MrApples

By “Friendly Mapper” I surely don’t intend to teach you how to be nice, or even want you to. Be the meanest dude on Mean Street for all I care! No this guide is meant to teach you how to be friendly to yourself, your maps, and your fans, game-wise. Basically all the small and obvious things you should do in and out of your map (but probably don’t) that make a huge difference.


In Proper Order.
Hmm, where to begin… how about where you actually put your map, there’s a good spot! Although everyone is different, I find it is important to keep my maps organized My folder is set up like this.
-Projects: Stuff I’m working on.
-Paused and Old Projects: Stuff I’m not working on.
-Tools: Stuff I use to work on the maps.
-Shortcut to Maps: Shortcut to the Warcraft Maps folder.
-Stuff: Everything else.

And in every Map Folder I keep a folder called Old, where I store all the old versions of maps I’m working on. This is useful if your map ever gets corrupted.

Get your priorities straight!
I find that I can spend hours working on my maps, without getting anything done, but yet I’ll check if anyone has replied to my threads on forums about 50 times. This can really be a problem, if you find yourself constantly checking the Internet, shut it off.

The problem here is that you want to work on your map, but you don’t want to. If you are waiting for a solution to a problem, just work on another feature and check no more then every 2 hours. Now if only I could teach myself this: D.

The Notebook
I always have a notebook somewhere nearby, why, because you don’t know when an idea is going to hit you, and with my memory, I may forget it for good. The solution, have something else remember it for you, the Notebook! This is also good if you happen to be bored in School or wherever and just want something to do.

Organizing the Editor
This is guaranteed one of the most useful things you can do in the Editor. As you can see I have unchecked Brush List, Previewer, lowered the Undo Limit, and checked Auto save, automatically create unknown variables…, and Allow negative real values.


These simple options have a huge effect on the editor. Unchecking Brush List, Previewer, and lowering the Undo Limit all speed up your editor. Just try changing some Tool tips afterwards, you will see the difference. Auto Save of course is useful to prevent loss of data; you never know when the power is going to go out. Automatically create unknown variables is useful in triggers when transferring triggers from one map to another, and Allow negative real values of course allows you to put negative numbers in the Object Editor when you Shift + Click a value.



A colorful Advantage
You use colors to get the attention of the player, make it easier to read, and make it look nicer. The colors you pick are always important; you want them to agree with your background. Use lighter colors for darker backgrounds, and darker colors for lighter backgrounds.

I use Pale Green for the tutorial because this is mixed-dark background, it works better with dark backgrounds then teal would, but less with light backgrounds. Below are some examples of main colors, see the difference of using background friendly colors yourself.
Better for lighter backgrounds
Better for darker backgrounds
Better for mixed backgrounds

Well now you know when to use colors, but do you know how? You have to use a thing called “color Codes”, a code which wraps around text in WarCraft to make the text any color you want.

What are color Codes?
color Codes are a way of telling the game what color to use in text.
The look like this; |c00FF0303|r

00RRBBGG is the Actual Code. 00 is transparency, RR is Red, BB is Blue, and GG is green. Transparency is not needed, and doesn't work though.
|c is the start.
|r is the end.

(TIP: The "|" sign is the "Shift" form of "\", it's right above the "Enter" key )

The Text you want to color goes in between and Code, and the End.
|c00FF0303TextGoesHere|r

Some Basic color Codes
|c00FF0303TEXT|r = Red
|c000042FFTEXT|r = Blue
|c001CE6B9TEXT|r = Teal
|c00540081TEXT|r = Purple
|c00FFFC01TEXT|r = Yellow
|c00FEBA0ETEXT|r = Orange
|c0020C000TEXT|r = Green
|c00E55BB0TEXT|r = Pink
|c00959697TEXT|r = Gray
|c007EBFF1TEXT|r = Light Blue
|c00106246TEXT|r = Dark Green
|c004E2A04TEXT|r = Brown
(TIP: Need a specific color? You can generate any color you want with this tool.)


Organized Writing
Organization is also very important in a map. You want to keep everything the gamer should know organized and simplistic to read, so they don’t get confused, or are thrown off by the mass of text you call a paragraph. For example…

Before:
To make your map a Friendly Map you will need colors, Organization, Helpful Information, and Shortened Paragraphs.

After:
To Make a Friendly Map you need:
-colors
-Organization
-Short and Helpful Information

Although it may be longer, it is easier to read.

What I did:
-Put the Sentence in Title/List Format.
-Made the Topics Bold
-Combined Shortened Paragraphs and Helpful Information
-Reversed Helpful and Short to make it sound better.

(TIP: Generally having a lot of space to go with your text will welcome people more to read it.)


