This probably won’t go anywhere, but can we get a command card system that allows a worker to build more than 11 different types of structures? Warcraft 1 & 2, and StarCraft 1 & 2 all have an advanced structures button, but WarCraft 3 has no innate support for it.
The workarounds are always cumbersome and require custom triggers.
Morphing the worker to another type doesn’t change the structures it can build. This method requires triggers to outright replace the unit as it morphs.
Using a spellbook with “build tiny structure” spells for the “advanced” list also requires triggers to override the command and actually order the worker to build the structure. This method is also cumbersome, and it doesn’t allow structures to be shift-queued.
I hope not. Please do not try to change the user interface (HMI) of a >22 years old game. You can change other visual aspects, or add , remove spells, boost or nerf units, game balance, adding new campaigns - could be great, etc. but touching HMI is like destroying the old game and/or make another.
Even I do not understand how can some games work both on PC and then they are ported to PS5. It is not ruining experience to use controller instead of keyboard ? HMI change does not ruin the gaming experience?
At worst, this would require a “flag” on each structure, and an extra button for buildings flagged “advanced”. This game even has icon support for an advanced structure button, it just isn’t in use. Also, only custom game modes would actually use this. That said, it’s a question of whether or not Blizzard is willing to do this. There are workarounds, they are just all flawed in some way.
That depends on the game, but typically games that are written for console already have the option to be played with a controller.
If someone was going to add Advanced Structures, it might be easiest to do this by adding a new spell called Advanced Build to the ability editor. It could be a copy of the spell currently titled Spellbook, but when the menu opens instead of a list of more spells to cast, it would be a list of structures to build.
However, even that much is overkill for this task. Because, in reality, the Spellbook is already extensible, can have multiple different copies of itself applied to a unit, or can be set to use the same icon UI space as the build menus so that it appends spells to the build menu.
So then the main problem, really, is that if we take the Build Tiny Altar of Kings spell, another thing which already exists, and we put repeated copies of Build Tiny Altar of Kings into the Spellbook ability, that’s where we get into problems. The “Build Tiny” stuff is a mimic of the actual build mechanic, but for a single icon and a single structure. So a menu of those is very, very nearly what the OP is asking for. But the “Build Tiny” is cursed to always construct buildings in the style of Undead, where the structure produces itself and the worker unit can walk away, since it was assumed that the “worker unit” would be a hero activating this ability from within an item. Also, the “Build Tiny” abilities all glitch together if the unit has multiple, and so they cannot be activated independently.
So if the developers copied Build Tiny Altar of Kings and made a new extensible spell with the Data - Base Order ID mechanic copied from ANcl “Channel”, so that we could give a unit five copies of this ability and each operated independently – or perhaps if the new spell used the Unit Type ID it was constructing as its base order ID, and then if it also used the “Stats - Race” setting of the ability to determine how the worker operated – whether he was destroyed like a Wisp, or sitting inside like a Peon, or picking at the side and powerbuilding like a Peasant – those small changes alone would totally solve the problem.
Of course, the company is not going to do that. It’s too much work for zero gain, because supporting custom game development is not on their to-do list.
Edit:
Actually there is a third problem in my above scenario. The “Abilities” in the game cannot have a Gold, Lumber, or Food cost typically. The only abilities that violate this rule are few and far between, such as “Charge Gold & Lumber” the spell, which does nothing. To accomplish my above description, for the special copy of “Build Tiny Altar of Kings” with 2 changes, it would be advantageous to perform a third change: put the Gold and the Lumber cost fields from “Charge Gold & Lumber” and attach these onto the new “extensible” ability copied from Build Tiny Altar of Kings.
Ideas like this, and the unwillingness of corporate to achieve them, are the sort that inspires me to rewrite an emulator for the game. If I can get a working prototype that mirrors the original, then I can implement these types of small and inspiring ideas to prove that I wasn’t crazy and that they were possible all along, and that the corporate manager types simply lacked vision and creativity.
Some of the issues that you brought up can be worked around by a trigger that replaces the order to cast “build tiny unit” with a trigger order to actually build the structure directly. However:
That method still leaves the gold/lumber cost issue.
That method does not allow shift-queue, since any queued orders will be replaced.
That method requires all of the extra buildings to be in the build list. Some subset of of buildable structures can be built normally, and the rest need their own spellbook buttons. I don’t know how to control which structures go where, so the build and advanced lists may not make logical sense.
I do not talk about the perspective of Map editor or is or not possible.
I said from the perspective, that any change in the game interface, or adding more buildings, (advanced tab like in SC2 ) could ruin the gaming experience.
The Human Machine Interface (the way to deploy things) plus the shortcuts needs to be changed.
Better keep the original War3. But I admire your passion & creativity, and I wish you could help Blizzard to develop the next game: eg. Warcraft 4.