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StarEdit F.A.Q.
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How do I stack mineral fields on top of eachother?
How do I put square terrain in my map?
How do I make regenerating mineral fields?
How do I make buildings on walls/water?
How do I get a picture of my maps terrain?
How do I get unlimited/instant upgrades?
How do I use GUEdit?
How do I make doors open/close?
How can I get more player skin colors?
How can I change the color of text?
How can I get mineral fields on top of eachother?
How do I get letters to overlap?
How do I make independent addons?
How do I make square terrain without ISOM?
How do I put doodads on the wrong terrain w.o ISOM?
How do I make scrolling leaderboards?
How do I make custom leaderboards?
How do I get SCMToolkit to work?
Stacking Mineral Fields
To stack mineral fields, you must first download SCMDraft. (http://stormcoast-fortress.net) If you're new to this program, I would advise you to not tryany terrain modifications, the feature is very, very buggy. Anyway, open up your map (which should be all finished except for the mineral fields.) then go to Unit Placing -> Place Mode -> Overlapping. Now you can go to "resources" and stack minerals to your delight. Please note that you must move your mouse a bit before you can stack a mineral again, so if you are counting out how many resources you want at each location, you must move your mouse slightly to be able to place another.
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Setting up square terrain
To set up square terrain.. first download ISOM, it's available at most SC-related sites. Click this link and scroll down to 'ISOM' to download it.
Starcraft HQ. After that, find your winzip file (it's in C://DOWNLOAD for most people).
Then drag 'ISOM.exe', 'Gstorm.dll', and 'Istorm.dll' onto your desktop. Then you should be able to open ISOM. After you open it, you should see a new file called 'CONFIG.DAT'. Once your into the program, you just open up your map.. (File, Open Map), and change the byte/integer/long number to 0, (byte, integer, and long are used for compression, but it doesnt really matter what you choose, the only thing choosing the right one would do is it might take off about 2kb from your map's file size).
After you have selected either 'byte, integer, or long', click on the 'Write' button, then save your map as a .chk file. After you have saved the .CHK file, open up staredit (or Zap/Emerald), and go under 'File' and find your map that you saved with ISOM, and open it (It won't have a .scm/.scx extension). Then save your map as a .scm or .scx.
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Making Regenerating Mineral Fields
There are basically 2 ways to do this. One is by using the P12 triggers, but that's another story, I'll give you the way to do it without the P12 triggers. Okay. There is a trigger action called 'modify units resource amount'. Press 'M' while looking for a condition, and that will take you pretty close to it. so create a trigger like this..
CONDITIONS:
-Always
ACTIONS:
-Set resource amount for all resource sources owned by 'all players' at 'anywhere' to '#'
-Preserve Trigger
change "#", to the number of resources you want the mineral fields to have (0-50,000).
There all done, right? wrong! there's also the 'dancing mineral fields' trick! this is done by more complex triggers like these. You'll need a unit that is unused on your map, though. As an example, I'll use a flag.
CONDITIONS:
-'Player _' has suffered exactly 0 deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-Set resource amount for all resource sources owned by 'All players' at 'Anywhere' to '249'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-'Player _' has suffered exactly 1 deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-Set resource amount for all resource sources owned by 'All players' at 'Anywhere' to '499'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-'Player _' has suffered exactly 2 deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-Set resource amount for all resource sources owned by 'All players' at 'Anywhere' to '1500'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-'Player _' has suffered exactly 3 deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-Modify deaths for 'player _' set to 0 for 'flag'
-Set resource amount for all resource sources owned by 'All players' at 'Anywhere' to '#'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Always
ACTIONS:
-'Modify deaths for 'player _' add 1 for 'flag'
-Preserve Trigger
That shoud do it. I put in the resource values this time because those are the highest amounts mineral fields can get to in certain mineral field stages.
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Placing buildings on walls/water/etc.
To get buildings on strange places on a map, you need to download something called 'ZAP! placer', or 'Emerald'. Click this link and scroll down to 'Zap! Placer' to download it.Starcraft HQ. After that, find your winzip file (it's in C://DOWNLOAD for most people).
Then drag 'SCEP2.exe', and any other .DLL files that you need from your winzip file onto your desktop. Then you should be able to open ZAP! Placer. After you open it, you'll notice when you try to place buildings you'll be able to place them on water/cliffs/doodads/etc. This is also how they made those mineral fields so close the the CC/Nexus/Hatchery in the Newbie maps that are ever so popular these days.
