StarCraft® II

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. If you have not seen an answer to one of your questions as of yet, don' t worry—we are continuing to keep an eye on threads in all regions, including the one here (http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/48835373) and will be providing further answers to your questions where we can.


Q. (tai) - Is there an easy way to call a unit in the map? For example, if in a trigger I want to have a condition "Triggering Unit == Marine," but not a marine that's already on the map or something that uses "unit in unit group," "last created unit," or some other function that does everything except have a general statement for any marine.

A. We're not entirely sure of what you're asking but we’ll take a stab. If this doesn’t help you out, please feel free to post again and provide a little more context so that we can pin point what it is you’re trying to do.

If your trigger is intended to target a Marine that has just been created, then the "issue order" to "last created unit" is actually most likely the reference you are looking for to get that Marine. As an aside, you would want to use the "issue order to unit group" and "last created units" if you are spawning multiple Marines.

However, if you're looking to avoid using "last created unit," or it doesn't work for you based on how your triggers are structured, then you could use the "unit enters region" event and set the region to "Entire Map". Combined with the "Triggering Unit == Marine" condition, that would cover any spawning cases.

If you are looking to get a unit that was spawned previously and is now necessary for something else, then you actually would want to use "Unit from Unit Group" and the "Units in Region Matching Condition" function to narrow it down to the specific unit. There isn't a running list of units on the map that you can simply pick from once things are in full swing; you have to filter it down somehow to get exactly the one you want or be able to get that marine off of a specific event.

We'd also recommend storing any unit that you want to find later to a global variable if it is important.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Jumby) - Not sure if this is the right thread but, how do you make it so you can build on ramps in the game? Thanks.

A. Great question! Building placement, meaning where you can and cannot place a building, is governed by that unit's footprint which can be modified in the Footprint data type. The "Placement Check" and "Placement Apply" Layers of a footprint dictate where it can be placed, and what kind of effect it has on pathing and other footprints once it is placed. A ramp is considered a "No Build" location, which is considered invalid by footprints by default. What you'll need to do is uncheck the "No Build" flag under the "Invalid" flags of the "Placement Check" Layer for that footprint.

As a side note, once you do this you will be able to build your buildings ANYWHERE. You will probably want to flag "Ground - No Spawn" flag under the "Invalid" flags, as well. :) This will prevent you from building your buildings on other buildings (no matter how much Xzibit may want you to do so), and on cliffs.

And, as a final side note to that previous side note, the edges of ramps are considered cliffs. You will only be able to build on the terrain in the middle of a ramp.

Q. (Zealot) - Can anyone tell me how to make place units that join you when you touch them (e.g, in Belly of the Beast, the Dominion Soldiers)? It seems to be a different method than in the original SC editor. Also, how the heck do I place Resources (min. fields and Geysers)? I'm totally lost in this new editor!

A. As posted by Gaius: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/608631413?page=2#23

I've only started using this editor, but if it has similar triggers to the SC1 Editor and doesn't allow you to flag units as "Rescuable" like in SC1, I would simply make a Region/Trigger combo to give all units at <location> owned by player <neutral player> to player 1. Sorry I don't know the specific strings to reference but I assume that they're not too difficult to find. Hope this helps.

What Gaius said is correct. The most efficient way to do this would be using the "Rescue Unit/Rescue Unit Group" trigger and specifying the unit/units to rescue.

Additionally, you may want to use the "Unit Enters/Leaves Range Of Unit" event. It would make the process much simpler!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Warheart) - Does anyone know how to make units and buildings smaller than their normal size when placing them on the map?

A. To reference Gaius' post once more: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/608631413?page=2#23

Go to the Unit info in the Data Manager. In the bottom-left window in the Data Manager scroll down to the Actors section and click on the Actor tied to the unit's appearance (ie. for Ghost it is 3rd one down titled Ghost (Ghost.)) After you select the Actor, scroll down the list of values on the right until you get to CActorModel_Scale and change the value from 1.0 to whatever you want. Voila!

Gaius is once again correct! The Actor data for that unit can be used to scale it. Additionally, there is a "Set Scale" trigger you could utilize, and the Model data can scale it as well (including introducing a random scale).

