ARSENAL II TUTORIAL - UNITS EDITOR - WEAPONS
This is the Weapons tab of the unit editor. I have delineated each field with a different red number. An explanation of each field is below (note: read the information in 39, 40 first):
39, 40 - Weapon & Type [pull down menu & dot selection]: The format of the fields in this tab work slightly differently than in the previous two. You see, there are actually two distinct things being edited here: the unit (in units.dat) and the weapon (in weapons.dat). These first two fields edit the unit; the rest of the fields in the editor edit the weapon. You must remember that the unit and the weapon are distinct. What this means is that if you edit the unit, it does not edit the weapon, and if you edit the weapon, it does not edit the unit. Units do not have their own weapon properties. For example, let's say I give a marine a Terran Ghost for his ground weapon (a C-10 Canister Rifle). I do this by selecting Ground as the Type [39] and then changing Terran Marine in the Weapons list [40] to Terran Ghost. This will effectively give the marine the ghost's weapon. I edited the unit, but not the weapon. However, if I edit the Weapon called Terran Ghost by changing some of the fields below, I edit the weapon, while leaving the unit alone. This means that no matter which unit I am currently editing, if I change the properties of the Terran Ghost weapon, it will change that weapon for every unit that uses that weapon. So now, even though I changed the Terran Ghost weapon while I was editing the marine, I changed the ghost's weapon also (because they both are using the Terran Ghost weapon).
It is important that you get that clear before you edit the weapons because it can get confusing if you don't. Now, each unit has 2 weapons: a ground weapon and an air weapon. To see what ground weapon a unit has, click on Ground in Type. To see what air weapon it has click on Air in Type. The weapon it is using will be displayed in the pull down list at the very top (the Weapon list). Many units will have the No Weapon value selected in either the Air or Ground Type. This means they don't have a weapon for attacking that type of unit. You can give the unit a weapon of that type or change the weapon it uses by giving it a different value in the Weapons list. It is generally not suggested that you give a unit an air weapon if it normally doesn't have an air weapon. It most likely will crash Starcraft when the unit attempts to use its new air weapon. It is also not recommended that you give units the spells as weapons unless you are prepared to experiment (and experience some crashes). Also remember to only give weapons that can target ground units as Ground Type weapons and only weapons that can target air units as Air Type weapons. [The Attack Type, 60, determines what the selected weapon can target]
Now that you know how to give different units different weapons, you can also change the properties of the weapons themselves. You do this by selecting a weapon out of the Weapon List (it does not matter what unit you are on) and changing the values in the fields below:
41 - Damage Amount [number box]: This value determines the amount of damage the weapon will do to the target when it hits.
42, 43, 44 - Splash 1, 2, 3 [number boxes]: These values determine the size of the area around the place of detonation where "splash" damage is dealt. Splash damage is kind of like extra damage that occurs to units when they are in the area of the explosion (like shrapnel). It is a little complicated as to how the splash damage area is actually calculated. There are actually 3 different kinds of splash damage: radial splash, line splash, and air splash. What type of splash damage the weapon deals is determined by its Explosion Type. [See 62] (note: the second Explosion value at the top of the list labeled normal is actually radial splash, while the third value labeled normal is actually line splash)
For radial splash, the value in Splash 1 [42] determines the radius of the area that will be dealt 100% damage (in pixels). For example, a Splash 1 value of 10 means every unit within 10 pixels of the weapon detonation (explosion) will be dealt 100% of the weapon's damage. Splash 1 should be the smallest of the Splash values. Splash 2 [43] determines the radius of the area that will be dealt 50% damage. Splash 2 should be larger (or equal to) Splash 1 but smaller than Splash 3. Splash 3 [44] determines the radius of the area that will be dealt 25% damage. Splash 3 should be the largest splash value. An example of a weapon that uses radial splash is the Terran Siege Tank (Siege Mode) weapon.
Line splash deals damage in a similar fashion to radial splash but only effects enemy units. The Terran Firebat is an example of a weapon that uses line splash.
Air splash works exactly the same way as radial splash but only affects air units. The weapons that use air splash are the Corsair (Neutron Flare) and the Valkyrie (Halo Rockets).
If a weapon has no splash damage (doesn't have a splash Explosion Type value) then the values in Splash 1, 2, and 3 don't matter (you should set them all to 0).
45 - Bonus [number box]: This value determines how much more damage the weapon does when it is upgraded. For example, a Bonus value of 1 means the weapon gets damage +1 when upgraded to level 1.
46 - Factor [number box]: This value determines how "many" of the weapons a unit has. I.E., a goliath has 2 autocannons and a firebat has 2 flamethrowers. You multiple this value with the damage amount [See 41] to get the total damage the unit actually does.
47 - Type [pull down menu]: This value determines what damage type the weapon will do, either Explosive, Concussive, Normal, or Special. Normal, Explosive, and Concussive tell Starcraft how much damage the weapon will do to small units, medium units, and large units. If you select one of these values, Arsenal II will display how the damage will be dealt to each unit size on the small gray area at the bottom. Special is usually reserved for Spells that do a special kind of damage like Feedback. I would only use the Special value if you know what you are doing (as it must correlate with other weapon values to be effective).
