Modding Tut please?

[ForTheSwarm]

Ít would be nice if someone would make a basic modding tutorial for DatEdit and MPQDraft for me. I'm trying to make a simple mod.

[DoctorZettabyte]

Have a look on SC.org -- some of it's outdated, but it's still pretty helpful for the basic concepts and getting simple stuff together.

http://www.starcraft.org/customs/CustomsFAQ

-DocTera

[TormentedGod]

Whoa.. ive never seen you Doctor.. anyway yea fortheswarm thats about how i learned to mod :D

[Durandal]

I find it easier to just mess around with the editor. It's really easy, I mean if you can change statistics in maps, then it's roughly the same concept but with more options.

If you need help with anything in particular go ahead and ask in this thread.

[DoctorZettabyte]

Whoa.. ive never seen you Doctor

Really? I've been on almost every day for 18 months now...I've even had a massive ego-stroking thread (http://www.warboards.org/showthread.php?t=33693) about me, too. I joined up with the Sons of War project in its early stages back when I was rather new to Starcraft.org and the whole of the ORG network. Taught me a lot about modding, foruming, and the internets, this place did.

My best advice for modding is to just roll with it and see what happens. One of my best friends (not very computer savvy, mind you) has been learning as he goes for the past week and a half and has somehow made the Ghost's C-10 Rifle do nuke damage (splash too). Wonders never cease.

-DocTera

EDIT: Get a copy of WinMPQ from Starcraft.org, too. It's more useful than almost any other tool, with the possible exception of DatEdit.

[U-238]

http://www.starcraft.org/customs/CustomsTutorials/Creating+your+first+mod

It's outdated. (written for Arsenal 3) But just a few minutes of playing around with datedit by yourself and you should be able to transfer most concepts over.

One of these days I'll get around to going through that tutorial and re-write it for Datedit. (It's on my list. Its number just hasn't come up yet. :P)

[raidmax]

Try looking through the SEN or Maplantis Wiki
http://www.staredit.net/?p=tutorials&area=sort&cat=mod

http://www.staredit.net/maplantis/index.php?sid=2997646b12;pg=wiki;do=cat;id=5

http://www.staredit.net/maplantis/index.php?sid=2997646b12;pg=wiki;do=cat;id=7

[KillerKow]

Raid, you failed to actually include the tutorials section of the ML wiki :P

http://www.staredit.net/maplantis/index.php?sid=bad03a3b5c;pg=wiki;do=cat;id=6

And [shameless self-advertising] if you follow those links you'll find one I wrote about DatEdit. 'Tis good. [/shameless self-advertising]

[ForTheSwarm]

How do you change unit names+damage with DatEdit?

[Durandal]

You can't, you need the programs TBLPad and WinMPQ.

Just download and setup TBLPad, open Broodat.mpq with WinMPQ and scroll down to the file rez/stat_txt.tbl. Extract that and open it with TBLPad, edit the strings you want, save it and implement it into your mod.

[ForTheSwarm]

How exactly do you add IceCC scripts and .tbl strings into your mod?

[Durandal]

Just use WinMPQ to open up your mod MPQ and add in the files by dragging and dropping them in?

[PeonBrigadier]

Just use WinMPQ to open up your mod MPQ and add in the files by dragging and dropping them in?What he said -- just remember to use the appropriate prefix: when you drop your compiled scripts from IceCC into a new iscript.bin file, drag that into the WinMPQ window and when prompted type "scripts."

When you're done, WinMPQ will show all the .dat files you used, "rez\stat_txt.tbl" if you edited descriptions of units and "scripts\iscript.bin" where the new iscript.bin goes.


As for editing the actual unit names and weapon names in the stat_txt.tbl file, keep in mind that the "Build Ultralisk" can't be found with the search function because the "U" is broken from the rest of the word by code changing the color cause "u" is the keyboard shortcut for building. You really have to pore over that file to find every instance of a particular word but once you know where they are, you'll stop running into those problems where you compile your mod, everything works, but you forgot to change a description in a select few places.
In short: you have to be slightly anal-retentive when using these programs. ;) (and yes, anal-retentive has a hyphen)

I know this is basic stuff but I had to re-teach myself all these things after not touching any mod material for ... months. (SC buddy had a job for once, we couldn't get games going :))

[ForTheSwarm]

WOO it worked! Thanks a lot.

[Durandal]

What he said -- just remember to use the appropriate prefix: when you drop your compiled scripts from IceCC into a new iscript.bin file, drag that into the WinMPQ window and when prompted type "scripts."

When you're done, WinMPQ will show all the .dat files you used, "rez\stat_txt.tbl" if you edited descriptions of units and "scripts\iscript.bin" where the new iscript.bin goes.


As for editing the actual unit names and weapon names in the stat_txt.tbl file, keep in mind that the "Build Ultralisk" can't be found with the search function because the "U" is broken from the rest of the word by code changing the color cause "u" is the keyboard shortcut for building. You really have to pore over that file to find every instance of a particular word but once you know where they are, you'll stop running into those problems where you compile your mod, everything works, but you forgot to change a description in a select few places.
In short: you have to be slightly anal-retentive when using these programs. (and yes, anal-retentive has a hyphen)

I know this is basic stuff but I had to re-teach myself all these things after not touching any mod material for ... months. (SC buddy had a job for once, we couldn't get games going )

It's always nice when people are very thorough :)

I can't find the patience to muster it lately, too much work with other stuff. I'll try to be more helpful.