Hi,

I have an 8 player map with 8 starting locations. And i want to have 4 players and 4 observers.
Its gonna be a 2on2 with 4 observers. I am using Scmdraft 0.8.0. What ive done so far:
Force 1 with Player 1 and 2
Force 2 with Player 3 and 4
Force 3 with Player 5,6,7,8

Win and defeat triggers for Force 1 and 2
and Run AI Script Share vision for 5,6,7,8.

My problem is that Player 1 and 2 always have the same starting location, because Random Start Location is Force dependent.
I want them to start random over all the 8 starting locations! Is that possible?

Next thing i like to do is to enable ally chat for all players, is there a way to do it?
And can player 9 and 10 be observers? They are only neutral, right?

nibZ

Your second problem:
You cannot automaticly enable ally chat in UMS.
Player 9-12 cannot be humans.

ah ok too bad Anyway thx!
No idea about the start locations?

hints:
-remove all units you get at start (and save player's race)
-use switches as random (8 outcomes = )
-store the random start position (out of switches) in an unused death count like mineral field or vespin geysir
-make sure that only one player has the specific start position number in his death count
-create the buildings/units with triggers

hm ok big thx Ahli

How fast would it be to randomize the player locations?
If its done a split seconds after the mission briefing i might gonna try it.

It could be done very fast (this won't be noticeable), but the huge problem are zerg larvas. If you have a zerg and place a hatchery somewhere with triggers it will have only 1 larva initially, instead of 3 as in melee. You can move additional larvas to the hatchery though, but they won't be attached, which means 1) they will walk away from the hatchery (not very far but anyways) and which is more important 2) the hatchery could spawn her own 3 larvas, so potentially zerg could have >3 larvas. As I came up, the best solution closest to the real melee game out there is to move 1 larva. It is quite close but not perfect. The difference is noticeable somewhere near the eleventh drone if I remember right.

So probably you might want to put all 4 players in 1 force, but then you never know who plays with whom. This might be a funny twist though.

No I really want "real" melee but funny idea indeed

hm ok thx all Guess i wait for sc2 to do it!

~closed

I don't know how moving the hatchery works, but you can move the hatchery, then move the larvae back to the hatchery, since "user select" will always create a town hall with 4 peons at the start location. Randomizing is simple (3 switches).

I don't think you'll be using 3 larva when you only have 50 minerals.

Also I'd not make the start locations in the actual places that a player will spawn ... If you have vision for a second with the area, you may see who is placed there.

This won't work. Unfortunately moving detaches larvas too

Alright, as I said moving 1 larva to the hatchery is the closest solution. But even then there is a difference. And it is noticeable to the pro gamers.

EDIT:
As far as I remember with 1 starting larva 50 minerals will mine faster than larva will spawn.

create a 10 second (or however long) delay before you get vision. This will allow observers time to turn on AC, etc...

Well, this is an idea, but actually it will become very annoying to wait at start soon. The larva spawns in 166 trigger cycles which is 166*48 = 7968ms ~ 8s. If you want to wait for 2 larvas it is 16 seconds, probably one can wait for 1 larva and move another one with triggers, but this requires testing and is quite annoying anyways.