I'm planning on a map with a huge amount of customization options, with sub-menus and everything. Which would be the best ways to go about this?
I'd also like the triggers to be well organized for somebody else to add their own modifications, so using as few types of units for death counters would be prefferable.
Originally I was thinking of using death counters to select the option and switches to activate the option. And I was thinking of using the barracks for scrolling. Previous, Next, Select, Exit/Extra. Would be good for reading huge text like books inside Starcraft.

Have an example:
[ ] = Off, [x] = On.

[Items]
Health kits [x]
Defense powerup [ ]
Attack powerup [ ]
Teleports [x]

[Night Time] [x]
Night Time is currently set to last every 6 minutes.
Add 1 minutes (keep clicking to add or substract)
Substract 1 minutes
Turn off night time after 3 nights. [ ]
Make night last +10 minutes longer after 3 nights. [x]
And more various options.

If these are settings you select before the game begins, you should definitely use this idea: http://www.staredit.net/348743/


That way the game settings will be in the game name, so the people joining the game (that are familiar with the settings) will know exactly what to expect, and the game can start immediately without having to watch someone try to navigate a system built onto the map (which would be especially tedious with all the options you plan to have).

Roy, that would be awesome for like a secret class selection for P1 or something like that (secrets in general)! But I think it would be too confusing for regular b.net ppl to figure out, and if it was something as vital as how the game is played it might not be the best idea to implement.

Anyway, some other ideas for menus selections are these:

You can have an overlord/dropship/shuttle filled with different drones, scvs, or probes each holding different upgrade units (like mineral chunks, vespene tanks, etc.) and then detect whenever the player brings one of the upgrades to the ground - that is, when one of those workers holding a specific upgrade is unloaded (obviously, you would have to have the workers loaded into the shuttle/ovi/dropship in such a way as that you know the order they are in there). MetalGears Oblivion and Morrowind maps are great examples of this. This one is as well http://www.staredit.net/topic/16122/

Another good idea for selections is this map http://www.staredit.net/?file=2190 (sorry I can't attach it normally, I'm at school).

Another, using EUD's, is this one http://www.staredit.net/topic/16172/

The only drawbacks for these options is that you would need some sort of text constantly being displayed which would make talking with other players difficult. It's always annoying when you type out a long sentence only to have it be instantly erased from view. Unless, of course, you think of a way to somehow get around this constant-text issue.

EDIT: If I think of more I'll tack them on here

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Mar 6 2014, 3:42 pm by Zoan.

Tuxedo Templar used a Gateway/barracks menu system in his Trigger Happy Defense, which is a bit old nowadays and yet a great map.

The Dropship/Shuttle/Overlord system is great as well and maybe more comfortable. It gives you up to 8 choices per selection with a single Dropship/Shuttle/Overlord which is enough, in most cases. This means, you probably won't need more than a single transport unit to make your menus (unlike buildings which are a bit more limited).

I think this kind of system is the best for the moment and not espacially hard to make (of course, I don't know EUD's at all, so I can't compare to that).

Oh, and in addition of unloading your probes/drones/scvs by clicking on them one by one, you can also decide to move your transport unit which is carrying them, in order to make it leave the location it's on and have an additionnal action for that, whenever you detect 0 units on that location (this is usually used to switch between showand hide the menu).