_____ __ ____ __ / ___/ / /_ ____ _ _____ _____ _____ ____ _ / __// /_ _ \__ \ / __// __ `// ___// ___// ___// __ `// /_ / __/(_) ___/ // /_ / /_/ // / / /__ / / / /_/ // __// /_ _ /____/ \__/ \__,_//_/ \___//_/ \__,_//_/ \__/(_) ____ __ _ __ / __ ) _____ ____ ____ ____/ / | | / /____ _ _____ / __ |/ ___// __ \ / __ \ / __ / | | /| / // __ `// ___/ / /_/ // / / /_/ // /_/ // /_/ / | |/ |/ // /_/ // / /_____//_/ \____/ \____/ \__,_/ |__/|__/ \__,_//_/ Starcraft: Brood War Bound Map Making FAQ Written by Zzyzzyxx E-mail: Kobe_5@hotmail.com MSN Messenger: Same as E-mail Version 1.2 ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Version History Introduction Map Editors Setting It Up Sounds Briefing Basic Triggers Explosion Triggers Tips FAQs Credits Legal Information ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION HISTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Version 1.2: Fixed many minor errors Version 1.1: Fixed the formatting errors Date: 6-16-03 Version 1.0: Released version, much of the FAQ is complete Date: 6-5-03 ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Starcraft was made back in 1998 and the expansion, Brood War, in 1999. Even after all these years, it's still one of the most popular games on the PC. Bound maps have long been popular map setting games for Starcraft, so I think it's time someone writes a guide on how to create them. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MAP EDITORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Before you do anything, you should download a better map editor than StarEdit, which is what comes with Starcraft when you install it. One that I recommend is SC X-tra Editor. It can be found at http://www.stormcoast-fortress.net/. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and it should be there. There are many things that can be done with SC X-tra Editor that can't be done with StarEdit, such as easy access to text colors and making it easy to overlap words. Next, you need a program that will make square terrain for your bound map. It's pretty hard to make a good bound without using square terrain. There are three programs that I know of that will get you square terrain. The best but most time consuming program is GUEdit. You can download GUEdit and the Java Runtime files that are required to open up GUEdit at http://goldenurg.tripod.com/files.html. Once downloaded and unzipped, click the "Load" button and then browse for your map. Then click the "Edit Terrain" button. It will probably take a few minutes to load the terrain and mega tiles. When it is loaded, simply click on the mega tile that you would like and then click on your map where you want it. It might delay a few seconds before it shows up, but it will eventually. What makes this program so good is that there are thousands of mega tiles to choose from. It allows you to do things such as putting creep everywhere. Once your map is looking how you want it, click "Store Terrain" and save your map. You will have to rename it since it doesn't let you save over the original. There's also a number of different things you can do on GUEdit, such as protecting your map so nobody else can open it up in StarEdit or any other program. Just make sure that you don't protect your map when you're editing the terrain so that you can still open it up to change the triggers. The best program for people that are kind of computer illiterate would be SCMDraft. This, along with any of the other editors for that matter, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/ubolt_head/Downloads.htm. This is the easiest of the three programs to use. Make sure you have "Terrain" selected for the current mode towards the top. Where it says "Brush Shape", select "Square" or "Rectangle". Just to warn you, squares will not appear on the screen when you try to make them but rectangles will. To get the squares that you made show up, simply make a rectangle anywhere on the screen and the squares will then appear. There are a lot of different brush sizes to choose from. Make sure to save when you're done. The most difficult of the three to use is called ISOM. It can be found at http://www.supremestarcraft.com/do/staredit.php. Once you have the program opened, open up the map that you want to have square terrain. Type in 0 where it says "ISOM Filler". Then click the "Write" button at the bottom. Make sure to put .scx at the end of whatever you name it so it can be opened up in StarEdit or any other program. Open up your map with your map-editing program and you will then have square terrain. The only problem is that you can't get a 1x1 block square and it can get quite frustrating trying to get the terrain how you want it most of the time. