Posts by wacko

  • Unreal engine 3 for consumers? WTF ?

    the UDK is like modding UT3, I mean there is some stuff you do not get, server browser for online multiplayer games, which was built using gamespy for UT3. Saving and loading data was removed, but overall I think whats there is enough for you to be able to make most games. Unrealscript is not OMG awesome but it does the job, and you can do most things it. Overall its a quick way to ramp up a title but there again you are limited by unrealscript which can be a pain but in most cases is enough.

  • StarCraft 2 to Support Priced Maps, Mods

    well as the panel mentioned, it uses "Tile Sets" in that you have a set of textures, but you essentially paint your terrain on, which was not the case for wc3, its supports alpha blended terrain like many other terrain editors, you can also raise and lower the height like a normal terrain editor, as well as use cliffs like you could in wc3

  • StarCraft 2 to Support Priced Maps, Mods

    I would like to highlight that I am not saying this is how it is or how it will be, but just an idea around the feature.

    well even more so one of the concerns I have is what happens when you have a map that was free, they update it and now it cost something ? do you get grandfathered into having the free map or do you have to pay? I think with either solution you piss people off. I think the goal is to drive people to using the feature and not make them feel like they need to buy maps or they can't play the game. One of the big issues behind pay for custom content, and mainly the reason I think we do not find a lot of companies doing it in the mod/map space is most people would want to get money for their stuff right ?! I mean even the guys who make crap wants something for their time, but you soon find out most people playing this stuff are not willing to pay for it. So we have often looked away from charging for player created content in this space because you end up creating a necessity around having to pay in order to play; so then no one ends up playing it. This also leads to shit like we see in DOTA or Dust where you have 50 version of the same fucking map, and in this case it would because people do not want to play the premium version of the map.

    Well then how do you fix this issue? well you allow the players to drive the pay for content and then allow the map maker to make a choice and not feel as if they are locked into having people pay for the map, but if they make that choice they may be committed to it. An example of this would be, say I make a map called "Lost Temple Zerg PWNS YOU BITCHES", this map gets played by a lot of people and eventually ends up somewhere in the top 10 of most played maps. As the author of this map I am notified through some system that my map has gained enough popularity and that I now have the option of making it a premium map, at which point I do and then my map now cost something in order for a person to play it. And as a premium map I may get featured on some main page, etc...

  • StarCraft 2 to Support Priced Maps, Mods

    I will say having implemented parts of this system so far, I share many of the concerns you all speak of and do bring them up as someone who is part of the maps/modding community. My current job at Blizzard is working on the Starcraft 2 map editor and while i was on Battle.net some of my job was working on how maps and mods got pulled from Starcraft 2 to Battle.net and it will not suck.

  • Brrrr its Cold In Here.. Most Awesome contest!!!!!

    MUHAUHAUHAUH… Okay now that I have that out of the way I wanted to announce my giving away a most awesome statue ever. This has been a big year and one of my personal favorite game series announced its next major release that being Diablo 3. In the spirit of giving back to the community I have decided to have a contest to give this statue and stuff away.

    The contest is of course of the mapping nature, and will end on October 30th, thus to allowing people to give these maps a good tuning. The rules will be as following:


    • [*:jrp5qq4y] More than 15 people have to enter.. I am not going to give this stuff away if only two people enter.
      [*:jrp5qq4y] You can enter as many maps as you would like but you only count towards the total amount of people once.
      [*:jrp5qq4y] The maps have to have a Blizzard Theme, this can come from any of the current IP but somewhere in the map it has to make a reference to Diablo
      [*:jrp5qq4y] The maps can be for any current FPS game(Unreal 3, Half-life 2, Crysis, Quake 4, Doom 3) or any current RTS(Command and Conquer 3/Red Alert 3, Dawn of War 2, Warcraft 3)
      [*:jrp5qq4y] You must Post Images of the map and the URL where to download the map on this thread, but only post entries not status updates.

    The maps will then be judged by fellow community members, and then the following prizes will be given out:


    • [*:jrp5qq4y]1st Place: Diablo III OverThrown SideShow Statue(299.99 value), along with a Diablo 3 t-shirt.
      [*:jrp5qq4y]2nd Place: Wrath of the Lich King Beer Stein(89.99 value)
      [*:jrp5qq4y]3rd Place: Lady Vashj Deluxe Action Figure(39.99 value)(and its a big action figure)

    If you have any questions just PM me and good luck I want to see some awesome shit

    Some images of the prizes

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sideshowtoy.com/mas_assets/jpg/80231_press01-001.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://3point.com/warcraftsteins/images/lk_epic_detail_03.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.blizzard.com/store/_images/product?productId=1100000406&type=3&loc=en-US]

  • Regarding Meatwad/MrH2o‏

    Like many others, this comes as a shock to me… and to be honest I am at a loss of words. I knew Martin for about 10 years, and we spoke often on IRC and on MSN about the happenings in our lives and often he would contact me to make sure things were okay. I think that describes the type of person he was; he would often go out of his way to make sure his friends were in good shape and would try to do whatever he could to cheer them up when he could.

    I know for some he seemed a bit wacky or nuts, but what a lot of people didn’t know is Martin was facing a uphill battle against a major case of OCD which for many years provided much complication in his life, and he overcame thse odds and was able to go out in the world and enjoy not only his job but the companionship of his girlfriend, at the same time he made room for all his online friends and the community he so much loved.

    I think we have lost a great person in this community, and it will not be the same without him. I know I will miss him and I hope that where ever he has gone he is killing things crowbars, taking pictures and secretly stalking Gabe Newell.

    Rest in peace, Martin

    Andrew Spiering

  • Error Message Hell

    So I have a questions and would like people to vote in this poll. If your the player of a game on an online gaming network... lets say Steam... and you tried to join a Chat Channel and the server hosting the channel was not online which of the following would you want to see the user experience be.