Ability Switcheroo (Blizzard->Summon Black Dragon)

If this has been done/posted by someone else before myself I apologise. I checked the forum for posts concerning this but I didn't check everything. It's easy so that's why I use it, I'm lazy as hell. I don't really have time to be messing about in SLKS and such

This method is based on a post made about changing ability slot locations on the battle.net map creation forum by Zauron.

Read his posts here first:
http://www.battle.net/forums2/war3-m.../bv/6631.shtml
http://www.battle.net/forums2/war3-m.../yx/7382.shtml

This method will allow you to change some of the abilities that you will not be using into other spells that you want, somewhat. This will NOT work for auras because they are always on, you don't need to order a unit to cast it.

One thing that has bothered me about new summon spells that have been done in other maps is the fact that the tooltip and image have been say the spirit wolf when the spell will actually summon another unit by killing the spirit wolves and replacing them with the desired unit. This method will essentially do the same thing but with more finess as well as allowing you to change any spell (except for auras etc that you don't order a unit to do, they are always in effect). This method works well for morphing units into other units. Up until recently people would just change say the bear form's unit to something else. I didn't like this method because up until Blink! came out the unit would still have the bear noises. It would also still have the bear ability icon/tooltips.

I will now demonstrate how to change the blizzard spell into a summon black dragon spell.

First of all use MPQView or whatever MPQ program you like to use to get the Units\HumanAbilityFunc.txt and Units\HumanAbilityStrings.txt files out of the war3.mpq.

Blizzard's entry into the HumanAbilityFunc.txt looks like this:

// Blizzard
[AHbz]
Art=ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTNBlizzard.blp
Researchart=ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTNBlizzard.blp
Buttonpos=0,2
Researchbuttonpos=0,0
Casterart=
Order=blizzard

[XHbz]
Effectart=Abilities\Spells\Human\Blizzard\BlizzardTarget.mdl
Effectsoundlooped=BlizzardLoop
Effectsound=BlizzardWave

The lines we are interested in are the art, research art and order under [AHbz] and everything under the [XHbz]. The buttonpos and researchbuttonpos would also be used if you wanted to change the ability's position as stated in Zauron's post.

We want to clear all the noises and effects out of the blizzard spell so that when it is cast we will not see/hear it being cast. To do this remove everything after the equals sign in the 3 lines under [XHbz].

Next we want to change the blizzard ability icon to that of the black dragon. To do this all you need to do is replace the .blp paths in the Art and Research Art lines under [AHbz] with the icons that represent the black dragon (as seen when buying dragons in dragon roosts etc). The path is this: ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTNBlackDragon.blp (the path's for the blps/mdls have been posted before and if I'm not mistaken are included with Blink!) So in the end your entry for blizzard should look like this:

// Blizzard
[AHbz]
Art=ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTNBlackDragon.blp
Researchart=ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTNBlackDragon.blp
Buttonpos=2,2
Researchbuttonpos=1,1
Casterart=
Order=blizzard

[XHbz]
Effectart=
Effectsoundlooped=
Effectsound=

Next comes the changing of the tooltips. Open up the HumanAbilityStrings.txt file and goto blizzard's entry in that. It will look like this:

// Blizzard
[AHbz]
Name=Blizzard
Tip=|cffffcc00B|rlizzard - [|cffffcc00Level 1|r],|cffffcc00B|rlizzard - [|cffffcc00Level 2|r],|cffffcc00B|rlizzard - [|cffffcc00Level 3|r]
Ubertip="Calls down <AHbz,Data11> freezing ice shard waves; each wave deals <AHbz,Data12> damage to units in a small area.","Calls down <AHbz,Data21> freezing ice shard waves; each wave deals <AHbz,Data22> damage to units in a large area.","Calls down <AHbz,Data31> freezing ice shard waves; each wave deals <AHbz,Data32> damage to units in a very large area."
Hotkey=B
Researchtip="Learn |cffffcc00B|rlizzard - [|cffffcc00Level %d|r]"
Researchubertip="Calls down waves of freezing ice shards that damage units in a target area. |nEach level increases the area of effect. |n|n|cffffcc00Level 1|r - <AHbz,Data11> waves at <AHbz,Data12> damage each. |n|cffffcc00Level 2|r - <AHbz,Data21> waves at <AHbz,Data22> damage each. |n|cffffcc00Level 3|r - <AHbz,Data31> waves at <AHbz,Data32> damage each."
Researchhotkey=B

Instead of saying "change this to that, and that to this" I'm just going to talk about the different lines.

