Starcraft X-tra Editor v2.5 Tutorial

Made by LeeJase
Table of Contents

Introduction
Getting Started
The Least You need to Know

Brief Section Overview
14 Things you need to know

Modes
About Modes
Classic Mode
P12 Mode
Base Mode
Alternative Mode
Special Mode
Review Quiz

Common Controls
Layers
Start Location
Review Quiz

Settings
About Settings
Player Settings
Unit and Hero Settings
Upgrade Settings
Special Ability Settings
Review Quiz

Text Enhancers
About Text Enhancers
Colors
Overlapping 2 times
Overlapping 3 times
Review Quiz

Properties
About Properties
Things to add

Forces
About Forces
Things to add

Mission Briefings
About Mission Briefings
How to use Mission Briefings
Tips and Tricks
Mission Briefings examples
Review Quiz

Sounds
About Sounds
How to make sounds
Reducing Sound File Size
Tips and Tricks

Triggers
About Triggers
Choosing Players/Forces
Conditions
Actions
Review Quiz

Useful Basics
Heal Zone
Invincible Units at an Area
Killing units near a unit
Bound Game Effects
Dark Swarm Firing System
Kills Score
Buying Units Trigger
Hyper Triggers

Answers
Mode Quiz Answers
Common Controls Quiz Answers
Settings Quiz Answers
Text Enhancers Quiz Answers
Mission Briefings Quiz Answers
Triggers Quiz Answers

Special Thanks
Contact Me


Introduction

Oh goody...another long tutorial. As we all know, tutorials are long and stupid, so if you are one of those people who just wants to learn map making quickly. Just read at least the first section of the tutorial. Eventually, you will need to know the other things that goes along with map making to enhance your map making skill. You now will probably be thinking, "Hmm...whoever wrote this tutorial is an IDIOT!!", and "Why am I even reading this tutorial!!"


Reasons why you are reading this tutorial:
  • Laugh at my writing
  • You have nothing better to do
  • You just needed something to prove I am an idiot
  • Read it just for the fun of wasting time
  • Read it because LeeJase made you
  • To print out this tutorial and rip it up into shreds for your campfire
  • Post it up onto your website to make fun of me
  • Don't like the 'help' function in programs
  • You just came for the basics
  • You wanted to enhance your map making skill

By now, you are probably at the point of throwing this "garbage" away (In computer words: Close window). Before you lose control...take a deep breath and enjoy the tutorial...

Getting Started

By now you should have learned something...

  1. LeeJase is an idiot
  2. LeeJase is a horrible writer
  3. LeeJase has nothing better to do then to annoy you

If you still want to read it then take a deep breath...we will now begin (Muhahaha). First of all you will need the editor.

Steps on getting editor:

  1. Go to www.stormcoast-fortress.net
  2. Find SCXE v2.5 Download
  3. Download SCXE v2.5 English in .ZIP form (For those of you who don't have Windows XP you will need to get WinZip at http://www.winzip.com)
  4. For all you 56k's go to the washroom and take a break, the download will take awhile ^_^
  5. For all you 28k's go to Antarctica and teach the penguins how to do a ghetto handshake correctly ;), by the time they figure it out, your download will be done.
  6. For all you 1k's, break your computer, it'll never finish downloading until your 88.

Note: Starcraft X-tra is not compatible with Mac computers (maybe in the future). If you have a Mac, you should download Emerald.

For all you Mac users, you have just wasted 10 minutes reading my pointless tutorial. Unfortunately, I have never used Emerald but I'm sure some functions are similar to those in X-tra so you might want to take a "peek" at my tutorial just in case (Booo Mac Computers Smell!!)


The Least you need to Know

           This is the most important section that teaches you all the basics of using x-tra fast and easy (For those are you who are determined to read this whole tutorial, you should skip this part). These things will be reviewed and be explained in more detail in the later sections. If you are one of the people who don't like reading long things and just want to learn basics, you should at least read this part. I might be a bit weird, but at least you will learn something from reading this section of the tutorial. Have Fun!...

Brief Section Overview

            In this section I will "try" to explain to you what each function in the program does and how to use them . I also did this section to make a 6 gazillion page tutorial into just a few for you young beginners. First we will need you to launch the program. It will either be in your desktop or your starcraft folder (Usually under the directory: C: Drive/Program Files/Starcraft). Once you launch the SCXE launch editor. You will see cool buildings and a bunch of modes written below them. If you want more detail on modes you can browse there to see what each mode works. For now, we will use the most popular mode: "Special Mode". Click "Special Mode". Once you have done that, look for the button on the top right corner that has a picture of a blank white piece of paper. Click on it. You will find a new window pop-up called "New Scenario". Here you choose the size of your map and the type of terrain you will want your map to include. When you have chosen your size and type of terrain you press "OK".

14 Things you need to Know

        Ah...finally we can actually get started... :)

Properties
        Now your thinking "Hey where do I name the title?". This is where you can name your title whatever you want your map to be called. That is where you will put your name and what the objective of the game is. You may put these text in colors if you like (Under the Text Enhancers section).

Settings
       This is where you determine who controls each player (Human, Computer, Neutral, Rescuable). You can also choose the race of what the player will have. This will not matter, because x-tra allows each player to have any race on the field and being controlled by the same player.
        Here you can also enable special abilities like stim packs to either be already researched, can be researched, or disable stim packs (so it can't be researched or be able to be researched)
        Here comes the good part...Starcraft X-tra Editor is one of those cool editors that contain 255 Upgrades. (Upgrade 255 times for those of you who are a bit "slow") 

Forces
         Here is the place where you sort the teams of the players. Note: Computer players and Neutral players cannot be placed on the same force as the Human Players (You can make them allies using the 'Set Alliance Status'). All players that are together will be set default as allies (You may also change it in 'Set Alliance Status'). If you know how to do colors or overlaps this is the best place to do it. ;)

 Layers  
        Oh boy...a long paragraph of crap...Here we go!...There are 5 layers (Terrain, Doodad, Unit, Location, Fog of War.) Terrain layer lays out the types of terrain. To make terrain in an area, chose the type of terrain and click the place where you want to lay your terrain in. Doodad layer is the layer where you put a bunch of cool designs onto the terrain. Each type of terrain has different doodads to chose from. When you click on the layer you will get a doodad window that will come up. Click on a doodad's picture and place it in the map. The doodad can only be placed on the terrain category it is under. Unit layer is the layer where you can place units anywhere (buildings over buildings). To access the unit's properties, click the unit on the map and when you see a green circle around it right click it and click 'properties'. Location Layer is the layer you can make locations. To make them you click on an area and drag to the size you want the location to be. Double click these locations to rename them. Fog of War is probably the most complicated to understand, but actually it's very easy. When you are in the Fog of War layer you have a map that is all dark and once you click it, it reveals a part of the map. This revealed spot will become a spot that has been like scouted instead of it being all black. (Yay...we finally got the paragraph over with)

Start Locations
          This is probably the easiest part of this whole section. The point of the Start Locations is to center locate the area where you want the player to view first during the beginning of the game. Only one Start Location may be placed in the map for each player. You do not have to put Start Locations for every player except with the players that already have units on the field.

