Battle.net

We've been reading over the questions that you have been posting and the development team has taken some time to provide answers to some of these below.

Q. (Robbepop) Do you plan to integrate add event functions for the gui? At the moment you have to use ugly custom script code in a gui trigger to make dynamic events for triggers - that's something you could improve for the galaxy gui. Are there any plans that you will add features to make variable array lengths dependent on constant integer variables?

A. We would like to support adding dynamic events through the GUI as well as array sizes based on constant variables.


Q. (Goa) Is it possible that in the future you will add a trigger, which will able to tell what time did the map started (year month day hour). It will enable map makers to make "real real time" maps. It would enable to make a whole new type of maps, kind of like those browser based mmorpgs, which are really popular now days.

A. We will look into exposing real time to map makers if it's a simple change that could allow many new types of gameplay.


Q. (Jackolas) Question about timer windows: will you (blizzard) add the option to set the point where you put the Timer window. like we have with dialogues. atm we can change the position of the dialogue window relative to the centre, top left, top right, etc. but we don't have this option for timer windows. atm we can only change the location relative to the top left of the screen. this creates problems with different screen resolutions and makes the timer window kinda unstable to use.

A. We are aware of the limitations of the current Timer and Leaderboard windows and would like to improve this in the future.


Q. (Ash) Do you guys recognize the lobby teams not matching in-game as a problem? And if so, is there any time frame for a fix? For instance, if I have four teams of two in the lobby, and the host shuffles players around, then the game will assign player numbers according to the order they joined instead of what shows in the lobby.

A. In a future patch we will be adding a map option that causes the player slot to match the lobby slot, similar to how it worked in Warcraft 3.


Q. (SiNiquity) Are actors required to be named after the unit which they are attached to, or is it merely convention?

A. Unit actors are generally associated with a unit through the Unit Name token, but we do follow a naming convention that simplifies this relationship. We may be able to expose new triggers that will help determine which actors could be created for a unit since the game already caches this information.


Q. (Ragnar) Are there any plans to improve the debugger's output for errors?

A. We are adding many new features to the trigger debugger in the long term. In the short term we will be exposing additional debugging tools that we use internally.

Q. (ProzaicMuze) Are there any plans to make Footprints more user-friendly?

A. We will be addressing a few issues with the Footprint editor in the next major patch. If you could provide detailed reproducible steps for the bugs you've encountered, we can make sure that they are addressed in the future.


Q. (ProzaicMuze) The Validator Unit Compare Field is very hit or miss. ... Would you consider making a UI for this validator similar to the upgrades UI that compiles a list of all the fields for the specified unit?

A. Absolutely, we would like to add support for picking fields to compare through the editor instead of having to type in a field path.


Q. (ProzaicMuze) Are there any plans to improve the current tooltips and add more to those fields that lack a description?

A. We are working hard to provide more and better documentation for the Data Editor specifically, but also throughout the rest of the editor.


Q. (ProzaicMuze) Are there are plans for allowing drag and drop organization of events or mass selection (and the use of the delete key)?

A. We frequently discuss improvements that would make the Actor Editor easier to use. Simple tweaks like multiple selection and hotkeys are a strong possibility. More involved improvements like documentation for each term and message are also being considered long term.


Q. (Stark) Would it be possible for us to get a new actor effect that lets you shake the camera?

A. We have long term plans to integrate Actor with Cameras so that this type of effect would be possible.


Q. (BEARAND) Why do "Supplies Made" and "Supplies Used" functions exist under the "Player Properties (Get)" preset, but not under "Player Properties (Set)"?

A. Game systems that support changing data values tend to be more complex. This is a case where we sacrifice flexibility to achieve other goals and is unlikely to change unless needed by our designers.


Q. (thenk) In order to create customized abilities, will you consider adding the ability to modify the CBehavior.Chance field with Catalog Field Value Set?

A. We have made the Effect Chance fields upgradeable in the next patch which should make it possible to avoid duplicating objects just to change this field's value.


Q. (payne) Are there any ways to set the collision region of units a rectangular instead of a circle?

A. Our pathing system treats colliding movable units as circles in order to achieve improved performance and smoothness. For units that are immobile like the Barracks, they can apply a footprint of almost any shape.


Q. (DarkRevenant) The entire map breaks and crashes in the middle of play when some internal memory limit is exceeded by the script. ... I ask for insight from Blizzard as to the nature of the scripting memory limit so that I might be able to make changes.

A. Changes in the next major patch should roughly double the amount of memory available to galaxy scripts. We've read a lot of the feedback and issues that map makers have run into and have more changes planned for the future.