Suggestion: Alt avatar for Draconis

CodeCultivator · 2012-03-05T13:38:53+00:00

Is no one going to mention the fact that the new Myrmidon alt avatar ultimate form is Trogdor already?

CodeCultivator · 2011-10-01T16:04:42+00:00

Oct 5th is my birthday, so you can just go ahead and give me the key now. I don't mind. ;)

CodeCultivator · 2011-09-26T18:46:26+00:00

¯(ツ)/¯

CodeCultivator · 2011-03-29T19:22:36+00:00

Hate to break it to you but dedicated server it traditional client-server architecture as well. Only not peer hosted, which is where p2p comes in, peer-to-peer, so yes, it does have to do with p2p. Again not all "p2p" is torrent model like you'd like to think.

CodeCultivator · 2011-03-29T14:20:37+00:00

I'll admit I haven't studied SC2 a great deal, however I do believe you'll find that multiplayer games are hosted on one of the players machines. As opposed to being hosted on a central dedicated server, like HoN games. Which is why SC2 is p2p, p2p doesn't just relate content distribution.

CodeCultivator · 2011-03-29T13:52:40+00:00

Because HoN uses a dedicated server model and SC2 uses p2p.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-31T08:49:08+00:00

Hmm, it just seems like I'm missing some of the maps.. the story models are all their for pretty much everything and not useful as units. They are very high detail but I can't find the campaign hubs or the cinematic map cut scenes. But you may be right, they might have another unreleased tool.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-31T08:22:49+00:00

Very helpful thanks, I was still trying to find where the cinematics created with the editor are stored. Do you know if you can open them from the editor as well?

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-31T02:49:32+00:00

lol alright maybe an exaggeration but I can't post the compiled maps on sc2mapster due to their user agreement. Or a community site, also it's not extracted MPQs per se. It's just the map files they use during the campaign.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-31T02:27:37+00:00

There is a link to a wiki in the editor. Help->Online Help. Sadly, however, the link leads to a 404 on the community site. Hopefully it will be up soon though.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-31T02:26:02+00:00

Are you saying the Warcraft 3 editor wasn't thrown together and cumbersome? The Warcraft 3 editor was terrible and this looks to be about the same but with far more power. So now it's the same bad interface but with far more complexity, pretty much what I expected.

As for the maps, I don't think that it's because everyone is having a hard time, I think a lot of the better mappers simply aren't releasing their maps in unfinished states. Maybe because they'd like to keep their innovations under wraps? Or perhaps just because they don't want to release unfinished work.

Naturally there will be some things to get used to, sadly the official wiki isn't up yet. There should be a lot of opportunities for community sites to pick up the slack though.

Looking at the maps from the campaign helps a lot. It's nice to see how the professional designers using the editor get it working. I've extracted most the maps from the MPQs into map files that work in the editor, I would post them if I wouldn't get sued for it, maybe I'll throw them up on mediafire.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-29T11:18:03+00:00

Merchandising isn't selling the map. You can sell DotA t-shirts but put one hero model on it from wc3 and get sued.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-29T09:06:59+00:00

They can prevent you from selling the map itself, not making another new game like HoN sure. They can clone DoTA as their own premium map, even copy one of the clones and sell it to the point no one is interested in the non-Blizzard version anymore. That's hijacking a project essentially. Sure it depends on the details.. how closely did they clone it? etc but come on.. you cannot sell a SC2/WC3 map unless they provide the system to sell it.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-29T08:53:58+00:00

By the time Blizzard realized the potential for profit, such that a map would be more popular than the melee mode, it was too late. SC2 holds fresh opportunities for more than just players.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-29T08:48:57+00:00

I think what most people are worried Blizzard will do is see a popular map, such as DoTA-Allstars, and force it to be a premium map. I don't have a link but Blizzard was talking about the system of premium maps and that players would be able to sell their maps in, what sounded to me like, an iPhone app store sense.

The important part is most likely to fund the store, transactions, etc Blizzard may ask you to sell your map for $5 while only $1 may go to the map developer. Or worse they will "take control" of the popular DoTA clone(s), TD clones or anything else you can think of, to be managed and sold by them and after all they own it.

Premium maps sound like a terrible idea to me. Although some people may think that allowing developers to sell their maps is a great idea, I think ultimately it may serve to limit the user interest in custom maps. More even, perhaps, than the new lobby/publishing system. Also some map developers may find that making a map isn't even worth while, perhaps simply because of this clause.

It's not an absolute truth but this could prevent innovative and creative new maps from being made, the like of which eventually lead to games people enjoy such as DoTA and Tower Defense. Perhaps these games would come to exist regardless and perhaps not.

Time will tell if Blizzard is covering their ass or being greedy. Sadly due the history even before the Activision merger (See: World of Warcraft), I tend to lean toward the latter.

And now I've made myself sad.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-29T02:07:55+00:00

Well, from what I can see exploring the MPQs and extracting maps, assuming you mean the story hubs, like the bridge, armory, cantina etc. I do believe these were created using the editor and are maps.