Unit and Hero Settings
          Yippee...we can now name our units anything we want (even 'Crap'). Here is where you can not only name your units, but can set the life points of a unit as well. You can also put Colors and Overlaps here!! Make sure if you are making Rpgs, Madness, and other games that includes battles, to set them to the right balance of attack damage and life points. (Realistic killing...)

Upgrade Settings
           This is where you set the number of gas and minerals and the time it takes to research the upgrade (Including Instant Upgrades explained in the Settings section). The base means how much minerals or gas it will cost to start out with, and the factor means how much minerals or gas it will add after each upgrade.

Example:
Minerals Base: 10 Mineral Factor is 10

First upgrade will cost 10 minerals
Second time you upgrade it will +10 and be 20
Third time (as you probably know by now) is 30 

Special Ability Settings
              This part is very similar to Upgrade Settings except it is Special Abilities and requires you to also set the amount of energy needed to use the ability.

Mission Briefings
             Yay...my favorite part of the map. Don't let the words deceive you. This is like the part where you can be creative and add colors and flashes and a bunch of good stuff! What you definitely need in mission briefings are the maker's name, objective of the game should be said, make encouraging remarks, and if you are modified the map (not recommended) you should put your name next to the original maker's name. DO NOT DELETE THE ORIGINAL MAP MAKER'S NAME!!

Triggers
          Uh oh...the hard part has finally begun. Triggers consists of 3 parts. The player(s)/force(s) in which the trigger will affect, conditions, and actions. In my years of map making, I have found beginners have a tendency to cram everything in one trigger, do not do this. Map making is all about time, patience, and effort. Now... First, you will check mark the player or force you want the trigger to affect. Choose the condition that you want met in order for something to happen (Note-the condition 'always' means that this trigger will happen consistently happening). Make sure you make enough conditions that specify an action. If you do not specify enough, other triggers may also be responding at the same time when you do not want it to. Confusing isn't it? The key thing to remember for conditions is 'specification'. The action part of the trigger is where everything happens. Most of the actions are self explanatory. If you are having trouble understanding what a particular condition or action does, you can look down to the Triggers Section.

Feel free to go back and re-read a section of the tutorial that you don't understand. Or you can use it to refresh your memory.


Modes

I see how it is...Reading forward eh, or another part you skipped to from the table of contents. I see how it is..anyways...Starcraft X-tra editor has 5 different modes each with different functions.

Below is a brief description of what each mode does (I copied most of this section from the readme, give General Mengsk credit for this part, and I also did some spelling corrections):

Classic Mode
Standard version (All scripts, standard unit-setting, buildings everywhere) - Buildings can be placed totally independent from terrain.
P12 Mode
For the neutral player 12 (Ai scripts, all units for player 1-8, Buildings are aligned with grid).
All the units are given to player 12 at the starting of the mode
Base Mode
For the fundamental map designing (Buildings are aligned with grid, everything for player 1-8, also critters)
Alternative Mode
An alternative to the Classic Mode (Addons are independent and can be placed everywhere)
(Critters for player 1-8, the most other things are similar to the Classic Mode)
Special Mode
Good for RPGs and special projects: Every unit/building requires just one point on the map, so e.g. buildings could be placed in another and above each other. (Addons and critters are not neutral, the Addons must be placed like buildings in StarEdiit.) This mode should - if neceissesary - used at the end of project to make it perfect, because the placement of buildings on this mode are not aligned with grid.
(This mode is only available in the Professional Edition of the SCXE!)

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Review Quiz

         Oh know! A quiz?? In a tutorial?? This quiz is to make sure you understand what each mode does. You may skip this section if you like (Not Recommended). I will be placing more quizzes later on (Oh Goody!)

 1. Which Mode is good for RPGs?

A. Alternative Mode
B. Classic Mode
C. Special Mode
D. Rpg Mode

2. In Base Mode _______ are aligned to grid

3. Which Player is Neutral? (Hint-All units are given to this player at the beginning of the mode)

A.12
B. 1
C.14
D. None of the above

4. Starcraft X-tra Editor Contains ___ Modes

A.1
B.5
C.4
D.10

5. Who did I give credit to for this section of the tutorial?

A. Jar Jar Binks
B.Your Mom
C.General McArthur
D.General Mengsk

Answers


Common Controls

Okay...fine I admit it, I couldn't think of a better title to fit this category. What? I had to have something :).

Layers

Find the place where it says Terrain Layer (or something Layer). That's where you choose what you want to do:

Terrain Layer (Hotkey-Ctrl+T)
This is where you edit the terrain, and make the map look cool and stuff.

Doodad Layer (Hotkey-Ctrl+D)
This is where you edit the doodads, Delete, Add, Move doodads. When you click the doodad layer it will display the doodad menu. To pick a doodad scroll the arrow thing down, and click the picture that you want. Then find an area on the map that you can place the doodad on and click it, and Wha La, you did it!

Unit Layer (Hotkey-Ctrl+U)
This is where you find units at the left hand side of the screen and place them in the map. All you do is click which player's units you want to place on the map, and then go down and find it.

Location Layer (Hotkey-Ctrl+L)
This is where you create locations where you want things to happen and stuff. To edit locations, click the locations you create twice. Then, you can edit the names of locations and uncheck all the high or low areas you don't want to affect when using the location.

Fog of War Layer (Hotkey-Ctrl+F)
When you play a game, you see an area that's pure black, and then you see an area that's gray and has revealed buildings, and an area where you can see the men and all the action. The Fog of War layer is suppose to edit what you will see in gray in the beginning of the game. If you want a specific area gray in the beginning of the game, all you have to do is click that spot, and start editing. The place revealed should be a 3x3's area, so if you want a 1x1 you got to do a bunch of tedious work if you know what I mean. Have Fun!

Start Locations

This is pretty simple, whichever player owns that Start Location will center view by default in that area at the beginning of the game (Unless a trigger center viewed it somewhere else). During the game players can press F4 and actually be able to center view that area by just pushing that button, commonly used to upgrade quicker in RPG and Defense maps. For each player that's playing the game, you need a start location on, even Neutral players.

