Different Idea for ORPG Save Codes

I will first of all admit that I am a novice, so please be patient with me. However, I do know that whenever you take a screenshot in WC it saves it to C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\Screenshots in .tga format.

Now I was wondering if there was a way to manipulate those files. In other words, could you save a file (maybe even creating your own folder) and then read it back in?!

If you could, then you could surpass all of that typing and misspelling that comes along with every ORPG. Better yet, ORPG map makers would no longer have to worry about not being able to save information, due to the tremendous length that arises. If the player never has to mess with it, the map will feel like a real RPG!

The best method would probably be to simply save a .txt file, with listed codes. Maybe use an option to use and copy over 3 different codes, read in and loaded through Dialog Buttons, or something. However, even saving an empty .tga file, using the name as the actual "save code" would work wonders for ORPG popularity.

Is this at all possible, or am I just blowing smoke?

You are blowing smoke :)

You cannot access external files from JASS. Maybe with custom natives, but it would be too dangerous if the map could acess filesystem freely.

Well I'm not good enough to fully understand what a custom native is, but I really think it would be worth developing if it could accomplish the features I mentioned above. (I said "think" because I have no idea how it would be done or how long it would take)

Also, why is accessing files too dangerous?

I'd like to see a visual/object oriented system.

"Your save code is Cow-Duck-Duck-Rabbit-Peon"

When you get in you load by clicking the buttons(on a shop/unit) or even just have the units sitting on the ground and you load via ordering them into a region or clicking them in the propper order.

I think it would be fun. :x

Because someone could make a map that formats your hard drive?

Custom natives would have to be distributed as a hack for wc3, they can't be just a part of a map you download on bnet. A map won't work if all players don't have them, and players are unlikely to install some unknown and potentialy harmful hack onto their wc3, even if it's safe blizzard could still ban them from bnet for breaking the EULA.

The idea is simply not feasible.

Well, in DotA people have been using that Ban List thing for like ever. It takes some value from the game and stores it, namely a string! Which is the normal format of save codes.

Could that work?

Or, is there a way to make a player press buttons? Then you could tell the player to press ENTER, and walk his unit over some location/elevator/etc. It would then trigger the player to "type" out the code. All he'd have to do then is SHIFT + HOME, to copy the auto-typed code. He would still have to store it, but there could be no mistakes made!

Is that just more smoke?

Its not within the map, the banlist somehow reads the data transfers going on with warcraft I think. I'm also sure it is very complex to do much more than getting usernames and IP's from that data, if that is even what the banlist does.
That's probably more smoke, I know for a fact that Jass can't simulate keystrokes. But who knows maybe there is another way.

Also I wonder if I could whip up a program that does an image search for characters (letters and such of course) within a screen shot and produce the code for you, that would fix a lot of the loading hassle. But it would be a pain for me because I would need to get a picture of every character that would be used in a save load code, I think I can make colors not matter so much and I wonder if I can just have the outside of the letters transparent so it doesn't matter... Again a huge pain but I will probably test it with like 3 pics of letters and a screenshot and see what happens. I may not be determined enough to do it though...

In order for any load/save to work you need some way of storing and reading information. This means storing things on the hard disk, and the only way to do that in WC3 is game cache (which only works in single player).

I hope blizzard allows disk access in the future. Allowing 1kb inside the map file itself would not be exploitable in the least.

You could always add a -check to the save/load system?

I'm so in favour of this. Kinda like the old passwords in many videogames.

It is possible to write optional add on programs (like banlist) that let you save/load on maps which get distributed on BNet (map contains URL for utility), but nobody has done it yet. If there is somebody out there who wants to add this functionality to their map and is competent with C I would be happy to get you started.

So you can guess an order and get an uber char.

Usually... load codes have some 1337 h4x0r way of incorporating a name in some form of coding to prevent stuff like that happening... and usually they are 15+ characters long... now imagine trying to memorize something like that...

Couldn't there be a way of making a save-load system like

-PlayerName15CharPassWord

Example...

-tidearcephemeraihavesavedthere

I guess that would be a tad complicated or even impossible, but it'd be neat if it could work...

Making a code system which is nearly impossible to hack is easy, whether you use arrow commands as a load code, or the normal text command.

What I am working on right now, is a system that translates my map's save values (which include multiple values based on the player's name) into a bit string, sets check bits, and then shuffles the bits around, finally translating that bit string into a char string.

The load system will work in reverse. It will take the char string, translate it into a bit string, de-shuffle, check and remove the check bits, and check the player's name values in the bit string. If it all checks out, then the values are loaded.

The reason I want to find a way to avoid typos is do to the fact that this map is a turn-based simultaneous 3 hero RPG system. It even has a custom item system which uses equipment, similar to Vexorian's, but very map specific. Yet, this code is going to be 48 characters long in the Alpha version. And later I plan to add options like profession, which would increase it even more.

I guess that's why I blow out smoke. Trying any idea would be great. I'm not sure the size of most loading codes, but I assume it's around 30 chars. Plus, people make plenty of typos with just that many chars. What if my final code ends up be 60 chars long?! Then typos would occur about twice as often...