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I had the idea for a virtual item system a long while back. Basically instead of using physical items to represent actual items, you would use deaths of a unit to do that. Then you would use a system of text based operations combined with building units to use items. Then I decided to make a shop system based off this as an example. Basically you go to a "shop" or "store" and you are given a building. Then by building units you navigate through a virtual shop like in RPG style games.

In my example map, you would go to any shop and get a robotics facility. You get 3 options then because you can build a shuttle, reaver, and observer. The numbers are then associated with which unit is listed first. 1. Shuttle, 2. Reaver, 3. Observer.

So then you can do something like:
"Welcome! What would you like to do?
1. Buy
2. Sell
3. Leave"

And every time you build a unit you would just activate a different trigger. I also included a level system so that you only have to use 1 death counter type when navigating the store. It goes something like this:

Thousand Level - Store
Hundred Level - Action within store
Digit Level - Item within Action

EDIT: Here is the file I used to oraganize this:

[attachmentid=8350]

So like in my map 1000 represents the "Fun" store, 100 represents the "Buy" action, and 0 represents the "Item" doll. 1100 would be your death counter set for it. You can have 100 items in each action this way OR you could spread out your actions to 100, 400, 700 and allow for more items. It's up to you. I seriously doubt anyone will need more than 100 items per action though.

This uses very little strings because a lot of them are recycled. You can basically go to 3 different shops and buy/sell at least 3 items in each shop. I didn't go any further than that because there was no real need. If you can understand what I did here you can be able to use it in any map easily.

Take a look at the map for a visual aid if you still don't understand. There are sprites also to make the stores look cool ... the box/sprite concept is also a pretty cool idea.

[attachmentid=8349]

Oh yeah, I realize none of this alone may not be new, but I haven't seen anything like this map used in a game yet.

Thanks Chu, this will help in my map, code named "berzerk"

It's true, you do Pwns

Strings would be the only problem with this, but as you said most are recycled which really helps for RPGs and text heavy maps. I like the use of 1 death counter and using different places to represent the different actions. I guess if you needed more options you could always go with a dropship system. I've always liked them better than building units, so maybe it's just me.

You dont really need more than 3 units as I demonstrated.

Pretty neat.

...Well, it sounds pretty neat...

I was thinking though, with using death counts couldn't you just have one for each type of item and then increase and decrease them accordingly?
Agh, hard to explain.

Good work Chu Chu Train.

Do you mean an individual death counter for each different item, or a different number set to each unit that would be stored in a death counter?

Individual death counters per item would be best, and what I use.

How would you display multiple units (2 Deaths = 2 of the unit)? Would you just use a bunch of strings, like "You have 1 Apple," "You have 2 Apples," etc?

You can create a bunch of strings that say "You have X of this item". X being all the numbers ranging from 1 to the maximum number you allow. Then you can just do display text "Item Name" and the string with the number of items you have.

OR

You could show it in Gas/Ore and display text saying "You have this many of 'blah item' (see gas amount)".

It's too bad we can't display 2 strings on the same line to make it look nice.

If you're going to have alot of different possible numbers and numbers are useful as strings for other parts of your map you might want to make a set of strings that are basically just numbers from 0 to whatever you need. It's like what chuiu said but without words surrounding the number so you can use recycle the string easier.

confusing.... but awesome...

Correct me if i'm wrong, this is exactly like the dropship menu of Loony Defense... Just as shops, which is what the dropship was, the shop for buying your defense.

I was also using something like this for my construction yard in that army men map. Which i've stoped production for serious problems. Darn Starcrafts limits.

This is the exact system I used in my old Oregon Trail and The Club 2 maps. I never finished or released them though so I won't try to take credit for the idea. I also used a similar system to this in LoOny D and LT Moderated, which I HAVE released. But yeah, this isn't really new.

Glad someone made a tutorial for it, though.

check out the deep blue game, it has this done in it if you want more ideas.

And how exactly does one obtain a map which has no download?

Regardless, I dont need any "ideas". I had the system down months ago, I just never used it. Thats why I made this example map, so other people could learn from it and use it.

Interesting idea, but I like the feel of the old system. Still a really good idea though. Might use in my RPG (if I can ever get the stupid backpack system figured out ).

OSF was cool. I understand it, the whole idea is to make SEN quality maps playable on Bnet. I plan to releace two versons of my map. The open SEN verson, unlocked with the ISOM section intact, and all the wavs packed into the scx. And the Bnet verson, where you have to download the sounds seperatly (or DL the SEN wavs database, hopefully using the OSF updater), is ultra compact (no ISOM section) and ultra locked. No one will play the SEN verson on Bnet, becuase no one would DL a map that large. So there is a very small chance of the unlocked verson falling into the wrong hands. I need to stop blabering...

I've attached a demonstration of the shops in DB. It's a stripped version, so all you can really do is enter the shops and navigate the menus. One of the main differences between my system and yours is that the text does not disappear on mine no matter how long you stand there. In addition, I use switches instead of death counters.

NOTE: Use the protoss gateway in the top right corner to select the options.

Yeah what ever he said.
I dont quite understand this but is it possible to set a condition:
If this unit dies here at this location then activate these actions.
and then set #of deaths as a way to create a new unit?

My system is way better though, it allows you to have basically almost infinite amount of items per shop. And the text thing only works if you're playing a map single player, multiplayer its just plain annoying and unprofessional. I suggest you take a look at mine.

Wild9, we have a forum for those sort of questions.

Appeased

wow.. is that an ingame screen shot?
How do you select the top option.

Like ether.

I didn't post my opinion of yours, I stated how I felt mine was better than yours. I didn't say infinite, I said almost infinite. You say it's limited by strings? OF COURSE IT IS! But it's also been shown that the string limite CAN be broken. And this was an example that shows 1 item at a time, I wanted to demonstrate that you need a base of at least 3 units buildable in a building. Or like I already stated in my post:



If you can understand how it works then you can easily use a gateway and show 2 items at once or use something like a dropship and show up to 6 items at once. I stated why spaming text wouldn't work in multiplayer, I understand that it would work in any game format. Also, I still feel it is very unprofessional to spam people with text, in games I'm playing there is always talking going on, It would be impractical to ask everyone not to talk so that I can enter a shop and buy something.

And I am saving tons of strings because they are recycled. My method requires this so that you can basically expand on it to however many items you want. Using one string per menu would waste characters and strings with this system.

As for my stacked text, I did that because what I just said above, spaming people with text is rather unprofessional. And since with the robotics facility only 3 items are shown, then there is no real need to keep the text there. Pretty much anyone can read it long before it goes away.

Now I have to ask you not to flame this method, I never insulted your way. I only pointed out that on a multiplayer standpoint with more items mine is way better. I agree, yours is perfect for what you were doing. But it may not be perfect for every existing map. Mine is very adaptable.

ADDITION:

Read my post or download the map. Don't just come in and ask stupid questions please.

For oregon trail I had a system that not only showed you the items and such, but allowed you to select the quantities of them, and scroll through a list if it went beyond 4 selections (using a Starport for selections). I even had it the price total for the quantity, and a confirm prompt when you made your selection. Let me see if I can dig up the test map of what I did...

Oh, a tip for getting text to stay on screen long: Fill it with lots of white space. If you have only one or two words, then pad out the rest of the line with nothing but spaces, as Starcraft keeps text displayed based on how many characters are in the message.

Thats true, you could just put a ton of spaces behind all the strings to make it stay longer.