Tricks of the Trade

[Kaldaris]

Tricks of the trade!

Post things that troubled you at first, such as how to make a bridge go up and down, or how to get a run trigger to work.

Triggers
To get a run trigger to work without locking up, place a wait trigger before the run trigger.

 

[Horse_Balls]

Trick for AOS style map makers

You know those annoying messages you get every 10 seconds when you play AOS style maps?

"our ally's town is under attack!"
"our ally is under attack"

Not much of a trick but more of a suggestion to mute these messages from your maps. The sound files are found in here:
Internal/Sound/Interface/Warning/Human/
The sound files are called:

KnightAllyTownAttack1.wav
KnightAllyAttack1.wav

I don't know almost anything about the sound editor but here's what I did. I exported the wav files. Opened them with Sound Forge 6.0. Muted the wavs. Imported the files.
I'm almost positive there's a WAY easier way to do this
I'd suggest leaving in warnings about USER OWNED units and building, because it's nice to know if your mercs or towers are being attacked.

GLHF mapmaking

 

[celticshiva]

In response to above, you can change those sounds in Advanced - Game Interface Sounds (whatever one you want) You can't make them silent but if you make them to something non-annoying (I choose wisp sounds) they are barely precieved.

 

[UltimateJim]

ya... that ay is much better......


some times if a trigger isnt working put a wait 0.01 seconds in front of whatever isnt working, it usually helps

 

[Horse_Balls]

If you edited a non-custom unit and want to make a copy of the original untouched version then right click and select NEW CUSTOM UNIT.
If you want to make an exact copy of the edited unit then CUT AND PASTE the unit, all the changes will stay with the new unit.

When you want to make a non-hero unit a hero there's a delicate and time consuming procedure that must be made to ensure the hero is perfect:
1) Scroll through the animations of the unit/creep that you want to make a hero and decide which hero (any race) most resembles that unit. ie Attack Swing + Movement.
*Never base a mounted unit on a foot hero and vice versa*
2) Once you've decided the best match for your new hero change the art-model, name, icon.......soundset.
3) Here's the long part. You must transfer ALL of the original unit/creeps properties to the new hero based unit. If you don't the movement of the unit might look strange or the attack swing might look funny. Every detail right down to unit shadow should be adjusted! Example: Ever play a game where your unit's legs moved really fast but walked very slow? Or sometimes the unit hovers slightly over the ground?
These are necessary steps needed to ensure your new custom hero attacks, looks, walks, and talks PERFECT

 

[M3_feelin_0wn3d]

question and is pretty nice to be added here if u guys know how to do it ^^
say that i want unholy aura to let units :
1 : walk faster (already does that)
2 : regenerate (does that 2)
3 : and now the hard part. to add another possebility . lets say attack faster 2 ! how to add another ability to the spell!

 

[Horse_Balls]

As far as I know you have to use triggers to do it. It's frustrating because triggers cause so many problems with maps including DOTA versions that kick everyone when one person casts an ability that uses a trigger.

Here's exactly how I would do it, not saying it's the right way or the best way
*It would be easier to edit the ENDURANCE AURA ability but you could call it whatever you wanted to anyways*

- Events
______Unit - A unit owned by Player 1 (Red) Starts the effect of an ability
______Unit - A unit owned by Player 2 (Blue)..........*one for each allied player of the caster including computer players. ie - AOS spawned units*

- Conditions
______[?] (Ability being cast) Equal to *Endurance Aura *

- Actions
______Set (Triggering unit) movement speed to #####

Now, this wouldn't increase unit movement speed by a percentage rather it would set every unit's movement speed to the value you input(#####). Not perfect but I'm sure someone can tweak this trigger and make it perfect.
I'm guessing variables might be involved and I'd also guess using variables in trigger spells might make the map less stable. Maybe I'm wrong

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Trick for making custom spells

Try editing Rain of Chaos, this ability gives the option to run other ability for unit creation!!! Just make custom units look like whatever you want, like infernals dropping from the sky Try playing around with this one, possibilities seem endless.

Stampede is another great one. Consider the effect of reducing the area of effect and making the units water elementals......TOB.

 

[UltimateJim]

how to make player units give gold

trigger

event map init

action- turn player flags on/off

 

[Horse_Balls]

TEST MAP and ABILITY HOT KEY SUGGESTIONS

When I'm testing a map through the map editor (ctrl+F9) I used to find something that needed to be changed, then I would immediately 'Exit Program' and change what needed fixin' in the world editor.
Now I just Alt+Tab between the game and the editor. I find that, especially, when you find two problems that need to be fixed it's easier to just Alt + Tab between the two to fix the problems one at a time, properly and more quickly then 'testing map' twice.
Example of when this comes in handy is when you are setting button positions for custom spells and need to know which abilities each hero has, also when setting the hotkey for each ability. You don't want the letter T to be the hotkey for two different abilities for the same hero.

I find the best hotkeys for abilities are W,E,R,T,D,F,G they are comfortable to reach with the left index finger and thumb.

 

[Horse_Balls]

Yeah.....I already know that from testing that theory with three gloves of critical strike in my inventory once in a game. Sometimes the red numbers indicating the total damage from a critical attack poped up twice at the same time overlapping eachother. So yeah, you're probably right about the evasion thing too.

GOT SOME NEWS THAT'LL BLOW EVERYONE READING THIS AWAY!!!!!

I found out how to not only create an ability that has critical strike AND splash damage all in one.
This 'ALL-IN-WONDER' can actually squeeze the effects of up to 11 abilities in 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE'S THE DOWNFALL: The abilities included in this all-in-one have to be unit or item abilities NOT hero. Just downgrade your desired hero abilities to unit abilities and it's all the same.
"But I want critical strike 'X' damage to go up with every level", fine then make three different custom critical strike (unit) abilities and include them accordingly with every level of the all-in-one ability. See how limitless this ability seems?

