SC2Mapster

Hello, hello.

I'm new to this forum, and I need some answers in order for me to peacefully be able to work in the Data Editor.

First question; I'm really sorry. But I can't for the life of me understand how to correctly copy/clone/duplicate both a unit and an ability by making as few copies as possible. Not as few so that both will be linked of course; I want to be able to adjust damage, change model etc without affecting the orginial. It feels like I duplicate more then I need to. I've googled this plenty an only found outdated solutions.

Second question; How do you organize your new units and abilities? Do you give some Editor Preffix or Suffix in all Actors, Behiavors, etc that so you will find all relevant things through the Searchbox? Is their any easier way? Should I name Actors without spaces, because Blizzard does it?

Third question; I'm still very new to the Data Editor and I haven't found a solution to store everything so that I can easily access and edit my custom abilities. Would you suggest having all custom data in a Folder?

Last question; How do you not go insane on the Data Editor? xD

Thanks for your time! Hope to hear from you soon.

I dint understand first question..but for the second...what ur meaning...saving in a folder? What u do is saved on the map u're doing it..not on a diferent folder..and for the last question...i dont do insane on the data editor because im already insane...

@Rainther: Go

If you want to duplicate a unit, basically duplicate the Unit and it's Actor... in the case of the marine, you would duplicate the unit "Marine" and the actor "Marine"

You can also duplicate the weapon and any effects tied to that weapon, but these are so easy to make new ones that you shouldn't even bother.

I will usually give all my newly created actors/weapon items a prefix, and I will usually give Effects a prefix and a suffix.

Lets say I made a new Marine called a Gunner. The unit and the actor will be simply called 'Gunner'. The weapon will be called 'Chain Gun' with the prefix 'Gunner -'... yes, including the space and the dash.

Lets say my Chain Gun creates 1 bullet every 0.1 seconds for a duration of 1 second... my persistent effect will be called 'Chain Gun', the ID will be 'ChainGunPersistent', prefix set as 'Gunner -' and suffix set as '(Persistent)'. At the end of the day, all my effects tied to a weapon or ability will all be named 'Chain Gun'(the first box when making new/editing), but the ID(the box under the name box) I set as custom(I barely use "Suggest" button), instead of having ChainGun, ChainGun2, ChainGun3... I change the 2's and 3's to Persistent or Damage or whatnot.

My effects list looks something like this...
Gunner - Chain Gun (Persistent) [ID ChainGunPersistent]
Gunner - Chain Gun (Launch Missile) [ID ChainGunLaunch]
Gunner - Chain Gun (Damage) [ID ChainGunDamage]

Name your actors/anything however you like... spaces, no spaces, whatever. I tend to follow a little bit of the Blizzard style of formatting their stuff, like any Site Op actors I create will be called SOpsChainGunOffset or whatnot, otherwise I tend to usually put spaces between words, unless it's really long.

Once you save your map, if you notice the search bar in the Object Viewer side of the editor, next to it will be 3 buttons and then next to that is a dropdown menu with the name DataSource... use that dropdown menu to select the last option, and make sure your Search bar has no text in it... anything and everything you have customized will show up, now, no default(blue & grey) entries will show up, just green(your customs).

Again, adding prefixes can help also. If you are working on a Gunner, just leave DataSrouce as All Data and input Gunner in the Search bar... anything with "gunner" in its name, prefix or whatnot will show up.

Hope this helps.

first question:

when u duplicate a unit , only duplicate what u plan on Editing

exp: if u plan on changing a weapon , then make sure you duplicate the weapon

once you duplicate an Object it gona have the word *copy*copy 1 * copy 2* ect... in it. does COPY are the once u need to Change or edit ( the other are usless )

you should always copy the models,actors unless you plan on using custom actors or models.

Second Question:

i just add the letter A as a prefix for EVERY unit/abilities/behaviour/ ...ect...

third question:

dont thing u can have foldure for diffrent things int he data editor . just ad a prefix , type it in the search bar and you will find it

Forth Question:

all about Tutorials and patients. youtube = SC2 tutorial

Thanks for your replies!

I mostly needed to know how others would do in the Data Editor. Commonly I just go into the Data Editor, determined to create a new ability or unit and end up doing nothing because the Editor feels so complicated compared to the World Editor. In Warcraft 3 I could with ease create advanced abilities which could pretty much do anything and I'm having a hard time figuring out if the Data Editor can give me similiar opportunities.

One question still remains for me; how would I duplicate for instance Infestor - Infested Terrans? This ability seems to have a Actor which is bound to an commonly used effect, which makes me end up creating 2 of this actor upon Duplication. The other 2 Actors should be duplicated, from what I understand. Some effects of this ability seems to be global/commonly used like Splash Effect. How can I know which Effects to duplicate and which to not? Should I create relevant Units (Weapons/Ammo etc.) to the ability I want to before making the Ability?

Thanks yet again for your time. I hope I'll be able to give something back eventually!

@Rainther: Go

When you're trying to keep track of all the objects you edit, you can select your map under the data source tab. When I started to learn the data editor about 2 months ago, it seriously was hell. I'm not sure if this will help your, but it really helped me.

Go to the ability, find out all the effects that are linked to it. Some times ability first links an Effect - Set, so you have to look at the effect set and look through that, it may like to a persistent with can be linked to several more effects. map it out like a tech tree and eventually when you go back to the ability itself, youll understand why its there.

Actors are a whole different story because it unit that links to the actor, but the actor that links to the unit (did i say that right?...) You will not find anything under the unit that will they you how theyre linked. If you go to the actor, look for Events+, thats where it happens. Once you figure how to edit those events, you'll figure out how everything connects.

I personally never duplicated abilities or units cause it gets messy. I just copy and paste what i need. When I test it, notie something missing, I go back and copy it. If you want to figure out whether to duplicate, figure out what the effects do.