The Galaxy Map Editor^[1] is the upcoming map editor for StarCraft II. It may be available in the StarCraft II beta but not from the beginning.^[2][3] Blizzard has not made a final decision, but the brevity of the beta may preclude making it available before the product ships.^[4]

The StarCraft II Map Editor will improve upon the World Editor from Warcraft III in every way.^[5]

Startools, a proprietary toolset, will be included along with Galaxy. Startools lets modders design and create doodads.^[6]

Blizzard intends to support the modding community. Some mods will be available for pay.^[7]



Features

Files

* All unit abilities will be data driven, enabling great freedom when designing unit abilities.^[5]

* Every game database file is exposed for modification. The trigger editor features the ability to define custom functions and libraries.^[5]

* Galaxy maps are capable of holding thousands of triggers, locations and doodads. It will make all the triggers in the program available to mapmakers.^[8]

* Map "locking" will be enabled, which ensures that no one will lose credit for creating a map.^[9]

Graphics

* Climate graphical effects will be available in the map editor.^[10]

* The map editor will support text color.^[9]

* Lightning effects can be adjusted.^[11]

Terrain

* A number of tilesets will be available, such as wasteland (Mar Sara), volcanic (Char), twilight (Shakuras), space platforms,^[12] jungle^[13] and desert.^[14] A few new ones will also be available, such as a new Shattered City tileset.^[12]

* Terrain can be mixed and matched; you can define your own tileset in the editor.^[9] The terrain textures can be blended, so that a jungle can smoothly transition into a desert.^[11] Doodads such as traps can be freely added to any tileset.^[5] Maximum map size will be fixed at 256 x 256^[9] and sizes of 32 to 256 are available. Map size can be artificially restricted by controlling the camera, preventing units from entering "off-screen" terrain or building there.^[15]

* Water (and lava) levels are adjustable.^[11]

Units

* Unit coloring and neutral units will be supported in the editor.^[9] Blizzard is adding and modifying unit models which will not even be in single-player to make them accessible to models.^[16]

* Many of the units^{[17][18][19][20]} and abilities^[21] that may not end up in the final version of the game, will still be accessible by modders.

* Some single-player-only units will be in the map editor.^[3] The tauren marine will be in the map editor.^[22]

* Units can be "attached" to other units, and units can even be used as special attacks (for instance, modifying spore crawlers to launch banelings as an anti-ground attack).^[23]

* Heroes can carry items in StarCraft II UMS maps through the use of a toggle,^[9] and can carry more items than heroes in World of Warcraft.^[24]

* Blizzard will try to ensure that heroes and units can also gain experience in Galaxy,^[12] although this ability will likely not be available in the campaign or standard multiplayer games.^[9] This will enable map styles such as Defense of the Ancients to be reproduced in StarCraft II.^[9]

* Map makers can define any number of custom attributes for a hero, based on their level.^[25] However, the UI can only display three attributes.^[26]

* The footprint of structures can be adjusted to whatever the editor desires (such as "square" buildings).^[9]

UI

* The UI can be customized, but it is not a user-friendly process.^[27] The files are externalized, and while they can be edited, there will not be support for that.^[25]

* The map editor is being designed to handle third-person shooting maps.^[1]

* Blizzard was able to design an old-fashioned "Lost Vikings" top-scrolling space shooter game within the editor.^[23]

* The map editor can create new HUDs, quest interfaces and dialogue. It even supports "mouselook", so moving the mouse influences the player's view.^[23]

Miscellaneous

* Upgrades can be extended arbitrarily, and can be modified using triggers.^[5]

* Custom races are supported, even with melee maps.^[28]

* There will be support for one more resource.^[29]

* The AI will be script-driven and completely exposed. It will attempt to analyze data and see what the player is doing without "cheating", instead scouting.^[30]

* The entire zerg reveal trailer was made in the level editor, including the Blizzard logo.^[31]

* "Wrap-around" maps can be made, so that units that walk off one edge will appear on the other side. However, they cannot exchange shots.^[32]