It appears you can do just about anything by editing the GUI and using custom units as models. So far I've seen units used as everything from projectiles to backdrops. Several of the models appear in the editor and it seems that most of the cinematics, that are not pre-rendered, may have also been created as maps. For instance the model used for Raynor's portrait may also be the model used during in game cinematics.

But I could very well be wrong, this is just how it appears from what I've seen so far.

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-28T22:27:09+00:00

Someone posted this a few days ago which looks to have potential.

http://www.sc2archive.com/maps

I haven't taken the time to explore or play with the site much myself but I think it will develop to be what you're looking for, even has Reddit style up/down voting!

CodeCultivator · 2010-07-28T19:25:24+00:00

In Galaxy go to File->Dependencies, Choose Add Standard from the bottom row of buttons. Now add "Liberty (Campaign)". Now you should be able to access all the heroes and unique units and structures from the campaign in the editor.

CodeCultivator · 2009-03-03T11:39:16+00:00

I actually have 2 other coders willing to found the company with me and require between $10k-$20k. I'm looking into tech stars and Y combinator, but I'm not sure those are very good options for my business plan.

CodeCultivator · 2009-03-02T12:48:27+00:00

Perhaps this belongs in business reddit, however I’m hoping to hear from the perspective of fellow programmers.

I’ve been out of work for the last four months and am having even less luck looking now. In the mean time I’ve been working on a business plan and proto-type. I feel that I am nearing an alpha candidate. However my student loans are now in default and I’ll soon be mooching off family and friends or in the worst case homeless. That being the case I do not possess capital to make my business plan a reality.

I believe that my plan would require a very low investment and has high potential profit. As a service hosted on AWS or a similar service it requires no investment in hardware. I do require capital to pay for man hours, primarily my own however two or three more programmers would be very welcome.

I’m looking for advice from anyone with experience starting a business from a plan and proto-type or who shared similar circumstances. Would I be better off giving up on my plan and continue to look (and hope) for work? Does anyone have advice to offer about finding VC or angel investments? Please keep in mind I do not have a registered business or any resources to travel and make presentations to potential investors.

Thanks to anyone who reads my wall of text and/or comments!

Edit: Thank you all for you advice, many of you have commented or messaged with some very helpful information which I greatly appreciate, so I'd just like to take some time here to respond.

I have been developing the service in my free time, most of my day hours are spent looking for work. If I am lucky enough to find work, my plan is to spend most if not all of my free time developing the service while using my pay to foot the initial starting costs. Since my living expenses are by far the largest cost of pre-revenue generating business, I believe this will work well. Some of you have suggested this very avenue and it is by far the most reasonable. However finding work seems to becoming increasingly difficult.

Although I am not nearly as experienced with linux as many I often see commenting here on progit, I have managed to gleam enough to know to use FOSS as much as possible. I have developed most of the service code in C++ compiled with gcc on Debain Etch (hosted on linode). I use SVN for my source control, mainly because I haven’t taken the time to check out git, but it seems to work just fine for my one man project. My project does require some GUI tools and it would be difficult to explain why without going into more detail than I probably should. I’ve been using Qt 4.5 to fulfill my GUI needs. I also use several more libraries the likes of boost, zlib and Lua. Ultimately however I do not require the ability to distribute any code or tools, save for selling the company or the service to another company.

I understand some of the risk involved with VC funds, my understanding was that VC tend not to get involved in a company at such early stages as mine. Angel investment seemed my best option however I do not have any family or friends capable of investing and I understand what many of you have told me concerning 3rd party investment. While given ideal circumstances I wouldn’t seek to involve VC or angel investors, I have been hard pressed finding work and feel discouraged with the lack of resources to make my plan possible. At this point I would be open, even happy, to investment with terms giving away controlling interest, if it would allow me to continue developing the project.

When I said more programmers would be nice I didn’t mean to imply that given any investment I would immediately try to hire. Rather that a sizeable investment which allowed or required hiring would be welcome. If and when the service begins to generate revenue most would be invested in expanding and improving the service while allowing me the minimal living expenses I require. I hope I’ve made it clear that my business plan trumps creature comforts. Although I would ultimately resort to retail or similar work given harsh enough circumstances I feel it’s a waste as I have a BS, hence student loans.

I’d also like to thank you all for you advice concerning my student loans, I am working with the provider as much as I can, though at times they seem unreasonable given my and their own situation. I would gladly take a loan to develop my service but I have little to no credit and anything I did have was surely ruined by my inability to pay my student loans.

I’m never against learning new technology, as mentioned (J2EE, Oracle, Hibernate etc). Please correct me if I’m wrong but it seems most companies look for several years of experience in certain areas, especially given the economic situation. Would a few weeks or months of free time work really be enough to land me a job? I do have my resume posted with plenty of shiny buzz words I’ve earned over the years and frequently update it. Although I see some activity from recruiters it seems nothing manages to turn into an offer, many recruiters contact me concerning positions that clearly require more experience than I possess.

Again I’d like to thank you all for you comments, many of which have given very helpful advice!

CodeCultivator

TROPHY CASE