Coders Discussion

[Eleandor]

EDIT: Nvm, I did something moronic with my triggers which caused the spell to fire twice. But I would still prefer Anitarf's system because it has more options.

I personally prefer troll's system for my own spells, but I'm not a spellmaker, so it's up to you to use the system that suits you the best.

EDIT2: If we're going to use Bonus system, then there's not need for UnitProperties, is there?

As I said: the bonus system basically is a wrapper for the UnitProperties (i.e. it uses UnitProperties), but in addition to UnitProperties, a bonus stores the precise amount of the bonus you have added. Why not use UnitProperties directly? Well, you're free to do so, but I chose the bonus wrapper to make item bonusses easier to use. Now an item just has a list of bonusses, rather than having to program each item independantly.

 

[Silvenon]

As I said: the bonus system basically is a wrapper for the UnitProperties (i.e. it uses UnitProperties), but in addition to UnitProperties, a bonus stores the precise amount of the bonus you have added. Why not use UnitProperties directly? Well, you're free to do so, but I chose the bonus wrapper to make item bonusses easier to use. Now an item just has a list of bonusses, rather than having to program each item independantly.

I didn't know it uses UnitProperties. My Bad.

 

[Craka_J]

http://www.wc3wow.co.nr/

The bug database. It's currently being updated, but please log in (or register if you haven't done so already) so you can modify bug reports to identify them as fixed or unfixed.

 

[Craka_J]

I can't figure out how to replace the sound files in WarCraft III with the World of Warcraft sounds I have. Therefore, we're forced to use triggers to play the sounds of spells, interface, and so forth. It's not a big problem really, but it will be when/if we decide to go multiplayer.

 

[Silvenon]

Many stuff can be done for just a single player, as long as it's not something extreme, like unit creation. For example, it's possible to create a special effect just for one player, other players won't see it because for them it doesn't "exist". I think sounds can be played like that as well.

Overriding paths doesn't work?

 

[Craka_J]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong. But that's what I've been trying. I asked for help and all responses are either "omfg mayk ur own soundz!" or to replace the path. If you want, you can try to do it when I release a version of Wc3:WoW to you guys.

 

[Silvenon]

Well, if you didn't succeed, I don't think there's a chance I will. Does replacing anything else works? For example, icons, interface or whatever? If it doesn't, then I may give it a try.

 

[Craka_J]

Replacing icons works, yeah. Hmm... which reminds me, the path of icons is ReplaceableTextures\IconName.blp so I wonder if ReplaceableSounds\SoundName.wmv would work. Someone told me .wmv sounds or .mp3 (forgot which) can't replace sounds. Doubt that's true though.

 

[Eleandor]

wmv won't work. Only mp3 & wav is allowed.
You must ofcourse use the correct path to the sounds, which is not ReplaceableSounds\...
Open an MPQ editor and open war3.mpq, then check the path to the sound you wish to replace, that should work.

That being said, I've restarted work (had delays in real life), but I'm going on a 1 week vacation now, so it's paused again
Will do some real coding after that though.

 

[Craka_J]

Back yet?

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...vjass-camera-dont-work-in-my-campaign-137071/

Guy finds a solution to making vJASS work in his campaign. Might work with ours as well. Although our solution is more efficient, this is sort of a just-in-case sort of thing. You may want to look into it.

 

[Craka_J]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/modern-warfare2/downloads/modern-warfare-101-beta

Not sure if it's in this version (it's protected anyway) but Illidan(evil)X (also known as Sourc[e]X now) came up with a cool idea where units created will have a different name than another unit... always. What he did was pretty much generate about 1,000 or more names and allow the game to pick one of the unused names for the unit. So while one soldier is named "Pvt. Patterson" another may be named "Lt. Watson."

I think it'd be awesome if we use a system like this in Wc3:WoW. You can leave the coming up with names part to me. All we'll really need is at least 100 names. I'd prefer more. Also, we'll have to come up with names for both the Alliance characters and Horde characters, since you can't have a Horde character named "Arthass" or whatever.

Take a look at it and see what you can do. I'm pretty sure we can cache the named units too, so if the player logs out of the game with players and maybe we want those players saved - hey! would be a good idea if we happened to create a Friends/Ignore list and Guild system too for sure.

 

[Eleandor]

Patch 1.24 will make the campaign unplayable.

To fix it, all systems, spells or triggers in general within the campaign that are using the returnbug must be fixed. Generally speaking, if anything is using Local Handle Vars, it must be fixed.

My proposed fix is to ditch Local Handle Vars entirely and move on to Table 3.0 (downloadable on wc3c.net) and TimerUtils.

Another change that will probably come: previously some systems were using the UnitIndex library so each unit has its own unique id. But it's pretty much useless now that we have GetHandleId and hashtables. So I'm proposing to simply get rid of that too and use the new natives.

 

[Craka_J]

Yes, Handle Vars must be replaced. I have no problem with you recoding everything. Just do it as fast as possible so we don't lose even more time...
...fucking Blizzard.

The less amount of programs used to trigger/code Wc3:WoW, the better. But obviously if they're needed, use them. Do you think Reinventing the Craft will still work with Wc3:WoW and WarCraft III in general?

Your top priority job right now is to recode as much of the project as you can as quickly as possible. Don't be messy and try to make them all leakless, but keep a good quick pace while coding everything. I'd also like all of the GUI triggers to be redone as well.

If you need me to stop terraining and quickly upload the campaign so you can work on recoding everything ASAP, let me know!

