Staredit Network

I'm not talking about why protection is good or bad and PLEASE DON'T REHASH THAT DEBATE.
What I'm talking about is why when you personally make a map, why you chose to use some kind of protector on it (this means that people who have never used a protector shouldn't post here).

It's just that I used to think the only reason people protected their maps was to prevent people from claiming credit for their maps. However some people from Chef told me that that wasn't true.

Map stealing is a big and obvious reason, but I'm more interested in the other reasons people chose not to protect their maps.

What are the reasons why YOU chose to protect your maps?

When I protected maps, I did it to preserve credit.

I dont originally intend on protecting my maps I go into a protector to compress my map and just protect it since im already there

To preserve credit and to limit the number of rigged versions.

Heres an example on Warcraft: LOAP - Life of a peasant. Original version had 9 regular players, 1 mafia, 1 drug lord, 1 police. Terrible map.

Present examples of LOAP - 1 ruler of the world, 1 god, 1 death, 1 assassin, 1 drug lord, 1 king, 1 prince, 1 mafia, 4 regular players.

Ruler of the world can blink and has infinite stats. God is weaker than him, and death is weaker, but both are immortal. Drug lord has infinite access to stat-increasing drugs. Kings and princes are immortal. Everyone adds some player, wanting to be that player once they host the game, and rig the player horribly with best skills. I don't want that to happen to any of my future maps.

^ Makes a very good point ^

Now the flip side of this is when the stolen version is better. A good example is Tarpit Defense 3.3.

I can understand the rigged versions thing. It almost makes me want to protect my maps...

Because it's not that the rigged version is better, just that it's spread more...

When I protected my maps, I had no reason. Someone told me I should.
I'm easily influenced like that.
The only real advantage that the maps gained was a reduced file size.

My reason was the same as Kenoli's. I don't care about credit and what not.

Fortuantly for me, I'm too lazy to "release" any maps.

Because I made the map(no I didn't.), and wanted everybody to know it.. even though the map was just one of those Blizzard custom maps with some things changed.. it was played in my clan though

I want my credit.

When someone mentions Panzer_Kavalier (The real one, not his sorry excuse for an impersonator cousin.) or Peazel, (Aka Cayden) they tag along some of the best memorys of my time playing SC. The maps that brought me joy and laughs, brought me friends and clans, its those maps that mean something to me.

And i wanted to be one of those names. I wanted to be associated with the good times brought to people just like others had for me. I wanted to produce something good, and be recognized for it.

Alot of people give two arguements:
1. People should be able to "learn" from looking at my map.
Me: Yea fat ass chance. Look at RE: Raccoon City. MasterJohnny and Shimby ruined that map. It was my favorite map to play before they got their grimy little paws on it. Open maps are rigged and stolen, and im sick of it. Look at how many phantoms are around. Even I, still crediting the makers ofcourse, modified an unprotected version, to take the cheats out, change the terrain, and other things.
2. Its just a game.
Me: Worst. Arguement. Ever. Sure, SC is a game. But were talking about a map. Something we put our effort, our time, and sometimes our heart and soul into to make it the best it can be. Im doing that right now on RE: Shadow Labs. And i hope its enough to make it the map i want it to be. I care about what i put my name on, because it represents me.

If you want your map to be open source, thats fine, and i applaud you for having confidence in a communit made mainly of 10-15 year olds. But we, the makers, deserve a choice. And that choice has been taken away.

Compression was a cool side effect.

Standardization of versions to prevent multiple copies and excess downloads.

My work is my work, and I don't want people tampering with it. I want to be able to say I made that map 100% by myself, not that it's good because X and Y had to make changes to it. If there are bugs, I'm not very hard to contact.

My first map was protected because I was told that protecting maps is good. My second map will be (final version) protected because I am confident enough to say that I am the best player of that map type and nobody can make the map more balanced then I can.

To preserve credit.
To compress.
To control how many versions the map has.
To ensure the map wont be rigged.

I protected my maps in one instance, and that was just to make sure they were protected when I sent a few copies out for testing. I didn't want all of my hard work taken by someone else. I also took an extra measure by slightly changing each copy I sent out, so if I did see the campaign released somewhere, I'd know exactly who did it. Long story short, I protected my campaign to make sure it stayed MINE until I was ready to release it.

However, once testing was over with, the final version of my campaign was released unprotected. By submitting my campaign at all the major mapping sites such as this and sc.org, it would be quite clear that it was my work. Also, I guess single player campaigns are a little safer from the b.net masses than multiplayer maps. ;p

The reason why I protect my map.

I rather have 1-5 bugs in the original then someone fixing it and rigging it to rather then 8-20 versions of it.

I don't make maps Mods are all open source, because there is a much smaller and in my opinion more trustworthy community, plus the fact that there hasn't been found a way to protect your files (with the exception of iscript, I think there's a certain opcode that makes it unopenable ). But we share our files. I, personally have learned a lot from looking at files from other people's mods. Plus, random B.Net noobs can't rig mods, because they probably don't even know what a mod is.

If only mapping could be the same...

I really just protected it, not really knowing what it did to my map. Now since this day that I have learned more, and understanded of Protection and Open Mapping. I did protect my maps. I won't anymore. If someone did rig a map that I would make, take or leave my credit, people who would actually known that map would know the original was made by me. I want people to learn more about SC Map-making, and the best way (probably other ways) is to let them open your map. Learn from you! You could actually help somone who is new out there. That's what I'm really wanting to do, and give someone a fun and enjoying map.

The other reasons are good, but you realize protection adds to the map file size...
Compression and protection are two very different things. Compression does stuff like delete the ISOM section and trigger comments. Protection ADDS bogus sections to fool map editors which actually increases the filesize (although only by a little)...

I think that the program people used to protect maps also compressed the maps... I'm not sure... I'm not a mapper

Try to just protect you map in U2 and proedit.

This is why uBe3 has "no-add" protection.

I don't. I would if I made a map worth stealing, though.

I don't. All my maps are open source. The way I see it, maps never become popular unless people can edit their own versions. And if people steal my credit and the stolen ones are the ones everyone plays, well, at least I can laugh behind their backs knowing that I was the one who really did it. Besides, when I release each map I intend to post it in various places on the Internet (such as here and starcraft.org) under my name, so it will be difficult to steal my credit.

It's all about the choice of the mapper.

Let me clarify.

You chose to protect maps because you had the choice to?