Like many of the recent players, I hadn't touched BW since SC2 came out. Now that's it back (at least for a short while) I'm wondering what's changed since ~2010, and what we know has changed since patch 1.17+.

Three main lines of questions:

1. Do we have an active mapping community anywhere?
This is a bit of a two-fold question.
First is bnet activity - I remember the days when you could check list of games on bnet ("Join") and find a map maker or two trying to test their maps. Currently (US-West) I haven't seen anything of the sort.
Second: Forums for in depth discussion works really well, but our global shoutbox is just that - a shoutbox. Are there any sort of map making Discord communities, etc? This is more for the real-time collab that I don't really feel from this site. Does SEN have a Discord channel; and would the site be opposed to making an official one?

2. Do we have a list of confirmed breaks since patch 1.16?
For example, recently I have found that Hyper-triggers work on some maps and don't on others. I'm still looking into it - but I wonder if others have found the answer already. What about other possible breaks? My though process here is to update a few of my favorite maps that are now subpar due to exposed exploits.

3. Is the hacking community still alive?
I ask from the perspective of implementing hack detection in maps - a number of our games use the tactic of showing invalid units to crash the game of a map hacker. At best it's not noticeable, at worst (hypers broken) it's extremely annoying. Is this still necessary in maps?
Do we know if the hack makers have restarted their production? I expect Blizz has added their souped up BNet2.0 warden, and I've yet to encounter an obvious map hacker... but I'm curious if anyone else has had an encounter yet.

As far as I know, very few maps are being developed outside of the forum/discord cliques. Most aspiring mapmakers are likely already a part of SEN or the larger BW UMS community.

The SEN discord (join link) and the BW UMS discord (join link) are the active mapmaking communities I'm a part of, although most people on the former server mostly discuss the potential ramifications of patch changes, while the latter has occasional calls for testing. If you want answers, the SEN discord is a good place to ask. If you want testers, you might have better luck on the BW UMS discord.

I produce maps exclusively for 1.16.1 and will continue to do so until well after SC:R has released in order to wait out the shitstorm of bugs and lack of modding support that the newer versions will bring. However, many people on these forums and on the SEN discord are constantly discussing the fate of certain mechanics and techniques. Here is the forum where most of the new stuff is discussed, with this forum being a likely spot for additional discussion. I do not believe we have a list of confirmed breaks as you describe, though many of our forumers (namely FaRTy) are well-versed in the changes as of late.

I have heard nothing about hacking and I imagine that the hacking community is quite dead and will remain so for at least as long as Blizzard takes to release SC:R given the low projected player population before melee matchmaking is implemented. If anything does occur, you'll likely find news of it on teamliquid, a site that deals quite a lot in melee.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your stay, ask questions, start mapping again, and have fun!

1. Yes we do. Look around you. Although my primary focus of the last month or so is producing large scale Melees for NHFFA, my other projects like Rise of Empires are still very much in active production. Plenty of others here are working on their own things, check the appropriate sections. This is not to say its anywhere near the size or activity of days gone by, but we are far from gone.

2. I believe there is at least one topic if not multiple dedicated to notating all changes brought on by the new patches.

3. Many of the changes Blizzard has made seem less like they have any operational or quality of life impact but specifically serve to make hacking harder. The constant scramble of addresses with each update, the encryption being used, ect. Most of the big hack names (Zynastor, Perma, AgentGOD, ect.) moved on ages ago during the long spell of 1.16, some even before that. Hacks may return in some form but will never be as powerful or as prevalent as they were.

Excalibur already touched up on some of these points, but just to reaffirm...


Well, the mapping community is not inactive. Just not the machine it was in the past, but this might change if anything new happens.

So activity on battle.net with the launch of 1.18 is kind of variable. It is definitely at a moderate level of consistency that the official battle.net servers have not seen since prior to SC2. Pronogo gave out the two main Discords that I know of and he is pretty spot on regarding their areas of use. Not sure how SEN's discord will change in the future, since it is heavily reliant on what happens next.


Nothing super noteworthy. Also have not heard about any hyper triggers breaking... Both the wait-switch and mass-wait versions work still. Both of which are the hyper triggers.

Most of them are not around anymore and I am pretty sure this is high on the classic team's agenda.