Here is something to help you with your Plot thing

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2545-Narrative-Mechanics

in other words... the less text the better

Does this play like the Normandy Sc1 map?

Sort of. Like Normandy, you choose a hero and fight waves of computer units alongside allied computer units. To stop units (and take over a checkpoint area) you destroy Barracks/Factories, etc. Lives will also be integrated, like they were in Normandy. The terrain is similar in layout, but a vast improvement over dirt, high dirt, dirt, high dirt, etc.

Unlike Normandy, however, once you choose a hero you stick with it, there is no healing beacon to go to when you are low on health, there is no option to get 10 normal versions of your hero unit, and there are no weapon/armor upgrades to purchase (other than weapon and armor items that can be purchased).

What I've added to that is a set of actual abilities to use as you advance north (rather than the randomly cast ones featured in Normandy), a ton of items for the heroes to use, mini-bosses with their own abilities (rather than just a hero unit with a ton of HP and damage), and the computer player will occasionally try to take back checkpoint areas.

Awesome, sounds like you only used from normandy what would still make sense to in sc2. I'll definitely beta test. And by that I mean I'll test the finished game with you, people typically take that that statement as "I'll help you test a heroes spells on a blank map, just to see if they glitch"

I redesigned the hero selection screen (yes, that is in-game). Clicking on a hero's name will change the middle dialog to display all the unit's abilities. Hovering over the Q, W, E, R, T, F images will give a detailed explanation of what the ability does. When a hero's info is displayed, a "Select" button appears underneath (and disappears for all players when the hero is chosen). When a hero is chosen, a numbered image representing the player who chose the hero will appear next to the her's picture. In this case, player 1 has chosen the Mech Operative, so the "1" appeared next to the unit.

Compared to the original selection screen, this is a vast improvement.

EDIT:
Also, I noticed an error in the right name images, and have fixed it already.

That looks awesome!

Honestly.

That looks great

Looks a lot like Smashcraft's UI style.

Quote from payne

Looks a lot like Smashcraft's UI style.

Cool, never played it.

Update:

• Added a basic leaderboard for kills, hero level, and lives. I'm not sure if I want to keep this, as the game isn't supposed to be a competition. I think the "kills" column may cause such competition, but I also think it would be fun to keep that up and see everyone have thousands of kills by the end of the game.
  
• I checked out SmashCraft's hero choice screen, and it really isn't that similar. I use the cut corner look based off of SC2's cut corner look, and so does Mephs. Other than that, I can't really see any other similarities. Maybe its because we both use lots of custom images for the hero screen and no one else seems to be doing that.
  
• I'm thinking about changing the Infantry Commander's passive/active ability again. Someone suggested that a role be created that uses the allied computer's units to fight, and I want to try something similar. His passive will now buff nearby allied computer-owned units, and his active will boost his armor for a short time period. This way he lives up to his "Commander" title, and can still be tanky. Unfortunately this may feel a bit useless if the players are in a boss fight and the boss decimates all nearby computer units, but I don't think that would be problematic.
  
• I've designed a custom UI for the game similar in style to the hero choice screen, but I don't know if I want to go through the trouble of implementing it. I'm slowly learning about the SC2Layour files thanks to Helral's tutorials, and I'm not so sure it will be worthwhile in the long run. At this rate I just don't want the screen to be too cluttered, so I figured a custom UI would solve that.

As a side note, the show I'm working on goes on break in about 3 to 4 weeks, so I'll have a ton more time to work on this and finish it. I'm excited about that because only being able to work on this for a couple hours each night doesn't really let me get as much done as I could if I had more time to experiment and whatnot. Therefore I'll have a better idea of a "Beta" ETA in about a month.

Quote

Maybe its because we both use lots of custom images for the hero screen and no one else seems to be doing that.

^ This.

Update!

The following list is reference for me to see which abilities are done and which aren't. Blue means it works as intended, Yellow means it works but has some glitches, and Red means it is not done or needs to be redone.

MECH OPERATIVE

• Missile Array
  
• Shockwave
  
• Laser Cannon
  
• Self-Repair
  
• Flight
  
• Grenades

COVERT OPERATIVE

• Tactical Strike
  
• Mark for Death
  
• Sniper Round [BUG] The ability marker is not showing up properly, but its a simple fix. I just need to change the attach point.
  
