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Bloodyaugust

Taylorsville, Utah, UNITED STATES


Joined August 14th 2009

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.... I SEE A SHINY!

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Recent Posts

EAW Series

August 15th 2009 19:59
First off, I know that I said I would be reviewing new games. But three games a week do not come out, at least ones worth reviewing.

EAW, and EAWFOC represent the first ventures of the company Petroglyph into the game-designing world. And, as a first try, it was a pretty good representation of what I would like to see in an RTS.

First I will discuss the high points:
1. This game was a very well thought-out representation of the actual Star Wars series. It even strayed from the movie in some places, and added units only found in books. I particularly liked that.
2. The game had a learning curve of 5-10 minutes, as long as you had played ANY RTS before. If not, probably 30-40. Easy to learn.
3. The modding community really caught my eye with this game. Modders had come together to produce a few excellent mods, and of course there were HUNDREDS of smaller mods, some of them adding an individual unit. The mods added realism, added more units, changed gameplay, changed UI, etc.... I was impressed.
4. The space battles in this game are AMAZING! Aside from some of the larger units moving sort of clunkily, it handled like a dream! Watching the tiny little fighters dogfight was awesome too.
5. THE SOUNDTRACK WAS FREAKIN SWEET! The main menu screen for EAW would give me shivers every time I started the game. I would sit there with the volume all the way up and watch the space battle with tears of joy in my eyes!

Now for the low points:
1. Land battles are very clunky. Seriously, if anyone knows who was the lead designer for land battles, tell me. Then I can use this blog to get him fired. Units have a difficult time navigating the map, some of the mechanics with units being good against others make no sense, and even if you have an absolutely OVERWHELMING force, autoresolve will always lose you the day. I bypass land battles using the Death Star!
2. Most of the larger units, particularly those found in space, are very poorly modeled. The Super Star Destroyer is nothing but a bunch of rectangles, and looks poor even with the graphics options cranked.
3. Their Movie Cam thing was a great idea, but it is horrible.

Overall, with no bias from my love for Star Wars, here are the ratings:
Storyline: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Gameplay: 6/10
UI: 7/10
Overall: 6.5/10
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Welcome to PCGameReviews!

August 14th 2009 18:06
Welcome to PCGameReviews, the site where all new PC games are reviewed by people who know their games. These reviews will arm you with the information you need in order to decide whether or not a PC game is worth your money.
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Start Small (cont)

August 14th 2009 16:33
The biggest problem that I have ever seen with newbie map-makers can be described as this; death by overwhelming. Too many people decide that their first map is going to become the next DOTA. Although this spirit of confidence is needed, how about we pull the reigns in for a while.

In this post, I will teach you how to better use that confidence, so that you can become a true-blue WC3 map maker. Also, this tutorial will be engaging, although it may be lengthy. However, if you really want to become a WC3 map-maker, then this will be a piece of cake.

We will start with the absolute basics. I will teach you about how to setup a new map for editing.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR WC3 TFT

1. Open the WC3 editor, which can be found in the C:\Program Files\Warcraft III directory.
2. Once open, click the file button.
3. Click New Map.
4. Select the width and height values you wish to use for your map. Please note, however, that the larger your map is, as a general rule, the more work you have ahead of you. For our first tutorial, I suggest a 64x64 map.
Also, please note that underneath where the map size is selected, it shows actual playable area. This is nothing to worry about, it is just referring to the fact that a small band of area around the map is unplayable.
5. Now select the tileset you wish to use. A tileset is a set of terrain types that are collected into a single group, usually each tileset pertains to a season, area of the planet, etc.
Also select the starting terrain you wish to use. This is the terrain that the map will be covered in at map creation.
6. It is usually a good idea to leave the cliff level at 2. Decide whether or not more of your map is going to be water or land, and decide on starting map height accordingly.
7. Once you have customized this window to your liking, press OK.

Your map has now been created, and the real editing process begins!