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Review Quiz

1. Which Layer can edit units?

A.Doodad Layer
B.People Layer
C.Unit Layer
D.Fog of War Layer

2. Which Layer can edit Location?

A.Doodad Layer
B.Location Layer
C.Mass Layer
D.Terrain Layer

3. Which Layer can edit the revealed areas?

A.Doodad Layer
B.People Layer
C.Unit Layer
D.Fog of War Layer

4. Which Layer can edit doodads?

A.Doodad Layer
B.Start Location
C.Unit Layer
D.Fog of War Layer

5. What of the following is cannot is not an effect of the Start Location?

A.F4 to Center View
B.Center View at Start
C.Unit Spawns here
D.None of the Above

Answers


Settings

         Brave man, I see...already reading this far? Oh I see the idea...trying to pretend to me that you are reading this, but your actually listening to Lincoln Park eh? I see how it is...
             X-tra contains 4 different settings. They each have their own effect in the game. This is kind of like decorating your house before a party your holding. (Not going off subject) You can't have a party without decorations and stuff, which is like doing the settings, you can't start the triggers before you get these settings setup (Unless you are one of those stupid people). In this section we will explain about (Boooring...) player settings, unit and hero settings, upgrade setting, and special ability settings.

Player Settings

             This is where you choose which players will be human and which will be computers. If you are stupid, you can make all of them computers...but it all depends on what kind of game you're making. Keep in mind you cannot put computers in the same force as humans without using the set alliance trigger. Most of it's self-explanatory...but I'll explain what all the controllers mean anyways...

Human Control
Controlled by you or another person.

Computer Control
Controlled by a computer (Modern Technology Device) (WHAT YOUR LOOKING AT!!!)

Rescuable Control
A player that will be rescued and be later controlled by another player during the game

Neutral Control
Player who is not on any team, unless a unit attacks it, otherwise it will not change sides

Unit and Hero Settings

This is the place where I tell you about re-naming units. Not to mention the build time and costs. Of course you cant forget the attack and upgrade amounts! Hey, wow, I just muttered all the things I will be going over in this section. Now let's get into details:

Properties
Hit Points: This is where you can change the max health of this particular unit.
Shields: This is where you change the shields of this unit. (Note: It will gray out if it is not a protoss unit, which means that it won't let you type anything in the box)
Armor: This is how you set this unit's strength. For example, if the units armor was set at 25, the enemy unit attacking it would need at least 26 attack to do any damage. In other words, the armor is deducted from the attack of the unit.

Build costs
Time: The time in seconds for the unit to be created. . (Note: If you are using X-tra editor, type in the number 8739, it registers as zero).. Don't ask me why they didn't just put it as zero, I didn't make it. :p
Minerals: The amount of minerals to create this unit.
Gas: The amount of gas needed to create this unit.

Weapons
Damage: The damage the unit does to the enemy.
Bonus: The amount of more damage done to enemy for each upgrade

Custom Name
Use Default: Un-check this if you wish to change the name. (fairly self-explanatory)
Name entry: Put the name you wish the unit to be named here. (DUH!) The colors will be explained in the colors section.

If you have read carefully (which I doubt you have), you should have noticed the fact that I didn't write even write this section. The writing is too good to be mine. SkottyKow wrote this part :). 

Upgrade Settings

Ok now back to business. Where were we? Oh yes, the upgrade settings, this is the place where you edit the time and cost to upgrade weapons, speed, and crap. 

Time Cost: This is where you edit how fast the upgrades will go. As we have learned so far, inputting the number 8739 will register as 0, which means that if you put 8739 as the time it will become an instant upgrade. The base time cost is how fast the upgrades will upgrade. The factor means how much slower will your upgrade become each time you upgrade.

Example: If your base time cost if 50 and your factor is 10. That means your first upgrade will take 50 seconds and the next upgrade would be 60 seconds, then the next would be 70 and so on..

Mineral Cost: This is very similar to the Time cost, except the base is how much minerals you need to take to upgrade the first time and the factor is how much added each time. (To make upgrades free you just put the 8739 in the base and factor area, so it will later register as 0) 

Gas Cost: By now you should know what this means. This is exactly like the minerals, except it's gas instead.

Special Ability Settings

This setting is similar to the unit and hero settings and upgrade settings combined. (For the fiftieth time) Here you can use 8739 again as 0 to make things free and fast.

Time: This is how much time it takes to research this ability from it's proper building

Minerals: This is how much minerals it takes to research this ability

Gas: This is how much gas it takes to research this ability

Energy: This is how much energy the ability needs in order to function

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Review Quiz

Yay another quiz!! Don't worry only 3 easy questions.

 1. Which settings is where you can edit the names of units?

A. Special Ability Settings
B. Units and Hero Settings
C. Upgrade Settings
D. Name Settings

 2. Which settings is where you can edit the time, cost, energy of special abilities?

A. Special Ability Settings
B. Units and Hero Settings
C. Upgrade Settings
D. Name Settings

 3. Which settings is where you can edit the cost, and time of upgrades?

A. Engineering Bay Settings
B. Units and Hero Settings
C. Hoo Wah Settings
D. Upgrade Settings

Answers 


Text Enhancers

                This section will be fun (not)! You will learn how to use colors, overlaps, and overlaps with color!! Once you learn how to do this, you can add them into the unit names, forces, title, mission briefs, text msgs, Leader board text, and much more! This part might be a bit complicated for those who don't have a recent Windows Operating System version, so bare with me. Note-Only x-tra can do colors and overlaps.

Colors

                 This part is very simple. If you use text enough you should notice on the right hand side of text boxes and forces boxes, their is a list of colors. Beside each color you see a symbol (the symbols might all be the same depending on the operating system). Let's say you want to make a text red. You find the symbol next to it, let's say it's  -. You then highlight it. Once you highlight it you hold ctrl and press "C" once (copy). Then you find the word or letter you want red. Once you find the word or letter, you place your bar pointer thing on the left of the word or letter that you want red, and you do ctrl then press "V" once (Paste). Then you should see the symbol next to the word or letter.

Example:

You want the text "Hi" to be red.

  1. You find where it says red

  2. go to next to the the place where it says red

  3. You will find a box where it has a symbol in it (let's say the symbol looked like " - "

  4. Highlight the symbol

  5. Do ctrl+c on it (copy)

  6. Place your bar pointer on the left of the "H" in "Hi"

  7. Do ctrl+v on it (Paste)

  8. Should look like this "-Hi"

The colors that have * next to it means that. If you put the like maybe next to the first letter on a sentence, that means the rest of the sentence can only be that color, you cannot edit it with another color.