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Getting a .JPG picture of your map
To get a .JPG image of your map, you'll need to download 'SCM-JPG Converter', available at Campaign Creations. After you download it, Find the Winzip File (C://Download). Open it, and drag the contents onto your desktop, open up the installation file, and being installing. Once the installation is complete, you can right-click on your maps and select 'Make JPG'. A MS-Dos program will open, and once it's done creating, you should get a file with a wierd filename like BGH~3.JPG. Open it up, and there's a picture of your map. You can also save it as a bitman file and edit it in Paint/Draw/Photoshop/etc.
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Getting Infinate/Instant upgrades in your map
Let me start this off by saying.. You CAN'T get unlimited upgrades in your map. the highest they can go is 255. You can use ZAP! Placer to get 255 upgrades. It is available at Starcraft HQ. After that, find your winzip file (it's in C://DOWNLOAD for most people).
Then drag 'SCEP2.exe', and any other .DLL files that you need from your winzip file onto your desktop. Then you should be able to open ZAP! Placer. After you open Zap! Placer, go into 'Player' then 'Settings' then go to the index tab 'Upgrades'. You'll be able to make the upgrades go all the way up to 255!
To get instant upgrades.. Download GUEdit. It is available at Starcraft HQ. Then drag 'GUEdit.exe', and any other .DLL files that you need from your winzip file onto your desktop. Then you should be able to open GUEdit without any trouble. (Make sure you have Java Runtime installed!). Then open GUEdit.. and go to 'Load', find your map, and open it. Then after your map is loaded.. go into 'Edit Costs', and change 'Time Cost' to 0. then save your map. Now you have instant upgrades!
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Using GUEdit
See Golden Urg's GUEdit Help Page.
Using Doors
Most of this is copied from the StarEdit Tutorial made by Blizzard. The Doors and Turrets of the Installation tileset can be enabled or disabled. An enabled door is closed and blocks movement and line of sight, while a disabled door is open and allows free movement. An enabled Turret will pop up and attack enemy units within its range, while a disabled Turret will remain concealed.
While in the Doodad layer, you can toggle the starting state of a Door or Turret by double clicking on it in the main window of the starcraft campaign editor.
You may also use the 'Set Doodad State' trigger action to change the state of a Door or Turret during the game. You will need to draw a location over the Doodad that you want to affect. Note: These Doodads must be assigned to a player. To assign a door/turret to a player, select the door/turret and press the number key corresponding to a player. The door/turret will provide sight for the player and, if enabled, will attack/block the player’s enemies.
To make doors open whenever units walk by them, and close when they walk away, use a trigger like this.
CONDITIONS:
-Switch 'Doors Open' is cleared
-'Door Opener' brings at least 1 men to 'door'
ACTIONS:
-Set switch 'Doors Open'
-Disable doodad state for 'left/right door' at 'door' for 'door owner'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Switch 'Doors Open' is set
-'Door Opener' brings at most 0 men to 'door'
ACTIONS:
-Clear switch 'Doors Open'
-Enable doodad state for 'left/right door' at 'door' for 'door owner'
-Preserve Trigger
This will give you doors that will open when a unit nears them, and close when there is none there. the player 'Door Opener' can be any player that is able to open the door. If you want more than one player to be able to open the door, copy this trigger for each player and change the 'Door Opener'. I use switches so that if you have more than 1 player able to open/close the doors, that they will not open/close over and over again if one player is off and one player is on.
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Getting more player skin colors
To get more player skins colors, you can either use GUEdit, or SCMToolkit. I reccomend GUEdit, because it's easier to set-up and use.
To change your maps player skins.. Download GUEdit. It is available at Starcraft HQ. Open up the Winzip file, then drag 'GUEdit.exe', and any other .DLL files that you need from your winzip file onto your desktop. Then you should be able to open GUEdit without any trouble. (Make sure you have Java Runtime installed!). Then open GUEdit.. and go to 'Load', find your map, and open it. Then after your map is loaded go to 'change player colors' and you can change the colors to any number from 1 to about 250.
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Changing your maps text colors
This is quite simple.. Download 'MapColors.zip', or 'TextColors.zip' (I reccomend MapColors) from Starcraft Headquarters, then Open the winzip file, and drag 'MapColors.exe' or TextColors.exe (whatever you downloaded), onto your desktop. Open the program, and select 'mission briefing colors' or 'trigger text colors'. They can be used for..
Trigger text colors: Comments/Display text messages/Unit names/etc.
