Campaign Creations

I'm not surprised group projects never turn out well.  Without sufficient motivation to keep people working, a single cog can cause the whole to collapse in a sea of lost morale.  Adulation and respect simply aren't motivation enough for most people.  It's only when people are paid, and have the possibility of losing that pay, that they begin to really work.  The wisdom to take from this is that you don't need money to motivate though, just keep things simple at all times.  If you want team created content, don't go too crazy, start small, give your team goals that aren't difficult to achieve.  Don't demand or promise ridiculous things.  A little is often a lot.  Start with a small release.  Give your team a sense of accomplishment.  Raise morale, then move forward and inch toward that big project you have in mind.  It's a process, and if you don't follow it, you're likely to fail.

I wonder if you'll have to be logged on to B.net in order use the editor.

Archangel wrote: I wonder if you'll have to be logged on to B.net in order use the editor.

Huh?

Desler wrote: Making campaigns on the levels you generally see aren't anywhere near the level of programming though.  I love StarCraft 2 because I'll finally be able to create a fully customized gameplay modification and integrate that to create a consistent experience of unique and fun gameplay throughout the campaign.  Much better than having to create a new way to creatively kill enemies on Tileset X just to keep things interesting.  I'd much rather develop a fun system that works throughout the length of the campaign and can be used repeatedly.  Gameplay will be different enough from the core game, and hopefully I can modify it to the point where it feels like an entirely different experience in a completely familiar environment.  That's pretty much my gameplay goal with Celestial Reverie.  Too bad the map editor wasn't included with this beta yet.  I hope future versions of the beta will eventually have it.

Definitely my goal as well. It'll be so much easier to change core game attributes that required mod-level expertise in SC1 and to trigger things that would have been impossible in SC1. We'll be able to customize and experiment much further in SC2: my personal goal is to create a "game within the game", something distinct and (hopefully) fun, intuitive and complex.

Yeah team projects are destined to fail by design!  And there certainly have been plenty of over ambitious SCraft team projects that never saw the light of day.  The BWAPI or BWAI  project for that matter is not one of those.  The project goes beyond anything previously created for Scraft and is now recognized throughout both the SCraft and academic community as the premier “hack” for SC.  The fact that the cream of the crop programmers are involved in this rather than the typical sc fanfare adolescent, is the real reason behind its success.  Many top universities across the country are now engaged in a Sept 2010 showdown that will pit the best of BWAPI against one another and it should be quite exciting.  Some spinoffs of BWAPI are also beginning to emerge that will change how you view Scraft such as this example here

But I am sad that projects like these never found there way into SC1 for the average non-programming Joe such as you or myself.  Tho there’s still plenty of ppl working on the project and the member base grows exponentially, it still remains elusive to us normal folk and somewhat of a novelty at best.

SC2 will definitely be more user friendly for those wishing to dip into modding that's for sure.  And simple rudimentary modding changes will finally be common hat for mappers.  At the same time, the elite that make up projects like BWAPI will be diving deep into the core of SC2 and you can expect some serious pimpage from these individuals that’s for sure!  So heck ya, SC2 is gonna be pimp!  I only wish more ppl had been dedicated to making new experiences via modding in SC1.  The modding community as a whole had a pretty weak showing. 

Archangel wrote: I wonder if you'll have to be logged on to B.net in order use the editor.

It's possible, but I doubt it. From all I've heard so far is you need to have an internet connection to install (aka steam) but you can play offline.

bajadulce wrote: At the same time I find really odd that most of the campaigns found on this site contain minimal modding content other than some new portraits and a shitload of .wav files.  Basic modding files like aiscript.bin or iscript modifications seem to be completely absent.   And let’s not forget powerful Firegraft exe edits or things that can be done with simple plugins.  Talk about being able to change gameplay and deliver a total new experience!

A lot of said campaigns were made before the aforementioned hack tools even existed.