Overlapping 2 Times

This is one of the hardest parts to teach. You cannot perfect this method, it's all a matter of playing around with it until you get it perfectly in the right spot. Every word can mean a different amount of spaces and tabs. I'll teach you the way I learned it which is using tabs. In x-tra you cannot just press the tab button to make a tab space, you must open a word document program like notepad or Microsoft word to get it to work. Once you open either of these programs you press tab, and then you copy the space between the Tab, which is what I call a tab space. The number of Tab Spaces and regular spaces vary for every word. Some words might have 5 tabs and 2 spaces, others may be 3 tabs 6 spaces. There are other ways to overlap, but by far this one is the simplest and easiest way to learn:

Example:

Let's say you want to overlap the word "Players" in the forces area. First thing you do is find the overlapping symbols. I will abbreviate everything for you:

[FO] = Front Overlap Symbol
[BO] = Back Overlap Symbol
[C] = Color Symbol
[Tab] = Tab space
[Space] = Spaces (Color is Optional)

Here is what you do to overlap "Players" in the forces text box:

[BO][BO][C]Players[FO][C]Players[Tab][Tab][Tab][Tab][Space][Space][Space][Space][Space]

Overlapping 3 Times

Overlapping 3 times is extremely hard. I'm too lazy to do it but I'll give you the formula to it. It's very similar to the 2x's but a bit more stuff to it:

[FO] = Front Overlap Symbol
[BO] = Back Overlap Symbol
[C] = Color Symbol
[Tab] = Tab space
[Space] = Spaces (Color is Optional)

[BO][BO][C]Text[FO][C]Text[BO][BO][C]Text[x number of Tabs][x number of Spaces]

Have Fun!

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Review Quiz

1. How do you copy the symbols using the keyboard?

A.Ctrl+Caps Lock
B.Alt+V
C.Ctrl+C
D.Ctrl+V

2. How do you paste the symbols using the keyboard?

A.Ctrl+V
B.Alt+V
C.Ctrl+C
D.Ctrl+Caps Lock

Answers 


Properties

This is where you edit the title of the game. You can put a brief description of the game here. 

Things to Add

Adding Color and Overlapping makes your map look more professional. Gives the map a better look. When player joins the game, they will instantly like it (usually), because the map looks more advance then those crappy ones that were lazily made. Make sure the brief description includes color, your name, your clan name (if it's Map Making) and a detailed but short description of your map.


Forces

This is where you split the teams up. To move players into different forces drag a player to the appropriate force.

Allies
The players in the force are all allies in the beginning of the game

Allied Victory
All the player in the force are set to Allied Victory at the beginning of the game

Random Start Location
The players are randomized so player 1 might have the triggers of player 2 or player 3. (If you still don't understand I strongly recommend you uncheck it every map you make)

Shared Vision
All player in the force all vision each other

Things to Add

This is one of the best places to add overlapping and Color. Keep in mind Overlapping 3 times here is extremely hard. The easiest place for that is the title in properties.

 


Mission Briefings

            If you were to ask me what's my favorite part of making a map, I would say the mission briefing. Why? This part is all about the creativity and how imaginative you are. The more creative this section of the map is, the more enjoyable the map is for the players.
           Mission Briefings are displayed in different styles. Some people like to explain how to play the game here, some people like to explain them in the game. Others, like to display the storyline or introduction in this section to give you a detailed information of the story. Another style, that in my opinion  is the most interesting to watch is the ones that contain moving text, blinking, and other sorts of cool things to kick off a good start.

How to Use Mission Briefings

 Mission Briefings are like triggers, but there is no condition, everything goes down the line from top to bottom. To begin, you click "New". Once you clicked the button you choose the player or force that the mission briefs will display to. Then click "Next" again. Now you choose what will happen (Keep in mind you don't have to use every single option in order to make it):

Pause-This is how long you have to wait until the next briefing action to function

Show Portrait-This is where you pick a unit, and display the portrait of that unit. The portrait is the animated picture that is displayed when you click a unit in the game. After you choose the unit you want to display, you choose the slot it's going to be in (Slot 1, Left, Slot 2, Mid Left, Slot 3, Mid Right, Slot 4, Right). You maybe have a total of 4 portraits displaying at the same time. You can also replace a portrait in a slot if you want to.

Display Speaking Portrait-If you want to display a unit's portrait and make it look like it's talking (Let's say the portrait is on Slot 3), you have to choose Slot 3 where it says 'Slot Number'. You may also have a total of 4 unit portraits talking.

Hide Portrait-This makes the portrait in whichever slot that you choose disappear, for the rest of the briefing, unless you add another portrait there (Confusing isn't it?).

Mission Objectives-This is the small spot area on the bottom left hand corner, when the briefings appear during the game. It has a total of 8 lines (from top to bottom).

Play Wav-This is where you choose a sound that you have inserted into the sound editor, and play it out during the briefings. Go to the Sound Section to learn more about it

Text Message-This is the middle spot during the briefings in the game. It has a total of 6 lines (from top to bottom). You must input in how long the text will last before it disappear (used in blinking text).

Transmission-This is the spot where you do multiple things at once. Let's say you had a unit portrait on Slot Number 1. You then can make the portrait speak, while playing music. To add to that, you can display a text message, and set how long the whole transmission will go.

Tips and Tricks

              There's different styles of mission briefings, as I said before. Always include your Starcraft account name, and if you have a map making clan, also include it in the mission briefings. That way, you can advertise the clan you're in, and have people come to you and say "Aren't you the guy who made (whatever) map?" (If your map sucks, they'll come to you and say "Aren't you the guy who made that ****y map?"). I like to include the name in the mission objectives area. That's where most people add effects to their name, such as blinking text, colors, or moving text. The text message area, is where I usually put either the introduction, or how to play. You can use unit portraits to portray who is speaking the text. Keep in mind when your adding effects, the waits are very important. Thus, you must test many times your mission briefings before you declare that section finished. Adding sounds to mission briefings beefs up the whole brief. If you can make the sounds go with the text, that would make your mission briefings very fun to watch for players. 

Mission Brief Examples

Yeah, that's right examples. Learning Map Making is all about seeing how others do it. I'm not saying you should copy exactly what others do, but you should see what other people think of. Here's some maps with good mission briefing examples (sorry I don't have links to all of the maps):

Dodge the Mom [Made by Me as Dark)i(Myths]
Time Up Bound [Made by (U)Bolthead]
Stasis Field Defense [Made by Me as Dark)i(Myths]

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Review Quiz

1. Which Mission Briefing action has multiple functions?

A.Mission Objectives
B.Text Messages
C.Transmission
D.None of the Above

2. What's really makes a mission briefing really fun to watch?

A.Sounds
B.Color
C.Overlaps
D.All of the Above

Answer


Sounds

Sounds are one of the things you just must have in every map. The disadvantage is it increase map size by a lot. There is a way to make them no increase map size using a different editor called Scm Draft 2 & Starforge. I am not familiar with using it, so I will just teach you how to use the sounds and put sounds in maps the way using x-tra. 