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SETTING IT UP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* The next thing that you should after you have made your terrain is to make all of the locations. To make a location, click on "Layer" in the top toolbar and click "Location". You'll need to put a location on every single spot you want an explosion to occur and any spot where any unit will be or appear. There is a limit to 255 locations, so don't make your bound too big. Next, you should decide how many players you want to be able to play your bound and put them on a team in the forces. To do this, click on "Scenario" in the top toolbar and click "Forces". Usually player 8 is the computer player that makes all of the explosions happen, but you can choose a different one if you like. Drag the player you want to be the computer over to Force 2. If there's players that you don't want in the bound, just put them in Force 3. Leave the allies, allied victory, and shared vision boxes checked, but uncheck the random start location boxes. To change a player to computer, click on "Player" in the top toolbar, then click on "Settings". Click on Player 8, (or whatever player you want to be the computer) and select computer where it says "Control". You can also change the race of each player. If you think that Terran has the best music, then go ahead and make everybody Terran. If you have SC-X-tra Editor it won't matter, but if you're using StarEdit you'll have to make everybody Zerg since you most likely will be using Zerglings as the bound running units. With SC X-tra Editor you can select any unit for any race for any player, which is another reason why I recommend getting SC X-tra Editor. Now place a start location for every player that will be in the bound. For example, if you're going to have five players and a computer, you would place a start location for those five players and the computer. To place start locations in SC X-tra Editor, double click on a player on the left hand side, go to "Special", and then "Start Location". In StarEdit, you'll see "Start Location" right after you double click on any player. Now you can place bound running unit(s) for each player where you want them to start. Most people use Zerglings, but it's up to you what unit you want. You can also choose whether or not you want Zerglings to have the speed upgrade. To get them the speed upgrade, go to "Player" and "Settings" and click on the "Upgrades" tab. Click "Zerg Upgrades" and then click "Metabolic Boost". Uncheck "Use defaults and player" and put in the number 1 for all four of the boxes you see. Click "OK" and your Zerglings will have the speed upgrade. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOUNDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* If you have a 56K modem and it takes a long time to download a map, it's most likely because the map has many sounds. Usually it's best to have few sounds that are pretty short, or no sounds at all, to avoid having a map that will take a long time to download. Remember, people often get banned for not having a map, but if the download is short, the host is more likely to wait for the person to download it, which means that your map will get spread more if it is a relatively small download. The only sounds that can be used are .wavs. To import a sound, go to "Scenario" and click on "Sounds". Click the "Import" button and browse for your sound. It is best to have 16-bit .wav files since it doesn't like any other type very much. To find out whether or not your .wav is 16-bit, you can browse for it in My Computer and simply right click on it and select properties. It will tell you there. If your .wav is not 16-bit, don't worry because it's very easy to change. To change it, click on your Start button and click Run. Type in "sndrec32" and push enter. Your sound recorder will then come up. Open up your .wav file. Go to "File" and "Properties" and click the "Convert Now" button. You can then select 16-bit. Also make sure that it's mono. Now save it as a different file name, but remember to put .wav at the end of what you name it. You can then delete your previous sounds that weren't 16-bit and import the new ones that are. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRIEFING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* The mission briefing is what you see in every map setting game while you wait for everyone to press start. Some people like to be creative and make really cool briefings, while others will just write something like the name of their map and who made it. However, a lot of people probably won't even watch the briefing, so maybe it's not worth the time to make a nice one. Anyways, making a briefing isn't very hard at all. You can start making it by going to "Scenario" and "Mission Briefings". You'll notice that there's not very many briefing triggers compared to normal ones. Mission’s objectives are what will appear in the lower left corner of the bound while a text message is what will appear in the larger area. If you're going to be creative in making a briefing, your triggers should look something like this. Players: -All players Actions: -Set Mission Objectives for current player to: 'your text' -Pause for 'number' milliseconds -Set Mission Objectives for current player to: 'your text' -Pause for 'number' milliseconds -Set Mission Objectives for current player to: 'your text' And you'd just keep making more stuff happen by doing that. Usually the pauses aren't very long. You could also choose to make all of the cool stuff happen in your text message instead of mission objectives, or even both, if you choose so. You should also put some units up in the portrait boxes by using the 'Show portrait' action. Just put some units that would be common in your bound in those boxes, such as Zerglings. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BASIC TRIGGERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* The triggers are what make the bound and they are probably the most confusing part of making the bound for a lot of people. First of all, to access the triggers, go to "Scenario" and "Triggers". Just delete the three triggers you see there as they are pretty useless. Now start off by making some of the basic triggers. If you want everyone's units to be invincible so they can't be attacked and killed by other players, the trigger would look something like this. