Is Warcraft 2 (BNET edition) moddable?

[Stromgarde]

Self-explanatory title... and before anyone says anything, please, I know Warcraft 2 is an old game. I'm just wondering, and the idea of modding it has always sounded really exciting to me because I have been a big fan of war2 long before war3 came out.

Now, I know that there are a few little things you can probably do. Like changing a campaign's map for one of your own, and changing the text of briefings.

But what about the good stuff - changing sprites, images, sound and music? Is this even possible? Has anyone ever tried or heard anyone that was succesfully able to insert, say, a custom made sprite into war2? And if yes, who and how?

I know, I know, the answer is probably going to be a big "no", and I take this from the fact that I have never ever seen a Warcraft 2 mod - in fact in all my googling the only place I have even heard of people even talking about modding war2 was an unanswered thread in this very forum.

However, even if it's not moddable, I still would like to know why... I mean, all the files are there, and if starcraft was moddable why not the battle.net edition which (seems to) function similarly?

Thanks in advance. I hope there are people here able to answer this...

 

[Rispetto]

Nobody cares to mod WCII.
That's why.

 

[Skycraft]

If people managed to create mods for Diablo 2 then surely the same can be done for Warcraft 2, though I'm not sure why you would want to.

 

[Stromgarde]

If people managed to create mods for Diablo 2 then surely the same can be done for Warcraft 2

Diablo 2 is a bit younger, though.

though I'm not sure why you would want to.

I have always loved Warcraft 2, even more than I do the 3. Sure it lacks everything that warcraft 3 has to offer in terms of customization but I think it has everything that warcraft 3 lacks (and WoW lacks even more).

Maybe most people here aren't old enough to have enjoyed it at its time but I did, and now nostalgia kicked in and for me it would be really fun if I could mod it.

I don't have the programming skills to crack Wc2 and find out how to mod it myself though. So I'm asking if anyone here had any luck trying to do it, or if they heard anything that might let me know if it's possible.

 

[Edhel-dur]

Diablo 2 is a bit younger, though.

D2 is older than Wc2. D2 launched in 2000, Wc2 in 95.

 

[Linaze]

D2 is older than Wc2. D2 launched in 2000, Wc2 in 95.

 

[Sky Green]

D2 is older than Wc2. D2 launched in 2000, Wc2 in 95.

 

[Crazed_seal2]

Yes it most likely be able to be modded. All you have to do is change stuff in the MPQ. Though you may have code some things though.

 

[Stromgarde]

Yes it most likely be able to be modded. All you have to do is change stuff in the MPQ. Though you may have code some things though.

What things?

I tried changing a sprite but the first problem I encountered was having the right .PAL file to export it, which I didn't find anywhere. And the second was actually applying a sprite into the game since when I tried to put a sprite in, just to test, the game crashed.

 

[AntoMarc]

D2 is older than Wc2. D2 launched in 2000, Wc2 in 95.

 

[Stromgarde]

Ok I give up.

I tried to switch the Peon's sprite to that of the Knight, just to test if new sprites can really be introduced. And it didn't work. As soon as I started the game it said the data was corrupt.

Even if this is "codeable" that is beyond my skills and I'm sure there is no programmer here willing to help me.

Maybe I'll make a warcraft 2 in warcraft 3 mod or something. If I have time. If I'm bored. Maybe.

 

[Black Crown]

Maybe I'll make a warcraft 2 in warcraft 3 mod or something. If I have time. If I'm bored. Maybe.

Spend some time in the map development forum. This project is underway!

 

[Finchley Minsk]

Yes, Warcraft 2 is indeed moddable in both its Windows and DOS forms.

Unfortunately, there isn't an exclusive Warcraft 2 section for this site.

The modding scene was quite different in the late 90's, early 00's.
Most of the resources can still be found via google or the wayback machine, albeit your keywords will have to be different.

Try searching for:

• warcraft customs
• war2 tc
• war2 gfx
• weapons of our warfare
• warcraft udaho

Good luck finding more help here - Most of the posters here, in regards to Warcraft 2, are either newbs, haters, or trolls.

-Tha Finch

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

Surely it is moddable, though it won't be easy, try to replace the sounds with a modified sound and see if it works. If it doesn't you'll need to code abit i think.

 

[Finchley Minsk]

Furthermore, I have become aware of the fact that most of the tools used to mod the DOS version, such as WCD.exe, are incompatible with modern x64 versions of Windows (Windows 7 and onward).

A workaround for this has been to create a virtual machine via either VMWare or VirtualPC, with the OS being WindowsXP or earlier.

These tools can be indirectly used to modify the resources used in WarGus, the modernized War2 engine recreation. However due to the age of the tools, yet the simplicity of their coding, I maintain that it would be an easy task to simply rewrite the tools using modern programming languages such as C++ or C#.

For more information on WarGus and it's parent engine, Stratagus, I recommend checking out it's forums at http://forums.stratagus.com/.

I believe they are attempting to collect ALL the original mods for Warcraft 2, as well as multiplayer maps (puds), and convert them directly to the new Wargus format. There also seems to be some level of discussion about reverse-engineering various old DOS strategy War2-like games, such as WarWind and WarDiary. Lots of War-games back in the 90's it seems.

That community is very small, though, but seems to grow larger and larger every time I visit.

-Finchley Minsk, Grandmaster Bard

 

[Mistral]

YES ! its very moddable! My team are making Project War2MOD like 2 years already!
Development log can be found here: War2Mod development log