Bros and gals, I gladly present to you the...



If you're really creative, but just really bad at pumping out maps within 1-2 weeks, this should be loads of fun for you! This multi-week contest allows you to fully test your imagination and make a complete, polished, and very professional map(s)!

** Theme **

Starcraft-Related Campaign

A multi-map campaign that revolves around the zerg/terran/protoss. It can follow either Starcraft 1 or Starcraft 2 canon (although SC2 wouldn't make much sense). There is no limit on how many maps may be in your campaign; however, at least 2 maps must be submitted in your "campaign" for it to be judged. As long as you have done that, you can make any amount of missions that you wish.

** Judging Criteria **

Gameplay: 10 points
Do the maps keep the player's constant attention?
Did the missions have more than just "Build and Destroy" objectives?
Are the maps too hard, too easy?
Are the maps actually fun?

Originality: 10 points
Was the entire idea copied from someone else? If so, did you shape the idea into something unique?
Does your campaign have unique missions/characters/dialogue?

Aesthetics: 5 points
How shiny are your maps? How polished?
Is your terrain blocky in places?
Is the terrain functional? Does it allow for fluent unit movement, or does it cause of a lot of pathing issues?
Are there any text errors? Did you use proper alignment with your dialogue to make it look more organized?
Do you use proper grammar?

Theme: 5 points
Is your submission a campaign?
Does it have at least 2 maps? Does it revolve around the Starcraft universe?

Completion: 5 points
Are there major bugs?
Is the campaign complete?
Do you use the entire maps' space?
Was there any more you could have done?

Extras: 5 points
Did you include a mod? How about EUD actions?
Did you add in "original" music to make your campaign feel original?
Did you change any weapons/portraits to make new characters have a personality?
Did you include cutscenes/cinematic maps to give your submission a more Blizzard-esque feel to it?

** Judges **

1. Dem0nS1ayer
2. TiKels
3. Pr0nogo (Will not judge own submission) idk
4. xAngelSpiritx

** Prizes **

Third Place: 30 minerals

Second Place: 55 minerals

First Place: 110 minerals

Mineral amounts may be subject to change if the sponsor doesn't feel so generous ;o

** Final Words **

I strongly encourage mods/EUD actions. They add to the originality of the entire campaign. Replacing the normal blizzard music with other music and changing the background pictures adds a big difference to the overall product. Sure, the background pictures are purely aesthetic features, but they show that you spent time on making your campaign look very professional. I'm not a great modder, but I do know a few things. If you need help replacing any pictures, portraits, or music, I'll be glad to show you how to do it! It's super easy and it only requires like 2 or 3 different programs! However, I suck at iscript and graphics, so you might want to ask someone else like IskatuMesk for help in that department. He is a modding god. Also, I (sadly) know nothing about EUDs, let alone EUD actions. Ask Roy or some of the other EUD gurus for help in this department.

Finally, this will be super fun if we get a lot of people to join. Please try to submit something if you're even the least bit interested!

** Modding Videos **

Here's the first video that shows how to replace music. Yeah, I know, my voice sucks.


Here's the second video. It shows how you can replace unit portraits and unit quotes.

Damn, I remembered that I forgot to mention something important. PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE CHANGING UNIT PORTRAITS! A lot of random heroes such as Tom Kazansky, Torassque, Danimoth (arbiter), etc don't have their own portraits. They just have the same portraits as the normal wraith, ultraisk, arbiter, etc. If you try to change their portraits, you will end up changing the normal units' portraits as well. In order to work around this, you'll need to get pydat (fuck datedit, it's buggy as shit in Windows 7). As an example, let's say you want to change Tom Kazansky's (the wraith hero) portrait. After you open pydat, search for Tom Kazansky while you're under the "Units" tab. After you go to him, click on the "graphics" tab that is on the second row of buttons on the right side. You should see a list inside of a "Sounds" box. Look at the idle portrait one, it should say "Idle Portrait [8] = Wraith - Idle Portrait."



Let's say that in your campaign there are no khalis crystals. Click on the drop-down menu for the Idle Portrait and select the khalis crystal's IDLE PORTRAIT. Do not select the talking portrait. Click on save and save it as units.dat. Go to your mpq file and add this file (the path is arr\). Now that you have switched Tom Kazansky's portrait from the wraith one to the khalis crystal, you can replace the Khalis Crystal's portrait files in winmpq and have Tom Kazansky and a normal Terran Wraith have their own portraits.



Here's the third and final video. It goes over how to change the background images in Starcraft.

Modding Utilities

WinMPQ - This is the program that you add your files in to.
MPQDraft - This turns your mpq file into an executable file, or just loads the mpq file and runs Starcraft.
Audacity 1.3 Beta - Best version of Audacity. This program isn't necessary, but you can use it to edit music files and save the as wavs.
Listfiles - If you're getting a bunch of unknowns when you open an mpq, you need to add the Starcraft listfile. Open WinMPQ, click on "Options," go to the "File List" tab, click on "Add Folder (or Add File)" and add the listfile folder/Starcraft file.
Unit Portraits - Here's a rar with a bunch of edited unit portraits. These are probably some of the best edited portraits that you'll be able to find, so I suggest that you download it if you want to change the original portraits.
PyMSwinEXE - This rar has so many programs for modding. It's amazing. Some of it's more notable programs are PyDAT, PyICE, and PyMPQ (you can use this one instead of WinMPQ if you choose to). If you're on Windows 7 and want to use the data editor, you definitely need this for PyDAT. Datedit freezes for every other button that you click on in Windows 7 (at least it does for me).

Here's a picture of the Starcraft title from the splash screen. If you plan on making your own splash screen, you can paste this into your picture. Took me like 2 hours to erase everything around it. :<

** Give Thanks... **

...to all the people that made these programs that allow us to make awesome mods!

Shadowflare - For WinMPQ and MPQDraft. We wouldn't be able to make mods if it weren't for these programs.
poiuy_qert - For PyMS. This collection of programs takes almost everything related to modding and presents itself in a more modern and functional way. Downloading this one set of programs will save you a lot of time that would have spent downloading like 10 programs separately.
DiscipleOfAdun - Firegraft is amazing. So many mods would not have been possible without this program. Even though there's no official version for patch 1.16.1, it's still one of the best modding programs every created.
Cynon - A guy from samods that made probably some of the best "custom" portraits. They look better than Blizzard's, and they kick ass.
All the [MM] members here on SEN for their countless amounts of custom GRPs and all the help they've provided over the years.