GGL Wire

The most recent StarCraft II Q&A features an interesting little tidbit about custom maps and user mods: community modders will be able to create User Map Settings to approximate a Defense of the Ancients-style game in StarCraft II.

DoTA is by far the most popular mod for Warcraft III, and features a singular hero with an inventory battling creeps. Since StarCraft II doesn’t have such powerful heroes, nor inventories, there were concerns that modders would be unable to create that sort of environment in the game. Alas, the devs have come to the rescue:

One of the most popular questions we get when it comes to creating UMS (User Map Settings) games or mods is: Will there be a DotA for StarCraft II? For those who are not familiar, DotA (Defense of the Ancients), is a popular UMS game created for Warcraft III. StarCraft, compared to Warcraft III, does not focus on heroes as much, and heroes or units do not have the same experience gaining mechanic as Warcraft III, making it difficult to imagine how a game like DotA could be reproduced for StarCraft. Nonetheless, after chatting it up with our devs, we found out the ability to allow heroes and units to gain experience is built into the Map Editor, though it will not likely be in single player or standard multiplayer. In addition, those units can also be toggled to have the ability to carry an inventory, which is also a characteristic needed in UMS maps such as DotA. With those two additions, we can rest assured that our clever community modders can handle the rest in creating some awesome custom games. 

It’s settled. Now someone needs to make the UMS and think up names for a Hydralisk hero. Any takers?

Check out this StarCraft webcomic by Anderson McCutcheon from SC2comic.com showing why there haven’t been any battles between the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss for four years. What’s the common denominator?