As for scaling a unit in the terrain editor, like you would with a doodad, that is not possible.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Ash) - Do you guys have any intention of adding a "beginner friendly" mode to Galaxy Editor that more closely matches the power of the Warcraft III World Editor? Lots of great maps came from fairly inexperienced mappers who are being shut out by the complexity of the current editor. Any news regarding changes to make it more user-friendly would be greatly appreciated.

A. Making the Editor more user friendly is a noble goal, one that we've actually accomplished several times during development. With great customizability comes great complexity, unfortunately. It can be overwhelming at times, but, like many things in life, most of the intimidation comes from the fact that it is unfamiliar.

Again, as an aside, we are kicking around a couple of ideas for addressing the intimidation potentially experienced by a new user to the editor. :)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Ravensword) - Simple question, how would I make it so a unit didn't have to turn all the way around to attack? Sort of like the diamondback or a turret I suppose. If theres a way, please tell me!

A. Weapons have an "Arc" field that govern the field of fire for a weapon. As an aside, the "Arc Slop" field governs the firing arc allowed once a weapon is already being fired at a target. Basically, it's how wide a target can move before the firing unit reorients itself with the target. This is useful for channeled weapons (IE: the Void Ray) so that it doesn't break every time the target shifts even a smidgen.

Q. (Torrasque) - So I'm trying to use the map editor to make a battle cruiser have interceptors, load units like the Hercules, warp rifts like the mothership, and deployable turrets like the raven.

Any tips would really help. This map editor is waay more complicated...

A. Fortunately, what you're asking is pretty simple! Just add those abilities to your unit. So you would first add "Carrier Hangar," "Queue (5)," "Hercules - Transport," and "Raven - Place Auto Turret" abilities.

Then you would need to add command card buttons for those abilities so that you can order the unit to use them in game. I'm sure if you fiddle with it for a minute or two you'll figure it out.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Kaelmis) - Do you plan to fix the order of dependencies? If you load all 4 at the same time, which most new people do, the campaign usually doesn't work. Basically, people have to know that the order of dependencies matter (I don't see why it should matter), and the default arrangement you give them doesn't work so they get all confused: "I loaded the campaign dependency, but it didn't actually load the dependency...."

A. Dependencies should work correctly in 1.1.0 and will receive additional improvements in later patches.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Kaelmis) - Can you make the item system better? When buying from a shop, it seems like the items don't always enter the hero's inventory, but get dropped on the ground. When a hero dies, he always drops his items. I am sure that is nice for some maps, but others want heroes to keep their items on death and making a trigger do that isn't always perfect.

A. Heroes dropping items when killed will be fixed in 1.1.0 and will also have their items stored in banks.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Kaelmis) - I see data field to share a fraction of kill experience with nearby players, but what about kill resources?

A. We’ll look into adding support for this in a future patch. Good idea :)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q. (Kaelmis) - Is there a way to modify the mover for a specific unit, not the entire unit type. The only way I have found to modify the mover is through the catalog set value trigger but that would affect all units of the same type.

A. We try to limit per-unit attributes for performance reasons so it's not likely that you will be able to change the mover for a specific unit unless there is a strong need for it. It can already be changed with upgrades and CatalogFieldValueSet, so there is already some flexibility available. Feel free to provide more justification if it's really important for your project.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Kaelmis) - I have an item shop that I want to sell hero specific items. How do you make requirements of these items based on the player trying to purchase the item, such as if that player owns a specific type of unit?

A. We'll look into adding support for this in a future patch.

Q. (Pan) - I got a question that I've been trying to figure out since the beta: does anybody know how to change cliff heights mid-game (triggers, actors, abilities, etc.)?

A. Changing cliff levels during run-time would require significant changes and we would only add support for this if there was a strong need for it.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (gamecreator) - What's the proper way to load one published map from another after victory?

A. This is currently not supported, but we are planning on adding features for multi-map campaigns in future patches.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (gamecreator) - I meant to also ask: how do you transfer data between two maps (like which upgrades you took or who lived or died)?

A. You should be able to use the Bank system to transfer data as long as the maps are published by the same author.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Mak) - As well, why is it so buggy? It crashes a LOT, and if it doesn't crash, the maps created make SC2 crash.

