Upgrades can be extended arbitrarily, and can be modified using triggers.

It even supports 'mouselook', so moving the mouse influences the player's view.

The map editor can create new HUDs, quest interfaces and dialogue.

Blizzard was able to design an old-fashioned ' Lost Viking' top-scrolling space shooter game within the editor.

The map editor is designed to handle third-person shooting maps.

Later Blizzard said there would be no UI modding. The files would be externalized, and while they could be edited, there would not be support for that.

The UI was supposed to be customizable, but it was not a user-friendly process.

The footprint of structures can be adjusted to whatever the editor desires (such as 'square' buildings).

However, the UI can only display three attributes.

Map makers can define any number of custom attributes for a hero, based on their level.

This enables map styles such as Defense of the Ancients to be reproduced in StarCraft II.

Blizzard made sure that heroes and units can also gain experience in Galaxy, although this ability is not available in the campaign or standard multiplayer games.

Heroes can carry items in StarCraft II UMS maps through the use of a toggle, and can carry more items than heroes in Warcraft III.

Units can be 'attached' to other units, and units can even be used as special attacks (for instance, modifying spore crawlers to launch banelings as an anti-ground attack).

Joke units Terra-tron and the tauren marine are in the map editor.

Some single-player-only units are in the map editor.

However, units that have been cut completely from the game are not in the editor.

Many of the units and abilities that did not end up in the final version of the game are still be accessible by modders.

Blizzard added and modified unit models which are not even in single-player to make them accessible to modders.

Unit coloring and neutral units are supported in the editor.

Water (and lava) levels are adjustable.

Map size can be artificially restricted by controlling the camera, preventing units from entering 'off-screen' terrain or building there. Maximum map size is fixed at 256 x 256 and sizes of 32 to 256 are available. Doodads such as traps can be freely added to any tileset.

The terrain textures can be blended, so that a jungle can smoothly transition into a desert. Terrain can be mixed and matched you can define your own tileset in the editor.A few new ones are also available, such as a new Shattered City tileset. A number of tilesets are available, such as wasteland (Mar Sara), volcanic (Char), twilight (Shakuras), space platforms, jungle and desert.Climate graphical effects are available in the map editor.Map 'locking' is enabled, which ensures that no one will lose credit for creating a map.It makes all the triggers in the program available to mapmakers. Galaxy maps are capable of holding thousands of triggers, locations and doodads.The trigger editor features the ability to define custom functions and libraries. Every game database file is exposed for modification.All unit abilities are data driven, enabling great freedom when designing unit abilities.

Starcraft map editor