» How to Make Good Maps in StarEdit
by DarckRedd
Main | Comments (0) | Reviews (0)
Step 1: DON?T USE STAREDIT
It is a widely held belief that StarEdit is one of the most unstable, inconvenient, and all-around user unfriendly editors in existence. Thankfully, the devoted StarCraft fanbase developed custom editors for the game, which are far more powerful than Blizzard?s editor.
One of the most popular editors is StarCraft Xtra Editor. This is one of the most user-friendly programs around, and has a number of different ?modes? that have different features. The readme has detailed data on all of the different modes, but the two ones I prefer are Special Mode and Base Mode. Special Mode allows you to place buildings and units virtually anywhere; on each other, on cliffs, and even on the ?Terrain Buildings? that appear on many tilesets. (I will detail the nature of tilesets later) Base Mode acts much like the normal StarEdit editor, but without all the instability and interface problems.
StarForge is a decent editor, but it is very complex and mostly obsolete. It?s most notable functions are letting you access a number of hidden player colors and placing various hidden units. However, I would not recommend it for new designers.
SCMDraft is easily the most powerful editor available. However, it is not necessarily the most efficient editor. It is very clunky, with a great many confusing buttons and features. It gives access to over a hundred special animations and sprites, which are nearly useless because they cannot be manipulated with triggers. However, a notable feature is allowing you to place doodads from any tileset onto any map, and giving you access to hidden ingame sounds.
However, for a brand-new designer, StarCraft Xtra Editor is really the best option. Download it now. I?ll wait.
Step 2: Know Your Tilesets
Good. Now that you?ve downloaded Xtra Editor, you?ll want to understand its inner workings. First of all, hit control + n to start a new map. You should see something like this:
As you can see, you?ve the scenario size, which represents the height and width of the map. Then, you?ve got the tilesets.
Ash World: In the Campaign, this tileset represented Char and other volcanic worlds.
Badlands: The default tileset. The empty map laid out before you when you first opened the editor was Badlands.
Desert: In the campaign, Tarsonis was a Desert map.
Ice: A snowy tileset, as the name suggests. Maps taking place on Braxis were Ice maps.
Installation: This is a unique one. The terrain constitutes the inside of a large complex. No buildings can be placed on Installation, except under special circumstances. Furthermore, it is advisable to start with the ?roof? terrain on the Installation tileset.
Jungle World: Maps occurring on Aiur use the Jungle World tileset.
Space Platform: New Gettysburg occurs on this tileset, a long with a number of others.
Twilight: A highly distinctive tileset, Twilight features somewhat surreal terrain, emphasizing blue-black colors. Shakuras is portrayed as a Twilight world.
When you pick a tileset, you?ll also pick what terrain to start on. This is generally of little concern; the only big choice made here is whether you?ll carve water into the map or carve the map over water.
Step 3: The Dreaded Triggers
Triggers in StarCraft are very powerful. They are also rather confusing.
Assuming you are not making a melee map (designed for standard play), you want to delete the three starting triggers.
These triggers set up a standard game of StarCraft. Unless you are making such a map, delete these three.
Now, here?s a basic explanation of trigger dynamics:
Every trigger is assigned to a player.
This tells the game which players you want the game to effect. For instance, the Display Text Message effect will only display the text the players it?s executing for. The Victory and Defeat effects will only execute for the players its set to (the ?Current Player? in game terminology).
Now, let?s say you?re making a multiplayer map, and you to make a trigger apply to players 1 ? 3. You?d check the boxes for players one, two, and three, and then you?d hit the Next > button. In any condition or effects you would select, you?d pick ?Current Players? when the game asked for a player.
COMMON BUG ALERT: When you have a game executing a ?create object? effect for more than one player, it will create one object for each player you have the trigger set for, so long as you pick ?current player?. However, if you set a specific player within the ?create object? effect, it will run that trigger once for each player the entire trigger is set for, causing extra units to be created.
The point is: Don't put a 'Create Object' effect in a trigger set to run for more than one player.
Step 4: Fun with Forces
Here, I have efficiently divided the players into four teams. Furthermore, triggers can be executed for entire Forces. This is a great timesaver, especially if the players are working together. In an RPG map featuring units evolving as the player gains points, you need only set one set of evolution triggers, set to execute for that force.
However, AI and Human players cannot be placed in the same force. The only way to set AI/Human alliances is through triggers. This usually also demands that you use the ?Run AI Script? Effect to turn on shared vision for the human and AI players.
Step 5: Location, Location, Location
Locations are very useful tools.
Here I have set a location. From here, I can do a great many things with it. The ?Run AI Script at Location? trigger is very useful. It has a host of AI scripts allowing for all sorts of behavior. The ?junkyard dog? script is another popular one ? all units in the location will wander the map randomly. Locations can be moved from one unit to another. If you tell it to follow a certain hero, you can detect units around this hero, have explosions follow it, etcetera.
To place a location, you can hit control + L, and click-and-drag to define its boundaries. You can rename the location by selecting it and hitting ?enter?.
Step 6: Things You Should Know About
One: Looping triggers. To make a trigger loop, attach the ?Preserve Trigger? effect.
Two: The Wait effect. Wait effects are known to be buggy, stretching themselves out seemingly at random.
Three: Switches. Switches are very useful. While the finer points of switches are beyond the scope of this rather basic tutorial, I will explain the basics. Switches have two positions: cleared (?off?) and set (?on?). Triggers can detect and manipulate triggers. For a more detailed explanation of triggers, go here.
Step 7: Links!
There are a lot of useful StarCraft sights. StarCraft.org is a good one, as is Staredit.net. Unfortunately, many StarCraft sights have gone down in recent years, but the community still seems strong in many places.
So get out and get designing!
Added: Aug-25-2006
Views: 1793
Submit a Player Comment/Review
|
»
Articles Central
»
Projects Central
»
Downloads Central
»
Forums
»
About Us