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -Always Actions: -Enable invincibility for any unit owned by 'bound team' at 'anywhere' -Preserve trigger -Comment: 'Invincibility' Comments just make it so it's less of a pain to scroll through and identify all of your triggers. You should also be allied to the computer player to avoid having a red attack symbol every time you scroll over something of the computer's. To do that, just add the following action to the trigger above. -Set 'Player 8' to Ally It's always good to have a trigger that ends the game when everyone's bound units are dead. That would like something like this. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -'Bound team' commands exactly 0 'Zerglings' Actions: -Display message for current player: (optional) -Wait for 'number' milliseconds (optional) -End scenario in defeat for current player -Comment: 'Defeat' If you don't feel like making map revealers for every player around the whole map, just make the map revealers for the computer player and create this trigger. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -Always Actions: -Execute AI script 'Turn ON shared vision for 'computer player' -Preserve trigger -Comment: 'Vision' ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EXPLOSION TRIGGERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Okay, now it's time to start the explosion triggers. To do this, you use these things called switches. To start the first set of explosions, make this trigger. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -'Bound team' brings at least 1 any unit to 'wherever you placed your units' OR -Elapsed scenario time is exactly 1 seconds Actions: -Set switch 1 -Center view for current player at 'wherever you placed your units' -Comment: 'Set levels' You have now set the first switch, which will in turn set off the explosions once you make them. The next trigger is going to make the explosions. Players: -'Computer player' Conditions: -Switch 1 is set Actions: -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot' for 'computer player' -Kill all any unit for all players at 'exploding spot' -Wait for 'number' milliseconds -Preserve trigger -Comment: 'Level 1' With that trigger, there will only be one continuously exploding unit until a bounder reaches the desired location. Don't forget to preserve the trigger because that is what makes the explosions continuous. You can add more create and kill triggers after every wait command. There is a limit to 64 actions per trigger, so you can't make obstacles too long. However, you can kill a bigger area of explosions with one kill command by stretching out a location. This would be a large explosion followed by a small explosion. The trigger would look something like this. Players: -'Computer player' Conditions: -Switch 1 is set Actions: -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 1' for 'computer player' -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 2' for 'computer player' -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 3' for 'computer player' -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 4' for 'computer player' -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 5' for 'computer player' -Kill all any unit for all players at 'row 1' -Wait for 'number' milliseconds -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot 5' for 'computer player' -Kill all any unit for all players at 'exploding spot 5' -Preserver trigger -Comment: 'Level 1' You can't just create units in a row like you can with killing, however. If you try it, it will just look like a big blob of units in the center. Next, you'll need a trigger to start the next obstacle once a bounder makes it across the explosions. This is how the trigger would look. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -Switch 1 is set -Current player brings at least 1 any unit to 'obstacle 1 end' Actions: -Clear switch 1 -Set switch 2 -Comment: Level 2 For the rest of the levels in your bound, make more create and kill triggers like shown above. The victory trigger is very simple to make. Take a look below. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -'Switch final' is set -'Bound team' brings at least 1 any unit to 'location win' Actions: -Display message for current player: (optional) -Wait for 'number' milliseconds (optional) -End scenario in victory for current player -Comment: Victory That's about all there is to it to making a bound map. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TIPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Try not to put too many sounds on your map. Like I said earlier, your map will get spread more if it is a small download. