Modding Help

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

Ok, I'm back after a long absense and have decided to try my hand at modding. Most of it seems to go along pretty simply and logically, but I was wondering how can you make a unit move faster, I'm talking like Shuttles and Dropships etc...

Thanks

[Aqo]

Use DatEdit to edit the flingy.dat file. Once you open the flingy with DatEdit you'll already know what to do (bigger numbers = faster).

In some cases, mostly for walking units like the marine, you'll need to edit the iscript.bin file with either ICE or IceCC. Go to the unit's movement script and make the numbers there bigger (or the waits smaller, when possible).

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

ok thanks for that, also is there anyway to mod how many Larva come out of a hatchery, or at least the rate at which they are produced?

[Echo_8]

Short of finding someone who knows where to find the proper offsets in the *.exe, no. That is hardcoded into the game and not easily changed. Wait for FireGraft's release, since what you're after might be in there.

[MidnightGladius]

That particular action is set in Orders.dat - and, seeing as how we don't have any good editor for working on orders, it's unchangeable at the moment.

[Echo_8]

ok thanks for that, also is there anyway to mod how many Larva come out of a hatchery, or at least the rate at which they are produced?
He asked about the rate of larvae production and the number, eg changing it so the hatchery produces 50 larvae at 5 per second (exaggerated to ensure I'm not misunderstood. Making posts more cautious because of that random attack thing). Or is the part that controls it not yet exposed by any *.dat editor, including DatEdit?

[MidnightGladius]

Well, I'm partially on a limb here, since the last time I looked at memgraft was about half a year ago...

However, looking at "Spawning Larva" in Orders.dat, and seeing that it has no iscript.bin correspondent, I assumed that it was independent code run by Hatcheries/Lairs/Hives. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether I'm right or not - all I can prove is that it's not iscript.bin controlled. I could be wrong on this, but I've been working under the impression that most things in orders.dat, if not all of them, can be very tricky to work with (so many unknowns!).

[DiscipleOfAdun]

Both are hardcoded into the exe code for the "spawning larva" order.

[U-238]

Drat! I don't have that address yet! Hmmm... Looks like I've got some searching to do...:shiftyl:

[DiscipleOfAdun]

I suggest looking where the Spawning Larva order is called(if you have the order interpret routine mapped), and then looking for:

time - it's a compare
amount - I believe the value is moved to a register or pushed.

Oh, you can also find the ID of the unit created in the same code area too...that might help while looking for it...

[U-238]

(if you have the order interpret routine mapped),

I had it mapped. Before I lost it. :(

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

thought id bring this topic back up with my new question as opposed to making a new thread

ok i got bored and made a mod where everything builds instantly and all units take up no supply, only problem is that most of the buildings for both terran and protoss come out damaged, and the zerg buildings won't morph properly, is there anything else i have to do besides changing build times in Arsenal 3?

[DiscipleOfAdun]

The problem is - instant build times do not allow for the health to reach 100%. Make the build time a bit longer and it should work right.

[U-238]

All building must have a build time of at least 5 and all units must have a build time of at least 3. Otherwise you'll run into those problems. As DoA said the fast build time (set at 1) doesn't allow the building to gain all of its health before it's done. Thus when it's done it stops with the health it currently has whitch is useually less than half of its total health.

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

ok thanks for that, if i run into anymore problems, ill post them here

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

ok, I have a new problem, I downloaded RetroGRP in order to change some of the graphics, yet I can't do anything with the program, it just comes up with an error message where error isnt even spelt right ("errrrror" or something like that) so I was just wondering does it need to be in a specific folder like IceCC??

P.S. I realise it's basically a double post, but its been 3 days

[MidnightGladius]

Actually, that just means you can't extract them out of the MPQ directly. Heh, BST is the one who explained this to me. Just ignore it, and extract the GRPs from the MPQ and then use that file.

There's a rather detailed tutorial for this on SC.org.

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

Well if I can't extract them out of the MPQ how exactly do I get them?

NOTE: I've read the tutorial on sc.org but it doesnt really explain it too well

[rubberd91]

You can, you just use a different program, like WinMPQ.
You also need to get the listfile if you're going to extract from the main MPQ file.



thats what I do to make my own .grps :D

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

hmm, shame I'm not as good at photoshop as I'd like to be, oh well I'll say the graphics modding for another time, unless someone wants to voluntee to do it for me :D