Ok. I'm new here, and trying to create my first real Starcraft scenario map. It's rather complex, and had been working well. I'm using scmdraft 2.0, and occasionally the editor that came with Starcraft.

I had been testing triggers, and made some changes to the forces, and map properties. When I went to test again, the map wouldn't open in Starcraft. When I click on it on the map selection screen, the map selection screen pieces move off like normal, then just come back as if I had just hit the map selection screen.

I get no error messages when I open the map in either editor, or in Starcraft. I've tried restarting Starcraft, and loading and saving the map in each editor. The map only fails to load if I load with Use map settings. If I use melee, or Free for all, it will work (except, of course that it's not made for those, and therefore not really playable).

If necessary, I can post the map. I've looked around, and found nothing on this particular problem. I have a lot of work in the map, and would rather not scrap it if I don't have to.

Thank you in advance.

Try adding Start locations on the map for all the players that are playing. They are located: Units > Neutral > Start location

Wow, I've actually never heard anything like it. I'd recommend going back to a working version of your map using ScmDraft's backup database and try again. Maybe just a random corruption.

Then again it could be invalid characters. Either in map name, file name, scenario description, force names or something like that. Avoid any special characters to pin it down.
Or you've set invalid player info in ScmDraft. Stay away from player types other than specific race, or computer to pin it down.

It may be a Nooks and Crannies error, they don't always give the error, do you have any semi-complex terrain?

What are the dimensions of your map?

If nothing works, post map.

Its possible that the strings are corrupted from making the map in scmdraft and opening it in staredit.

Maybe he used illegal map dimensions, so that can be his problem I think.

You would think illegal map dimensions would crash on melee mode as well though...

I would have to concur with NudeRaiders hypothesis that it is a map corruption issue, that's the only thing that matches your description of the map selection window re-opening after attempting to open a map.

Things you can try:
Revert back to a older version as Raider said.
Try running your map on a separate computer with SC, or try reinstalling SC (could be corruption within the game itself not the map)

Things you can try but probably won't work:
Go around the edges of your map and remove any buildings that are close.
Remove Overlaps (and colours to be safe) from your map description, map name and force names.

Also do you get any error msgs when you first open the map in SCMDRAFT? This could indicate string corruption.


Invalid player info gives an error message.
That's all I got...

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Feb 25 2010, 8:19 am by private_parts.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I reverted to a previous version of the map, and that fixed the problem. The backup database is extremely useful.