Short and to the Point
Keeping the information in your map Short and to the Point is extremely important. If you believe you can ignore this and expect your players to know what to do, your obviously new to mapping. For example…

Before:
I have a dog, his name is Scruffy, and I like to play ball with him.

After:
I like to play ball with my dog, Scruffy.

See what I mean? Although it doesn’t matter much on such a small scale, with entire paragraphs this can really help. I have even seen a mapper advertise that their Game Info was ‘condensed’ as a reason why it’s a better map. Even though it wasn’t true, you get what I mean.

What I did:
-Took out "his name is"(Obvious when name is put after a comma)
-Took out "I have a dog"(Obvious with "my" added in)
-Reversed Sentence


Spelling and Grammar
Altuogh a study syas taht as lnog as the fsrit and lsat ltetrs in a wrod are crrocet the hmuan mnid can stlil raed it sncie the mnid raeds etnrie wrods and not idnduvial leretts, spelling still matters. Not for the fact that they can still read it, but because of appearance.

If I were to play your map, and see your loading screen a mess with plenty of misspells, I will assume your map sucks because you didn’t care enough to use proper English. Always avoid using 1337, always use proper spelling, and always use proper grammar, or you deserve what you get. There is no reason why you should be practicing your own crappy version of English when you never use it in real life.


Being Friendly in Writing
Never be Supporting or Controversial in your maps (Its best to be neutral). I was working on a map, and many of the clans for that genre have their own ‘Clan Map’. Although there was no question my map was much better, many of them would rather play their ‘Clan Map’, so I advertised all the clans in my map, instead of my own clan, so they wouldn’t be supporting a rival by playing.

Also never say anything offensive in your maps, be it racist or political, because although people may agree with you, the sad truth is they will hate you because they have nothing better to do, and just got a reason to. And if you actually offend someone, may allah be with you.


Simplicity and Awareness
You must understand that people playing your map may not understand what you do. If you were to say Trigger, that would think you’re talking about a gun’s trigger, not a WarCraft trigger.

Awareness is quite an important aspect of telling your players information. Did you know it’s actually possible for a player to play staring right at the message, and not see it at all? Besides using colors, and restricting actions, there are 2 ways to can improve awareness.

1- Prefixes: Prefixes are fancy designs such as ^<><>MESSAGE<><>^ that will attract the attention of the player, these are very useful.

2- Sound: Sound is also useful. In order to use sound in game you must first go into the Sound Editor (Yellow Speaker), right click the sounds you want to use in-game, and then select Use as Sound. I recommend looking in Interface for generic sounds to get the players attention.




Title and Description
The Title and Description of your map are 2 very important things, because they are what the host and players see before they have even played your map. Perhaps the most important bit of advertising there is to WarCraft Mapping. Here are some tips to just set your map above the others, Title wise.

1.- Use a light color for the Title, but it cannot be close to white since that is the default. It must stand out, and be easy to read. See “A colorful Advantage” above.

2.- Use a good name. I would personally expect more from a map called ‘Times of Chaos’ instead of a map called ‘Naruto TD’.

3.- In the description of your map, include what your map is about, and why your map is better then all the others in your map's genre. Never lie about your map, because this may give you a bad reputation. Also include a way to contact you.

4.- Never give 2 versions of your map the same title. This confuses everyone and can actually cause people to lose interest.


The Loading Screen
Use a Custom Loading Screen for your map; this is the most useful place to store important information about your map because people have nothing better to do then read it since they have to wait for the load.

I would use the First Box for your Name such as “MrApples Presents”, or just “MrApple's”.

Use the second box for the name of your map. Use a mid - darker color here because the background is a light tan.

In the Main Box include
-General Helpful Information for Map(What its about, Storyline, etc.)
-Advertise how to get more information (For Example, type -Info in game, press F9 in game.)
-The date of release
-The homepage of your map
-How to report bugs, suggestions, etc. (Contact Information)


Version Number
For the version number of their maps, many people just say v1.00, then v2.00, v8.5X, etc. But it really works like this.

Format for Version Numbers
Under v1.00 - Not Complete, Beta
Add 1.00 -Enough New Features to be considered a sequel.
Add 0.10 -Significan't Amount of New Stuff
Add 0.01 - Bug Fixes, balancing, etc.
Add b,c,d - Fixes to Bug Fixes

Example
My Map 0.50 - Alpha Version
My Map 0.90 - Beta Version
My Map 1.00 -First official release, complete
My Map 1.01 -Fixed Minor Bug found in release
My Map 1.01b -Bug Fix didn't fix it fully
My Map 1.10- New Items, New Units, Mass Send
My Map 2.00 -2 New Races, New Terrain, Advanced Battle System





Game Messages
A very useful to spread information on how to use your map is in-game messages. These are messages that are displayed to players through triggers.

