Adding a Spell - The Next Step?

Hello everyone,
I'm slighlty new to the field of spell editing, though I have read tutorials before to no avail (I followed the steps exactly, however, upon attaching it to a map MPQ, the spell refused to show up during actual gameplay) but I have figured I'd try again. Using the "Spell Editor" from the downloads section by a Mr. Fredric, I found it was quite simple to add new spell data to the abilitydata.slk file, however, I was wondering what the next step was, as the program did not allow me to specify the exact effects of the spell, only edit variables, which is a start, but I'm not quite sure what to do next. Edit the abilitydata.txt files for the race I plan on using the ability for? Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the abundance of inexperience.

- OneBadLarva

Is this a totally "new" spell or did you edit the values of an already existing spell? If you simply did the latter, then make sure you imported AbilityData.slk into the path Units (ie it should appear as "Units\AbilityData.slk"). Also remember that opening the map in the world editor will delete all imported files (not imported using the editor). Importing the files should be the last step you take before testing/playing your map.

I've used the editor to create an entirely new spell, actually. :)
I still don't know how to specify the effects of the spell, as I stated above, only edit the variables to it. What I need to know if how to make this spell do what I want (making the 0.1 apply to evasion, ect. as an example) and how to do it. Thanks for trying to help me though, I'm pretty sure I have the path for the .slk as units, but I've yet to impliment / test it in game.

- OneBadLarva

Once you have created an entirely new spell based on an existing spell, there are (at least) three steps you should take to impliment this new spell.

1. Edit RACEabilityfunc.txt
This file contains most of the technical data for spells of each race. Since this is your first spell, you should probably just go to the spell you used as a base and copy/paste its entire section. Then replace the code field (" [AAAA] " where AAAA is the ability code) with your custom ability code. Then simply edit the remaining fields to fit your spell, pretty much all of them are named clearly.

2. Edit RACEabilitystrings.txt
This file contains all of the strings (text) that will appear in your spell. You should follow the exact same process of copy/pasting the base spell and editing it accordingly.

3. Give the spell to a unit
You are going to have to somehow give a unit the spell. There are several ways this can be done. One simple way is to copy your abilitydata.slk file into your warcraft directory into the folder Units (The most common path for this in windows is c:\program files\warcraft iii\units\AbilityData.slk, you may need to create the units folder). Now open the world editor (or close and reopen it if it was open prior to moving the file) and select the unit editor. Your custom spell should appear along with all the other spells in the abilities (or hero abilities) field.

What i suggest doing is: step 3 first, give some unit the ability, then do steps 1 and 2 but after you copy the base spell info, only change the ability field ([AAAA]). Then import all the files into your map and test it. What this will do is show you if you did the setup correctly. The unit will have the new spell (if you did everything right) but will look almost exactly like the base spell (except for the values you changed in abilitydata.slk). If the spell works, then you can proceed to change the spell button, what it says, where its positioned, its icon, etc. as well as the special effects the spell might use.