Creating new skills

NOT MODDING!!!!

I've been staring at the slks for about a week now and have figured out almost everything needed and yesturday/today compiled a brand new unit by using info from old one and stuff jsut to get ready to implement the untis going into our mod..but when i got to the point where i was going to create a blizzard-type skill for a Hero-unit in the mod i noticed something very strange..blizzzard uses two codes HAbz and XHbz, the first one is the actual skill and was easy to remake....but when i searched for where to put in the Effect art of the skill i noticed it is in a different code (XHbz)...now i searched and i searched and still ahve not found where it is defined that XHbz is called when you cast Blizzard...has anyone figured it out?..whjere the skill scripts are?...that's my story and how i came to it...idisscuss this is you can:cool:

Have a look at the .txt files too.
My problem is that it seems to be impossible to add a new hero unit. I'm trying to make Jimmy Raynor; but he just won't be a hero. He's got his own sounds; icon and skin(still working on getting that to work); but he just won't be hero class...

make sure he doesn't double use a hero class and it should work....like the hero i was making that skill for uses Hhero4 class (as in the next hero class not used...3 being the last one used(by the mountain king i think) this is true for all races except NE which have the 4th hero class set for the demon form of the DH.

I have tried that (of course). And one good reason why it wouldn't work is that the heroes in the campaigns don't even a 'hhero' bit. I think the bit that tells the game what units should be heroes isn't in an slk or txt file... That'd mean I have to replace an existing hero.

that's wierd..cause it worked for me...

as for the new skill thing it's STILL not working..heh

You gave an entirely new unit hero status? Can you send me your mpq, so I can have a look at it? Or just upload it here.

ok here's the patch mpq with TestHero

umm; where? ;)

You really didn't replace another unit, did you? I can't get it to work! Can you tell me what files you editted to get the hero to work?

The effects (X???) and buffs (B???) are created from the spell code. Only their text & art settings are externalized. Unfortunately since the effect and buff IDs are hard-coded in the executable, you can't create a custom version with different graphics, etc. Hopefully that will change in an expansion or something...

As for creating a new hero, you can copy the entries of an existing one - just make sure that the first character of its code is capitalized. Make the appropriate entries in all the SLKs (UnitAbilities, UnitBalance, UnitData, UnitUI, and UnitWeapons) and the text files (it doesn't matter which race you put them under - it's probably easiest to just put their custom entries underneath those of the unit it is based on).

If you want to assign them new skills, you'll probably need to make custom versions of the abilities for them to use - but this will require replacing AbilityData.slk on a global basis, and unfortunately isn't something that can be used online). I posted earlier in a different thread on the best way to go about this if you're interested.

Yes I have encountered that spells buffer etc art problem too. Wa in beta that problem, where I created a Clone spell of summon water elemental using a zombie icon. But still it will only show up a damn water elemental icon (of course, while "researching"it will show up a zombie icon). This is indeed annoying as hell and I hope they have adressed it in Expansion (which is most likely as there is a urgent need for a ability/upgrade editor)

You might want to retry that test - I believe at some point during the Beta, they added support for doing what you were trying because of various Creeps and button art/positioning problems that they had. Also make sure that you replace the art and researchart for the spell (sounded like you did, but I wanted to make sure).
If you are adding a new spell to AbilityData.slk, make sure that it uses a new code in the uberAlias column so that it supports the new button art.
You can see a good example of how this is done with Feral Spirit - on the Farseer it summons wolves, but on the Razorman Medicine Man (or some variation) it summons pigs (and has a different icon & position).

I did, but this was later (near end of beta, almost near the 1.33/1.34) and then it wasnt possible anymore. Like they also removed the ability of unit training at units (which was between 1.20 and 1.30?)

its kinda pointless to redo that test for the beta =)
But do you mean with the last par with the retail version or beta?