turtles Profile Blog Joined August 2011 Australia 360 Posts Last Edited: 2012-02-26 19:05:32 #1 BIGGER, better and now also uploaded on EU!



Salt is a training tool which enables saving and loading the game in multiplayer matches with practice partners! It is designed to help people test out the timing and execution of all aspects of their play and I have recieved positive responses from Bronze players, pro players/casters (Qxc and Husky) and many people from all levels in between.



To use the tool a player simply types "save" or "load" into chat and they can jump to whatever point in the game they want. For a simple look at how this works and how it can be used you can watch the episode of HuskyStarcraft where he did a review/tutorial on it as part of a new series.



update:Salt is a training tool which enables saving and loading the game in multiplayer matches with practice partners! It is designed to help people test out the timing and execution of all aspects of their play and I have recieved positive responses from Bronze players, pro players/casters (Qxc and Husky) and many people from all levels in between.To use the tool a player simply types "save" or "load" into chat and they can jump to whatever point in the game they want. For a simple look at how this works and how it can be used you can watch the episode of HuskyStarcraft where he did a review/tutorial on it as part of a new series.

(note, near the end of the clip his opponent clicks on the "restart" button hence the confussion)



He does a good job of outlining some uses for this which are holding timing attacks and practicing micro in real world engagements. It is also useful to develop build orders to test out what a build order is weak against, different variations on a build order and which paths work best when transitioning, as well as practicing games where spawn location plays a role as it lets you chose which starting location each player begins at.



To use simply enter the custom maps section of Battlenet and search for "SALT" and there should be a number of the maps in the list.



So far there have been 13 maps released.

+ Show Spoiler +

LADDER / TOURNAMENT:

SALT Antiga Shipyard

SALT Entombed Valley

SALT Cloud Kingdom

SALT Metalopolis

SALT Shakuras Plateau

SALT Shattered Temple

SALT Tal'Darim Altar



TOURNAMENT:

SALT Dual Sight

SALT Crevasse

SALT Daybreak

SALT Terminus



NOT IN COMPETITIVE USE:

SALT Xel'naga Caverns

SALT Bel'shir swamp (one of my own maps, not balance tested)



MORE MAPS:

coming soon



If you use custom hotkeys for control groups then you will need to edit the file SALTkeybindings.SC2Banks which will be found in your banks file. Start the game and it will create a default file for you, if you do not know where it is located do a search of you SC2 folder and you should find it. To change the hotkey for control group 1 to the letter 'q' find the line that says <Value string="1"/> and change it to <Value string="q"/>. all letters, numbers and F1-F12 keys are allowed.



In the future I will be looking into being able to save the game as a file so that it can be shared with others, distributed to help people become better gamers, included in help requests (eg. "Help. What should I do in this situation?") and used in tournaments in the case of a player who gets disconnected.



I sincerely hope that you all find this to be a useful tool.



Thank you for your time,

Turtles (note, near the end of the clip his opponent clicks on the "restart" button hence the confussion)He does a good job of outlining some uses for this which are holding timing attacks and practicing micro in real world engagements. It is also useful to develop build orders to test out what a build order is weak against, different variations on a build order and which paths work best when transitioning, as well as practicing games where spawn location plays a role as it lets you chose which starting location each player begins at.To use simply enter the custom maps section of Battlenet and search for "SALT" and there should be a number of the maps in the list.So far there have beenIf you usehotkeys for control groups then you will need to edit the file SALTkeybindings.SC2Banks which will be found in your banks file. + Show Spoiler + In the future I will be looking into being able to save the game as a file so that it can be shared with others, distributed to help people become better gamers, included in help requests (eg. "Help. What should I do in this situation?") and used in tournaments in the case of a player who gets disconnected.I sincerely hope that you all find this to be a useful tool.Thank you for your time,Turtles

MaV_gGSC Profile Blog Joined November 2010 Canada 1306 Posts #2 Cool acronym, SALT ^^ also I think I've played a similar map, very helpful for practicing. Life's good :D

Gladiator6 Profile Joined June 2010 Sweden 7021 Posts #3 I've been waiting so long for something like this!!! thank you Flying, sOs, free, Light, Soulkey & ZerO

Grobyc Profile Blog Joined June 2008 Canada 18409 Posts #4 Holy shit I can't believe something like this hasn't been released already. At first I thought it was going to be something potentially bannable when you called it a mod, but it looks like that's not a matter at hand. If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.

dAPhREAk Profile Blog Joined July 2010 Nauru 12390 Posts #5 sounds cool

ianyapxw Profile Joined November 2011 34 Posts #6 thank you. great idea and I look forward to using it in practice



(:

turtles Profile Blog Joined August 2011 Australia 360 Posts #7 On January 25 2012 10:47 Grobyc wrote:

Holy shit I can't believe something like this hasn't been released already. At first I thought it was going to be something potentially bannable when you called it a mod, but it looks like that's not a matter at hand.



