A few Warcraft III WorldEditor Tips

Okay, you THINK you're comfortable about using the wc3 WE. You like map-making, love wc3 and think the WE has no limits - well it doesn't. And it'll be more likely to have no limits when you finish reading all these tips composed by me - LiQuiD NiNjA. ENJOY!!!!


1. Press the spacebar button to switch between placing units + regions and modifying them
2. Put a wait *Amount of seconds more than 5 it is* after every cinematic transmission IF you plan for it to be longer than 5 seconds AND no sound is applied
3. When importing sound files DO NOT test your map unless you have actually saved it first to prevent the WorldEditor from deleting them
4. Download every wc3campaign file in the tools section to boost your map-making abilities
5. Hold Ctrl + the right mouse button and move the mouse to get the right view for your camera angles - it moves the camera around. While Holding Shift + moving the mouse moves the camera closer. To create a camera on that view, open up the camera palette, and click the create camera button. This camera view can be used via the action Camera - Apply Camera Object (Timed)
6. For newbies to variables - they store data of one type. Just pretend you create a unit in the game - there would be no way to refer to it except the newbie trigger Last Created Unit!
Create plenty of unit variables (or just one array :P) and whenever you create a unit, set the variable to Last Created Unit so to refer to the units refer to the variables!
7. To make a unit look bigger - edit the collision, scale and selection fields to the size you please. Play around with the sizes until you get the right ones.
8. Sound Initialization of the Worldeditor can easily be stopped by any currently playing sound - If the sound fails to init, try turn off any background noises : It could be your damn desktop theme or even a running game. Also, don't be surprised that the WE disables all other sounds. It is NOT YOUR COMPUTER CRASHING OR STUFFING UP!
9. Always have another acolyte helping you - Tyrande will do no good ummm.. woops. I mean
Use zepir's World Editor at wc3campaign tools to increase the map size more than 192 X 192 and always start off maps BIG so you won't be complaining later on when you're running out of terrain space.
10. Did you know you can create your own icons and campaigns screens with photoshop? Make sure you save it as a war3 compatible 32x RGB tga file.
11. Send all problems and trigger help to [email protected] - Please don't spam me or I'm gonna make your life a living hell! A HELL! A NIGHTMARE! A HELLISH NIGHTMARE!!!!! I think I'm happy with the junk I'm getting now.
12. Use shortcuts as much as you can to speed up the progress of your maps - Ctrl Z to undo, Ctrl C to copy Ctrl V to paste etc.
13. Write down your map ideas on a piece of paper, draw up some concept art, the basic terrain outline, *and send the map to me J/K* and you've got the prelim setup. Then you can get a bunch of people interested in joining your campaign by posting at the campaign discussion forums, beg the moderators to host your campaign. And the next thing you know, you've created a kick-*** campaign that's 10 times better than RoK.
14. Join a campaign and get working! Check out all the hosted campaigns at this site! If you find one with nice stories, members, reputations etc. Tell them what you're skilled at and they'll be sure to let you join (I work for project sauroid ^_^)
15. Fill your map with Comments to spread your work out neatly! A chunk of actions will make your eyes burn more than this will! Examples are "Sound Init" "Player Alliance" or "Set variables"
16. Colour Text is used by putting a line of text before and after the given text.
A quick explanation : |cAARRGGBB|r A is Aplpha, R is Red, G is green and B is blue. The |c is the signal of colour text starting and |r is the signal of it ending - much like the forum signals[*] and [/*]
17. Put a wait 0.01 second on the map init trigger to stop some bugs occuring, including one common music repeating bug which would play when the loading bar finished and play again when you pressed a key.
18. If you set up a registry DWORD key called Allow Local Files and set it to one. It will find any other files with the same directory and name as in war3.mpq and use that file instead of the war3 mpq one. It will also will work if you implant files in a war3patch.mpq.
19. Download zepir's map editor to protect your map from newbies editing it and taking all the credit for themselves.
20. Always have another back-up of the map you are making - the worldeditor has an annoying habit of crashing, closing, etc. It is very useful, trust me, and it will always come in handy.

I'm writing another 80 now so wait until then... I guess nobody finds these tips useful. Oh well...

Of course they are useful! :infth:

Really? I just gathered a bunch of things that normal people wouldn't know.

Take a look at
HERE

Magic (from Star Alliance) is doing a small collection of WE tips. Yours can be very useful to add to it.

Here's mine:

The crtl button is the level designer's best friend. With it, you can:

- With a unit or doodad selected, hold crtl and left-click anywhere: the unit or doodad will rotate and face the direction you clicked. Useful to organize groups of units, making them face the direction you want without the need of going to the unit's properties.

- With a doodad selected, hold crtl. Now, with the pressed button, you can use the numeric keyboard arrows to move it ignoring collision. That's how nice-looking walls are made, and it also can be used to "merge" doodads or to place doodads closer one to the other.

- With crtl hold and a doodad selected, use Page up/Page down to make the doodad go higher or lower. You can make a doodad "float" in the air or even burrow it within terrain. This is how you can correctly place gates and bridges without them appearing "flying" above the terrain in the game.

Whoa! Didn't know that. That will make terrain much easier to build.

The Alpha channel is missing with your color text:
|cAARRGGBBthis is the text to color|r
AA is the Alpha channel

Bigger Maps!!!

Oh, even though Zepir's editor is ok, it's easy just to import the worldeditdata.txt into your WC3 folder, then change the default and max sizes.

I've been ased this several times now, so I'll add it to this tips list: To make cameras, move your screen using the mouse and ctrl until you are at the exact spot you want the camera to be. Now hit the button "Create Camera" and it'll make one that's looking exactly where you're looking.

-Insaniteus-

It's also Quite easy to use the preview in main window option if you got a ****ed up mouse, like me for instance =O(

I mentioned that in tip 5


Sorry... I heard it somewhere at war3.org but I've never actually tried it. I've fixed this up already.

Btw, Decide, I forgot all about terrain + doodad tips. Sorry about that too. And thanks for reminding me

Your tip 5 didn't mention that hitting the Create Camera button made a camera where you were looking. That's the point I wanted to make since 4 have asked me how to make precise cameras already.

-Insaniteus-

It's common-sense for crying out loud

Fine! Open up the dang camera palette, get the right view, then press the DAMN CREATE CAMERA BUTTON!

Happy now?

Oh, wait, let me guess, I forgot to put a capital at the start of the 6th tips sentence!

This topic should be cleaned up and stickyed

Save ur map often so u don't lose changes in case ur comp freezes all the time

Well, one time, I saved a map, and the damn thing crashed WHILST it was saving - I never worked on that map again since I spent an hours work just to find out my computer stuffed up

Btw Kerry, what does stickyed mean? Is that bad or something?