A. Please file bug reports for reproducible crashes. Fixing these type of issues is very important to us.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Tyde) - Is there a way to change the requirements of an ability with triggers? Say the Overlord's Generate Creep ability?

A. You can't change the requirements directly, but you could create a separate ability and control which was shown on the command card. Requirements have both a Show and Use section, allowing you to set up different conditions for whether it's shown and whether it can be used.

Q. (Bibendus) - Are you going to fix the keyboard/mouse control lag? 90% of custom games are ruined by this.

A. We will be improving keyboard and mouse control in a future patch, but we can't match the responsiveness of an FPS game with an authoritative server. Keyboard-based unit movement should be as responsive as issuing move orders with the mouse after these changes.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Bibendus) - Are you going to add missing triggers that existed in the wc3 editor like change terrain cliff height, change terrain texture, revive unit and tons of other things I don't remember?

A. Specific missing triggers may be added as needed or as suggested by the community. We can't just copy-paste the code from Warcraft III, so we'll only add triggers that provide a lot of value to mapmakers.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Bibendus) - Are you going to add a feature to store banks on server so they can't be viewed/edited/corrupted by users or concurrent maps?

A. Bank protection will be added in a future patch to allow mapmakers to prevent users from modifying their bank data (optionally).


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Bibendus) - Actually it's impossible to make a good custom sound and music looping layers mixing because ingame timers are imprecise. Are you going to fix that?

A. You should be able to layer different sound files for in-game music using the Soundtrack data. Can't really help more without specific details of the problem.

Q. (Enofel) - So basiccly that basic layout of my map is a huge circle, which I want to be circular perfectly and exactly in the center. How would I make this?

A. You can turn on the grid in the View -> Show Grid menu to help line it up perfectly. We'll look into increasing the max brush size since it does seem somewhat arbitrary.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (chriscisso) - We should be able to rename any Id on duplicated or copied units.

A. There was a bug preventing ID changes on duplicated units until the Editor was reloaded, but that should now be fixed in 1.1.0.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (chriscisso) - We should be bale to edit data on any unit regardless of were it came from, I cannot seem to edit the liberty units, if I am missing a setting let me know.

A. You should be able to edit Liberty data, except for certain cases where you have the "Display All Object Sources" option enabled (it's the second button next to Data Source dropdown). Basically, you can't edit data except for the top-most source, which is not obvious to the user and we are looking at ways of improving this feature.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (chriscisso) - If we overright images in our map, make sure they always are used in Test maps and On Battle net for the creator, other users don't have this problem, but creators of the map do. Cacheing Issue maybe?

A. If you could enter a detailed bug report for this issue we will look into it.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (chriscisso) - When we go into a property menu there should be a filter option for lists of items so we can just display custom items and such.

A. We're looking into adding a way to filter huge dropdowns since they are a bit unwieldy at the moment.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Mephs) - Is there a validator that can check the number of charges on an ability left?

A. This sounds useful and we'll look into adding support for this in a future patch.

Q. (Benoit) - Also, is there any way to tint a unit with a color, and also to make it bigger?

A. You can change the tint and scale of a unit by modifying the Actor's Events field and adding a new event that will send Set Tint Color or Set Scale.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Mak) - Is there a way to order units to go into the Nydus Worm and then come back out again?

A. You can order the Nydus Canal to load and unload units through triggers:

Issue Order
Unit: Nydus Worm (Canal) [28.50, 32.50]
Order: Order Targeting Unit
Ability Command: Load (Nydus Network)
Unit: Marine [28.61, 29.45]
Queue: Replace Existing Orders


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Wraith) - How do you assign priority of minimap icons (i.e. so my watchtower will be on top of, not below, my units)??

A. Currently there is no way to change the rendering priority of minimap icons, but we'll consider adding a priority field in a future patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (molster) - A trigger sending an actor message has a character limit in its field! If I try to type "<s val="Kicker_Refinery">+5</s><IMG path="Assets\Textures\icon-gas-terran.dds" height="32" width="32"/>" Then only the following would actually be sent to the actor "<s val="Kicker_Refinery">+5</s><IMG pat"

A. There was a bug preventing the SetText message from accepting strings larger than 40 characters. This will be fixed in 1.2.0.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (DHo) - Is it possible to turn a dialog box in a text box for players to type in? I reckon that Dialog- Edit Box is what I need however doesn't seem to work at all...

