Wierd spell editing problem!?! Tried everything...

Ok iwe been trying (something easy i thought) to make a Canibalize kinda skill for my new unit...
I done what i says in the guides, i have altered the stats with dashis spell editor and i have assigned a new icon for it too... But in the editor it still shows up as cannibalize in the abilities selecter in the unit editor!
I have added both abiliti.slk and undeadabilityfun.txt to war3patch.mpq (i made a backup first ofcourse) but it still doesn't work!

Can anyone help, please?

If you are trying to add/change spells for use in a map playable on BNET, you need to add abilitydata.slk and undeadabilitystrings.txt to your map so that everyone can use them.

Its for my campaign, not for battle.net play...

Haven't any of you spell editing guys encountered this or know how to make is "go away"?

Seriously, the best way to do this is to add those files into your map file, and make sure that you have the correct directory first - "units\" should come before each file.

Also you mention in the editor, the way I have messed with spells in the editor was by placing the abilitydata.slk directly into the root war3 directory with the updated spells. Then reopen the WE, and it should work correctly. When it comes time to distribute your map, move the abilitydata.slk away from the war3 directory.

There is no need to put the files into war3.mpq when you can simply place them directly into the map instead. Putting stuff directly into war3.mpq is generally bad, for several reasons:
1) war3patch.mpq will override war3.mpq if the same file exists in the patch file.
2) If you mess up something in war3.mpq, it is a lot harder to get it back to how it was.

Its not too horrible putting files into the MPQs, but if your going to do it...Back-up your MPQs, ofcourse and only implant the slk and txt files into the Patch.mpq. This means that it will only work on your machine though.

A better way to do it has been mentioned here. You could make a folder in the root dir of warcraft called "Units\" then drop all of your edited files in there. They will only be useable in the editor, but again the best way to do it is add the files to the map each time it is saved through the World Editor.

Break.

I did this to make sure i didn't do anything un-changable! The problem si it have to work for the entire campaign not just for that map - and so i really wouldn't like to add it to all the levels and this cant be the only way right?

You can also make Warcraft III use files from folders outside the MPQs. I can explain the difficult way to do it, but there is an easy way though: Go to my website and download War3Config. There you can enable "Allow Local Files" which enables Warcraft III to use files from folders like the WE. This is not alwas recommended, but for testing purposes quite good.

I have to agree with Bylobog. The day a new patch comes out, your edited spells more than likely will cease to function as expected.

To make things easier, I create generic bat scripts that automate everything for me. When I need to test my map, I save it, and run the script which adds my needed files to the map, and fire it up. This works best for me, since I usually have some buddies on bnet that love to help beta test.

Thank you all for the answer so far...

Ok ill add it to the individual levels then - rwxr-xr-x could you please either showme how to create such a script or just send me the one you have???
[email protected]

I tried to create a c++ program that executed mpq2k.exe but that didn't work out!

Anyway thx all! :ggani:

While it isn't the only way, I'd have to say it is still the recommended way. When the time comes to release your campaign, most ppl don't want to have to worry about making backup copies of their war3.mpg file and applying your changes. Then reverting back just so that they can play on bnet. Like I mentioned in my previous post, bat scripts are an excellent way to speed this process up, and overall, the people that play your campaign later will appreciate you more. :ggani:

There is a way to make sorta of a second war3 folder where the campaign installs therefor not messing with the normal stuff!

Would you please send me the script? :) It looks like its the way to do it for now...

I dont know any of the other apps, but I use MPQ2K. All I do is make a batch file with all of the common txts and slks that I edit. Now all I do is leave the files in the same folder of MPQ2K and the batch file (which is pretty much just a text file with the .bat extension), and edit them from there....then just drop in the saved map file, run the batch file, and its ready to go. No more typing! No more browsing! It's so easy.

Break.

Hi Lupus,

Here is an example of what I do. I have a main project directory with subdirectories under that. I name my map file the same as the subdirectory, then run the bat file with the directory name.

EX.

D:\Projects\WarcraftIII\maps is main project directory
D:\Projects\WarcraftIII\maps\mynewmap is the project

Copy all related files that you need in there, in your case AbilityData.slk, and UndeadAbilityStrings.txt. Then just run like...

import mynewmap

Oh yeah, and this script expects mpq2k.exe to be in the directory you run it from.

Attached is the script that I use, but you can modify to your needs. (I had to name the file import.bat.txt since the forums won't allow me to upload .bat files, so just rename it to import.bat when you download it).

Thank you very much.... ill try it out right away

Ok you thing worked great.... Thanks again for that!
2 problems though (or more...)

1: I also worked before i just forgot to add it in the world editor... SO it works that way too... Thats good news i guess!

2: The ingame icon for "cannibalize" is a head of some blizzard guy? And it says tooltip missing over it!

3: If set it in undeadabilityfunc.txt so that the vampiric aura should appear when they regenerate over corpses, it doesn't show!

4: It still shows up as cannibalize in the WE abilities menu, why?

5: The button position is all wrong, iwe set it to 0,2 or 2,0 cant remember... (its the lower left corner)! It shows up where the repair command is instead...

Anyone know a solution? (Besides quiting this spell editing stuff...):bangH: