what with your attention to detail.  Poor Maglok, he seems destined to do voices that are never used.  Well, except for Rise of Krill.  I think that was him anyways.  I thought about doing something cinematic for WC3 just because, but really I had so many ideas for gameplay that I just never got around to it.  Really though I would want an actual good story that people would follow.  Either short or long.  And not just do it just because it would be cool to add Lord of the Rings music to go with it.  Ahem.

Eh, this community is too small to spoof.  Best to wait till you make more friends. 

[Lavarinth]

Wow, your replies are actually getting easier to respond to what with your attention to detail.  Poor Maglok, he seems destined to do voices that are never used.  Well, except for Rise of Krill.  I think that was him anyways.  I thought about doing something cinematic for WC3 just because, but really I had so many ideas for gameplay that I just never got around to it.  Really though I would want an actual good story that people would follow.  Either short or long.  And not just do it just because it would be cool to add Lord of the Rings music to go with it.  Ahem.

Eh, this community is too small to spoof.  Best to wait till you make more friends. 

Cinematics seemed to be the way to go in WC3 because the editor was too advanced for some to trigger spells, events, and so forth. At least that's my thought personally. Many things I wanted to accomplish in gameplay I simply didn't comprehend how to, but I could just tweek the story a bit and easily turn it into a cinematic. I suppose it's just one of those things you either understand or you don't. I'm more open minded to animation and modeling, I'm a little hard-headed with reading all the triggers or attempting to understand variables. I don't know why, I just never got the hang of the,.

And yeah, the community is small at the moment.. Thanks for your input.  Hahaha.

[Marco]

Variables are easy actually.  You just have to lay each one out logically in your mind.  Basically think of every one as an on off switch.  If switches 1 2 3 and 4 are on, then DO THIS, is switches 1 2 and 5 are on, then DO THIS, if only switch 1 is on, then DO THIS.  The only thing thats a pain is keeping track of everything.  I also wish they would have a better way to approximate the camera movement.  The editors 'camera preview' sucked.

[Lavarinth]

I think I started to have issues with "arrays," "booleans," etc. I kept variables simple. Yeah, I know the process requires exactly what you said.. Logic. But when I don't know what an "array" is other than a series of things, and I have no idea what "booleans" are, I became discouraged to continue.

[Marco]

You really don't have to understand it all to make it work for you.  And you can work through it logically by seeing what they each do precisely.  I can't remember that crap at all anymore, but I'm still confident it'll come back to me once SC2 comes out.  Familiarizing yourself with it now could help you out.

[tipereth]

Variables are easy actually.  You just have to lay each one out logically in your mind.  Basically think of every one as an on off switch.  If switches 1 2 3 and 4 are on, then DO THIS, is switches 1 2 and 5 are on, then DO THIS, if only switch 1 is on, then DO THIS.  The only thing thats a pain is keeping track of everything.  I also wish they would have a better way to approximate the camera movement.  The editors 'camera preview' sucked.

Variables can be more than booleans chief.

[Lavarinth]

Variables are easy actually.  You just have to lay each one out logically in your mind.  Basically think of every one as an on off switch.  If switches 1 2 3 and 4 are on, then DO THIS, is switches 1 2 and 5 are on, then DO THIS, if only switch 1 is on, then DO THIS.  The only thing thats a pain is keeping track of everything.  I also wish they would have a better way to approximate the camera movement.  The editors 'camera preview' sucked.

Variables can be more than booleans chief.

*HEAD EXPLODES IN CONFUSION*