A. Trigger edit boxes were temporarily disabled for the editor's initial release, but should be functional in 1.2.0.

Q. (Trigor) - When and item goes into a Hero inventory, it is indexed based on the order it was put into the inventory. ... This seems very counter intuitive to the inventory system and I don't understand why it would be designed in this way. Does anyone know how to work with this?

A. You should be able to set the item to a Unit variable and use it as a parameter to the Inventory functions to find which inventory and slot it's in. There is also a function to query the index but unfortunately our trigger library currently doesn't expose it. You can work around this by using the UnitInventoryIndex function in custom script for now.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Jibekn) - Do you plan on unlocking the ability to manipulate the command card catalog entry? I, as well as many other mappers, desire the functionality of having equipped items grant abilities to the equipped unit. However, this is impossible after crossing the 32 ability threshold, due to not being able to modify the command card on the fly.

A. There is a cost (performance and development time) for each field that can be upgraded. We'll look into either allowing command cards to be upgraded or increasing the maximum number of abilities.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (AnonTwo) - Is there any way to tie an ability to activate on a right click?

A. You can make certain types of abilities (unfortunately not Blink) activate on right click by setting the Smart flag on the ability. We'll look into allowing more flexibility for smart commands.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Toran) - Is there a way to dynamically load the wireframe image for a unit or actor in a trigger?

A. You can dynamically change the Actor's wireframe using upgrades or the Catalog Field Value Set trigger. We'll look into reusing the Upgrade UI for this trigger, which will allow you to easily see which fields can be changed.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Roy) - How can I detect the texture/terrain of a specified point?

A. We'll look into adding this in a future patch.

Q. (Reynold) - OK, i just got a little problem about the editor. The problem is ... it loads very very slow, i need to wait for 30 or maybe 40 seconds to open a new map.

A. We're aware of certain areas in the editor with less than optimal performance and will be working to improve them as time is available.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q. (NuneShelping) - From what everyone knows so far, it is impossible to use this functionality without using the native UI; that is, there is no way to trigger the "Placement System". We suspect this is because this particular system is handled client-side, but I digress.

A. You're correct that this is currently handled asynchronously and adding a trigger to enter placement mode would be not be a trivial task. We'll do our best to support this in the future or provide sufficient alternatives.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q. (nickmp) - the prob is this:i need tychas' shrreder gernade discription to account for level up spell bonus damage.

A. Tooltips can dynamically display data values using a tag like <d ref="Effect,BonesTossGrenadeDamage,Amount"/>. We're adding UI in 1.2.0 for inserting these types of tags.

There is also the info tag which will dynamically display information for a unit based on which fields have the InfoTooltipPriority field set. For example <info id="Marine" types="W,D,A,B,Un,UpP,UpR"/> will display the types of units a Marine can attack along with information about his abilities and upgrades. (W=Weapons, D=Detectors, A=Abilities, B=Behaviors, Un=Units produced, UpP=Upgrades produced, UpR=Upgrades Received)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q. (NuneShelping) - What are "console commands"?

A. Console commands are tools that we use internally to debug the game. We're working on exposing more of our debug tools without making the game more vulnerable to hacking.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q. (Zaraf) - I would like to hear from Blizzard with regards to what exactly the differences between Modal and non-Modal dialogs are.

A. Modal trigger dialogs currently aren't implemented and we're planning on adding support for them in a future patch.

Q. (SiNiquity) - What's the proper way to utilize Catalog Is Field Array? It takes 2 parameters, Field and Scope.

A. The Scope is an entry type like CUnit, and Field is a field like AbilArray. For example, CatalogFieldIsArray("CUnit", "AbilArray") == true.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Eternal) - How will patches effect the custom maps already developed? Will it change within the dependencies? Will it override the unit if it has already been altered? Will it override a unit if it has been unaltered? More importantly, will it at all jack up our map?

A. Balance changes will only affect LibertyMulti, but bug fixes in a patch may change Liberty data. So generally custom maps will not be affected by patches unless you have LibertyMulti as a dependency.