Name - Obvious, change it to what you want.
Tip - This is the top line of text as you hold your mouse over the ability if you were about to cast it. It is 3 strings seperated by commas, each section is what will show up for each level the spell, thus level 2's text can be different from level 1's.
Ubertip - This is a more detailed instruction of what the spell does at each level. It is the same format as tip.
Hotkey/ResearchHotkey - These two are obvious
ResearchTip - This is the first line of text that shows up for the tooltip when you go to research the ability. This message is always the same no matter what level the spell is.
Research Ubertip - This is the more detailed description, as with research tip it is always the same.

Thus after I've made all the changes I wanted my new blizzard entry looked like this:

// Blizzard
[AHbz]
Name=Summon Black Dragon
Tip=Summon |cffffcc00B|rlack Dragon Whelp- [|cffffcc00Level 1|r],Summon |cffffcc00B|rlack Drake - [|cffffcc00Level 2|r],Summon |cffffcc00B|rlack Dragon - [|cffffcc00Level 3|r]
Ubertip="Summons a black dragon whelp.","Summons a black drake.","Summons a black dragon."
Hotkey=B
Researchtip="Learn Summon |cffffcc00B|rlack Dragon - [|cffffcc00Level %d|r]"
Researchubertip="Summons one of the black dragon species. |nEach level increases the evolution level of the dragon. |n|n|cffffcc00Level 1|r - Black whelp |n|cffffcc00Level 2|r - Black drake |n|cffffcc00Level 3|r - Black dragon"
Researchhotkey=B

All that's left now is creating the trigger that will "summon" the dragon when the blizzard spell is cast.

Event:
Unit - A unit owned by <player> is issued an order targetting an object.
Unit - A unit owned by <player> is issued an order targetting a point.
Unit - A unit owned by <player> is issued an order with no target
(I put all 3 in because I felt like it, blizzard always has to have a target so the 3rd one could be left out).

Conditions:
(String((Issued Order))) equal to blizzard ("blizzard" is from the HumanAbilityFunc.txt 'ORDER=' line for blizzard)

Actions:
--Special Effect - Create a special effect at (Target point of issued order) using Abilities\Spells\Human\MassTeleport\MassTeleportCaster.mdl (For finess baby!)
--Unit - Create 1 Black Dragon Whelp for <Player> at (Target point of issued order) facing (Position of (Triggering unit))
--Wait 0.05 seconds
--Unit - Order (Ordered unit) to stop
--Unit - Change color of (last created unit) to (colour of neutral hostile) <--(I don't like my dragons with team colours)


And that's all it takes, Baby Dragon Whelp summoned. I couldn't find a condition that would let me check the level of the spell so that I could have it summon drake at level 2 etc but there are ways using variables and such (or maybe i just missed the condition/comparision/whatever).

IMPORTANT: The fact that the string comparison is in the conditions (and NOT an if statement in the actions, this lags too much) as well as the ' wait 0.05 seconds' are very important. This gives enough time for the unit to cast the spell so that the MP goes down and the cooldown timer starts but cancels the order fast enough that it doesn't damage the units since the blizzard is still going on it's just invisible and silent (SEE ADDITION). This would have to be the same for other spells that depend on the caster to keep doing it such as death and decay (my only exp with this was in the beta, still the same?).

Save your map. The default loading screen MUST be used and the "hide minimap" option MUST be unchecked for reasons stated in the second link to one of Zauron's posts. Stick the two .txt's in the w3m as shown in Zauron's posts on bnet. If you edit your map the changes made in the .txt's will be lost and you'll have to insert them again.

