abilities can only use some models?

Ive been making tons of spells and stuff and i just hit a prob with 1 of the models. I based a spell off of carrion swarm and set its model to the doodad waterfall... but nothing showed up. then i tried diff models from the ability pulldown and they all worked. I also noticed buffs can only use buff\ models. I got it to work by importing a waterfall model but thats a major waste of space. I know that using the old .slk .txt way before TFT could do this fine. Oh and on the only ROC way, where do the maps store the spell data? like which file?

If you plan on making custom spells in TFT and importing it in RoC, don't even bother :)) it will crash your game in no time :)
my first guess would be that it would be stored in AbilityData.slk or [race]AbilityData.slk ....

No, im saying the old raw material ROC way seems better. The prob is im trying to make an ability use the waterfall model for something but it doesnt work because its not the in the ability\ folder. and the map doesnt generate any abilitydata.slk files so im wondering what it makes.

I'm not sure where it stores the data.

I haven't encountered any problems using models outside of the standard category for the spell. The only thing that matters is whether the model has a Stand animation or not, for whether the model needed has to be able to continue being shown or whether it can disappear immediately.

Alternatively, since you're using a doodad model, you might be working with one that has variations. If that's the case, it won't show up in-game when you paste the model path right over.

This is because doodads with variations use the printed path and then add the number of the variation on the end (so "models/modelname" is actually just a reference point for it to use "models/modelname0.mdl", "models/modelname1.mdl", etc.).

Not sure if that's your problem, but it could be.

im using the waterfall model. and everything works fine when i use an imported version but when i use the one the WE gives me nothing shows up.

What's the path of the waterfall in the WE? Let me give it a shot.

waterfall's got no stand animation

... ok is everyone just ignoring my post? I got waterfall to work! I just had to import it because for some reason abilities only use models from the ability\ pulldown... if you want i can make the font size 7 so its easier to read...
edit: crap.. im a hypacrite, sry panto im getting the path right now.
Doodads\Terrain\CliffDoodad\Waterfall\Waterfall there ya go.

Well, I can assure you that spells are able to use models from other menus than abilities. I can only guess that there's something special about the Waterfall model, because it neither has variations nor does it have a complete model path in the WE. However, WinMPQ shows that there is only one waterfall file.

I'm testing it out on a couple abilities, Slow and Locust Swarm, now.

EDIT: The Slow buff didn't work, but that was expected since, as was pointed out, it has no Stand animation. However, Locust Swarm worked fabulously (and it looked pretty cool, too).

EDIT: Carrions Swarm didn't work, like you said. I expect that any projectile with this model wouldn't work, since it seems to have a very short play time. I'm surprised that it works when the model is imported.
I bet if you used a different model, from any category, that has a Stand animation, it would work.

no no no... that part i wasnt clear on. I mixed up this big sentence thing. It was based off of carrion swarm. but i mean i dont want it imported because i already have a ton of files imported and im sure the filesize is getting pretty big.

Yea, I understand what you're saying. My testing didn't reveal anything useful, that's all. And I have no idea why it works when it's imported and not otherwise.

It's possible that the filesize of the model is actually pretty small, but still, better to avoid it if you can; sorry I couldn't help.