Staredit Network

I'm completely lost. I just started modding with:


DatEdit
MPQDraft
RetroGRP
WinMPQ
TblPad
ICE

I started with DatEdit, from what i heard it was the easiest to understand, and i'm completely lost. I don't know even how to change for instance...

A marine. I want him to have a faster fire rate for a machine gun, burst lasers unstead of gauss, increased sight and a little increased range, and I'm almost sure how to make stim packs into a grenade weapon. This is for a RP Mod, and i'm going to post the mod in the productions area if i can actually get this down.
People calling me n00b is imminent.

Please?

1)well first things first, open datedit.
2)click on the units tab. if your not already on it.
3)find the marine. if your not already on it.
4)there should be a option called sight, thats how far he can see. Do not make it higher than 11 for anything ever, cause it will crash starcraft garenteed!
5)click on the jump button next to text Gauss Rifle(Normal)
Now you should be on the entry in the weapons tab.
6)set the cool down to a number you want, the small the number the faster the attack, dont make it 0 it will crash Starcraft.
7)Change Behavior to Flies to or seeks, flies to will fly to the skot your target was at when it attacked, seeks is pretty self explanitory.
8)Change the Graphics to 148 or for the drop down box to ATS/ATA Laser Battery.
Now save the two tabs, you must do this seperatly.

O by the way nice avatar I know the show.

Let's take it one at a time...
DatEd is the easiest
Faster firing rate is easy too... burst lasers - same.
Stim into a nade > You are almost sure how to do it ? I don't mean to insult you, but even average modders are clueless as to how to make that happen Trust me, it isn't as easy as you think.

To change the sight put any number lower than 12 in the Sight box of the Units tab. A faster ROF for the gauss rifle is done in the Weapons tab, setting the Cooldown to something lower (try 4). Increased range is on the right at "Weapon Range". Give it 12, for example. No limit here, unlike sight has (sight has max. 11). To change guns, simply change the ground weapon index to 16.

Stim Pack into a nade launcher - let's stop here

Suggestion: don't upload your first mod on a database. With all due resepct, a first mod might have bugs or negative feedback and you don't want this. Instead, make a thread with it, attach it there and ask people for opinions, feedback and betatesting.

Then, when you get good enough to use say... IceCC to do what I call iceing and what most call iscripting, then you can start putting it on sites. But take it easy... start small, change unit names, add color in names, change guns in between them,change food count, price, give/take shields, modify HP etc.

Things that you SHOULDN'T DO as your first mod: give weapons that attack ONLY ground the possibility of attacking air, giving abilities weapons such as Psi Storm, Mind Control etc., mess in Sprites.dat or Images.dat, mess in the AI Script subtab of the Units tab, give air weapons to units that don't have it.

Trust me on this, you don't want more problems atm...
First learn to use DatEd which shouldn't take you more than a week. The internals of how StarCraft uses the DatEd stuff is not needed and will prolly take you between 3 weeks and a month and a half at most IF you do a lot of research.

Speaking of research - do LOTS of it. Don't just post "how do I do this and that" without searching for your problem first. I also suggest you check posts not only here but on Warboards too.
Check tutorial sections and FAQs and stickied threads on both forums... then search the forums in detail.

If you have a crash and you are a beginner, it's most likely that it has been answered in tons of other posts... As for ICE, learn that last. Start with TBLPad and DatEd.
Use RetroGRP only when you start using IceCC. For now ICE should do most of what RetroGRP should do for IceCC...

Just remember to "study" a lot. Ask around where to look, but don't ask people to give it to you on a silver platter cos then you won't learn a thing. And one last advice, when you do try things out, check how Blizz did them. For example, when you'll start using ICE, check what Blizz did and how.

Oh, and now, warnings. ICE IS BUGGY AS HELL and has a lot of stuff that is labeled either wrong, either as "unknown". So don't rely on it. Use ICE to learn how stuff works, not how to do things done there since they're most likely labeled wrong and once you switch to IceCC you'll be lost. Trust me, ICE is best used for observation

Think this is enough advice to get you started. Remember to experiment, but don't post on your first crash... try to actually see what made it crash and check how to not make it crash by checking for similar stuff in DatEd.

