Size Limit and Mod Files?

[Howling Wolve]

Goodevening,

I'm currently making a concept for a game/mod. I want to use the Starcraft II editor to make a proof of concept. I used the Warcraft III editor when I was young, so I have some experience with the modding tools of Blizzard. I know that Warcraft III had a custom map size limit. I searched online and Starcraft II maps also have a size limit. The size limit is 20mb for a map, you can host 20 maps and there is a total size limit of 100mb.

Because the mod/game I want to make has a lot of custom models/textures/sounds and music, 20mb is to small. I searched for a workaround and I found "Mod Files". But the problem is that I can't find a good tutorial or explanation. Can somebody please explain what mod files are, what they do and how to use them?

It would be great If I could host a mod for multiplayer on Battle.net and use mod files to increase the size limit.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Idk how hosting a Mod on bnet goes but I've seen on sc2mapster whenever they have a whole campaign, they put their Mod to be downloadable as well.

A mod is a Map with no terrain and cannot use terrain (you have that 'map' aka mod only for the Data), which acts in a similar way to War3's w3o files object data that if you imported in a war3 map, imported the data from that file.

In War3 you may have used w3o to not do annoying copy+paste of data through maps as you had to copy 1 per Unit, Buff, Ability to paste in a map. In SC2 you can only copy items within the same Tab e.g All Units, all Actors but not 1 actor, 1 unit like war3.

So a Mod saves you the job by doing all Data you are going to use and once you save it, you just apply it to any map you want and the data appears to any map that uses that mod.

In a Mod besides doing the Data editor stuff that you will use, unlike War3, you can store all imported Models, textures, sounds as part of this mod and together with the Data in that Mod, it will all appear as if internal data to the map that will use it.

You can also type map Info, Author, Description and it will apply to the map you use.

Another sweet thing of the Mod is that if you want to change something in the Map that uses the Mod, you open the Mod in the same way you open maps and do the changes you wanna do >> Save the Mod, the changes will apply to your Map as well since it is defined to use the Mod.

I recently wanted to do a Custom Data only Mod but it's not good if some of your custom data is derived from campaign units. So best is when you Create a New Mod, add the Dependencies (Liberty, Multi, Campaign, Storymode) (Dependency and Mod are pretty much the same - that is how you enable campaign units - by opening the Campaign and Story data dependencies aka mods)

In this way you won't need to add separately Campaign and Storymode mods, since your custom Mod would have their data added, so you simply add your 'Add Other' and add your custom mod only. The Mod file is best to stay in your install Starcraft II\Mods\ which is a folder next to Starcraft II\Maps

If you change the location or remove the Mod, your map won't open without it, the Mod can store all your data and imports, that will make it very big file and the Map you have becomes small since all will be on your Mod but a Mod may go too large like that, so idk about getting Mods in bnet.

 

[Howling Wolve]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It sounds good! Is there a good (video)tutorial for making a mod? And does somebody know how to host a mod on Bnet? How many mods can you link to a map? And does a mod influence the loading times of a map?

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/re...g-a-sc2-mod-file-for-custom-data-edits/#posts

The only one I know but it also shows how to save the parts of a map as SC2 Components which may be confusing. If you know how to create custom data in a map, you do the same for a Mod, or if you want a Mod to use stuff from already existing Map, copy the units, actors, etc from the Map to the Mod, save the Mod and for any new map you use when it shows the box with Melee Liberty Dependency - just choose Add Other and add the custom Mod. Going offline now.

 

[Howling Wolve]

Thanks for the reply!

The tutorial was usefull, I also found a video tutorial for mod files.

Link: http://www.livestream.com/zeroame/video?clipId=pla_90b236f6-d1f8-4868-a3b1-326135ae9c36