I've had this game since it's release, just thinking of learning WE..

Lately I've been contemplating on learning WE so I could eventually create a map/mod that I've been pondering about for some time using other engines and games to base them off of. It's somewhat of a cannon fodder style game, the only similarities would be that rts-ish view, and movement/aiming style.

But I have a few questions before I start learning the basics and then eventually mapping out what I want to accomplish with this modification.

First off, is there still a large enough w3/tft community these days to even bother starting to learn how to use WE?

Secondly, having to do with coding, is it possible to have a movement/aiming style that's akin to cannon fodder? Basically it's like this, left click to move, and right click causes you to shoot. I've been thinking of creating a fixed camera for this, but I think fog-of-war would just work out better in this situation.

I suppose that's it for now... I know the majority of the questions I can probably find my own answers for in the long-run (having to do with coding and mapping and such..), but I'm really curious about the population of the wc3 community these days. All I tend to see is DoTA this and DoTA that, and surprise surprise, that game gets a bit boring.


EDIT: Just to let you all know, I'm going to be learning how to make the actual maps and possibly learn a bit of object/hero/item creation, etc.. Right now I'm just curious if taking my time to learn all of it is going to be worth my time, and not a huge waste if there's not many people left in this part of the warcraft community (meaning wc3/tft, tons of people play wow these days.. bleh).

Yes.


Right click to move AND shoot > Left click to move. Just use default Wc3 controls. You can restrict a unit to atatck only one per right click if you want.

Yea, I see what you're trying to tell me, just keep the default controls.. But the thing is, I would like to try to make it so you are able to move and shoot at the same time. Basically the "pointer" will always be a crosshair instead of any form of a hand. You then left click where on the screen, and that would cause your character to move to that location. Then, you can click for semi-autos or hold down for full-auto/short bursts, and the projectiles will shoot towards the crosshair but only go a certain specific range.

Since this is how Cannon Fodder was like, I want to try and re-create that kind of hectic gameplay, but I would like to tone it down a bit and make it a little more tactical, but still give the player the amount of control that you can easily have with just using a mouse (of course there will be plenty of keyboard hotkeys and such, but that's besides the point).

At this current moment, I'm trying to decide either to make it so you can move using left click, shoot using right click, or move using right click and shoot using left click.

Of course, if there is way too much lag caused by any form of full-auto or visible projectiles, I might just scratch this idea (which could make it quite unique compared to plenty of other mods/maps that involve riflemen and sniping, etc, etc...), and go with the conventional rts movement and shooting that is the default. But I want to try this out first.

If you've never played cannon fodder, look it up, you can probably find some place to play it, legally or not.

Nothing beats re-creating retro Amiga games :)

Download it here

'Lost in Service'

Altering the way interface works can be one of the more tricky triggering jobs.

Right click is easily customizable, you just need to look for the "smart" order being issued. It's different with the other button, seeing how left-click can only be used for selection, you can't use it on anything other than units/destructibles, so you can't have point-target fireing or movement with it (unless you would pave the whole map with destructibles, thus being able to detect a left-click anywhere). You could also use trackables for that, but they can only be used with JASS, GUI triggers have no support for them. However, I wouldn't recommend making any system like this in GUI anyway.

I don't mean to discourage you, but it might take months to gain the required skill to make a map like this. Making maps is a long-term hobby, and I strongly suggest you start with a simpler project(s) before attempting to make your "dream map".

Thanks for the info about left click not being all that customizable, and it makes sense now that you've told me that. I'll just have to brainstorm and come up with some alternatives.

Anyways, about your last paragraph, I am well aware that it will take months before I'm able to do anything like this, and I am going to be starting with the basics. The main purpose of this thread was to figure out if the warcraft 3 community is still large enough to even bother learning WE these days. And since there won't be a Warcraft 4 or Starcraft 2 in a loooooong time (I'm pretty positive Diablo 3 will be the next big project since WoW is still insanely huge and Starcraft: Ghost is coming out.. ..eventually), so I am going to start playing around with making the basic types of maps first and then add complexity to them as I go on. Thanks for all the replies however.