BodyGlove: To answer your first question, yes it's possible and what you'll have to do is downgrade the cleaving attack from a hero ability to a unit ability.

Here's a map I created with this ability. At level three it has critical strike, evasion, bash. All in one ability

Enjoy!
Plz sticky this, I think everyone should know about this.

 

[x42bn6]

Don't click 'Test map' in the WE, since for lower-end coms it often crashes upon loading. Load up WC separately in the icon, and test the map there.

Yes, use Alt-Tab. But be careful your com has quite a bit of power or *crash*.

 

[M3_feelin_0wn3d]

how to add weapons to your models

event - time elapsed 0.01 seconds
Conditions - None Actions - Special effect - create special effect at (hand = right , left hand = left hand) (unit u want) ( the item/sword/shield whatever u want in his hand )
U have to import your swords and stuff with import manager then u can choose at custum model the 1 u want


here is the FIRST screenie from the map im working on.
its cut off but doesnt matter. here u see the weapons i gave.
they attack with left hand so i used left hand as attach point.
for the wings i used chest .

BTW CAN ANYBODY TELL ME HOW TO SKIN THE VILLAGER DIFRENT CUS NOW HE SUX! I WANT TO KNOW PLZ TELL ME!

 

[x42bn6]

Though I don't really know what the real syntax and all that for random stuff, to generate a random unit, initialize all the units you want into an array, and when you wanna generate one, the syntax is

arrayName(Int(Random*arrayNameLength))

where arrayName is the name of the array, and arrayNameLength is the number of indexes in the array. If there's quite a few, find the last index number and add 1, that's the length.

Just some JavaScript knowledge left over.

 

[Horse_Balls]

How to add weapons to units without using triggers

Kaldaris showed me how to do this

First thing you do is import the weapon into the map using the import manager. If you already know how to/did import the MDX file, skip the red text and go to the green.

Importing the weapon:
1 - Open the import manager in TFT editor.
2 - Right click in the editor and choose (import file...)
3 - Select the file from your harddrive and open it.
3 - Double click the imported MDX file in the import manager.
4 - 'check' the Use Custom Path box.
5 - 'highlight' the Full Path and copy it *for later*
6 - 'uncheck' the Use Custom Path box.
7 - 'click' Cancel
8 - Close Import Manager


Creating the Custom Ability:
1 - Open Object Editor and click Abilities tab
2 - Create a custom ability based on an item. example: Item Armor Bonus.
3 - Change the name of the ability to (whatever you want), usually the name of the weapon and it helps if you describe where it goes for later. Example: Teslaclaw (left hand)
4 - Double click ART - TARGET. Select Custom. Or you can scroll down the list under import. Then skip step #5
5 - Input the path of the imported MDX file there.The one you copied before for later, just paste the path here
6 - Click OK, then Click OK again.
7 - Double click ART - TARGET ATTACHMENT POINT 1
8 - 'click' Add String
# - Now you have to choose the attachment point. Here's a list of attachment strings that can be used:

Attachment Point Names:
overhead (floats over the unit's head, but doesn't sway with
the head as it animates)
head (sways with the unit's animation)
chest (use this for wings, Illidan's, Mannoroth's,....)
origin (usually at the base of a unit's feet)
hand
foot
weapon (for HEROES)
sprite (for buildings)
medium (for buildings)
large (for buildings)

Attachment Point Modifiers:
left
right
mount (for mounted units)
rear (for quadrupeds)
first (for buildings)
second (for buildings)
third (for buildings)
fourth (for buildings)
fifth (for buildings)
sixth (for buildings)
rallypoint (for buildings)


* If you want the attachment to be placed on the left hand of the unit there's two ways to do this:

1) Put two strings in; 1-Hand, 2-Left
2) Enter one string in this form; Hand,Left <--- Hand'comma'Left (with no spaces)
You get the same results either way.

Adding the new weapon is as easy as adding this new ability to your hero under ABILITIES - NORMAL.......in object manager - Units (Tab). Click Add Ability and switch ability type from unit to item. Find your custom ability (whatever you called it) and your hero will have this attachment now.

P.S. You wont see the attachment in the world editor, you can only see it when the map is running in the game.

 

[Horse_Balls]

Just discovered the potential of editing ORB OF SLOW. Yet another ability that seems to have endless possibilities.

 

[UltimateJim]

under preferences, enable negative stats or whatever, this allows you to put negative values in the ability editor, want a slowing aura? voila!

 

[IceDevil9]

It took me the longest time to figure out how to actually select a unit. Dumbest thing, but I didn't realize you had to hit the Select Marquee thingy (or Space).

-Frank

 

[UltimateJim]

orc esc, but near the botom of the editer when you select a unit it will say its name and then a number, if you select 2 the number will too, if threee units are selected it will be threee, and four will be four, and so forth, usefull when counting units so that you dont have to count every one, just select them and look down

 

[Mortefier]

Originally posted by M3_feelin_0wn3d
how to add weapons to your models

event - time elapsed 0.01 seconds
Conditions - None Actions - Special effect - create special effect at (hand = right , left hand = left hand) (unit u want) ( the item/sword/shield whatever u want in his hand )
U have to import your swords and stuff with import manager then u can choose at custum model the 1 u want

Ok but dont you need some extraction program to do this....or can you just use the TFT....i really got inspired by your post

Mortefier :lucifer

 

[M3_feelin_0wn3d]

no in war3tft world editor is a IMPORT MANAGER. its a green arrow on a paper i believe. just pick the "import file" import your weapon. and use triggers i gave u.