Here's how to input sounds into x-tra:

  1. Open Sound Editor in X-tra

  2. Click "Import"

  3. Find a sound you want (can only be in .Wav format)

  4. Double Click the sound you want (choose your compression, Highest compression recommended)

  5. Wait for the sound to finish importing

  6. Finished!!

How to Make Sounds

         Yes, you can make your own sounds and convert other music formats in Wav format, FREE! Find Windows Recorder. It's under Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder in the Windows Operating Systems. Once you open Recorder. Place your microphone near the speakers, click record, and then click the play button in the music. Once the music is finished, click stop, and use "delete before current position" and the "delete after current position" to edit the music. Once you finished that, save your sound somewhere you can find later on and input into your sound editor. Play around you'll get the hang of it ;).

Reducing Sound File Size

There are ways to reduce sound file size. When you are importing sounds into the sounds editor, for compressions choose highest compression. It's lowest quality but the quality is good enough to hear. When you record music you should just record the spots where they're not repeated, because you can loop the music to repeat that music using triggers, which I will discuss in the later sections.

Tips and Tricks

Using sounds as background makes the map more fun and exciting! You can use it in mission briefings, and make it blend in with the text effects, such as the ones in Time Up Bound, and Stasis Field Defense. Or, you can make it in a game, Like when your in the town, there's a town music, and when your in the forest there's forest music, often used in RPGs, such as the Death Knights series made by Alpha(MC). Another example of music blending into the map is in the map called A&O Trailer made by Tuxedo-Templar. Which is an intro to Tuxedo's upcoming RPG.

Here are some sites you might want to go to get or record sounds from:

http://www.flashkit.com      [One of my favorites, you can download Wavs there, without recording them]

http://www.findsounds.com      [A good search engine for music, but you have to manually record the music]

http://www.google.com       [Yup, the most trusted search engine for all the sound sites :)]


Triggers

Okay! You ready...for the hardest section of them all? Good! Let's get started...

Choosing Players/Forces

When you click the "New" button you arrive at a window that shows a bunch of checkboxes next to players/Forces. You must check the boxes you want the triggers to act upon. Which means if you want Player 1 to get healed, you check player 1. If you want Player 1-5 and they are all in the same force, you check whichever force they are in, if you want to do it the long way, you can check Player 1-5's boxes. Once you have finished click "Next"

Conditions

Definition of Condition from LeeJase Dictionary-Something that has to be met, in order to have something happen.
Definition of Condition on Starcraft-Actions will not happen, unless the conditions are met.

Definition of Condition for Idiots-That means NADA will happen if the Conditions are not met.

Keep in mind, you can make more than one condition. The more conditions there are the less the condition can be met (in most cases). Conditions are as important as the action. If a condition is failed to be met, the whole rest of the action will not function. So you have to be careful when choosing the conditions.

Here's a list of Condition explanations:

Accumulate
This means that when this player reaches a certain amount of minerals or gas, the action will occur.

Always
This means that this action will definitely happen sometime in the game at least once. Putting always in the condition doesn't mean that this action will keep on happening consecutively, you have to add Preserve Trigger action to do that (Which I will explain later on in the preserve trigger section).

Command
The action can't happen unless this player controls a specific amount of a specified unit.

Command the Least
The action can't happen unless the player controls the least amount of a specified unit.

Commands the Least at
The action can't happen unless the player controls the least amount of a specified unit at a specific Location.

Commands the Most
The action can't happen unless the player controls the most amount of a specified unit.

Commands the Most at
The action can't happen unless the player controls the most amount of a specified unit in a specific Location.

Countdown Timer
The action can't happen unless the countdown is at a specific time. (Example: Countdown Timer is exactly at 0 countdown seconds), which means that the action will happen after the countdown is over.

Deaths
The action can't happen unless the player has suffered a specific number of a units' deaths.

Elapsed Time
The action happens at the number of seconds during the game. (Example: Elapsed time is exactly 30 seconds), which means that this action will happen 30 seconds after the game starts.

Highest Score
The Action happens only if the player has the highest points in the specified type.

Kills
The action happens when the player kills a certain amount of a specified unit.

Least Kills
The action happens when the player has the least kills of a certain amount of a specified unit.

Least Resources
The action happens when the player controls the least gas, minerals, or both.

Lowest Score
The action happens when the player has the lowest points in a specified type.

Most Kills
The action happens when the player has the most kills in a certain amount of a specified unit.

Most Resources
The action happens when the player controls the most amount of Gas, Minerals, or Both.

Never
The action will never happen at least once (Unless you preserve trigger).

Opponents
The action won't happen unless there's a specified amount of opponents left in the game.

Kills
The action happens when the player kills a certain amount of a specified unit.

Score
The action will not happen unless the player has a specific number of a specified type of points.

Switch
When the switch is set, this action will happen.

Actions

This is similar to the conditions, except it does a completely different job. This is what happens when conditions are met. It can be killing units, spawning units, moving units, and more! Here's an explanation to every action in x-tra:

Center View
This centers the screen in a specified location. (If you specify it to location 'anywhere', it will center view the exact middle of the map)

Comment
This is NOT the messages that display in the game. This is kind of like Computer Programming, where you write something so you remember what this is about, but it doesn't affect the game at all! Don't get this confused with the 'Display Text Message' action.

Create Units
Also called Spawning. This is the action you create X number of a Specified units at a specified location.

Create Units with Properties
Also called Spawning. This is the action you create X number of a Specified units with properties at a specified location. In properties, you can make units invincible, hallucinated, in transit (lifted buildings), and cloaked.

Defeat
This means this will make the player receive the defeat sign, which means he can no longer play and be in the game.

Display Text Message
This is where you show a text message to the players during the game. You may add colors if you chose to (strongly recommended).

Draw
This means this will make the player receive the draw sign, which means he can no longer play and be in the game.

Give Units to Player
This will give a number of specified units owned by Player X to Player Y at a specified Location.

Kill Unit
This means killing all of a specified unit in the game.

Kill Units at Location
This means killing a certain number of a specified unit at a specified location in the game.

Leader Board (Control at Location)
A score board showing who controls the most of a certain unit in a specified location from top to bottom.

Leader Board (Control)
A score board showing who controls the most of a certain unit from top to bottom.

Leader Board (Greed)
A score board showing who has the closes control of a certain amount of Minerals, Gas, or Both from Top to Bottom.

Leader Board (Kills)
A score board showing who kills the most units from Top to Bottom.

Leader Board (Points)
A score board showing who has the most points of a certain type from top to bottom.

Leader Board (Resources)
A score board showing who controls the most of Minerals, Gas, or Both.

Leader Board Goal (Control at Location)
A score board showing who has the closes control to X number of a specified unit at a certain location from top to bottom.

Leader Board Goal (Control)
A score board showing who has the closes control to X number of a specified unit from top to bottom.

Leader Board Goal (Kills)
A score board showing who has the closes number of X kills of a specific unit of a certain unit top to bottom.

Leader Board Goal (Points)
A score board showing who has the closes control of X amount of a specified type of points top to bottom.

Leader Board Goal (Resources)
A score board showing who has the closes control of X amount of Minerals, Gas, or Both from top to bottom.