Mission Briefing Colors: Mission Briefing, Scenario Properties, Forces
It's very simple once you get the program, just copy the little bars into your text wherever you want the color to change, you can make it very Colorful if you'd like. ( |C|o|l|o|r|f|u|l )
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Making a bunch of mineral fields on top of eachother
Keep in mind here.. I don't reccomend making infinate mineral maps. (I think they are a waste of talent), I'm just postig here because of popular demand. Okay, to get minerals on top of eachother, make 1 mineral field of lets say.. type 2. Then around the center of the map, make a bunch of type ones. (However many you want to be where your type 1 is), then save your map, and open up SCM Toolkit. I will have a tutorial explaining how to get this program started before the end of this weekend (hopefully). After you've opened SCM Toolkit, go onto the 'units' tab. find the co-ordinates of your 'mineral field type 2', write them down on an envalope or spare piece of paper, then scroll down until you find a mineal field type 1, wherever you see a mineral field type 1, change the co-ordinates to the co-ordinates of the mineral field type 2. Do this for every mineral field type 1. After you've done it to all the mineral field type 1's, change the mineral field type 2 to a type 1. this makes it easier to use this trick for multiple bases. It might be a bit hard to do this for more than 4 or so bases. I'd say about 40 would be plenty. But if your doing it for multiple players, remember to keep track of how many mineral fields you've changed. And also remember which mineral fields type 2 you've used already, because if you did the same one twice, that wouldn't make for a very balanced map! (side comment: sorry for the anomoly.. no newbie maps are balanced, 'nother side note: this works with any building. just use a building of the same size different type in place of 'mineral field type 2', won't work too well with Xel'Naga temple..).
All the files required above can be found HERE.
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Making Overlapped Text
One example of this is Empires, (In the MAPS section). To get overlapped text, it takes a lot of testing to get the results you want, I can't easily describe how to do it here, it mainly depends on how many characters you use! First off.. delete any text you have in the 'scenario properties/name'. Then.. Copy this bar into your map's scenario name ( - - ). after that bar, put in the text that you want to be on the bottom. Then insert this bar ( - - ). And type the text that you want on the top. You can also use color bars to change the colors of each of them. After you've done this, then save, and go into SC, and keep testing (by changing the amount of spaces your adding in) your map to see if you've got it right (you dont have to start a game, just go into the forces place before the game, and leave afterwards.). It will take a lot of testing, but it's a nice effect.
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Making independent addons
Here I will explain how to make addons without their parent building. Okay. In staredit, create the addon you want connected to the building it connects to. Then put locations over them, I'll call one 'Parent Structure' and the other 'Addon'. Then after you've done that delete the parent building and its addon. Then go into the triggers section, and make some triggers like this owned by a computer or something.
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 1 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Create 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' for 'computer'
-Create 1 'addon' at 'Addon' for 'computer'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 2 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Remove 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' owned by 'computer'
-Move 1 'addon' at 'Addon' to 'Addon destination'
-Give 1 'addon' at 'Addon destination' to 'Addon Reciever'
Addon destination is where you want the addon to be moved after it is disconnected from its parent structure. You could do this with a bunch of addons one at a time.. ie: one trigger set takes up 2 seconds, so you could place 1 addon per 2 seconds, only using 2+# of addons locations. trigger example: (note: the 'addon destination1,2,3,&4' locations are where the addons will end up. they must be a 2x2 matrix location or a multiple of that, or else the addons may not be placed where you want them to be).
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 1 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Create 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' for 'computer'
-Create 1 'addon' at 'Addon' for 'computer'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario timeis at least 2 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Remove 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' owned by 'computer'
-Move 1 'addon' at 'Addon' to 'Addon destination1'
-Give 1 'addon' at 'Addon destination' to 'Addon Reciever'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 3 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Create 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' for 'computer'
-Create 1 'addon' at 'Addon' for 'computer'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 4 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Remove 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' owned by 'computer'
-Move 1 'addon' at 'Addon' to 'Addon destination2'
-Give 1 'addon' at 'Addon destination' to 'Addon Reciever'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 5 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Create 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' for 'computer'
-Create 1 'addon' at 'Addon' for 'computer'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 6 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Remove 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' owned by 'computer'
-Move 1 'addon' at 'Addon' to 'Addon destination3'
-Give 1 'addon' at 'Addon destination' to 'Addon Reciever'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 7 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Create 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' for 'computer'
-Create 1 'addon' at 'Addon' for 'computer'
CONDITIONS:
-Elapsed scenario time is at least 8 game seconds
ACTIONS:
-Remove 1 'parent structure' at 'Parent Structure' owned by 'computer'
-Move 1 'addon' at 'Addon' to 'Addon destination4'
-Give 1 'addon' at 'Addon destination' to 'Addon Reciever'
These triggers would make the addons appear once every 2 seconds, and 4 addons would appear at each of the 4 addon locations. You don't have to use computers, but I think it's better because some of the effect is lost if the players view how/where the addons are being created.