• Scope
  
• Cloak
  
• Injection Mine

INFANTRY COMMANDER

• Railgun [REDONE] Need to find a suitable model to use that shows a ton of bullets being fired in the area. Otherwise, the rest of this ability is done.
  
• Bull Rush [REDONE] Need to figure out how to do this without the use of Triggers. Right now it increases speed and moves the unit to the target unit via Triggers.
  
• Cruise Missile
  
• Ironclad [INCOMPLETE] Lacks active portion of ability.
  
• Barrier
  
• Survivalism

MEDICAL TACTICIAN

• Irradiate
  
• Life Leech
  
• EMP Arc
  
• Healing Aura
  
• Energy Shield
  
• Nanobots

ASSAULT COMMANDER

• Rocket Leap [GLITCH] The "jump" is not smooth, and sometimes the landing looks like it goes on longer than it should.
  
• Assault Rally
  
• Flamethrower [FIX] Need to change the size of the damage points.
  
• Speed Burst
  
• Smoke Screen
  
• Turrets

PSIONIC TACTICIAN

• Energy Bomb
  
• Psi Slash [FIX] Need to change the X,Y coords of the damage as they are hitting units in a 180 arc on the unit's right side rather than front.
  
• Void Discs [BUG] Discs are not firing properly at the target.
  
• Siphon
  
• Clone
  
• Psionic Storm

Based on that it looks like I have so much more missing than I thought. Certain things, like Cloak and Smoke Screen, I've been putting off as they are incredibly simple to create and not as time-consuming as some of the others.

I also started to redesign the UI. The final release of this will have a custom UI on it, and hopefully it'll work well. That's not a high priority for me at the moment, so I'll be spending most of my available time on getting these abilities done.

Wow amazing how much work is put into a game nowadays. Like many have said; Easy to play impossible to master. In other words simple and clean and anything advanced should be subtle.

Sorry to do this, but get back to work!

I've been working on this for the past couple months. I just haven't updated the thread at all (or at least I haven't added new posts; the OP has been updated as I've been working).

Good to know! Can't wait to see the final result!

Damn, sorry DevliN - hadn't seen this thread for ages and totally forgot about it. I was under the impression it was only Ahli who was doing an SC2 map...

Got some catching up to do from when I last read the thread, but basically, I'm available to help you with anything data editor related. Ahli's diablo map is essentially a triggered-led combat system and he knows what he's doing so I'm not much use other than testing ...

I'd definitely suggest going for a custom user interface. My pshop skills suck, but SC2 players will know what A, S, M, H, right click, left click do. You could vastly simplify the UI to remove the command card and entire bottom 'bar'. Moving the unit wireframe to the left hand side where the minimap is, and relocating the minimap to top-right or top-left allows you to combine your custom health display near to the wireframe which always looks cool. You could then display the (five?) abilities along the bottom left of the map with their corresponding hot-key over them, and maybe with 'cooldown' bars, protruding up from them. The bars reduce as the ability cooldown reduces - no bars = ability is good to go. You are acquainted with Helrals tutorials on SC2Layout files, it's been a while since i've touched them but if you want to delegate tasks ...
(I can create test maps to better explain how this will work / look)

On to individual problems:

Quote

Railgun [REDONE] Need to find a suitable model to use that shows a ton of bullets being fired in the area. Otherwise, the rest of this ability is done.

Hero Raynors' Snipe actor, duplicated about 20 times with minor offsets will create a flurry of bullets / railgun type effect. [Data editor]

Quote

Bull Rush [REDONE] Need to figure out how to do this without the use of Triggers. Right now it increases speed and moves the unit to the target unit via Triggers.

Might be over simplifying matters, but Zealot Charge comes to mind. Unless you mean this ability applies a passive speed buff to caster, and 'blinks' to the target unit? In which case you need a:
Effect - Target (copied from blink)
Triggering a 'Set' containing the 'Apply Behaviour' (speed buff on self)
as well as the actual original Blink effect (to target unit).

