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I have noticed countless times how almost everyone's mods are weapon mods, meaning that nothing is changed other than weapons, which is not a good thing...

If you plan to make a mod, make it original! don't just replace the graphics and iscript/weapons, that gets repetitive and dull


This topic is to discuss new fields of modding that need to be used, and teaching each other how to use them.

They don't necessarily have to be a new field, they could very well be a new technique.


My suggested field - AI Editing with SCAIEdit - making the computer how you want it to - edited after the mod is finished

here's a editing info text-file for anyone wanting to try to edit the AI, keep in mind it only has the commands I currently know.
 AI_Script_Editing_Info.txt ( 1.7k ) Number of downloads: 0

AI editing is the way computers play. its not exactly a form of _useful_ modding, but its different. i wouldnt mind seeing some AI edits, might even make the computers a challenge!! now THAT would b fun.

[crazyrambling]
This makes me think of something.. i think the SEN community mappers should create a special pro-comp map that responds to things that your attacking with, spells ect ect, basically creating a human player, and also use the custom scripts by the modders to respond to attacks.

now i believe this would be hard but the outcome would be AWSOME!
[/crazyrambling]

Also, I think users should include more unit structure changes, it's kind've boring seeing the same old unit structure with slightly edited units, we need something more advanced!

example: in my mod, I plan to make the dark archon into a new zerg unit that doesn't morph from high templars,
make the overlords morph into a new type of zerg unit, and add some other extra units into the races

it's should useful TF is right~!
especally when u try change neutral units as normal human units
they should need new Ai

as for modding, i think basicaly every editing is should called modding
so Actually if edit and change map, Ai and all of SC resource and that's all called modding

I haven't played StarCraft nor did any modding since around three years ago, so I
wasn't quite able to track all the new mods and ideas that came up. LoTC expansion
Fallen Angel was quite innovative IMO. And the voice acting was quite impressive.
(Although I was able to point out that the voice actors were taking multiple rolls,
heck, it still was a VERY enjoyable mod nonetheless)

Ide like edit unit images but 1 i dont know what programs i need to extract the files 2 i dont know what program i need to alter the files

I tried RetroGRP but that did nothing but errors

Well.... kookster, i think ur question is unsuitable for this subject of post
However, if u want my answer
i have know idea about that
bcuzz if did followed as typical steps RetrGRP just dump out BMP files
which inclded frames in GRP files

so if u couldn't work with Retro then choose GRPeditor in StarDraftSE
i always use that bcuzz as far as i know from a great of experience for GRP
GRPeditor-StarDraftSE more stable Although StarDraftSE support with
inconvenient interface

however, if u use that u'll see ur success

it is related to mod, ide like to mod the images so its related to this topic

i personally like the graphic changes in mods coz thats all i really look at so you should do that more often. on the Dark Archon note something i think that would be good is if u made it so like a Dark Archon or something could make buildings just like an scv and make it something like games on WC3 like Tower Wars and stuff that might be fun

ya~! u said that relating to mod, but i mean ur saying wasn't direct related to
AI Editing and Campain which TERRAINFIGHTER's first suject of this post

so i said like that, if u feel like get ur nose out of joint
i apologetic about that but i'm never disregard u ,nevermind~!

Actually, this topic was to help modders learn new fields of modding and helping them to apply it to something other than weapon mods.

The reason I created it is because 90% of the mods here are pure graphics/iscript and weapon, which is pretty low-level modding and it gets boring repeatedly playing something with only new weapons and graphics.

Just think about it, the average mod has no unit structure changes, a poor ai that doesn't function well, and poor gameplay


New Tip - if you're going to mod the game you should change the spells and such, a mod isn't very good if it uses the same old spell structure

I'd also suggest changing the basic gameplay style/mechanics of Starcraft by editing stuff like the default .trg files to make things a bit more interesting.

What exactly would that change?

.trg files are what you get when you export triggers from a map. There are a few in StarDat.mpq, like melee.trg which contains the victory, defeat, and starting resource triggers. Thus you can edit them to make things happen when a player does something, stuff you can't do with Memgraft and Datedit and stuff. Combined with .got files, you can create your own game types as well, I think.

All they can be used for is messing up every map you load in the mod's triggers, and creating new game types.

I would've mentioned the .got editing earlier, but I figured it wouldn't be too good for wide-use since most people would want to cheat in melee and noone other than the makers would actually play the game types.


But since you brought it up, the way you add triggers to a game type is to follow these steps:
1. make your triggers in staredit, then export them and resave it as a .trg
2. load up the .got file you already made in GOTEdit, then import the trigger file into it and save
3. after you did the last step, it should've dumped out a .trged file, rename it to .trg again and put it in the mpq with the same path as the folder it was in from GOTEdit.

» ... messing up every map you load in the mod's triggers...
What do you mean by that?

What I mean by that is, there's a listfile starcraft uses for the triggers hidden somewhere in it, it tells starcraft which values equal to which triggers...

Though I've never found it, many people have mentioned it uses a similar format to .trg files, and if edited you can remove/replace triggers with other triggers that where programmed into the exe


I personally don't think the listfile exists, but I still don't want to take that chance

In regards to more advance mods, alot of people dont know how to do that, like ive tried altering spells, but everything ive tried always crashes

its not our fault that we lost memgraft back in 1.12b.

it probably discourages people because it takes "long" to convert sc to version 1.12b so they cant be bothered.

i agree with your "weapons only" part, but iscripting isnt found much... and graphics is one of the rarest things. if i can get my gmax/yafray thing to work ill be making some graphic mods

Well, can you tell me what it is you where trying to do that crashed? (I can tell you steps for you to spot your mistake)
And if it's something that isn't possible, I can tell you why or how to do something similar.

Doesn't matter if you lost memgraft a few versions ago, just make a listfile of changes to make once firegraft comes out

Also, memgraft isn't the only thing you can do other than weapons, you can add plenty of effects via .dat and iscript editing.

You all forgot one thing.
You may say "bleh it's graphics too, we don't want graphic changes"
But tileset editing it's something i've been working on for a couple of months and as far as i know no body has included tileset editing in one mod.
Anyways tileset editing it's even worse than graphics editing, more work and you have to keep things with the sc terrain pallete....and..meh..

that might be why no one has done it.

Once we get button modifications back im gonna have a fun fun fun day

And in regards to the spell, i was trying to change a medics optical flare to mind control and same for queen infest

Both of those problems sound like it's caused by the iscript


Actually, tileset editing usually doesn't help mods out, it only makes them take a extra year to make

/agree

When new buildings or units are included, you should really modify the AI Scripts to use them, because they won't unless you tell them to. I'd like to see more IScript editing too.