Thanks, I updated the OP to say that it is a custom game mod. Thanks, I updated the OP to say that it is a custom game mod.

The_Templar Profile Blog Joined January 2011 your Country 52619 Posts #8 Quick question, why do you need 2 threads?? Moderator Starcraft 3 when

tnud Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Sweden 2229 Posts #9 This is awesome! :D



I can't imagine a player that wouldn't have use of this at some point. Good work! - ಠ_ಠ - | disinfect wrote: AHAHHAHAHA 2DG FUCK ME ALREADY.

DocHolliday Profile Joined November 2010 United Kingdom 51 Posts #10 holy shit this is so cool. think of the training/coaching possibilities people could grind out with this!

canikizu Profile Joined September 2010 3341 Posts Last Edited: 2012-01-25 02:04:25 #11 Why not name it LAST (Last And Save Tool)? SALT sounds like salt.



.Aar Profile Joined September 2010 Korea (South) 2116 Posts #12 Sounds extremely useful. I'll be sure to give it a try. now run into the setting sun, and suffer, but don't mess up your hair.

KlaW Profile Joined August 2010 Canada 2 Posts #13 It's probably a far fetch, but could this possibly be implemented to keep track of game state in tournament games, so in case the game drops it can be reloaded? That would be pretty cool.

Deathfate Profile Joined November 2008 Spain 533 Posts #14 Can you use it to save the game after a disconnect? it would solve a lot of tournament issues if you can continue the game after the person got dropped Feel the power of the zerg swarm.

Ventez Profile Joined April 2010 Norway 107 Posts #15 Perfect, I will definitely use this with some friends.

corpuscle Profile Blog Joined April 2011 United States 1966 Posts #16 This is really cool. I must have wasted hours trying to practice certain builds against practice partners and having to do the opening every time we want to re-game. From the void I am born into wave and particle

Witten Profile Joined January 2011 United States 1623 Posts #17 I haven't played it yet, so I can't really compliment you for being baller yet.



But you're probably pretty baller. Brood War Forever / NA's premiere Shadow Shaman player / Courier Collector / Bot Game Champion / Highly amateur Mystical Ninja Goemon Speedrunner

blade55555 Profile Blog Joined March 2009 United States 17375 Posts #18 On January 25 2012 11:09 Deathfate wrote:

Can you use it to save the game after a disconnect? it would solve a lot of tournament issues if you can continue the game after the person got dropped



I was thinking the same thing. How awesome would it be to just reload from where the game was if a disconnect happened. The only problem I can see from that is both players might forget what was going on in the game (I mean it would take a few minutes to get everything set up again then to start in a game might be kinda like "what was I doing before I dropped?") xD. I was thinking the same thing. How awesome would it be to just reload from where the game was if a disconnect happened. The only problem I can see from that is both players might forget what was going on in the game (I mean it would take a few minutes to get everything set up again then to start in a game might be kinda like "what was I doing before I dropped?") xD. When I think of something else, something will go here

turtles Profile Blog Joined August 2011 Australia 360 Posts #19 Quick question, why do you need 2 threads?

The thread I mentioned was asking for help testing and bug fixing.



The thread I mentioned was asking for help testing and bug fixing. keep track of game state in tournament games

use it to save the game after a disconnect?



As amazing as this functionality would be...



At the moment the game is saved into memory and is erased if a player leaves the game. However I will now begin working on tackling this issue so that may be solved in future updates



The other problem is that one of my main design goals was that the mod should in no way impede game play. I consider that if the mod degrades the gameplay then it is a failure. Currently it takes about 1 second to save the state in the early game and in the late game it takes a few seconds. If the game were to automatically save state every 5 minutes or so then I think the small glitch in gameplay would be enough to really put the players off and get in the way of spectators watching a really awesome SC2 game.



I can imagine small scale tournaments where an observer can save the game when they want to and then after the match the game state file could be shared. That way you get to be able to jump straight into the game that you were just spectating and try your own hand at it. As amazing as this functionality would be...At the moment the game is saved into memory and is erased if a player leaves the game. However I will now begin working on tackling this issue so that may be solved in future updatesThe other problem is that one of my main design goals was that the mod should in no way impede game play. I consider that if the mod degrades the gameplay then it is a failure. Currently it takes about 1 second to save the state in the early game and in the late game it takes a few seconds. If the game were to automatically save state every 5 minutes or so then I think the small glitch in gameplay would be enough to really put the players off and get in the way of spectators watching a really awesome SC2 game.I can imagine small scale tournaments where an observer can save the game when they want to and then after the match the game state file could be shared. That way you get to be able to jump straight into the game that you were just spectating and try your own hand at it.

The_Templar Profile Blog Joined January 2011 your Country 52619 Posts #20 On January 25 2012 11:03 canikizu wrote:

Why not name it LAST (Last And Save Tool)? SALT sounds like salt.



Really?! =O Really?! =O Moderator Starcraft 3 when

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