SC2Mapster

Hello, I have spent all day trying to come up with a new unit in the map editor. I was originally trying to duplicate an old unit, but whenever I tried to test the map I always got an "Invalid preplaced unit" warning, and my duplicate unit would not show up. To try and figure out this problem, I tried creating an entire blank unit. This unit has nothing linked to it, no actors, no weapons, nothing. I tried placed this unit on the map (it is invisible, but I know it is there), and I tested the map again. I still got an "Invalid preplaced unit" error. I have no idea where to begin debugging this. Can someone please lend a hand?

Thanks.

You need an actor for the unit to appear.

To make any unit you have to have a Unit and Actor.

Everything else is not important.

If you want to copy an existing unit just duplicate the unit and actor then link the new actor to the new unit.

I have tried that many times, but nothing seems to work. No matter what I do the unit will never show up. By "show up" I mean placed on the map during testing. No matter what I do, I always get an "Invalid preplaced unit" warning.

Just for reference, this is the exact method of unit duplication I am using:

I am trying to duplicate a unit, but every time I test my map I get a "USER: Invalid preplaced unit" warning, and my placed duplicate unit fails to show up. Here is the exact method I use to create the unit (Editor version is 1.5.3):

So the first thing I do is open the Data Editor. I want to duplicate the marine, so I find the Marine entry in the unit section, and I right click it and select duplicate. I leave everything unchecked except for the check box next to marine. I want an exact copy so I don't see why I have to duplicate everything. The exact duplication settings can be seen here: http://i.imgur.com/QKnyC.png

When I compare my Marine Copy to the original Marine, everything looks similar except for the presence of an actor. So, I go to the actor section and I find the Marine actor and duplicate it. Again, the only thing I choose to duplicate is the actor itself. I leave everything else linked, not duplicated (just like when I duplicated the unit). I then modify the "Unit Name" token of the actor to point to "Marine Copy" instead of "Marine". Here is what the actor looks like in the data editor: http://i.imgur.com/jmlEF.png

As far as I know, this is all I should have to do to create an exact duplicate of the Marine. So, I go to the terrain view and add my unit as shown: http://i.imgur.com/23qgr.png

Here is what happens as soon as I test my map: http://i.imgur.com/sRAFK.png

As you can see I get the Invalid Preplaced Unit warning, and there are no units placed on the map. How can I fix this? What am I doing wrong?

You are not duplicating the actor as well.

Actors and Units are linked together.

Pretend a Unit is a person, it has their age, skills and other attributes.

Then pretend an Actor is that person performing a role, it tells them what to do and when to do it and what to look like.

So your problem is you have a person but you've given them no instructions (actor) and thus they cannot exist.

I did make a basic tutorial at some point but I can't find it.

http://i.imgur.com/QKnyC.png

On this image select the Marine actor as well.

• edit* found it

<<quote>>I have made this brief tutorial on copying a unit for basic modifications to hopefully solve some issues people have been having with duplicating units and not getting them to work.

Start off by opening the Data editor.

You will need to have the first 4 of these buttons selected.

• note toggling the first button will be more useful for modifications later.

Step one find your unit

I will copy the marine, which is easily findable via the search box

Step two duplicate the unit

select the following 3 boxes only:

Unit, Actor, Model

• note if you want to edit the weapons and other things you may need to add more but for now I'm just using the unit as a shell.

The first thing you'll notice is that the file is completely copied and just renamed, which is good as you wont have to edit too much back to the original.

The second thing you'll notice is that the game will give you a white blob if you try to paste the unit (or in some cases like mine a black blob)

{{//img36.imageshack.us/img36/8796/screenshot20100810at140.png" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8796/screenshot20100810at140.png[IMG">http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8796/screenshot20100810at140.png[IMG]

Step three rename the unit, you do this by double clicking the duplicated unit (it should be in green)

[IMG]http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8796/screenshot20100810at140.png}}

This will help for later on, however the name can always be changed.

Step four setting the model, you do this by right clicking on the model in the unit tree and going to View linked object.

Right I'm going to change the model to marine, however you should be more than able to change to any model you like.

• note the current model will not exist.

To change it find a model part that you want(you can use the search function to make this easier

Step five editing the actor.

Firstly check the Token (this is where the actor links to the unit)

You'll want to copy a few things from the marine actor to your copy if you want it to use the same voice or which ever unit you want it to sound like.

The one area you'll really want to check if anything is Events:

This area is responsible for a lot of the things your unit does and what it looks like while it does it.

You will need to double check all 3 (Send, Target and Terms) are linked to the correct unit/ model ID which in my case is Marine2.

All 3 will have the following two bits that most likely need to be changed if the correct model is not displaying.

A last note do not remove sound files, even if they have nothing in them.
i.e. (Marine_Birth (Unknown)
As they stop a default sound being played globally. <</quote>>

Note most of this is now out of date with the events and stuff but it should help with the actor and unit problem.

Thank you for the detailed response. I did, however, duplicate the actor. I actually believe there is a bug on in my editor. The reason I believe this is I am running OS X with the HotS beta installed. I followed the exact steps I outlined in my post on my roommates computer (Windows 7, HotS not installed), and it ended up working fine and I was able to easily duplicate the marine.