The cooldown and MP required are NOT changed by this but it's the best I can do right now. It's easy to do and suits my purposes until total spell addition/changing is implemented by blizzard or someone else.

If you want to morph a unit instead of summon just change the trigger to replace the caster and add an if statement so the new form can cast the spell back to the original unit by checking which one cast the spell. Blizzard is not a wise choice to use tho as are others like it since you have to choose a target, stomp for example would be a good one since you just click it and it goes(See addition for consequences about using spells that cause damage since stomp does, thus it may not be a wise choice)

I've attached my map with it working.

Enjoy.

ADDITION: The "no damage from blizzard" doesn't seem to always be true. My comp lagged for half a sec when I cast it and the units got damaged.....soo I can only guarantee this will work on my comp in no lag contitions haha =\ Anyway, it's a good idea to not use blizzard for summoning stuff I only did because it was the 2nd spell i started tinkering with. You can just heal the units at the end of the trigger but if damaged units are in there it becomes a bit of a pain but still possible to heal them back to their original life I believe (unless they die >_< )

Mucho grande help with this post. Thanks a bunch!

I would just like to add that this method is totally useless because of one very frustrating and bullshit fact; ability files cannot be loaded from the map archive. Which means your brand new tool tip and icon wont show up, that is unless you put the files into the main or patch mpqs. Then if your going to be doing that you might as well make it a fully custom ability and not waste your time with the trigger part.

I found this out the hard way and ended up having to re-write my entire summoner class in my rpg.

I hope the new patch fixes alot of these modding problems like its rumored to do.

well, this seems old news to me EXEPT the loading screen minimap icon bug =)

Also Desync hell will come from this. So keep it on the down-low carlos.

Yeah I read about the desyncing thing a day after I wrote this, oh well there goes that.

I knew it was oldish but some people didn't know who I talked to so I put it up anyway. Simple work around, i'm too lazy to muck around with other stuff right now.

Khaoz, I didn't muck around with the mpq's at all, this works fine(as long as you are doing single player due to the goddamned desync). They are loaded when you run the map as long as you have the default loading screen or reload the map/have played other maps before picking the edited one.

You are incorrect, sir.

Wait -- what's this about a desync error?

Basically, if you use MPQ2k to import files into your map, then try to play that map on Battle.net, the game you play will be "split" or desync'd into 2 different games. It appears to both games that the members of the other game were dropped.

interesting fact is that the spliting wont occur if you havent got custom units?! Weird things =)

Won't occur eh.........hmmm what if you instead of making custom units edit the originals to what you want? Does that cause desync?

Hmm... well, from the whole map protection fiasco we know that War3 doesn't look at the listfile -- it goes through the map file as raw data and finds what it wants apparently. I'd be willing to be that it suspects custom unit data to be in a certain place, and when you use mpq2k is puts your file their instead, or something like that, and this pisses war3 off for one reason or another.

I read something on the battle.net forums saying that some people were having desyncing from stuff done by Blink!.......does changing sounds cause this to happen?

Two situations i'm wondering about:

Custom Unit hero from say, mountain king, change portrait and sounds to golem, add new tooltips etc.

-------Result according to others: Desync

but what about

Mountain King->Portrait/Sound/Model change to golem, add new tooltips

-------Result: ????

This is technically not creating a custom unit so would it desync? (Based on what Cookie said)

Sorry to bring up this old post again but it is the only result I can find from my search. Does this method still working now?

Any other tutorials about changing unit ability icons and descriptions? Thanks!

Ehm... another bug in your system is it is supposed to be a summoned unit.... When will this thing unsummon ?? To Prevent HUGE Black dragon army´s since they will last untill they are killed, set a wait X Seconds - Destroy last created unit. Better still, store the last created unit as soon as it is created in a varaible, the destroy the unit represented by that varialble. This will allow you multiple summonspells.