 

[Eleandor]

code-wise, the campaign is still the same, right? The only changes you made were related to terrains, so you can just continue working on that while I do the coding outside.

Edit: a note to the spellmakers:

Added getSpellTargetX and getSpellTargetY natives

So the spellmakers should better use GetSpellTargetX / Y instead of GetSpellTargetLoc.

 

[Craka_J]

I've done a tiny bit of triggering. Nothing major as of right now, but I made town/city guards attack Alliance bots now and I'm also adjusting the fog/sky of each zone. It's all GUI by the way.

 

[Silvenon]

What is "Base Mana Cost" listed in spells' data? Example. That means that the mana cost is not a solid value, but a percentage of caster's base mana?

 

[Craka_J]

I believe that it means percentage. Not entirely sure though. Percent sounds more valid. It seems to say that no matter how much your maximum mana is, the cost of mana required to cast Moonfire is dependent on the percent of mana, not exactly in mana points.

 

[Silvenon]

Ok, then I coded that part well

 

[Silvenon]

What about special effects? How do I request a special effect needed for a spell?

 

[Craka_J]

I guess you'd have to search Google Images for the spell effect and then message one of the modelers such as Shamanyouranus to replicate that special effect for Wc3:WoW. Be sure to provide at least one reference image!

By the way, what's new with Wc3:WoW as far as coding goes? My PC is still down so I can't do any terrain work yet.

 

[Silvenon]

I've already done a good number of druid spells, but at the time it's kinda rough since I'm always away, and soon my college begins.

One question about the project, what about everyone else? What will happen with the project after SCII comes out? It's probably just me, but this project is quiet as a graveyard...

 

[Craka_J]

I'd like to finish the mod, even after SC2 release, but it really depends on the dedication of the team.

 

[Craka_J]

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/spells-569/spell-engine-v0-3-2-a-143066/ and http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/spells-569/aggro-system-out-combat-system-v1-0-a-113243/ might come in handy for our mod.

 

[Craka_J]

There's a bug in Thunder Bluff we had in all versions of Wc3:WoW forever where when the player's character starts running across the bridge, the view would lower down to the ground below the bridge, rather than staying with the level of the player's character's feet. Just mentioning this ahead of time to make this issue easier to avoid/fix.

 

[Craka_J]

New Goal: By the end of December, Wc3:WoW must open in the World Editor properly and must also allow the player to 'play' the game without it crashing the client or campaign itself.

 

[Craka_J]

Yixx is working on making Wc3:WoW 1.24 compatible right now.

Just realized that our World of Warcraft sounds are in a format that WarCraft III does not allow us to set inside the WarCraft database (ie: Unit\Orc\Grunt\Yes1.wav sound won't work) because .wav files are apparently unsupported. MP3 only probably. This means our spell creators need to play the appropriate sounds when when spells are cast (make them 3d if possible, so you don't clearly hear spells or hear them at all if a guy is casting a spell on something from across the map) but fortunately, Wc3:WoW is single player, so only Player 1 (Red) will be able to hear sounds.

[EDIT]:
This is towards Yixx:
Since you're busy creating important systems, features, and fixing bugs, would you prefer me to find another coder to work specifically on spells and spell systems? Or would you prefer doing it yourself to avoid confusion and to keep everything coded in your format and organized way?

 

[Yixx]

It might be handy for us to get someone else to work on the spells, because we dont only need to make progress in the systems, the eye-candy things also need to improve, as all the background-systems i am recoding/fixing/whatever dont contribute to the awesomeness of the game directly..

 

[Craka_J]

Okay. I'll get onto that right now.

PS: We have the same amount of rep atm

 

[Craka_J]

Although Player-Bots are a really important feature I'd like to include in Wc3:WoW, I think we should begin on that after all the more important basic systems like floating names, camera system, keyboard movement, etc.

Ensuring that the mod is playable and sent to the BETA testers (I'll take care of that part) is important because it allows people to experience first-hand that the mod is very much alive once again and on the verge of dominating the super old version of Wc3:WoW which we released a while ago. Sure, the old demo sucks, but the fact that people can play it and see some of the systems we'll be basing some of ours off of is what currently makes it better... once our mod can be played with all the basic systems, we're on the right track to releasing a public version.

However, I obviously don't want to release the mod publicly after we're done with just basic triggers and systems. It is a strong requirement for 2.0 that we implement pre-created Player-Bots before the release. Although I'd like to save that for last, we unfortunately must start that after or before we begin working on the quest system, a few others.

 

[Craka_J]

For YIXX

Finished blackening the class buttons, as well as Male & Female. Work your magic and implement what you can. If you need any other specific things, let me know. I'll work on getting you more buttons later.

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/pastebin.php?id=39oll3

 

[Craka_J]

Coding priorities reset to be more convenient for testing as soon as possible:

Trigger	Trigger Details
Third Person Camera	The third person camera knows to avoid clipping through terrain and the player can enable/disable auto-rotating the camera, allowing them to adjust the camera's angle and zoom in/out, while the other camera mode auto-rotates and the arrow keys are for moving your character. See the Arrow Key Movement trigger link for more details on character movement.
Arrow Key Movement	The player can use the Up, Down, Left, and Right arrow keys on their keyboard to move their character forward, backwards, turn left, and turn right. The player can also type in "-1" up to "-5" to set the speed at which their character turns. (would be better to allow them to press the - or + key to increase/decrease the turning speed instead)
Bags Inventory System	The player starts off with a backpack that has 16 item slots. This bag is unremovable and looks something like this.