I'm trying to play a team game with my brother over lan. I was wondering if there were a set of triggers that I could put in the 8 player BW Map Wheel of War that would accomplish these goals:

My brother and I on the same force.
My brother and I would be able to pick whatever race we want.
The Computers would be these races:
Comp 1: Terran
Comp 2: Zerg
Comp 3: Terran
Comp 4: Protoss
Comp 5: Zerg
Comp 6: Protoss

The game would have 4 forces, a 2v2v2v2 game.
Me + My brother
Comp 1 + 2
Comp 3 + 4
Comp 5 + 6

The computer players would use the hardest AI that would allow them to play like a melee game would.

The Start locations would be random. And everything would play like a normal game. I cannot for the life of me get the start locations to be random. I am super rusty at this.

I'm unsure if AI scripts would work with random start locations, cause the colors would be different than what you would see in a UMS game. But I would like to know the hardest AI's too

What do you mean Random? Does the Randomize Start Locations flag in the Forces not suffice?

You'll have to play it as a UMS map for the AI stuff to work, I think. Everything that you want to do besides running the AI can be accomplished through the Forces and Map Properties windows (if you have SCMDraft 2, for plain StarEdit, it's Player > Settings and Scenario > Forces). Use the Map Properties (or Settings) screen to set the races how you want them. For you and your brother, set players 1 and 2 as race User Selectable. Set the other players races accordingly. Once you've done that, go to the Forces screen and drag all the players into their appropriate forces. If you play it the way it is as a melee, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, everything should be good except for the difficult AI. For the difficult AI, I don't think you can do randomized start locations, as Malvanis said, because if you play it as a UMS, it goes with the preplaced buildings instead of spawning the CC/Nexus/Hatchery for you. Which is more important, randomized start locations or difficult AI?

The people who are saying it's not possible to do are crazy. However, to do it require a little bit of work on your part... we'll start with an order of operations to make the map possible...
Step 1. Forces: Each of the four forces should have the two player teams, set to ally and allied victory at the start. This lessens the amount of trigger work needed...

Step 2. Detect what race the players choose through user select. Then remove all units. (6 triggers required)

Step 3. Random Start Locations. At the start of the game have the triggers randomly determine who goes where, it will be easier if you want teammates to be next to each other... but you could have completely random as well. It is up to you. You will need to use switches to make this happen. Make sure you have some sort of Death Counter to note what player/computer is where, as this will be handy for step 2. (No guestimate on triggers, but close to 100 maybe)

Step 4. Placing the buildings. These take 2 locations per player/computer. One for the CC/Hatch/Nex. One for the four workers. You will need to use the death counters from above to determine what goes where. (104 Triggers.)

Step 5. Initialize the AI's. You will need to know where their CC/Hatch/Nex is and what player. The hardest AI is Expansion Insane Terran/Zerg/Toss. (56 Triggers needed)

Step 6. Enable the win/start conditions. (3 Triggers)

Step 7. Enjoy your map.

About 269 Trigger total required. You should also be able to easily move this trigger set into any 8 player map for you and your friend to enjoy, but I don't feel like making it :-P.

Do they require starting units and a special amount of resources? or do they play like melee?

Why not use the Custom Zerg/Protoss/Terran?

The thing is, you forget that he hasn't done this for awhile, and may or may not be both knowledgeable in how to do that and willing to put in all the effort. Also, I don't think basic map editor has the option to randomize switches, so if he doesn't have anything better than StarEdit, he can't do what you suggested. I have a question, though, how do you detect what race each player has in a UMS map? Since it doesn't preplace the units, and triggers don't run if you play in melee, I can't think of a way...

If you want difficult AIs, I would try some of the ones at BroodWarAI, they have some really good custom ones, and you wouldn't need to make a map to play them, you and your bro would just have to both load the mod.

Condition
Player 1 brings 1 SCV to location 1.
Action
Set deaths of Hero A to 1

Condition
Player 1 brings 1 Drone to location 1
Action
Set deaths of Hero A to 2

There is race detection, but it's not very simple, but it's there. Oh forgot... user selectable does pre-place units. Try it sometime. There's a reason I said to "remove all units" in step 2.
Also, basic staredit has "randomize" for switches. This whole project is very doable in regular staredit...
And I realize that him being "rusty" means he might not be willing to learn it, but having a programming outline of steps to complete is handy when doing a project.

As far as the Insane AI's go... they play just like melee. How the zerg plays... The first attack is about 12-14 zerglings, second attack about 12-14 hydras, third attack varies depending if they're island or not. But generally about 8 mutas. I haven't made it past here... but that's because it's me vs 7 insane zerg. :-P It's a pretty strong ai when every computer has it. Easy to go against one on one if your a decent sc player though. The only starting units you should need are at least 1 worker, and the CC/Nex/Hat.

And I have to agree, the BroodWarAI customs are very good.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 12:47 am by BlueFalcon. Reason: i answered half a question

My suggestion:
What if you use switches?

Example:
Trigger 1

Conditions
Player x brings exactly 1 terran command center to AI 1.

Actions:
Set Switch Terran AI 1

Trigger 2

Conditions
Switch Terran AI 1 is Set

Actions
Run AI script at location AI Terran Expansion Custom Level

None of you are helping at all.
Here's what you do. Put ALL the players in the same force, randomize start locations, set alliance status for each player in triggers.

That should solve the randomization issue.

Create one location of any size. Create 3 triggers for All Players. One for Terran, Protoss, Zerg.
In conditions, use
Current player commands at least 1 Nexus/Hatchery/Command Center
Current player suffers exactly 0 deaths of unused unit

In actions, use
Center new location on buildings owned by current player at anywhere.
Run AI Script "Terran/Protoss/Zerg Expansion Campaign Insane" at new location
Set deaths for current player: Add 1 unused unit
Preserve trigger

Using only three triggers, you can execute the proper scripts for each player, regardless of colour, race, origin, or religion.

The problem is that he wants each team of computers to be specific races.

Oh, forgot about that one. In that case, stack ALL of the main buildings on top of each other, DIRECTLY on the same coordinates as the Start Locations. If a computer spawns at that location(with predefined race), you just need to remove what you don't need. If a player spawns at that location, the units won't be preplaced(because they are user select).

Or the easiest solution:

Make multiple copies of the map with the computer players in different areas on each map.