Leader Board Computer Players
Disable, Enable, or Toggle computers being displayed on the score board. Toggle means if the computer scores are enabled, it gets disabled, Vice Versa.

Minimap Ping
You are playing melee, and you just trained a marine, then you see a green blinking rectangle on the minimap. That's a minimap ping, except here you can edit where you want the ping to be (what location).

Modify Unit Energy
Here you set energy for a unit at a certain location to X percent.

Modify Hanger Count
Here you set how much scarabs, interceptors, etc a Carrier or Reaver contains at a specified location. You need this in order for computer reavers or carriers to attack.

Modify Unit Hit points
Here you set how much percentage of life a certain unit will get at a specified location.

Modify Unit Resource Amount
Here you set how much minerals a mineral field will get at a specified location. (Same with Gas)

Modify Unit Shield Points
Here you set how much percentage of plasma shield on a specified protoss unit at a certain location.

Move Location
Here you can move locations onto a certain unit at a location.

Move Units
Here you can move a specified number of a certain unit at a certain location to another location of your choice.

Mute Unit Speech
Turn off the unit talk, when you click on the units and order them.

Order
Order a specified number of a certain unit a location to move to another location of your choice.

Pause Game
Game is Stopped Temporarily, and you can resume it using the menu.

Pause Timer
Stops the Countdown Timer Temporarily.

Play Wav
Here you can play the music that you uploaded into the map.

Preserve Trigger
If you want this trigger to happen again, you include this, so this trigger can keep on happening as long as the condition is met.

Remove Unit
Remove all of a specified unit from the game.

Remove Unit at Location
Remove X amount of a specified amount of a certain unit at a chosen location.

Run AI Script
This is where you can turn on other players vision (or lights on/off), so you can see their units. If the player the trigger is functioning on is a computer, you can use the other functions such as "random suicide missions" or "strategy suicide missions", which means the computer will go find you, and try to kill you no matter what. You can also make it "switch player to rescuable". Which means you can go and rescue units of that player (DUH!).

Run AI Script at Location
If the player is a computer, you can set it's strategy. You can make it more Offensive, Defensive, Easy, or Hard at a specified location.

Set Alliance Status
This is where you can set which players/ forces are allies, and which Players/Forces are enemies.

Set Countdown Timer
This is where you set, add, or subtract countdown timer seconds.

Set Deaths
This is where you edit how many deaths a specified unit has.

Set Doodad State
This is where you can cloak some units, crash sc, and a lot more!

Set Mission Objective
This is where you can put instructions, so people in the game can go there to see how to play.

Set Next Scenario
This is where you can set which map you want to load after the current map is finished. Keep in mind this only works on Single Player Mode.

Set Resources
This is where you can Set, Add, or Subtract minerals or gas.

Set Score
This is where you can set, add, or subtract X number of a specified type of points.

Set Switch
This is where you can set, clear, toggle, or randomize switches.

Talking Portrait
This is like the Display Speaking Portrait on the Mission Briefings except it's in the game. It displays the portrait mouthing silently.

Transmission
This is a little bit similar to the one on the mission briefings. You choose which unit to send transmission to, which means that that unit will have a blinking command point on it, and there will be a minimap ping on it. You also need a Wav to play while doing that. Don't forget to set how long the transmission will happen. Then you type in what text you want to display during the transmission.

UnMute Unit Speech
This is where you turn on the units talk, if you had muted it before.

UnPause Game
If the game is paused, you can resume it using this action.

UnPause Timer
If the Countdown Timer was paused, this can resume it for you.

Victory
This means this will make the player receive the Victory sign.

Wait
This is almost like the one in the mission briefing. Except this is how long you have to wait till the next trigger Action will occur.

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Review Quiz

1. What Action can add resources?

A.Accumulate
B.Set Resources
C.Add Resources
D.None of the Above

2. What Action can add points?

A.Score
B.Set Score
C.Add Points
D.None of the Above

3. What Condition means something will happen at least once no matter what?

A.Set ForSure Trigger
B.Preserve Trigger
C.Never
D.None of the Above

4. If an Action will happen at 2 seconds what Condition is that?

A.Countdown Time
B.Elapsed Time
C.Seconds Condition
D.None of the Above

Answers


Useful Basics

 I'm sure, by now, you learned what you needed to know about how everything works. I want you to get a good start at making a map, so here are some common trigger examples, that you will most likely want to know for the future...

Heal Zone

Heal Zones are used in  90% of Rpg maps on Starcraft. (Heal Zone made by SkottyKow)

Unit Healing
This trigger is used for healing (imagine that) units at locations or if you put it right at anywhere.
1.) Make a condition that you want to be met, (e.g. Bring 'unit' to 'location', or Countdown timer is exactly 'time', Be creative!)
This could look like:
____________________________________________
Conditions:
'Current player' brings at least '1' 'any unit' to 'location'
____________________________________________
Or whatever you want the condition to be.

2.) Set a location to be used to be a heal spot (e.g. 'location', or if you want all units to be healed: 'anywhere')
3.) Choose how much they get healed (e.g. 100% or 87%). This will be the percentage of hit points (shields not affected) of the over all units hit points. (e.g. 33% of a total HP of 60 would be 20 or 21 HP).
4.) Choose what how many of what units will be affected (e.g. '1' 'Terran Ghost' or 'all' 'Any unit').
5.) Last but definitely not least, is the Preserve trigger (if you need it to happen again)
Steps 2-5 might look like this:
___________________________________________________________
Actions:
Set hit points for 'all' 'any unit' owned by 'player' at 'location' to '100'%.

Preserve Trigger

Comment (if you like)

Invincible Units in an Area

Make a location. I will call it 'Invincible'

Go to triggers and pick which player you want to make invincible.

Condition:
Current Player brings X any unit to 'Invincible'
Action:
(Set Invincibility) Enable invincibility for any unit owned by current player at 'Invincible'
Preserve Trigger
Comment (Optional)

Killing Units Near A Unit

In the Dodge the Mom map, when the mom is near the dodger it will just die. Looks hard but it's just 2 triggers. Let's say you want units to die when they are near the zergling. Make 1 location, let's call it 'Kill'. Now pick the player that controls the zergling. Then do this to center locate the zergling:

Condition:

Always

Action:

(Move Location) Center location labeled 'Kill' on zergling owned by current player at 'Anywhere'
Preserve Trigger
Comment (optional)

Now pick the player that will die when it's near the zergling. Then do this:

Condition:

Current player brings at least 1 of any unit to 'Kill'

Action:

(Kill unit at location) Kill all units at 'Kill' for current player
Preserve Trigger
Comment (Optional)

Bound Game Effects

In a bound game you notice explosions. They look very cool and everything don't they? They are quite simple to make. All a matter of spawning and killing. All it really is an archon or another unit being created then killed. It's so fast you can't barely see the archon being spawned. Make a location, let's call it 'Archon Kill A' Here's how you do it with an Archon:

Condition:

Whatever the condition is

Action:

Create 1 archon at 'Archon Kill A' for Current Player
Wait 80 Milliseconds
Kill all archons at 'Archon Kill A' For Current Player
Preserve Trigger
Comment (Optional)

Dark Swarm Firing System

(Made by Intangibles)

Alright boys, I'm going to put up my first tutorial on how to use a Dark Swarm to as a firing system (As seen in a couple maps by good ol' Tuxedo-Templar )

Okay first things, first. Make sure you go to Player settings--Special Ability Settings and put the Default for Dark Swarm to Researched.

