The original StarCraft had those unused units as able to hire mercenaries but got dropped and let WarCraft III have the fun with it. The neutral buildings in StarCraft II, however, are Xel'Naga left overs and artifacts scattered across the map to allow one player receive an advantage over the other. I just hope these "Xel'Naga Structures" are vulnerable, but is still accessible to anybody at anytime. Just remember that you won't buy any items, tomes, and all of that bullshit from WarCraft III.

Defense of the Ancient better fucking fail in StarCraft II. After all that Blizzard stated that you can't import models and graphics from WarCraft III to StarCraft, it creates a big amount of difficulty to do so. Fuck Defense of the Ancients, and screw Aeon of Strife. Defense of the Ancients ruined WarCraft III enough, there is no way we should allow it penetrate into StarCraft II.

I disagree. DotA made WC3, and although it said you can't import wc3 models, i believe it said you could import models. DotA will happen in SC2. SCBW was limited but I think SC2 will be much different. The creation of unlimited units means more heros, options, enemies, creeps, which is better replay value. DotA has something like 40 heros all different abilities and such. You'd have to play 40 times to try it all. Thats just one of SC2's new power. I don't understand why your against DotA anyway its a shit ton of fun.

StarCraft II may have a experience and inventory system through popular demand, there won't be as much items especially since the campaign does not support either experience or items at all. Despite that StarCraft II where each unit has their own special abilities isn't as much where it is four exclusive abilities per hero like WarCraft III along with specific use. The only Ancient, ever to be in StarCraft II would simply be the Protoss. Most items would be made through scratch if only a few items made by Blizzard definitely has to be seen and available in custom Blizzard maps. Majority of the items in WarCraft III came from the campaign and merchant shops but there is no merchant shops in StarCraft II.

Defense of the Ancients did not make WarCraft III at all, Aeon of Strife made Defense of the Ancients and it just got popular through open source editing then later turned into a closed source. And the Hero Role-Playing System changing the tides of melee games in WarCraft III is what made Defense of the Ancients. Not the other way around. And I have no fucking idea why if some person in their team picks a wrong class, everybody overreacts and leaves the game. The only 'heroes' in StarCraft II would be the Zerg Queen, which is only a base defender along with slow movement, Protoss Mothership, which is the ultimate assault unit of the Protoss arsenal and nothing yet announced for the Terran. I assume it is just a Battlecruiser/Thor combo where neither is a hero at all.

And lastly, YOU CAN'T IMPORT ANYTHING FROM WARCRAFT III INTO STARCRAFT II ESPECIALLY SINCE STARCRAFT II IS RUNNING IN AN ENTIRELY NEW GAME ENGINE AS BLIZZARD STATED.

And in reality, Defense of the Ancients have completely killed the purpose of making maps in WarCraft III as it did definitely killed the mapping community since that map is hosted at least hundreds of times per day that goes all year long.

you could in theory create your own models right? And who said it has to be the same dota, DoA defense of Aiur if thats how you spell it. Zerg vs Protoss with terran thrown in. Dota certainly didn't kill the mapping community, tons of RKR maps come out, king leopold has made a ton of well known maps, doomsday revolution competes with Dota too. and btw. im talking about ROC.

You can't do it directly but there are numerous programs out there which can convert one 3d model format to another. I've been using them for years (nay, a decade now) and sometimes all thats required is to re skin the model which often takes very little time (though It can be a more complicated process). Items, spells, all that bullshit can be easily done in the editor, with the WC3 editor you can make items, spells, etc so there is no reason for us to believe you cannot in the SC2 editor in fact there is more reason for us to believe that we have more freedom with which to make more than what was in WC3 maps.

The map may have 'killed' mapping as you put it in the WC3 community but I don't think the inevitable introduction of it into SC2 will kill our mapping community. We're rooted a little further back and have a larger variety of maps than just dota and I don't think everyone in this mapping community would just surrender all their time playing one map.

I, for one, crave variety. So I am always working on different maps or playing different maps. (you may never see my maps but I do work on them )

I personally don't think DOTA killed WC3 Mapping, rather the fact that the game engine itself, while having a powerful editor, didn't really facilitate many of the game types that made SC mapping popular, Defense, Bounds etc, most of the effort on WC3 mapping was concentrated around making new hero units with cool new abilities, other combat units were an afterthought. DoTA basically just picked up and exploited this feature.

Hopefully, SC2's engine will allow more macro orientated games to make a return, as opposed to Wc3's reliance on absolute micro.