Staredit Network > Forums > Modding Assistance > Topic: Building a StarCraft fan expansion
Building a StarCraft fan expansion
Jun 5 2024, 7:17 pm
By: X405  

Jun 5 2024, 7:17 pm X405 Post #1



This is an exploratory question. Would anyone in the community be interested in collaborating on a fan expansion for 1.16.1? I'm considering turning Magnetar into one. The philosophy would be to keep melee mostly the same, but extend UMS capabilities.

Some examples of the design philosophy:
  • bugfixes are OK as long as they don't break existing mechanics (e.g. pathfinding is buggy, but keep it nevertheless)
  • new UMS content is OK (e.g. new heroes and special buildings)
  • melee additions are OK if they existed in pro games at some point (e.g. Zerg-only geyser, destructible barriers)
  • do not change existing balance/metagame (i.e. do not add units to existing races; but a new race is OK)
  • new tilesets/doodads are OK


In terms of goals I'm thinking something along the lines of:

2D/3D Art:
  • new tilesets
  • more animation frames for existing buildings/doodads
  • new neutral structures:
    • destructible barricades (in non-UMS maps)
    • zerg-only geyser (used in ASL to make pro-level island maps viable)
    • high-yield resource nodes
    • garrisonable neutral buildings (for UMS)

Content/Modding:
  • incorporate more unit sprite directions (available in the beta GRPs; as long it doesn't change land unit micro, though)
  • melee maps on the new tilesets
  • new campaigns that showcase the added features
  • wrap existing campaigns as single-file custom campaigns
  • bugfixes to the existing official campaigns
  • bugfixes to existing tilesets
  • restoration of removed campaign missions
  • integrate all official campaigns into the game
  • new game type presets (e.g. Phantom, Fastest Map, Micro Map, Bunker Command, ...)

Public Relations
  • social networks, moddb, ... ?

Testing
  • not the cool kind where you get to see new content before everyone else
  • the tedious kind where you click the same UI elements hundreds of times and/or get in-game crashes

Programming:
(I mostly have the progamming side covered. But if anyone wants to help -- the code is on github and is open to contributions even now (albeit it's still a mess).
  • add a new expansion level
    • add it to the expansion selection popup
    • separate multiplayer games from vanilla/BroodWar
    • new scenario extension
  • extended UMS capabilities
    • an embedded Lua interpreter in trigger actions
    • load iscript.bin/units.dat/weapons.dat/sfxdata.dat/etc from the scenario
    • API for unit/weapon/image manipulation (including iscript writing during the game)
    • API for music playlists
    • API for unit command cards
    • other APIs (?)
  • single-file custom campaigns
    • behave as single-player-only mods
    • customizable campaign screen with music
    • establishing shots before briefings
    • cinematics (with added support for modern video formats)
    • persistent storage between missions (accessible via a Lua API within mission trigger actions)
  • improved replay functionality
    • random seek
    • fix replay issues (broken replays with game chat during a paused game; broken replays at high replay speeds)
    • continue a replay as a game (so that games can be finished after unforeseen problems)
    • dump replays upon game crashes
    • UMS replays
  • load additional scenario versions
    • remastered
    • SC/BW beta
  • More [long] term ideas: https://github.com/joankaradimov/Magnetar/blob/master/IDEAS

Anyone interested? You can find me on github and in SEN's Discord (as x405).




Jun 5 2024, 8:01 pm Ultraviolet Post #2



Looks like a cool idea. Shame you'd miss out on the remastered graphics though. I guess modding remastered is just too problematic to consider doing it there?

Btw, your username and my user ID belong together :P



My Projects:

Impossible Ultraviolet | Impossible UV 2 | Impossible UV 3
Mercenaries 2020 | Mercenaries III
Squad Defense

Legacy Projects (No guarantee of functionality in modern SC):

Pixel Adventure 2 | Space Snipers | Control the Ball

______________________________________________

Join me in Torn City

Jun 5 2024, 8:11 pm X405 Post #3



Quote from Ultraviolet
Btw, your username and my user ID belong together :P
Oh, cool :)

Quote from Ultraviolet
I guess modding remastered is just too problematic to consider doing it there?
Yeah. Every new patch is a major setback.

I think it's going to be easier to get Remastered graphics running on 1.16 than to have an up-to-date engine mod for remastered.




Jun 5 2024, 10:38 pm IlyaSnopchenko Post #4

The Curious

Quote from X405
Yeah. Every new patch is a major setback.
FWIW there hasn't been a meaningful patch for Remastered in... years?



Trial and error... mostly error.

Jun 6 2024, 10:20 am X405 Post #5



The latest patch was about an year and half ago, I recon.

The thing is -- it's doesn't matter whether it's a "meaningful" patch. Any patch will scramble the address space of the EXE. That's what counts. Things only get worse when you factor in the modern optimization techniques and more frequent updates to the compiler toolchain.




Jun 6 2024, 10:21 pm IlyaSnopchenko Post #6

The Curious

Oh, I was talking about patches that required updates to Samase just because something has changed in the EXE enough to necessitate such change. All the other toolkit updates lately (for a couple years at the very least?) were for adding features, or for fixing bugs someone has found during normal use. What else may change in the executable is beyond my purview. :)



Trial and error... mostly error.

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