Quote

[GLITCH] The "jump" is not smooth, and sometimes the landing looks like it goes on longer than it should.

Hmm, are you triggering this one? You can create a shit hot leap ability using a Launch Missile effect with a parabolic mover (akin to the Infested Terran Egg spawning that an infestor does), using the unit actor as the actual projectile actor. You can further make it more shit hot by including transfer behaviours which cause incoming missiles/effects to follow the missile-actor-projectile as it flies, allowing the jumping unit to take damage mid-air, otherwise it works as a nice 'dodge' ability to avoid incoming damage since it launches instantly.


Also:

Quote

Certain things, like Cloak and Smoke Screen, I've been putting off as they are incredibly simple to create and not as time-consuming as some of the others.

Tut tut tut tut... Get them done and out the way > feel immensely awesome for making a lot of progress on your map. That's my map-making rule 101.

Anyways, back to reading the last 4 pages in more detail.

Quote from Cardinal

Anyways, back to reading the last 4 pages in more detail.

Someone else displaying the maximum amount of posts per page!

Or maybe he just doesn't remember the last four pages, so he's going back to read just those pages. ;O

Quote from Cardinal

I'd definitely suggest going for a custom user interface. My pshop skills suck, but SC2 players will know what A, S, M, H, right click, left click do. You could vastly simplify the UI to remove the command card and entire bottom 'bar'. Moving the unit wireframe to the left hand side where the minimap is, and relocating the minimap to top-right or top-left allows you to combine your custom health display near to the wireframe which always looks cool. You could then display the (five?) abilities along the bottom left of the map with their corresponding hot-key over them, and maybe with 'cooldown' bars, protruding up from them. The bars reduce as the ability cooldown reduces - no bars = ability is good to go. You are acquainted with Helrals tutorials on SC2Layout files, it's been a while since i've touched them but if you want to delegate tasks ...
(I can create test maps to better explain how this will work / look)

You should check the OP first, I guess. The update timeline on there is more accurate than any posts in the thread. I also mention specific things I fixed in those updates. The custom UI is done. I did it all myself, and it works perfectly.

Quote from Cardinal

Quote

Railgun [REDONE] Need to find a suitable model to use that shows a ton of bullets being fired in the area. Otherwise, the rest of this ability is done.

Hero Raynors' Snipe actor, duplicated about 20 times with minor offsets will create a flurry of bullets / railgun type effect. [Data editor]

Already finished this a while ago.

Quote from Cardinal

Quote

Bull Rush [REDONE] Need to figure out how to do this without the use of Triggers. Right now it increases speed and moves the unit to the target unit via Triggers.

Might be over simplifying matters, but Zealot Charge comes to mind. Unless you mean this ability applies a passive speed buff to caster, and 'blinks' to the target unit? In which case you need a:
Effect - Target (copied from blink)
Triggering a 'Set' containing the 'Apply Behaviour' (speed buff on self)
as well as the actual original Blink effect (to target unit).

Already finished this a while ago, as well.

Quote from Cardinal

Quote

[GLITCH] The "jump" is not smooth, and sometimes the landing looks like it goes on longer than it should.

Hmm, are you triggering this one? You can create a shit hot leap ability using a Launch Missile effect with a parabolic mover (akin to the Infested Terran Egg spawning that an infestor does), using the unit actor as the actual projectile actor. You can further make it more shit hot by including transfer behaviours which cause incoming missiles/effects to follow the missile-actor-projectile as it flies, allowing the jumping unit to take damage mid-air, otherwise it works as a nice 'dodge' ability to avoid incoming damage since it launches instantly.

Fixed this one, too, a while back. It is all done with the Data Editor, using a missile as the unit.

Quote from Cardinal

Quote

Certain things, like Cloak and Smoke Screen, I've been putting off as they are incredibly simple to create and not as time-consuming as some of the others.

Tut tut tut tut... Get them done and out the way > feel immensely awesome for making a lot of progress on your map. That's my map-making rule 101.

Anyways, back to reading the last 4 pages in more detail.

I've probably made more progress over the last couple months than anything I did in the year prior, so no worries there.

For the most part, you can disregard that entire list from May (or whenever it was) as some of it has been fixed and a lot has been changed.