Tips for keeping up with the patches as a mapmaker

[Tal'Rarity]

Know the possible causes of problems from Blizzards new updates/patches.

Page One for info about object editor

For starters, object editor which can cause lag and crashes as patch 1.30 has proven. Find custom abilities you made that have bases of troublesome abilities if you mess with their numbers or values wrongly such as soul burns damage period at 0.00 which will cause massive lag. The best counter to this until Blizzard figures out all their changes is setting your game data to custom instead of using latest patch, This can be found in Terrain editor(main window) --> Scenario --> Options --> Game Data Set dropdown menu found near the bottom of the options menu, just a bit above the ok and cancel. However this likely won't fix anything, just a possibility. The real problem is finding which abilities are causing issues then replacing or fixing them.

Page Two for info about trigger editor and import manager

Triggers can also cause problems so you must know what would be linked to patch updates, visibility is a possibility because well it allows you to hide or show an area and then theres forced hotkeys by game - player press key actions. Don't use third party methods you know can easily break such as a .mix version of mpq's, instead use what has been intended like local files with folders or a specific custom mpq name in a specific folder with your imports/files, sorry for the lack of info about the custom mpq need to know as I forgot what its called and where its needed to be placed.


Double check all custom imports in your map from sounds to models/textures. Check to make sure tooltips on updating info aren't empty which in patch 1.30 caused the crash of selecting a caster unit.

Will keep trying to update this as I find or remember more stuff, hopefully this can also provide some help for Blizzard too.


List of abilities broken by patch 1.30; - Will try to make a testmap sometime next month for this
Negative values on siphon mana(drain abilities)
Possible crash caused by tranquillity(likely the divine shield with a certain duration or trigger combo)


Edit: Update #1 - Still working on the example map, everyone should stop using hex/mpq header corruption/encryption as it just doesn't work unless you plan on staying below 1.30 patch though even so if you/one can manage this then someone can also manage to restore/undo this. I have noticed this caused a lot of maps to be unreadable in latest patch, hopefully nobody will mind me telling that you should be able to fix this by rebuilding the maps mpq.

 

[anufis]

I actually went from *.mix mpq archive to war3mod.mpq which was added in 1.28 or 1.29 but then removed with 1.30 so I guess it's back to local folder.

 

[Unregret]

This is very important. I already follow this thread. Thank you for spending time doing this.

 

[Tal'Rarity]

I actually went from *.mix mpq archive to war3mod.mpq which was added in 1.28 or 1.29 but then removed with 1.30 so I guess it's back to local folder.

Eventually it'd be best to go to the local folder route however neither has been quite removed yet as you can currently get wc3 to still work with this... Hopefully Blizzard and operating systems won't change this as it should save those maps that go beyond the limits for better enjoyment of visuals or sounds. By making a folder the same name as a mpq or mix it'll be read the same though you still need local files for this too. Choice.mix or War3Mod.mpq, name a folder that exact same name including the extension and wc3 will read the folder as it would of normally with the mix.