Now you're in good shape. Also, don't forget to edit the energy that it takes to cast it [Scenario--Special Ability Settings] so that they can shoot more than 8.

Now, if you didn't already know this, all dark swarms belong to PLAYER 12. That means, that you won't be able to tell WHO cast the dark swarm, only where it ends up . This means that you will either have to make it so that you can damage yourself or only allow it to be cast outside of a certain location surrounding them.

Now onto the good part: The triggers.

Players: Player 1
Conditions:
All players bring at least 1 Dark Swarm to location anywhere [Player 12 is considered one of the "all players"]

Actions:
Center location "Explosion" on all dark swarm owned by all players at location "Anywhere
Remove 1 dark swarm for all players at location" Explosion"
Kill all any unit owned by all players at location "Explosion"
Preserve trigger

You could also make an explosion by like creating a terran unit and then killing it at "Explosion". Heck, you could even put in sound and everything, make it real nice 

Hope you like my little tutorial HAVE FUN WITH IT 

Kill Score

This is when you kill a unit u get one mineral. Make a custom leader board and name it kills.

Condition:

(Score)Current player has a kill score of at least 1 of any unit

Action:

(Modify Score) Set to 0 kills
(Modify Resources) Add 1 mineral
(Modify Score) Add 1 Custom
Preserve Trigger

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Common Mistake:

Condition:

(Kills) Current player Kills exactly 1 of any unit <-------------------WRONG!!!!

Action:

(Modify Score) Set to 0 kills
(Modify Resources)Add 1 mineral
(Modify Score)Add 1 Custom
Preserve Trigger 

Buying Units Triggers

(Made by SkottyKow)
You know on that Cat and Mouse game, where you buy units with the minerals you mine? Or how about that defense game, where you get more marines or hydralisks. Though it seems easy, you just cant get the "buy" trigger to work! Well here is how you do it.

Okay, first you have the location you want to have the player to bring a unit to. You got that? Good. Now put a location beneath it (or wherever you want them to return after they buy something)

Now, put a beacon beneath the location you want people to buy the unit. Then, put the unit you want to be bought behind it. To help you place the beacon so that the location matches exactly, go to: edit>show grid. 
Your map should look something like this:


It doesn't need to be EXACTLY like that, but it should be somewhat similar.

you need a place for the unit to spawn, so ill call it spawn location

Next, put a civilian there (or whatever unit you want to bring to the beacon)

Make a trigger like the following:

Conditions:
Player brings at least 1 UNIT to Buy unit
Player accumulates at least # minerals (or whatever your 'currency' is)
Actions:
Move 1 any unit for player at buy unit to buy return
set resources, subtract # Minerals
create 1 UNIT at spawn location for player
Preserve trigger

There! That works, repeat that for each unit and your done with that!

Hyper Triggers

(Made by StrikerX22) Be Warned this part is extremely long!!

Hyper Triggers are a tool used by intermediate and advanced map makers to increase the speed of the trigger cycle, as I call it. That doesn’t mean the game speeds up, but rather, it speeds up how often the game checks for the conditions to be met in the triggers. Starcraft has a rather slow trigger cycle speed, about once per second. If we use a special property of one of the action in a trigger, then we can actually speed up the process, and it isn’t hard. However, there are a few bugs in doing this.

Below is a discussion on what they can be used for, how they are made(2 methods), how they actually work, and finally, times when using them should be avoided.


Uses

Since they increase the trigger speed, that immediately gives the result of faster reactions. Like when you want to buy something, you move a civilian to a pad or whatever, and it activates immediately as he steps onto the location that you have over the pad. Now that isn’t exactly so important, but when you add things like custom spells, or have timed races, or possibly when you make bounds, hyper triggers can be very convenient. You don’t want to sometimes have to wait a whole second for a custom spell to be cast when you tell it to, along with other battle/action related issues. I gives the power to actually make a highly tuned map.

I myself use them whenever possible, just to make my map more professional. Recently, I attempted playing around with making my first Starcraft movie, and I used a combination of hyper triggers and Death Count to make a movie timer, which always runs in the background, and is very accurate.

Overall, they’re powerful and fun to use. Some things wouldn’t be possible or plausible without them.


Types of Hyper Triggers & How they are Made

Now there are two types of hyper triggers that I myself use in maps. Many people do it differently, but these seem to be the best to me, and many people have no idea why they do it a certain way other than that they read it they were told to do it some way. By the way, for reasons of compatibility with Waits in other triggers, and also aesthetics, put waits at the bottom of the triggers. More is explained later in the bugs section. IMPORTANT: Forces and All Players sections are considered “above” individual players, and players with higher numbers are above lower ones! The ones “above” run first.

My first type was like this:

Always();
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PreserveTrigger();
Comment(“Hyper Trigger”);
(A1)Wait(0);
(A2)Wait(0);
(A3)Wait(0);
(A4)Wait(0);
(A5)Wait(0);
…(there are 64 slots for actions, and I make 62 waits and a Comment and a Preserve Trigger. 62 + 2 = 64)

( I make about 10 of those triggers later I’ll explain why this isn’t necessary), because in the past, the trigger speed seemed to not stay consistent with a number of 6 or less, which has been suggested to me before. Also, note that this is for only one of the players, like one set aside for map stuff, like mentioned earlier. However, you can put it on a human if he doesn’t have any Center Views.

My other type of trigger I use when I think I’m having problems, or when I have 8 human players, or whatever. Sometimes it seems like Wait(0); causes a problem now and then, so to reduce the chance of error I try this:

Always();
_______
PreserveTrigger();
Comment(“Hyper Trigger”);
(A1)Wait(10);
(A2)Wait(10);
(A3)Wait(10);
(A4)Wait(10);
(A5)Wait(10);
…(62 waits like the last one)

This is for ALL Players. Now this one seemed to cause less problems on a couple occasions, but it may not actually be useful. I don’t remember those occasions well enough to be sure, as I didn’t understand hyper triggers well then. You can experiment to find out what works best for you. But I think I’ve narrowed down the possibilities a good amount.


