CUSTOMIZING EMERALD ASPECT
With all these different Stardraft patches coming out for Staredit lately, I thought it would be useful for advanced map makers to be able to "customize" the patch for themselves, since each version does have its strengths and weaknesses (or rather, just differences). If you want to know how to achieve a specific effect in a patch, just e-mail me and I'll add it to this article. Though it is assumed you are familiar with the basics of Arsenal III, the changes are actually so simple that you could probably open it up for the first time and still be able to make them correctly.
[It is assumed that you will be making this patch for Staredit and not Starcraft -- i.e., some of these changes will crash Starcraft and none of them are necessary to run the patch-made map in Starcraft.]
Making units placable
To make a unit (unused or otherwise) placable in Staredit, simply go to the Staredit tab in Arsenal II's Unit Editor and, after selecting the unit you wish to make placable, just check Owned, Placable, Briefing, Player Settings, Unknown (in the first column), Special Effect/Nuke, Unknown (first one in the second column). That's the basic "default" but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out how to customize the placement further. To make the unit placable for any player regardless of race (i.e., if you wanted to place Protoss units for a Zerg player), check all the boxes (that's the simplest way :). Do the same for each unit on the list you wish to make placable. Simple as that.
Making units Neutral/Non-neutral
To make any unit placable for the neutral player (like critters), check all the boxes as above except for Owned. The unit will remain neutral (light blue) when the map is played in Starcraft. To make a critter (or other normally neutral unit) "ownable" by players, check all the boxes. You can use other sets but to keep it simple, these two also allow you to place the unit for any player.
The neat thing about neutral units is that they will not revert back to player controlled in Staredit even if you open the map up without a patch. For example, if I make a neutral marine with a patch, save, exit, then restart Staredit without the patch, the marine will still remain neutral. This way, you can place all the neutral units you want on the map first, restart without the patch (or a different one), and then place all the player owned of the same unit (thus giving you neutral and player owned marines on the map). Be careful though, if you open up a map with the neutral marine patch and it already had player owned marines on it, they will all become neutral. [Thus, always make the neutral ones first and the player owned ones second]
Placing buildings anywhere
That means on all terrain-types (heck, even on the edge of cliffs) and in installations. Select the building (or COP or resources) you want omni-placable in the Unit editor. Go to the Advanced tab. Uncheck Building and check Flyer. That's it. You can now place the building/structure anywhere. You should note that this will mess up the alignment of buildings (i.e., they won't "line up" all nice and neat with the grid). Normally this isn't that much of a problem, but it can making placing Terran add-on buildings particularly frustrating (unless you don't mind them being a little crooked, that is =). To avoid this, place the buildings you need aligned first without the patch, and then place the omni-terrain buildings later with the patch. You will not need the patch to run Starcraft -- no matter what strange places you put the buildings (you can even place buildings over other buildings =)~.
Hallucinating Buildings
A nifty little side effect of making a building a "normal" unit is that you can make them hallucinated now. =) You can do the same with resources, etc. by removing their respective "neutral assessories," "building," etc. tags in the Advanced Unit proterties of Arsenal III.
Infinite Upgrades
O.K. The real max is 255, but that's still a lot. =) This one is easy. Go to the Upgrades Editor in Arsenal III. For each upgrade you want to change the max limit on, change the # of Upgrades variable to anything between 0 and 255. That's it. The limit in the Staredit Player Settings menu will now be whatever you set it to in Stardraft. No patch necessary to play the map. 255-255 marines rock. =)
Removing the Supply Limit
Simple. Just make all units cost 0 supply in Arsenal II (general properties). Then you don't have to worry about it in Staredit.
DI
May 15, 1999