* Story Mode Space is all done in the map. Heroes from Story Mode can appear in-game, and in-game units such as the Thor can appear in Story Mode.^[33]

* Information can be stored in "banks", such as characters, which can be moved from map to maps and games^.[23]

Galaxy Language

The editor features a proprietary scripting language called Galaxy^[25] based on C, but users will also have access to the more user friendly Trigger Editor which will allow beginner and intermediate map designers to make advanced maps without having to learn the scripting language.^[6][17]

Galaxy will not be object-oriented, but most of the functionality is based on modifying game objects.^[25]

Triggers will be able to "communicate" with each other. The editor supports custom function definitions; for instance, a map maker can create their own actions built up from actions (or custom script code) and use them in triggers.^[25]

Galaxy features a "garbage collection" system which will prevent memory leaks.^[25]

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References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 On a side note, going along with the Galaxy Map Editor can do anything trend, I hear it may even be able to create a first person shooter style custom game Anyone miss those StarCraft paintball games? Our devs internally have already tried out some pretty clever side projects that have been quite successful. Karune. 2009-08-14. Starcraft 2 UMS mini-campaigns. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2009-08-14.
2. ↑ The Galaxy editor is a project that the development team takes very seriously. They are working very hard to make the editor user friendly and powerful out of the box. Taking these priorities in with also getting StarCraft II ready to be tested in beta, the editor will be available for beta testing, but not at the beginning of beta. You can be sure that beta will involve patches, fixes, content updates- one of which will be the Galaxy editor.

This is going to be fun though - I'm excited! Karune. 2010-02-11. Map Editor in beta? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2010-02-11.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dustin Browder, StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-09-21. BlizzCon 2009 StarCraft II Fansite Q&A. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-09-28.
4. ↑ 2010-02-25. BlizzCast: Taking You Deeper into the World of Blizzard: Episode I3. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-02-25.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Karune. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 39: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-05-28.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Park, Andrew. 2007-05-19. Blizzard talks Starcraft II art design. Gamespot.
7. ↑ Blizzard Entertainment staff, Greg Canessa. 2010-02-009. Battle.net Preview. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-02-09.
8. ↑ Karune. 2007-10-22. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 18: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-10-22.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 Xordiah. 2007-11-20. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 22: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-20.
10. ↑ Karune. 2009-01-22. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 48. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-22.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Webnet. 2009-08-22. Starcraft 2 Map Editor Features Unveiled. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2009-08-23.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Karune. 2008-05-15. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 38. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed on 2008-05-15.
13. ↑ 2007-06-28. Colossus. StarCraft II Features at Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-07-01.
14. ↑ 2007-09-28. Battlecruiser. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-28.
15. ↑ Blizzard staff, StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-10-31. Korean Blue Post Translations. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-11-03.
16. ↑ Samwise Didier, Brian Sousa, Alan Dilling, phdfour. 2009-08-21. Blizzcon 09: Starcraft 2 Art Q&A Panel (Part 2 of 3) (approximately 1:30). Youtube. Accessed 2009-11-19.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Karune. 2007-07-23. StarCraft II Q&A - Karune Briefings. StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-09-06.
18. ↑ Karune. 2007-09-14. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 13. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-09-14.
19. ↑ Karune. 2007-10-01. Re: Question to Karune or another Blizzard Member. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-10-01.
20. ↑ Karune. 2007-12-06. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 23 Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-12-07.
21. ↑ Karune. 2007-09-25. Mothership Abilities. StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-09-26.
22. ↑ Karune. 2008-04-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 35. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-04-16.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2009-08-24. BlizzCon 2009: Battle.net 2.0 and the Galaxy Editor’s Hour. StarCraft 2 Blog. Accessed 2009-08-29.
24. ↑ CoTweet. 2009-11-13. The #StarCraft2 programming team has revamped the inventory system to allow units/heroes to carry more items than #WoW!. StarCraft on Twitter. Accessed 2009-11-14.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 Karune. 2009-06-12. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 52: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2009-06-12.
26. ↑ Cydra. 2009-11-17. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 55. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-11-17. Source