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to download SC X-tra Editor for map making. There are so many things that you can do with that editor that otherwise wouldn't be possible with StarEdit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make sure to download a program that will make square terrain. Seriously, your bound will suck without it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always protect your map before you distribute it to the public. If you don't, there are always people out there that will edit your map and put their name on it instead of yours. You can easily protect your maps using GUEdit. Look up in the "Map Editors" section to see where to download it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It might be a good idea to put a lag banner in your bound. If somebody lags, it can really ruin the game for all of the other people. There are a lot of different ways to make a lag banner, such as bringing units to a location, or a unit dieing at a location. This is an example of how one might look. Players: -Player '1' Conditions: -'Bound team' brings exactly 1 'unit' to 'Ban player 1' Actions: -Display message for current player: (optional) -End scenario in defeat for current player -Comment: 'Lag ban' You would need to do this for every player in your map. Just copy and change 'Player 1' to 'Player 2' etc. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAQs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Q. How do I get flashing beacons? A. To get flashing beacons, you must have shared vision with the computer player turned off. This means that you will need to put map revealers for every player all around the map, instead of just the computer player. That trigger would look something like this. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -Always Actions: -Execute AI script 'Turn ON shared vision for 'computer player' -Preserve trigger -Comment: 'Vision' You then need to put an observer for each player, besides the computer player, all around any beacons you want flashing. This would be the next trigger. Players: -'Bound team' Conditions: -Elapsed scenario time is exactly 1 seconds Actions: -Remove all Protoss Observer for 'Bound team' at Anywhere Now you need to disable the doodad states for your beacons. Make locations that are big enough so the beacons are inside them. Then make this trigger. Players: 'Computer player' Conditions: -Always Actions: -Disable doodad state for 'Terran' Beacon for 'Computer player' at 'location your beacon is in' Remember to disable the doodad states for every beacon you want to flash. Once that's done, you should have flashing beacons. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. There is always a pause at the end of my set of explosions. Well, I don't want it to pause at all. How would I go about doing this? A. It can be pretty difficult doing this. First of all, at the end of your set of explosions, you need to set another switch. It would look like this. Players: -'Computer player' Conditions: -Switch 1 is set Actions: -Create 1 'exploding unit' at 'exploding spot' for 'computer player' -Kill all any unit for all players at 'exploding spot' -Preserve trigger -Set 'switch #' -Wait for 'number' milliseconds -Comment: 'Level 1' Now, you need this trigger to make it continuous. Players: -'Computer player' Conditions: -'Switch continuous obstacle' is set -'Switch #' is set Actions: -Clear 'continuous obstacle' -Wait for 0 milliseconds -Set 'continuous obstacle' -Preserve trigger -Comment: 'Continuous obstacle 1' Make sure that the one above is for only the computer player to avoid problems. You'll have to play around with that wait command after the action "Set 'switch #'" until you get it perfect. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. What is the best latency to use for bound maps? A. Units will respond much faster when you tell them to move somewhere on low latency than they would on high or extra high latency. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. How come GUEdit won't open up? A. You probably forgot to download the Java Runtime Files. You can get them at the same site as mentioned in the "Map Editors" section. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Why won't GUEdit let me load the terrain of my map? A. Instead of finding your map file after clicking "Load Terrain", double click on starcraft.exe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Have you made any bounds? A. Yes, I made one called Archon Bound. It's a simple level up style bound game with 100 levels. If you want to try it out, you can download it at http://www.anycities.com/user/scmaps. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Are there any good map-making channels on Battle.net? A. The best map-making clan in my opinion is (U). Their channel is Clan OpZ(U) and it's on the USEast server. ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CREDITS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* Blizzard for making Starcraft: Brood War All of the people in Clan OpZ(U) for lots of map making information Me for writing this FAQ You for reading this FAQ ******************************************************************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LEGAL INFORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************* If you see any errors, have any questions, comments, or if you just think that I'm missing something in my FAQ, E-mail me at Kobe_5@hotmail.com and I'll give you credit for any information that you might have. If you have MSN Messenger, feel free to add me. My messenger name is the same as my E-mail. If you'd like this FAQ on your website, E-mail me along with the address of your site. You must have my permission before posting this FAQ on any website. Be sure to put something about Starcraft: Brood War in the topic of any E-mail that you send me to make sure that they get read. The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at www.GameFAQs.com. This Bound Map Making FAQ is Copyright ©2003 Zzyzzyxx.