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Making messed up doodads/square terrain w.o ISOM
To get square terrain and doodads that are in the wrong place, open up your doodads chart thingy and go to the doodad you'd like to place, then place the terrain that you want the doodad you selected to be put on (I'll use dirt terrain as an example). Then place the terrain that the doodad needs to be put on, (it's easier if you don't click a bunch of times in the process). Then select the doodad you want, and put it over the cliff, but don't click! then press ctrl+z (undo) and it should stay green. Then click down, and press ctrl+z (undo), then ctrl+y (redo). It will be in a strange place and it will have square terrain around it! you can make the terrain into squares by using doodads that no one really notices. Viola! you have doodads in strange places (they appear exactly how they do in the doodad palette). Without the use of ISOM! I've used this in my latest D&D Based Open RPG version (not on the site yet). *if you close the editor and open it again, and open up your map, the doodads will be marked unplaceable and deleted.*
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Making Custom/Scrolling Leaderboards
To make scrolling leaderboards, you'll need a series of triggers, like this:
CONDITIONS:
-Always
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'anyone' add 1 to 'flag'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-'anyone' has suffered at at most 'endlast' deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-set to 0 deaths of 'flag' for 'anyone'
CONDITIONS:
-'anyone' has suffered at least 'time1' deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-set switch: 'leaderboard1'
-clear switch 'leaderboard 2'
CONDITIONS:
-'anyone' has suffered at least 'time2' deaths of 'flag'
ACTIONS:
-set switch: 'leaderboard2'
CONDITIONS:
-'Leaderboard1' is set
ACTIONS:
set leaderboard to 'Leaderboard type 1'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-'Leaderboard2' is set
ACTIONS:
set leaderboard to 'Leaderboard type 2'
-Preserve Trigger
values:
Anyone: the player who counts the deaths
Flag: any unit that 'anyone' cannot get a death count of.
time1: how many double seconds you want the first leaderboard to show
time2: how many double seconds you want the second leaderboard to show plus the value for time1
leaderboard switches: switches that indicate what leaderboard will be showing
endlast: how many double seconds it takes your leaderboard to scroll all the way through
double second: 2 seconds
You can do this for as many leaderboards as you want, by adding more 'leaderboard' switches. you don't have to use leaderboard switches, but I think it makes it a little easier. Now for custom leaderboards.. It's fairly difficult to get scrolling custom leaderboards, and I am not going to explain it here. To get a custom leaderboard, I would use custom score.. Let's say you want a leaderboard that shows the deaths of a unit.. you would use a bunch of triggers like this. (this is A LOT like the kills to resources triggers)
CONDITIONS:
-Current player has suffered at least 5 deaths of 'unit'
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'current player' subtract 5 for 'unit'
-Set score for 'current player' add 5 for 'custom'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Current player has suffered at least 4 deaths of 'unit'
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'current player' subtract 4 for 'unit'
-Set score for 'current player' add 4 for 'custom'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Current player has suffered at least 3 deaths of 'unit'
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'current player' subtract 3 for 'unit'
-Set score for 'current player' add 3 for 'custom'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Current player has suffered at least 2 deaths of 'unit'
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'current player' subtract 2 for 'unit'
-Set score for 'current player' add 2 for 'custom'
-Preserve Trigger
CONDITIONS:
-Current player has suffered at least 1 deaths of 'unit'
ACTIONS:
-Set deaths for 'current player' subtract 1 for 'unit'
-Set score for 'current player' add 1 for 'custom'
-Preserve Trigger
You can use as many at least variables as you want, but just remember to put higher numbers on top, so that the scores are converted faster. After you set up these triggers, create a custom score leaderboard with a name like.. deaths of 'unit'.
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Getting SCM Toolkit to load a map
First, you'll need MPQ2k and LMPQAPI.DLL. (should be included in your SCMToolkit.zip). Now, Move SCM Toolkit, MPQ2k, and LMPQAPI.DLL to your desktop. Open up SCMToolkit, and click 'Options', and make sure all the paths are default. Then go into your starcraft directory, and make sure that 'scenario.chk' is located in Starcraft\Maps\Staredit\. So the paths should look like this:
Map Path:
staredit\scenario.chk
Startup Path:
Starcraft\Maps
Note: Startup Path should not be exactly what I put, before 'Starcraft' you should put where you go to find your starcraft directory. (ie: C:\Program Files\Starcraft\Maps). This will vary with the type of computer you have and what settings it uses, so I didn't put the full thing.
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