Modding thread

[Lavarinth]

I'm sure most questions in E will be answering next month if they release the editor.

[UntamedLoli]

With all the cross dependencies its really a pain in the ass to tell if something is even possible or its buried under everything else.

I tried just copying the nuke ability and removed the warning, it won't do anything nor does it have the big red overlay like the original but the targetting still shows on units where it would hit.

[WB]

The Data Editor appears to be structured more like starcraft than wc3. (ie, everything is in fucking pieces, in wc3 all unit shit was on the unit).

[Ricky_Honejasi]

The Data Editor appears to be structured more like starcraft than wc3. (ie, everything is in fucking pieces, in wc3 all unit shit was on the unit).

To me, it sounds to imply the following (also based on what we know of modding so far) :

-> Attack types would be separated from the unit-types themselves and are individual entities (like units, items, etc. are in WC3) to modify (and units have those attack-types attached to them). Which would be the only possible way to add/remove an attack-type on the spot or to allow multiples of them easily (mostly via triggers or via abilities).

-> Build menus (Basic & Advanced Construction of any of the three races) would be actually "ability menus" (similar to the WC3 "Spell book" ability) that you can put any other "ability" including "order abilities" (Move, Patrol, etc.), "unit construction" abilities (Build Barracks, etc.), "unit training" abilities (Train Marine, etc.), "common" abilities (Stim Pack), etc.

So far, the biggest drawback I see from that (if I am correct) would be that it will be much more of a pain to massively create new units/buildings and to add them into training from a building. You would have to copy-paste the "train" ability to have a new one for that new unit to be trained in addition of adding said train ability into the wanted building's available abilities.

Otherwise, it does bring quite a few advantages over WC3 especially if all sub-categories are easily accessible (probably with 2-3 rows of tabs in the Data Editor).

[gregv21]

Nice stuff!
How did you add the spells to the scv and did u apply this directly to the base data file of the game or did you add the files to the map?

[IskatuMesk]

Ricky > Nah, there's no disadvantage. Wc3's button management is the worst out of any game I've ever modded.

[Iggyhopper]

The Data Editor appears to be structured more like starcraft than wc3. (ie, everything is in fucking pieces, in wc3 all unit shit was on the unit).

...

A unit has basic stats, attributes, and other things. Then it has links to abilities, weapons, and behaviors. The abilities themselves can trigger other behaviors, weapons, abilities, stat changes, anything. In essense, nothing has a "base". Things have a default defined by the core files, but no "base" ability to derive it from like that of WarCraft III.

This in one way is really awesome, but in another very annoying. I'm sure it will be much easier to make stuff with the official editor, but right now it's a pain to keep track of 6-7 files at once with hundreds of entries. I might be tempted to create a Sc2 xml editor just to fill the month-long gap of the official editor's release.

A unit can have attached weapons, and abilities. For abilities to be used, the ability must be attached to the unit, but also the unit needs to have a command button for that ability to be used (with the exception of permanent abilities, etc.). sub-menus are now totally soft-coded, and you can create menus within menus and etc. An ability also has validators, like limiters or conditions. For example, the zealot's charge has a validator for max range and min range. Even after the ability is cast, it triggers more effects and changes. Even the graviton beam links to 5 other effects and like 2 other behaviors. There's even a "wait" effect, so it's really advanced.

A weapon can have links to several effects, and a simple effect in itself is to apply damage to the target. I've been able to add and remove weapons via abilities, so that's awesome for RPGs.

I find it easier to mod if I set lazy launch v2 to run the first version of sc2, so all you really need to change is the Liberty mpq's and it's the most consistent.

[RazorclawX]

The way I understand it is your button calls upon some logic that's either pre-defined or user-defined. The user-defined logic is likely to be defined somewhere in the Data editor, but if it isn't then it's no different than how we have things set up in War3.

[Iggyhopper]

The way I understand it is your button calls upon some logic that's either pre-defined or user-defined. The user-defined logic is likely to be defined somewhere in the Data editor, but if it isn't then it's no different than how we have things set up in War3.

Yeah, but it seems like an ability can have different actions. You can even go out on a limb to say they have different button states.

