Not a competitive RTS gamer? Think you'll get bored of StarCraft II after you beat Wings of Liberty's solo campaign? Think you'll shelf the game until Heart of the Swarm releases? Think again.
Blizzard is packing an insane number of tools into StarCraft II's map editor and leveraging their new Battle.net platform along with capitalism to spur a mod/map making movement unlike anything this planet has ever seen.
Tomorrow, in my grand preview of Battle.net, I will go into more detail on how the new map making movement could transform StarCraft II custom maps from a labor of love, into a viable small business. (For more now, you can watch our video interview with Dustin Browder) But for now, I will focus on how the maps will be made – with this incredibly powerful map editor.
Hit the jump to see a list of basic features the editor has to offer, as well as a video from BlizzCon '09 that showcases some examples of how unique and creative custom maps can be in StarCraft II.
Features
- Hard tiles and terrain foliage ease the process of creating distinctly unique maps. Everything from height of grass to style of dirt can be altered and it's not by switching pre-made tile sets designed by Blizzard's artists.
- Two distinct cliff types can also be altered in a similar way to the foliage
- All new water tools allow mappers to create substances such as the lava seen on the map “Mining your own business.” Toxic waste and whatever other substances one can think of can be created using the water tools.
- New lighting effects and tools can be applied and used in collaboration with any of the previously mentioned features to generate a completely new and unique experience.
- Alpha blending and textures can be tweaked. (I don't know wtf that means, but I wrote it on my notepad so it must be important, right?)
Basically, almost anything that mappers can dream of, it seems they will be able to create using this ridiculously powerful editor.
After watching that at the convention, I was only left wondering if this was the last we've seen of the StarCraft: Ghost idea?
For a comprehensive list of all other coverage from BlizzCon '09, consult this thread in the GamePro forum.
