Can you edit and replace the main campaign maps in the MPQ files without them getting corrupted?

[RollBoat]

I've noticed you can't edit the main campaigns, importing them back in the MPQ files without them getting corrupted so I ask is there some kind of catch or solution to this? Yes, I know it's illegal but I'm using an old version of warcraft 3 and I'm just wondering if it's possible.

 

[Devalut]

Who said it was illegal?

 

[RollBoat]

Is there a solution or not?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Your question is not making sense. All the standard campaign maps are stored as separate TVFS file systems inside the CASC. CASC was not designed to support file replacement as it is technically a local cache of CDN content so should remain coherent with the CDN. In this sense it is not possible to edit the standard campaigns. MPQ is not involved with any of this as no Blizzard maps use MPQ, only custom maps and campaigns do.

In legacy versions of Warcraft III it used to be possible by modifying the game data MPQ archives. Care might be required since Blizzard signed their content with an asymmetric key which could be used to detect rough tampering, or the lack of such a key. Since these versions supported custom campaigns anyway it would be best to make your modifications in the form of a custom campaign rather than modifying the base game data. Custom campaigns were possible as was demonstrated, or at least advertised, by some total conversion mods. However I am unsure of the lengths the authors went through to achieve this.

 

[RollBoat]

So no matter what i do ,for example me replacing the Rexxar's campaign maps with a modified versions of them in the war3x or war3xlocal is pointless as the main campaigns are connected with other systems that cannot be edited or accessed,is that it?

Edit: My version of Warcraft 3 is 1.24

 

[Warseeker]

I think it is possible if you override them instead, but you must first enable Local Files in the registry (In patch 1.30 they are enabled by default). What you need to do is to create sub-folders inside your Warcraft 3 folder and then import your campaign maps there. These sub-folders must have the same path as in the MPQ. For example : Maps\FrozenThrone\OrcX01.w3x

I got this idea from this thread Customizing your Warcraft but I have no idea if it works with maps.

 

[BogdanW3]

Using any of the pre-CASC versions, it should be possible to override campaigns by just replacing map files, but you will probably have to consider war3patch.mpq as well (and possibly just it) as a destination for your custom mapfiles IFF you want to modify mpqs, which I highly discourage.
Back to the first post, this is not illegal afaik even when changing the MPQs, but unless 1.24 worked differently, you should be using Local Files.

On Windows, local files first have to be enabled by going into the registry and creating a registry entry of type DWORD called “Allow Local Files” in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III” and setting its value to 1.
Then you would create the folder structure inside of the main Warcraft III folder on disk and place the map inside as if it were the MPQ