As someone who previously relied on hacks from Camelot Systems, all the usefulness in their programs went the way of the dodo the moment King Arthur got hired by Blizzard. From that point on I am incredibly wary of relying on a third-party hack that could croak compatibility at any moment, and with Starcraft's case that was every single patch.

As one of the people who was actually able to play the full mekani conversion with all of the stargraft stuff, just to have it taken all away, I agree with RCX.  By the way, RCX, never, in all of my years of playing your campaigns, was I able to get akane's attack to actually work.

Yeah that is very frustrating to have to play catch up with the latest Blizzard patch that's for sure!.    In the case of the former StarGraft, Microsoft's WinXP is to blame for this not working as well as many of the older MPQDraft SEMPQ's on this site not working with Vista. 

But patching or downgrading is only needed for grafting or button changes (which might be the most exciting aspect of modding).  Other modifications such as .bin, .tbl, .dat, and .grp editing can be run on any version of SCraft and are equally as powerful just in themselves.  Mods like GundamCentury, BSTRhino's Ultimate Doom, BWAI, or even the goofy FungusCraft are examples of mods that are "patch" proof.  Not that any of these modifications are required to make a good campaign, but some basic modifications would seem to add some nice spice.  Custom AI scripting, such as what Blizzard used in their default campaigns would seem almost a must for any melee oriented campaign map?

@ Camelot systems and today's modern replacement.
Camelot Systems was great and definitely paved the way for today's developers such as poiuy, ShadowFlare, DofA, Quantam, BroodKiller, and even O)Farty.  The truth however is that programs from CamSys are far inferior to their modern replacements.  Arsenal3, ICE, StarGraft, RetroGrp and the post 1.10 MemGraft's being especially troublesome.  If anything, today's programs are far more reliable than those of the past.  Programs like WinMPQ, IceCC, DatEdit, PyAI, Firegraft, BinEdit2 and TblPad are virtually bullet-proof as well as idiot proof.  Modding, thnx to these wonderful tools developed by these SC Legends has never been simpler.  FireGraft, being the most notable modern tool, has virtually gone unused!!!  I strongly believe that campaigns and the Single Player experience were the best medium and vehicle for modding and it all boils down to either being a modder or a mapper.  The 2 never seemed to get along with each other.  Mostly modders getting the short end of the stick. 

So SC2 will deliver us from this hopefully with a built-in modding editor so to speak.  I sure am excited to see the 2 worlds finally come together.  Hell it's about time. 

  MPQDraft is not OG.  All of the old campaigns ued shadowflare's program to load a custom patch_rt, and before that, literally loading custom patch_rt, and before that, starDraft.  Also, blaming WinXP is misleading, since the problem happened with winNT4.

What's OG? Original Gangsta? 

All of the old campaigns ued shadowflare's program to load a custom patch_rt

What program was that? StarExeHack.exe?  I do remember using that to target my own .mpq.  That's going way back that's for sure.   Great little program.. powerful.

WinNT? What's that?  j/k of course.  I did not know that.  I myself went from Win98 to XP where I am now ( I've always been very behind when it comes to the latest computer gadgets. This little 800mhz laptop is all the cpu power I will prob ever need).  Well definitely Microsoft's ever updating Operating Systems haven't helped that's for sure.  Who knows what some future OS will do to the latest tools or whether Starcraft itself will be even able to run on computers 20 years from now without some serious tweaking.

The point is that tools of today are far more reliable and user friendly than those of yesteryear and modding was never simpler in these later years of SCraft. 

Well, as it is you can't run the old rad tools on windows 7. So no portrait editing for win7 users.

IskatuMesk wrote: Well, as it is you can't run the old rad tools on windows 7. So no portrait editing for win7 users.

Use the XP emulator. Jesus tap-dancing Christ.

They can try windows XP mode.

Lavarinth wrote:

IskatuMesk wrote: Well, as it is you can't run the old rad tools on windows 7. So no portrait editing for win7 users.

Use the XP emulator. Jesus tap-dancing Christ.

Yeah... I'm not paying an extra $150 for XP emulation that can't even run DX.