Here’s the transcript of Heartbourne’s liveblog coverage of the StarCraft II Custom Maps and Editor panel.
2:57 Heartbourne here – covering the maps and editor panel once it starts
3:00 panel starting now
3:02 introducing people – lots of campaign designers and editor creators
3:03 “what are good custom map ideas, and tools will the community need to use them?”
3:03 the four new blizzard custom maps were projects to practice using the editor and see where it needed work
3:04 how did they choose what maps to make? “fun factor”
3:06 custom maps should be easy to learn
3:07 example – tower defense is a great map type. easy to learn, scales up, and has a huge fun factor
3:08 another key factor- get feedback to find out what works
3:10 left2die is a new custom map similar to the infected mission thing in wings of liberty. its co-op
3:11 people love killing zombies – how do you adapt left for dead into a starcraft/RTS world?
3:12 zerg biomass is a resource that you get from zombies and infested structures. its tradeable and research is shared among players
3:12 “outbreak” is the mission its based on
3:13 pro tip: focus on new player experience. new players have low patience; they don’t want to try hard to have fun
3:14 second new map: aiur chef
3:14 competitive 8 player map – cooking and killing – travel around aiur to collect ingredients
3:16 3 rounds – each with a theme ingredient
3:17 next map: blizzard dota
3:17 calling it back – the aeon of strife starcraft 1 map started it all
3:19 DotA style games are simple in an RTS setting: you have 1 thing to worry about
3:19 “its kind of like super smash brothers” – fight sylvanas vs kerrigan, etc
3:20 the map selection screen looks amazing. can’t believe it was made in the sc2 editor
3:21 “feedback to map creators is important – it shows they like and care about it instead of walking away”
3:22 data specialist is up. what a badass title
3:24 this is a little technical. they are talking about how its possible to tweak and create original content using only the editor
3:25 o wow. showing a “rainbow archon” that has some amazing light effects
3:26 hooooly crap. showing some missile physics now. there is some incredible technology in this editor
3:27 patch 1.2.0 will add mouse tracking as a feature editor. this will add turrent tracking and be great for FPS style games
3:28 WANT RAINBOW ARCHONS. THEY ARE SO FABULOUS
3:28 a pair of rainbow archons made a rainbow GG on the ground
3:29 questions section starting now. im excited
3:29 first question: “is the 10 meg limit for publishing changing, and is the premium marketplace coming?”
3:30 it’s coming. we are looking at limitations. there are lots of internal issues to look at and we are working with the battle.net team
3:30 “will blizzard dota be as well-maintained as DotA all-stars?”
3:30 “we want to continually support it like all of our games”
3:31 “how will mouse tracking work with battle.net lag?”
3:31 future updates will hopefully help with lag. battle.net team is on it
3:32 “will warcraft heroes be importable into starcraft 2?” what
3:32 “blizzard dota characters are re-made in sc2”
3:32 “will map publishing ever be cross region?”
3:33 we’ll look into it. we are working hard to improve the map making and publishing experience
3:33 “will the new blizzard maps be locked for editing?” no. awesome, RAINBOW ARCHONS
3:34 “how should beginners get started with mapmaking?”
3:35 we have some helpful projects and guides coming, as well as UI updates
3:36 “popularity system makes it hard to get testers”. blizzard: use other communities, this isn’t what battle.net is really intended for
3:37 “map locking is not very secure and obfuscated. fixing?” yes. especially before marketplace. Its coming
3:38 “when are the new maps coming out, and when are the custom map winners maps coming?” they are coming and will be featured, we don’t have an official date. consider these a beta on the floor
3:41 “is it possible to create game statistics for your published maps and sent back to creators?” they didnt really understand the question
3:41 “how many people entered the custom map contest?” OVER 500!
3:42 “is the starcraft inventory system going to be better?” yeah, they admit its clunky
3:44 “are you going to link maps together like the wc3 bonus campaign?” it was sort of a late-development project in wc3 and they haven’t looked into it
3:44 “are there going to be more filters and options before joining a custom game, eg, picking difficulty before starting a game?” maybe
3:46 “popularity system seems to only takes into account number of times played, so short maps get ranked higher. any fix for longer maps?” they answered a completely unrelated question, haha
3:49 “are you going to release an asset editor so we don’t have to use photoshop, etc” “we have plans for something between now and legacy of the void to add more tools”
3:50 “are there going to be lobbies, speficially slots for game roles, etc? and will there be a ban system?” we want to add the slot system, no plans for game-wide bans
3:52 “what maps will be free and which will be premium?” we don’t know how we are going to handle that
3:53 the panel is over early. they were already scraping for questions
3:53 Heartbourne signing off for this panel. Next up for me is the Starcraft Story Q&A in half an hour!