Code: Select all

<LayoutButtons Face="Load" Type="AbilCmd" AbilCmd="NydusCanalTransport,Load" Row="2" Column="0"/>
<LayoutButtons Face="NydusCanalUnloadAll" Type="AbilCmd" AbilCmd="NydusCanalTransport,UnloadAll" Row="2" Column="1"/>

Code: Select all

<CmdButtonArray index="UnloadAll" DefaultButtonFace="NydusCanalUnloadAll">
    <Flags index="ToSelection" value="1"/>
</CmdButtonArray>
<CmdButtonArray index="UnloadAt">
    <Flags index="Hidden" value="1"/>
</CmdButtonArray>

Weird stuff, any deeper then that and it's probably hard-coded. The stuff that actually performs the ability is in the same area.

Code: Select all

    <CAbilAugment id="Charge">
        <EditorCategories value="Race:Protoss,AbilityorEffectType:Units"/>
        <CmdButtonArray index="Execute" DefaultButtonFace="Charge" Requirements="UseCharge"/>
        <AbilCmd value="attack,Execute"/>
        <Flags index="AutoCast" value="1"/>
        <Flags index="AutoCastOn" value="1"/>
        <Cost>
            <Cooldown Link="Charge" Location="Unit" TimeUse="10"/>
        </Cost>
    </CAbilAugment>

The comma is to access properties of anything via index attribute, it also accesses via tag name. I made an ability that adds and disables weapons this way.

[UntamedLoli]

I am severely bored

SC2 Beta Modding - Larva

[Ricky_Honejasi]

Interesting video indeed.

By the way, noticing there is actually water in SC2 ... is there an amphibious (ground + water) movement type?

Also, I recently finished my current exams so I should be able to think of more things for you to mod to unbore you.

[UntamedLoli]

I've had my own plan to work on except with the lack of spread attacks and playing with projectiles that don't use guidance flying off the map, its making it harder than it needs to be.

[Iggyhopper]

Working on an ice and snow mod map.

I also have an existing program that:

Reads and parses text-based mod file
Edits existing .xml file
Runs program

With the addition of the ability to drop files in the Sc2 beta folder and it will put those files into the game, I see easy modding coming very soon.

This makes it way easier to distribute mods because the text mod files are minimal in terms of size. Code below is an example, and the naming is for another game, so yeah.

Code: Select all

file Tweak\WeapTwk.xml
#Bomber.NumBombs = 20
edit kWeaponBazooka-0
IsLowGravity = false
quick * Bomblet
Num*s = 5
*MaxConeAngle = 0.90
*MaxSpeed = -0.2
*MinSpeed = -0.1
*WeaponName = kWeaponGrenade
quick $ Magnitude
quick % Radius
WormDamage$ = 35
LandDamage% = 30
edit kWeaponClusterGrenade-0
NumBomblets = 20
BombletMaxSpeed = 0.75
BombletMaxConeAngle = 0.05
file Tweak\Tweak.xml
#Ninja.NumShots *= 2
#Ninja.MaxLength = 9999
#Ninja.WormMass = 0.8

file Tweak\WeapTwk.xml
xpath "//*[contains(@id, 'kWeapon')]/WormDamageMagnitude" = 10

edit Jetpack.InitFuel
Value = 1300
edit Ninja.NumShots
Value = 8
#Jetpack.InitFuel = 500
del Jetpack
log Oh hai
addweap Payload kWeaponSUPER kWeaponBananaBomb
editcon kWeaponBazooka
IsPoweredWeapon = false
@kWeaponBazooka NumBomblets = 0
@kWeaponBananaBomb NumBomblets = 2 MaxPower = 0.9
@WXP_SparkStars_Small EmitterType = 5
@WXP_SparkStars_Small EmitterAcceleration x=5 y=0 z=9
parse Particles.atwk Weapons.atwk
parsetwk Power.twk Shot.twk
del Jetpack NinjaNums PizzaGuy

//addres [Name] [Type] [Value] [Flags]
addres MyResource Vector x=0 y=0 z=0 80

[IskatuMesk]

WB pointed me in a direction and I did something of my own.

[imgwh 640x400]http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3058/s ... 45avis.jpg[/imgwh]

SC2 Beta HD - Mesk Coverage - Lava Test

[Ricky_Honejasi]

Just to be sure, I presume it's the lava terrain you managed to either combine into a map's other terrain set or you replaced a specific kind of terrain by the lava terrain?

Also is that lava terrain is walkable or not? (although I guess not since it seems to replace some unwalkable terrain or something)