When you override/extend data from a dependency, the map only stores the difference between the map data and the dependency data. The fields that are most vulnerable to being broken by a dependency change are array fields that only have specific indexes overriden. We've worked a lot to ensure that custom maps won't be broken by patches and will try to improve this in the future.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Tordecybombo) - Any chance of allowing us to convert texts to strings? If not, any chance of allowing us to get some sort of player information? Such as the player's name or the player's character code as a string?

A. It's intentional that there is no text to string function or text comparison, in order to localize the game without requiring that every user have every language installed. Player Name returns a text value since computer controlled player names can be localized.
We'll look into adding functionality to get a player's name as a string in a future patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (StKerrigan) - Does anyone know how to get the Charge counter to display for weapons?

A. This can't be done currently but it's a good idea and we'll consider adding it in a future patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (CutMeOwn) - Why do maps sometimes act diffrently when you test them with the test map button vs when you upload them to battle.net

A. We're aware of an issue with dependency load order when maps are played on Battle.net and are working on a fix for the next major patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Rorax) - Will it be possible in the future for an attachment, to be attached 'by point'.

A. We'll look into adding support to attach two actors at separate attach points in a future patch.

Q. (Turel) - Is there a validator to recognize when you cast any spell? I need something like this to remove a cloak behaviour whenever a unit or hero casts Any spell .

A. You can accomplish this by combining the Unit Compare Order Count and Unit Order Queue validators. You want to set the behavior to disable if the order count is greater than 0 and the order that's queued is not move or attack.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Turel) - Currently the veterancy share filters are bugged, meaning they share to enemy from your kills, The filters simply just dont work.

A. Veterancy share filters will be fixed soon along with other improvements like gaining XP from kills made by a unit that doesn't have a veterancy behavior.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Turel) - Can i get a validator to prevent items from being purchased when your inventory is full?

A. I believe you could use the Unit Order validator to validate that the unit can issue a Take command. However we'll also look into adding validators specific to inventory functionality.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (payne) - Why don't you allow map-makers to literally draw custom regions?

A. We're aware of the limitations of the current region shapes and are planning on improving this in the future.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (payne) - Why don't you give map-makers more tools to customize the No-Fly Zones?

A. No-Fly Zones are not intended to be as flexible as ground unit pathing and were added to prevent air units from clipping through tall doodads. We may extend it in the future based off the needs of our designers and feedback from the community.

Q. (payne) - Why don't you allow map-makers to detect if a unit is within a region instead of just letting them detect if a unit entered or left it?

A. Use the Unit in Region trigger function to check if a unit is within a region.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (ZeroAme) - Can you please add support for users to create/use more then 3 cliff heights.

A. We'd like to allow more than 3 cliff levels for map makers and will add support for it if we have time.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (ZeroAme) - Would it at all be possible to make it so water can be bent or painted almost like terrain so that we can have a river that say goes from a body of water, down hill, levels out and then back into another body of water.

A. Our current implementation of water is optimized for rendering. It would be much more flexible if water was a more important part of StarCraft. To achieve the look you are describing, it would probably be best to create a custom model.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (ZeroAme) - Is there any way to make a mod that would allow, or map that is larger then 256x256 and would it be playable on b.net?

A. The game is optimized to play 256x256 maps and increasing this limit would affect performance as well as require significant development time. We're aware of the desire to create larger maps and would like to support it but it may conflict with other needs.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Riley) - Could you please add an ability flag that will allow an auto-cast ability to interrupt a directed attack order?

A. Could you more specifically describe the problem you are trying to solve? We could support if it was important, but adding a flag like this wouldn't be trivial amount of work. You also might be able to emulate this using triggers.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Khalint) - Can we please get the ability to hide units and doodads by player, and perhaps hide terrain in a region?

A. We'll look into adding support for per player actor visbility. Generic per player actor properties would work too but may require too many changes to the current system.

Q. (Ardnived) - Is it possible to easily rotate doodads in three dimensions for the purposes for terraining? The only way that I have found is through Host Site Operations, which I can't seem to get to work anyways. In warcraft 3 we had Roll and Pitch which was reasonably easy to work with, but I cannot find anything similar to that in the Data Editor.

