ability ID change

[Kuras2003]

can i possibly change ability ID? i want to do something like this:
Take Divine Shield ID and change it to something like A000
make custom ability and give it ID of Divine Shield
Give this ability to paladin so AI script will think he have divine shield (thanks to ID change) and will learn this custom ability

 

[Pyrogasm]

No, because you can neither change the rawcode of an existing ability nor delete a base spell from the game (to allow you to overwrite it). What you want to do is functionally no different than changing the ability fields of Divine Shield to behave however your custom ability would, making a copy of the original DS, and then replacing all other heroes' DS ability with the new (default) one you created that has a different rawcode.

As far as I recall the skill learning stuff is controlled by the rawcodes in the AI script, so if you just alter base DS then the heroes will still learn and use it as if it's regular DS. I say your idea and my suggestion are functionally identical because in both scenarios you end up with a DS that some of the AI won't ever skill up because its rawcode isn't in the AI script (in your scenario its the regular DS variant that would never be leveled and in mine it's the custom variant).

 

[Kuras2003]

just to make sure by custom ability i meant different ability than DS, maybe like Healing wave but whatever. I understand, I can't do it

 

[Pyrogasm]

Ah that's not exactly what I thought you meant but my response only changes a little bit. If you do not want to alter the Melee AI files, then yes the skill orders are fixed so they would never level up the non-matching skill rawcodes for that hero, and you can't directly change the rawcodes of the base abilities that already exist. You can find information about altering the AI to change the skills in this thread I replied to about a similar topic.

It may be possible by editing the map object data directly, but I don't know anything about that and can't really help with that. Back in the day such things were done with custom .slk files, but I believe those have been deprecated?

 

[Kuras2003]

i mean i can always do it with triggers.
so at level 1 i force ceratin type of hero to unlearn ability first (becouse script always instantly learn ability) and then i learn ability of my coiche

 

[Retera]

Seems like at some point in the past I was able to do this by going to Healing Wave, copying it with a custom editor that gives you the "enter object ID" popup box -- or with Reforged editor which offers the same thing -- then choosing the ID of divine shield as the ID for the new ability. If memory servers, doesn't that essentially overwrite divine shield with a custom healing wave skill that has the same ID as divine shield?

If you copy Divine Shield to A000 before doing that, maybe it would work. But it's a very wonky thing to do. The other advice that assumes you can't do it, or that it's too time consuming, is very likely to be correct

 

[Kuras2003]

i already gave up on that idea anyway