48 - Min. Range [number box]: This value determines the minimum range from which this weapon can be used. The value you put in this field is actually divided by 16 to determine the actual number of Starcraft "units" the minimum range is (Arsenal II automatically calculates it for you to the right of this value). Most units have a minimum range of 0 because they can attack units that are very close to them. Some units, like the siege tank (siege mode), have a larger minimum range because they cannot attack units that are close to them.
49 - Max. Range [number box]: This value determines the maximun range from which this weapon can be used. It is basically how "far" this unit can shoot. Like, Min. Range, this value is divided by 16 to determine the actual Blizzard range value. Keep in mind that most weapons that are melee attacks (such as Zealot or Zergling) still have a maximum range of 15. This is because any range value under 16 is close enough so it "looks" like its right next to its target. I suggest against making the maximum range any less than 15 because then the unit will have to be right "on top" of the target to attack it.
50 - Cooldown Delay [scroll bar]: Drag the arrow bar around to determine how much "cool down" the weapon needs between attacks. Cool down is basically the delay the weapon uses between shots. A higher cool down makes a weapon attack slower. A lower cool down makes a weapon attack faster. I suggest you use 1 as the absolute minimum value you ever input here.
51 - Label [pull down menu]: This is a list of all the "names" of the weapons. You can choose to name a particular weapon what ever you want from the list. The name of a weapon is displayed in Starcraft when you highlight it's icon in the control bar.
52 - Icon [pull down menu]: This is a list of all the weapon icons. You can give any weapon any icon. The icon is what is displayed in the control bar when you select a unit using that weapon.
53 - Error Message [pull down menu]: This value determines what Starcraft will tell you when you use this weapon to target an invalid target (for example, if you target an air unit with a Terran Firebat weapon). It does not actually affect what the weapon can target, just what Starcraft will say when you target a wrong one.
54 - Sprite [pull down menu]: This is a list of all the weapon "sprites." A sprite is basically what the weapon looks like. For example, the Terran Goliath (Air) weapon sprite is a missile. The Protoss Dragoon weapon sprite is the energy ball. The sprite usually determines what the weapon looks like as it is flying to the target and when it "explodes" on the target. Some sprites, like the marine's and tank's, are just the explosion graphics because they just "appear" on the target (instead of flying there like goliath missiles). That specific property is controlled by the Behavior value. [See 62]
55, 56, 57, 58 - X-1, X-2, Y-1, Y-2 [number boxes]: These values work together to determine "where" on the unit the weapon sprite (graphic) shoots from. For example, The Terran Battle Cruiser weapon values here tell it to shoot from the battle cruiser's front and not from its back (or sides, middle, etc.). X-1 and Y-1 are for the unit's first weapon and X-2 and Y-2 are for the unit's second weapon (like the firebat which has 2 flamethrowers). [See 46] Most units only have one weapon and thus only use X-1 and X-2. I am not sure how to accurately manipulate these values yet, but you are welcome to experiment on you own. Barring extreme changes (like changing one of the values to 99999), altering these values will not crash Starcraft. They will just make the weapons shoot funny.
59 - Upgrade Group [pull down menu]: This determines what upgrade will level up this weapon. For example, an Upgrade Group value of Terran Infantry will upgrade the weapon when you research the Terran Infantry Weapon upgrade at the Engineering Bay. The values are pretty self-explanatory.
60 - Attack Type [pull down menu]: This value determines what the weapon can "target." For example, a value of Ground Only means the weapon can only target (attack) ground units. Most of the values are pretty self-explanatory. Some of the ones at the bottom of the list (like Mechanical Only) are meant for spells, but I supposed you could give that value to any weapon.
61 - Missile Type [pull down menu]: This value tells Starcraft what type of "missile" the weapon uses. Almost all weapons have a Normal value here. The only exceptions are the Mutalisk weapon which Bounces and the Installation trap weapons which are Homing. Except for those weapons, this value doesn't do much.
62 - Explosion Type [pull down menu]: This value tells Starcraft what happens to the target and the area around the target after this weapon "explodes" on it. This does not change what the explosion looks like. Basically, this value is used to determine splash damage [See 42, 43, 44] and spell effects (like the red stuff that comes from the plague weapon).
63 - Special Attack [pull down menu]: This value is only used for spell effects. It basically tells Starcraft what spell effect to cast when this weapon is used. To make this effective, you have to do some experimentation with combinations of the Special Type value [See 47] and the Explosion Type value [See 62].
64 - Behavior [pull down menu]: This value determines how the weapon sprite [See 54] will "behave" when it attacks the target. For example, a Terran Marine weapon has a behavior value of Appears on Target, which means its sprite just appears on the target when it shoots. A Protoss Dragoon weapon has a behavior value of Flies to Target which means its sprite will fly from the unit shooting it to the target instead of it just appearing on the target like the marine. Most of these values should be pretty self-explanatory. If a value confuses you, look at other weapons to see examples of how it is used.