The events “Map Initialization”, “Elapsed Game Time”, and “Periodic Time” are most common for information messages. Many mappers have also set it up so when you type –Info/-Hints/-Help, the information will display. See my tutorial on Chat Event Triggers to learn more.

Here is an example of a trigger for a Welcome Message.



If you want to ‘Stream’ information to players while they are playing then add waits in between messages and have it go over the first 5-10 minutes of game play. However chances are they will not even read it, see “Simplicity and Awareness” above.

A useful way to give game-info in complex maps is to display it to players while they are in cinematic mode, so they will have nothing else to do but read it. However this can really turn people off, and a skip option would make it never seen.



(Have players start over a dark background, and use light colors, so they can read it easier.)

Periodic Messages are also very useful, use these as a reminder to the players how to contact you, and to report bugs, suggestions, you want to do everything you can to keep improving your map.



Info Quests
A great way to have game information available to players at any time is to use Quests. In the Quests you can add a great load of Commands, Tips, and Information that someone can look up at any time, and just advertise everyone to visit the Quests Menu.

In order to add quests you need to use a trigger.
There are 2 Columns
Required- The Left Side
Optional- The Right Side

[img width=700 height=118]http://www.imgs.PoLlama.com/FriendlyMapper5.jpg[/img]

With the Quests you can edit what column it is in, the Title, the Body, and what icon to use

(TIP: You can change the Quests tab to say Information by going into Advanced- Game Interface and changing the value Text - General - 'Quests (JCfffed312F9|r' to say Information (|Cfffed312F9|R)



Pass it On
As a map editor I am sure you want your map to be played and replayed. Well to do this you want to give the player a reason to do so, why to host your map, why to play your map, when there’s so many out there.

1.- Remember to include exactly how your map is better then all the other maps in its genre. You may not want to be too direct with this though.
2.- Also make sure you try and let the Player know that they have a voice in your map too and provide easy ways to contact you with suggestions.
3.- I cannot stress how important it is to get people to visit your website/forums, if you have one. Use the below to help with this.

Hosting Help
The biggest problem on Battle.Net to most people is they can’t host. So why not hit two birds with one stone? Offer help to make your players be able to host, having them want to visit your website, and if they do successfully fix their Routers/Firewall, you have someone that will be spreading your map, since they will feel a sort of allegiance to your map now over other ones in the genre.

Rewards
Setting up a reward system for loyal fans (using save-load codes/other), to allow them to have access to palegreen in-game bonus content is a great way to attract new fans, and keep the ones you already have. It doesn’t have to be anything major, could be as simple as being able to change your name.

Friendly on the Web

Advertising is a key role to the success of your map. Uploading your map to such Wc3campaigns.net, Epicwar.com, and even PoLlama.com are great ways to do this.

A must for anyone who expects their map to go anywhere is to have a Website, but mostly, Forums. Forums provide an easy way for people to give you feedback, get information, or just chat. I cannot possibly stress to you how important this is if you want your map to get big, and it’s nice to have something to give you inspiration.

Free Website Hosting - http://www.freewebs.com
Free Forum Hosting - http://www.invisionfree.com
Free Project Hosting - http://www.PoLlama.com/index.php?topic=1609.0

Now you know how to be a Friendly Mapper, yay! !

[b]Please comment on how this tutorial can be improved, if you find anything that you find confusing, or may be confusing to others, please let me know![b]

MrApples

Had to repost, I forgot to make it a poll, I know dumb of me :chessey:

MrOrange

I'm not going to say anything.

This tutorial I rated a Great.

MrApples

**Admin Bump - More Comments and Votes**

Benderlender

Nice Again something i needed!

MrApples

Moved to Tutorials. I'll be sure to upload my other tutorials asap.

This is not a biased decision, just look at the poll.

Acolyte

hi guys i'm new to this site(someone wrote in a map called "Middle Earth Risk" that if we have suggestions we can visit this site.............by the way A+ to the person who made this map)and i saw your tutorials about map making,i too am interested in map making........i have worked on some maps but when i saw what jass can do i lost hope in the old Trigger system and i abandoned work on that map.......anyway this tutorial is great..and if you guys make a map and if the map has cinematics and have no sounds to add in those cinematics try to make them short because players(like me)don't want to wait minutes and minutes of reading....or you could add a sound here and there..a very well placed sound ca do a lot in the aspect of your map(even if the sound is original like........fire lord:Beware i live!)

`;..;`

King Stubby

Try posting this in the say hello forum. As you can see, this is a tutorial, not the say hello forum.