A. You should be able to rotate a type of doodad by using Site Operations, but we are also considering adding support for per-placed doodad pitch and roll.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (PointBlank) - Why is there nothing to change unit attributes (Heroic, Armored, Biological) in the data editor, editing/adding more such as changing "Armored" to "Heavy" or adding another like "Immortal"

A. You can rename the unit attributes in the text editor by modifying the strings that begin with e_unitAttribute. Certain attributes will still affect in-game functionality like the Structure attribute.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Wakeman) - Can you add some kind of "unit / ability creation wizard" to the editor in the future?

A. We've considered adding a unit wizard to the editor frequently and have generally decided to focus on improving the existing UI for editing data instead. However, we're still planning on adding a simple unit wizard in a future patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Roanari) - How about triggers allowing you to change some of the properties of effects?

A. You can already change certain fields of effects using the Catalog Field Value Set trigger, or the upgrade system. Let us know if there are specific fields that are important to be able to change through triggers.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Skittles) - (How do I...) Set animation speed for all animations.

A. You can use the Set Time Scale Global actor message to control animation speed for all animations.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Skittles) - (Any plans to add...) Holding shift while painting in the terrain editor to make straight lines.

A. We're planning on adding this feature in a future patch.

Q. (Visual) - What are map sections and how are they used?

A. In order to make it easier for multiple developers to work on a single map simultaneously, various map data may be assigned to a named "section", and data for given section may merged in from a separate map file without changing the rest of the map. Only certain components of the map data may use sections: Placed Objects (units, points, cameras), Regions, and Triggers.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Klishu) - I'm having a problem regarding beams. As far as I can tell, the bounding volume of a beam is around the beam's launch point. So, if I have a long beam, the beam disappears when the camera pans away from the beam's launch point. I suppose this is because the bounding volume of the beam moves out of the view frustum. I've tried changing the Visual Radius of the beam's model but I still cannot get the beam to remain visible. Is there any way I can prevent the game from culling the beam when it considers it out of view?

A. There's no solve for this currently. The setting used to prevent the culling is in the asset itself and not readily available to modders. Moreover, while the concept of a fixed sized bounding volume works fine for models, it isn’t ideal for beams that could be fired across an arbitrary range. We’re aware of the issue and hope to have a solution for this problem in the future.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Malu) - So, copying doodads from one map to another or simply making a exact clone of a area is a pain since you have to enter all the height offsets manually for every single doodad you copy, is this intended or simply a bug?

A. This is a bug that we hope to address in a future patch.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Duke) - Flag "Use line of sight" (unit parameter in data editor) limits unit`s sight radius to very small number that is not enough for my map. With this flag unchecked sight radius becomes right to it value but unit can see over cliffs this way =(. I need to see cliffs correctly but have sight radius more than it limited. Will this problem be fixed?

A. Units using line of sight are limited to a small sight radius in order to optimize the vision system and it's unlikely that we will remove this limitation.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Duke) - Is there a way to rotate turret actor of unit? I know there is an action "set angle of actor" or something like this, but i can get only actor of type Unit from unit, but not the turret actor. It will be very good if someone tell me the way my tank always focusing his turret on target, even if i use action "make unit face angle" - because now this action breaks turret rotation and it focus target again only when unit stops rotating.

A. The only way to point a turret at an arbitrary location is to create an invisible dummy unit and a dummy weapon that doesn’t do any damage for that turret. You can then attack the dummy unit with the dummy weapon and move the dummy unit to simulate whatever turret motion you want.

This isn't ideal, obviously. We'd like to explore more game-side turret behaviors and include the ability to have actor-only turrets that look cool, but don’t affect gameplay.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Andreyker) - How to combine different areas (R) into one?

A. You can combine Regions by selecting the regions and then using the Edit -> Merge Selection command.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q. (Andreyker) - Please add no-base resource squares in category "H". If there is a non-standard location of resources - may occur holes. Not so convenient to build.

A. You can view the tiles near resources by enabling the Show Near Resources option of the placement grid. This is located in the Terrain Editor menu: View -> Show Placement Grid (Ctrl+Shift+H) -> Show Near Resources.