I will now teach you about some of the other map customization options, but first you need to make some decisions. The second biggest killer of newbie map-makers is lack of purpose. Before even trying to design a game, one must come up with a game concept. A few things that need to be decided on are:
1. Number of (human) players
2. Number of (computer) players, if any
3. Game concept (how the game will be played, goals to achieve, general feel, etc.)
4. Type of game (Life-of-a-Peasant, RPG, Melee, TD, and adventure are some popular ones)
5. Game Name

Theses are some of the basics that MUST be fleshed out before you even think of opening map editor. After these are decided upon (I usually write them down in notepad or on a piece of paper), we will start editing some of the basic options for this map.
1. In World Editor, there are two different bars that run along the top with buttons on them. The first, which has options such as File, Edit, and View is called the Toolbar. The bar below it is called the "Editor" bar.
2. Our first step is to open the Scenario menu on the Toolbar.
3. Once scenario has been selected, choose the Map Description option.
This window will allow us to name our map, suggest the number of players, give it a description that will be seen by the person hosting the game, and give ourselves credit as the Author.
4. Edit this window to your liking.
Normally, one would put in the Author box their screen name (the name you sign on to Battle.net with). However, real names are also acceptable.
Notice that along the top of this window there are multiple tabs. For now we will worry only about the Map Description tab and the Loading Screen tab.
5. Select the Loading Screen tab now.
This window displays what will be displayed to people when they play your map as the game is loading. I like to use either my own custom screens (will be explained later in another post), or a campaign screen. This makes your map a bit more interesting.
6. Select a Campaign Screen.
You can now edit text which will be displayed as an overlay to the campaign screen. This allows for a quick map description that players may read while the game is loading. I always put the name of the game as the Screen Title, and my screen name as the Screen Subtitle.
7. Write a quick map description in the Loading Screen Text.
8. Click OK to close the window.
9. Open the Scenario menu from the toolbar again.
10. Select Player Properties.
This opens a new window where you can set options for individual players. Player Name, Race, who controls this player, and whether or not a fixed start location should be used can all be edited here.
11. Edit the window to your liking.
If a players Fixed Start Location checkbox is checked, then that player will always spawn ONLY at their specific start location. All players that do not have the box checked will spawn from a random Start Location belonging to any player that does not have this box checked.
12. Decide whether or not to use fixed start locations.
There are multiple tabs in this window as well. The only other one we will worry about today is the Forces tab.
13. Click the Forces tab.
Here is where you control which players are on which teams. Teams, known to WC3 Editor as Forces, are just allied groups of players. These players do not all have to be human. You can also decide what players, if allied, will share using the checkboxes.
14. Edit this window to your liking.
15. Click OK to close the window.
16. Open the File menu on the Toolbar.
17. Select the option Save Map As
18. Tell the occuring window yes.
This will generate randomly-placed start locations for all players.
19. Click OK to the window that tells you this map is no longer considered a melee map.
This just means that playing this map will neither help nor hinder your melee game record on Battle.net.
When saving your map, find a place that is easy to remember and easy to access. Also, almost all map-makers save in this format: mapname v #. This allows people to know, including you, which version they are playing/editing, disallowing confusion as to what exactly the map contains. Example: CoolMap_v0.50
20. Save your map.

Congrats, you are officially on your way to becoming a WC3 map-maker! Keep on reading the tutorials to learn more!





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Start Small

August 14th 2009 06:15
In the coming posts, I will write detailed posts on how to modify Warcraft3 (WC3), and how to make maps for it. I will also discuss how to have your map become an oft-played one on Battle.net!

For now though, off to bed for me


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Recent Comments

Comment by Bloodyaugust
on Found: A Second Earth?

August 19th 2009 23:52


Warcraft 3 Map Creating
PCGameReviews
Jeff: Please note that I did state "currently".
This means that, with our current knowledge of how life can evolve, it IS impossible for there to be life on Mars.

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Comment by Bloodyaugust
on Found: A Second Earth?

August 15th 2009 17:18


Warcraft 3 Map Creating
PCGameReviews
This is spectacular, however, the combinations of chemicals and other matter on this planet just do not match up currently with what the requirements for life are.

You may want to clarify that at one point scientists were excited about finding life on Mars, and about its geographic similarities. We all know now that there is no way.

Water must be found in its liquid state......

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