What to do?

I'm thinking about retiring from playing warcraft and start modifiying stuff. However, I don't know what to do to start and do what I want! Does anyone know where to get a decent tutorial in teaching how to start? And something that's always bugging me. How does a mod work? I know it's a modification of a game, but how do you modify it and etc?

If this is probably too advanced for a newb, can someone tell me what to start on so I would know what to do?

Sorry for my newbish whining, but I decided one day that i should finally ask for help after long searches. thankyou if you answer me

Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne are actually some of the easiest games i've played to modify.
Just open the World Editor, create a new map. From there you can do anything you want. I learned by modifying existing maps. I believe the first map I opened in the WE was Wintermaul TD. Just change around some stuff and get a feel for things.

Triggers are composed of events/conditions/actions. For every event you specify, there's an action or multiple actions that can be fired.

In the Object Editor you can find and edit Unit and Ability data (in tft) to change units to deal more damage, less damage, have more hp, or whatever. Blizzard did a really great job of making the WE and the User Interface that comes with it.

As for tutorials, I'm sure there are thousands out there. Just do a search for it on yahoo or even in these forums and I'm sure you'll find something, but I think the best tutorial you can get is just experimenting with different things in the WE and opening other people's not too complicated maps.

Hope this helps. Happy map making. :)

Thanks that helped alot. I actually have been fiddling with the world editor and stuff and know a little bit about it. I just want to KNOW, not do or anything yet. How exactly does a MOD work? I have absolutely NO idea. And yahoo or google doesn't help either.

Keep the replies coming!!

What, a real mod (modification of the engine), or just a custom map?

What makes a custom map run are the triggers. With triggers, you specify all the playing rules, scripted events, and also use them to enhance spells. Besides players issuing orders to units, any other event that happens on a map is done by triggers.

So, the trigger editor is the tool you use to make the map run as you want. The object editor defines all the objects (units, spells, destructibles) that will be manipulated in a game by players or triggers. Wit the terrain editor, you make, well, terrain... all others (sound editor, import manager,...) are just support tools you don't need to use in your first mapping attempts.

im pretty sure hes asking about how to make a real mod. in which case i cannot help you at all lol i make maps not mods. but if i missed something here and he really is wondering about maps instead of mods than please excuse my ignorance hehe. ^_^

Yeah map-maker I am wondering about a real mod. I know how a basic map works although anitarf cleared it up for me even more (thanks) but how do you modify a game engine? That's something that has been bugging me since I looked upon the cool mods TTOR etc.

Thanks for your feedback, keep em coming!!