And last but not least: don't give up. Took me lots of tries to do the things I planned for a project and it is starting just now... I know almost all the tools out there except for ICE (who'd want to learn that buggy program anyway ? ) and LO?Edit which I want to learn. The only other ones I don't know and don't plan to learn too soon are TileEdit and AI Edit. So I could help you if you really get stuck... just remember: SEARCH is your best friend The only one I won't touch is SCXe... but as buggy as it is, I doubt anyone can blame me (plus it only works with 1.07 )

EDIT:



Why would he do that ? He can just change the weapon ID to burst lasers and he's done with one step instead of doing 4 extra ones... Keep it simple for the lad

The easy, cool, simple, tutorial that if you get lost in you must be stupid!

You just can't get lost reading this, Can you?

Units tab= the unit you are going to edit, that include it's weapons, armor, hp, and build cost (Just like it says) and each jump button will take you to whatever that thing is (Marine--> Gauss Rifel-->Jump-->Gauss Rifel properties)

wow over kill Nomad?? Dont scare the poor guy.


Lol I learned everything at once, but I kinda learn fast too. I tought my self by just changing something and seeing what it does.

Well if he wants to learn, he has to be determined
Plus he has to learn some stuff on his own too, so why not tell him the simplest routes to take, hehe...

Aww, my poor puny little post is crushed by The_Nomad's gigantic one.

Alright thanks.
And yeah. I posted what i plan do do with terran i the mods in production, i understand how all of the easy stuff (i.e units, attacks, weapons) works, but not sprites and flingy or w/e. Also, how do i PLAY the mod to test it?

Cause then the upgrade for the weapon would have to be air upgrades, you dont want to give him a shared attack unless thats what he wants.

Get MPQDraft and everything should clear up, and go to the link I posted.

Geeze 5 people are reading this forum right now, lots off attenion


Im not getting how that would help out with dat editing?

[ADDITION]


Missed that.

Well its a ROLEPLAY mod mainly, so it doesnt matter which upg is for what =-/

That comes after the 3 weeks of tests you have to make
Tell you what, you try to figure it out (the simplest way to the answer is to check the graphics part of weapons and units in DatEd) or I could tell you... but first try to see if you understand how

But remember, don't touch Sprites and Images just yet... Those will be accessible to you after you learn IceCC. Flingy is ok, because you just change numbers... (only if "Move Control" is set to Flingy.dat). You control speed and acceleration there.

The simplest possible way to test your experiments is to make a separate SC folder (with maybe 3-5 maps, also add some test maps, like a 64x64 square where you have ALL units placed so that you can test abilities, movement etc.) and then use WinMPQ to open the patch_rt.mpq from that test folder. Then just replace the dat files you wish to modify. Remember, don't mess with the folder you wish to use to play on bnet or else blizz kicks you off BNet saying you have a wrong version (not joking). This is a problem since we won't be able to test mods online anymore.

P.S. Sorry all for my scary post from earlier

READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS

Yes, ICE is buggy as hell, and not reccomended. Thus, it shouldn't be used at all, or at least not until you know how to use IceCC. It's better to start of with the proper tools, since once quickly grow aquainted with programs. Also, if one asks for Iscripting help, the replies will be in IceCC style, so it's best to avoid ICE completely.


Nah, Using MPQDraft is actually easier and better.

Wolf: The files you save in DatEdit need to be placed in an .mpq if you want to play with your changes. Use for example WinMPQ to create a new MPQ, and then add your *.dat files into this new MPQ file you created. Then use MPQDraft to Load the MPQ Patch into StarCraft.

True! But I thought he wanted a simple drag and drop and not to do all the exe thing just for tests But I think he could use as many suggestions as possible so... heh good point

I just thought I'd like to give you an input on something.

.GRP editting is a pain in the ass.

To elaborate, it's not difficult at all to convert your own graphics into a format StarCraft can use (done with RetroGRP) or vice versa, but as SubFocus said, creating your own graphics from scratch is a tremendous work.

Even making them not from scratch is huge work. Especially for anything with more than one frame set. i.e. walking units.