RoC WE FAQ Thread

This thread will hopefully build up to a valuable resource for any newcomers and a handy reference tool for anyone who's simply forgotten how something works and needs a quick reminder. I've been deliberating on how to best approach this for a little while now, with considerations for updates and cleaning. For the moment however, I've decided to throw caution to the wind and simply make it an open-contribution scheme until I have time to hammer out the details. It's nothing new, but I've noticed that it's always something nice to have around. I was certain we had a FAQ several months ago, but it either disappeared into obscurity, or I'm going loony in my old age. It will act similarly to the FAQ in the battle.net forum, giving answers to the most frequent questions as well as the more obscure ones. I'll also merge this with the popular tools post at the top of the page at some point.

For now this is simply a knowledge-gathering process. Anyone out there who has something they think may be worthy to contribute post here. I'm well aware of the momentus upkeep this thing will require, and I can hopefully rely on my fellow Map Development Moderators to assist in tidying it up every now and again. I'm also pondering the notion that once we have everything sorted out, a responsible forum member can post the relevant information. This will allow both us and the individual to update the FAQ as needed, in effect giving them certain responsibilities to manage the thread.

We''ll cross that bridge when we get to it, however. For now the current concern is to pool all the information that we have, and to sort it into something legible. And don't fear that I haven't posted anything yet myself, I'll be scouring the topic history for useful tidbits. So without further ado, bring on the knowledge! :).

~kharma

Blizzard didnot incorperate the ability to edit spells and abilitys with warfraft, altho, in later patches, they allow us to edit spells by editing certant files.

Now, when you save a map in the world editor, it saves an arcive, like a zip arcive. you can open maps as tho they where an MPQ arcive using Shadow Flares Winmpq. Remember that when you save a map in the world editor, it destroys the old arive, and makes a whole new one, removing all files you imported into it.

To edit spells, you will need 2 tools:
Shadow Flares Win MPQ
Lordreds Redskulls editor

now, using winmpq, open this file:
c:/Program Files/Warcraft III/War3.MPQ

serch for these files, and extract them:
Units\HumanAbilityStrings.txt
Units\HumanAbilityFunc.txt
Units\ItemAbilityStrings.txt
Units\ItemAbilityFunc.txt
Units\NeutralAbilityStrings.txt
Units\NeutralAbilityFunc.txt
Units\NightElfAbilityStrings.txt
Units\NightElfAbilityFunc.txt
Units\OrcAbilityStrings.txt
Units\OrcAbilityFunc.txt
Units\UndeadAbilityStrings.txt
Units\UndeadAbilityFunc.txt
Units\AbilityData.slk

Now, place them all in a folder, and open abilitydata.slk with redskulls editor. redskulls editor is easy to use, but you cannot edit existing spells, to edit a spell, select it, press ctrl+n,or goto file new. now you have a spell, edit the values to the way you want them. To edit tooltips, click Ability>>Props.

To give your hero your new spell(s), place the files in the directory:
c:/Program Files/Warcraft III/Units/

then open the world editor, and you can give your heros the new abilitys. to make these cool abilitysapear ingame, import the files into your map. You can open your map using win mpq, and simply import them. As i said above, if you save your map in world editor again after you import these files, you will have to re-import them.

Bridges. These horible monstosities. :gsmile: when you place a bridge, ramp, or any doodad, it may look fine in the we, but ingame, it is bugged. this, ofcourse is espetially true of bridges. all you have to do to fix this is, make the bridge higher/lower, untill it looks fine ingame. 'oh but rasing the terrain makes it look bad' well, select your bridge, hold down the 'ctrl' key and press 'Page up/down' and it will modify your bridges hight. this will work with any doodad. u can also use those keys to minipulate doodas, and reshape them.

now another problem with bridges, is the pathing. press the 'P' key, and make shure untis can walk on/off you cool looking bridges.

Turning pathing on in WE will help you with bridges as well. I think it's Ctrl+P.

for those of you developing tft maps, naga ramps are buggy. to make them work, make a ramp in the terrain, and then add the naga ramp over that. now, to move the ramp down so that it looks right, hold down the 'Ctrl' key and press 'page down' untill it looks correct.

Redundant, but..

When importing files into your map (Spells, skins, etc), its often a burden to throw all the files you desire into the map to test it, because the next time you save they will all disappear. A good solution to this is to backup War3patch.mpq, and instead of adding the files your map needs (Using WinMPQ or TechMPQ) to the map itself, just throw them in War3Patch.mpq. Note that you can only do this to test your maps; all the files in war3patch only work on your computer.

Remember to replace your original war3patch when your done editing, and you can throw the unitdata into the map. Otherwise, your game will generally crash in normal games.

Also note that if you edit items and try to make them spells or abilities, they often will not work. Try making a 'dummy spell' (a spell that does nothing) and using a trigger ingame to make the effect work. Some spells can just use simple triggers, but some require a whole lot of JASS (a lot of tutorials on it)

Many people who are new to the world of warcraft map making, dont know what dialog boxes are, nor how to use them. Many maps dont usedialob boxes, because there makes dont know how to use them. Dialog boxes are ingame menues, liek the game mode / dificulty selector boxes for red in cube defence.

I have attatched a map, full of comments, and helpfull information about dialogs. it is all you need to know, and more.

remember, dialogs dont need jass, and my map dosent use it.

To come: what player has clicked the dialog?

Does your dialog help teach people how to tell which player clicks a dialog?

if a leaderboard is shown/created at map intilization, it wont work. thsi is also true of dialog boxex. simply replace the map intilization event with: time pased in game 1.00 seconts.

Another good idea for the thread might be to simply post url's for threads which answer some Frequently Asked Questions. Like the thread on server split that went through here a while ago.

Of course, mods also have to not delete those threads...

EDIT: Here's some applicable threads.
EDIT: I'll keep throwing up links as I see them.

• Icon editing and importing
• Writing TD triggers
• Finding custom unit IDs
• Custom minimaps
• Losing abilities on upgraded units
• Locking player properties
• Spell editing allowed targets
• Using multiple variations of the same unit ability on one unit
• Spell editing and "Tooltip missing"
• Getting rid of "Hero Glow" (not really a Map Dev question but it came up recently in this forum)
• About flying heros being invisibile
• What we know about Server Split
• Exceeding 64 files in a map
• Having more than 5 hero abilities

This is because initilization is the point when the map loads, when it says "waiting for players" which is different for everyone. Therefore, things like creating units, leaderboards, weather effects ect. will not work. If you want something to happen at the moment the map is PLAYABLE (after all players have loaded the map), then do Time - Elapsed Time and set it to 0.00. That way, there will be no de-sync.

If you do polish up and officalize this thread, make it bigger then the other threads, and..and first. New people will be drawn toward it like a moth to a candle ;)

Ummm... With importing files into my map (for the spell) I open it on winmpq and try adding them but they don't appear under the list in minmpq it just shhows all the files already in the map but not the ones i tried to put in there...

Could someone plz do a more step-by-step explanation.

Thx for future info

have you ever tried to import files into a map, u listed them corectly, and click 'add', but they dident show up? simple anser. if your map is currently opend in the world editor, or another 3rd party program liek zepiers editor, files wont import into your map.

all you have to do is close the world editor, and they will import. if they still dont import, close everythign but your mpq editor, and try again. if not still, then the mpq is corrupted, or protected.

It worked, as in the files can be imported, but when i try to use it ingame it's not there and the icon for it is the same as the hidden kabold. (the one with the guy's face on it)