How They Work, Bugs to be Aware Of

I have pondered the workings of Hyper Triggers, and I’ve made these conclusions and hypotheses. Some of my ideas are assumed from available evidence, so they might be wrong, and some things I admit I only see it as likely. However, I have done extensive testing on it, so at least you can trust the conclusions as useful, if not entirely accurate.

First off, I need to say that I have strong evidence to believe that…

Only 1 wait can be active at a time.

Therefore, when you have this(2 basic Hyper Triggers):

Always();
_______
(A1)Wait(10);
(A2)Wait(10);
(A3)Wait(10);
(A4)Wait(10);
(A5)Wait(10);
PreserveTrigger();
---------------------------------------
Always();
_______
(B1)Wait(10);
(B2)Wait(10);
(B3)Wait(10);
(B4)Wait(10);
(B5)Wait(10);
PreserveTrigger();
---------------------------------------
*…Other triggers…*

This happens:

?> The first wait in the first trigger (A1) is activated.
?> Starcraft (now referred to as SC) skips the rest of the trigger for now, until the wait duration of 10 milliseconds(ms) is completed.
?> That means it encounters the next wait.
?> Since one wait is in progress already, it does still skip the rest of this trigger too, but without running the timer just yet. It is paused (B1).
?> SC goes through the other triggers you have, and when the wait is up, it keeps going through the rest of the triggers, but once it’s done, it tries to finish the 1st hyper trigger.
?> Of course, it encounters another wait (A2).
?> It runs the wait (A2), and leaves (B1) still waiting.
?> It then of course skips the first trigger like before, and it attempts to resume its last position in the 2nd trigger. It keeps (B1) paused and runs through all of the other triggers again.
?> Notice that it will run through all of those other triggers even when the wait timer is up. It gets back to the trigger as quickly as possible, but gives precedence to the others.
?> Lets skip ahead and assume that the 1st trigger hits the PreserveTrigger(); in it..
?> The 2nd trigger finally runs the wait that has been “waiting.” (This has been tested!)
?> Continues. etc. etc. etc. go home it’s over.

So that’s how it works. The reason it makes your triggers run more often is because it has a mechanism in the Wait protocol that causes it to “hurry up” once the wait is completed. Now, if you set the wait to 0, it won’t actually be a 0 millisecond wait, but rather the speed at which the game runs itself, at least for that portion of the program.

Personally, I think blizzard should’ve made it work this way to begin with. But perhaps it was because of some bad programming bugs that they made the triggers only fire every approximate second. Bugs that are known to me include:

Bugs

• The conflict in using another Wait in another trigger. It will start when the current hyper trigger is run through (apparently), and causes the hyper triggers to not function until that probably larger wait is completed. *Of course, this isn’t a bug that would affect Blizzard from increasing the trigger speed… it’s just a little piece of stupidity that enabled us map makers to override what Blizzard saw as fit. Remedy: This can be overcome by using a unit Death Count instead of a Wait. Death Counts can be added to or subtracted, so they make excellent timers, but they are based off of the trigger speed. So naturally they work best with hyper triggers. However, if you really want to use more waits, put them in a position that will run before the hyper triggers or the trigger will only run the actions above the wait. Not good.

• Center View has major problems functioning at all, when in the hands of a player that also has hyper triggers. *This couldn’t have been a bug that would stop Blizzard either, because it only affects players holding our weird concoction of what we call hyper triggers. It has no affect on anyone but the person holding them. Remedy: This can be overcome by setting aside a player to hold hyper triggers only, with maybe some other things that are for the map itself (just to keep with some sort of convention of purpose). Then the other players can use Center View freely.

I can’t think of any more now, I’ll post more if I do, or you can mention them here.

The thing is, Blizzard appears to use 2 of what I’ll just call “indexes” (I’m not sure, but they may be similar to the “pointers” I’ve encountered in C++…don't know enough to say). These indexes are what keeps track of where SC is in the trigger structure (not actions, but the triggers). The 1st index is the default one, used to keep track of what trigger it is actually on. The 2nd, used by the Wait protocol, is used to keep track of where SC is temporarily, in that trigger structure. So, what we are doing is making SC use the 2nd index, which does not have a delay after it reaches the end of the triggers. The 1st one has a delay of 1 SC second (not quite a real second, on Fastest Speed). Now, each of those hyper triggers will eventually have run through at least once, along with the other triggers. When that happens, the 1st index has finally made it past the last hyper trigger, and through the rest of the triggers. Then, there is that 1 SC second delay. So, in order to make that never happen in a game of any normal human length, you must increase the amounts of hyper triggers, or the amounts of waits in them. The formula is:

Trigger Cycles Before the 1 SC second Delay = [(amount of Waits in 1st hyper trigger) + 1] * [(amount of Waits in 2nd hyper trigger) + 1] * (so on and so forth)

Therefore, the best result out of the least amount of clicking involves a lot of hyper triggers with only 1 Wait in them. But to save space, you can make the triggers be filled with 62, and then have only a relatively small amount of triggers. (62+1) * (62+1) * (62+1) * (62+1) * (62+1) = (62+1)^5 = 992,436,543 trigger cycles before you encounter the delay. Mind you, that’s a lot. The most resources you can set is 9,999,999. If you told it to add 1 every cycle, it would add pretty fast, but you would never make it to 100,000, much less near a billion. So, in looking at this, (62+1)^3 = 250,047; that should be enough. And it takes only a little space.

Note that if you have a long wait, longer than the SC second, like 1500ms, you will cause SC to use its default rate in conjunction with the one you set, to prevent people from stopping the triggers entirely with a long Wait. However, I’ve tested with this particular case, and while it does indeed make the trigger speed erratic, adding 1, then 2, then 1 etc., it is not entirely at the same, well, rate. It doesn’t keep a correct rhythm, even then. So the timers are calculated differently, or the SC second is really not meant to be an exact second after all. But in further studying this special case, something surprised me. When I set the game speed lower than “fastest” (or all the way to the right), it regained a steady rate, the one I had set. Now I happen to know for a fact that changing the game speed affects both the Wait timers AND the SC “second,” but apparently differently! Score another one for Blizzard! They are indeed calculated differently, whether or not the SC second was meant to be a second at a certain game speed.


If you got down this far, thank you for reading... =P


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Special Thanks

Special Thanks to...

Clan Invincible
for giving me this tutorial idea

General Mengsk
for making Starcraft X-tra Editor v2.5 (even though I never talked to him before)

Suicidal Insanity
for giving me permission to make the tutorial and posting it on his site

SkottyKow & Intangibles & StrikerX22
for doing some parts of the tutorial for me

K0w & Ice[N]
for helping me the basics and fundamentals of map making

 


Contact Me

Questions? Comments?

My AIM Screen Name: LeeJase2

Email: InvincibleLeeJase@yahoo.com

Starcraft USEast/USWest Account: Dark)i(Myths

Help Forum: http://www.claninvboards.cjb.net

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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