What do YOU do:

[Weyird]

I was just curious what other map makers do when making new units (those that are similar/same as a standard warcraft unit/building).
Say your custom map has a blademaster hero in it - do you just alter the stats of the orc blademaster or do you go create new unit>blademaster?
And with buildings and stuff?

I seem to alternate...
Some maps i make everything (or most, at least) from scratch, other times I try to edit real units as much as possible.

 

[Laiev]

Create new one, because if i need see some information i got the default one :thup:

 

[Aniconic]

Generally when I make units I copy them, paste them in the custom unit folder, change the name and then work from there.

Abilities, buffs n' effects, doodads, and destructibles I do from scratch (create new) because there are fewer options I have to worry about.

 

[Weyird]

What if, say, you have a hero with the Firelord's Summon Lava Spawn spell, except you make it 4 levels instead of 3. Would you leave it to summon the standard first 3 creatures, and then make the 4th one, or would you make all four so that they sit in the custom unit folder together, even though the first 3 are exact copies?
For that matter, with a spell like that, would you remake the spell or modify the summon lava spawn spell?

I've noticed that modifying spells has the bonus that the values in tooltips change according to the actual values in the data... so that's a bonus of simply modifying a spell...
As for creating each new unit - doesn't that take more space versus editing one?

 

[FrozenShadow]

I always make custom units.

I don't feel right when I see the normal folder highlighted. So, yeah, even if the first 3 units from a spawn lava spawn are the same, I would always make it from scratch. I know it sounds stupid, but it actually looks more organized. I also always use the "Editor Suffix" for labels as simple as, "[Custom Item/Unit/Ability] or [Name of Hero] or [Item Used for Ability]" XD

 

[Weyird]

I always make custom units.

I don't feel right when I see the normal folder highlighted. So, yeah, even if the first 3 units from a spawn lava spawn are the same, I would always make it from scratch. I know it sounds stupid, but it actually looks more organized.

I know! It bugs me to have the folder highlighted pink.. I try to be as organized as possible and recreating the units does do that... But then I start worrying about it lagging everything.

Do any of you guys know whether editing standard units is less labour intensive?

 

[Jedi]

Of course custom units.

 

[Necrach]

Oh, no, I misclicked on the vote. I always make custom units, as well as buffs, upgrades and abilities. This is simply because as your map grows larger, you better have everything organised as your own "from scratch"-made units to be able to keep order on everything.

@FrozenShadow and @Weyird, I agree.

 

[Aniconic]

What if, say, you have a hero with the Firelord's Summon Lava Spawn spell, except you make it 4 levels instead of 3. Would you leave it to summon the standard first 3 creatures, and then make the 4th one, or would you make all four so that they sit in the custom unit folder together, even though the first 3 are exact copies?
For that matter, with a spell like that, would you remake the spell or modify the summon lava spawn spell?

I try to get away with being lazy whenever I can. xD That goes for Modding. If I know I am not going to use a specific ability or hero in my map, I will either modify the existing unit/ability, or copy it over to custom units.

Depends on my spur-of-the-moment level of laziness =P

 

[Necrach]

I know! It bugs me to have the folder highlighted pink.. I try to be as organized as possible and recreating the units does do that... But then I start worrying about it lagging everything.

Do any of you guys know whether editing standard units is less labour intensive?

When it comes to the point that you have so many custom units in your map that it causes lag, then all default units would still not have been enough, unless you wanted to change all of them from scratch anyway (like making a neutral centaur tent into a Paladin hero )

 

[Weyird]

(like making a neutral centaur tent into a Paladin hero )

lol... That's about as extreme as it gets. My PC is really not very good so later on in map production it always starts becoming very slow to do anything..
So making all your units by modifying existing ones wouldn't change anything?

 

[Accname]

try going to "toolbar -> window -> brush list" and setting it off.
maybe it will make it a tad faster.

 

[Necrach]

try going to "toolbar -> window -> brush list" and setting it off.
maybe it will make it a tad faster.

Word. The brushlist somehow lags my editor like, :banghead: that much

 

[FrozenShadow]

Brush List On/Off doesn't do much difference for me, I don't know why.

 

[Weyird]

Thanks! Brushlist-off makes mine a bit faster. Not much, but a bit. What does it do? I noticed that the bottom left box disappears, but I never used that. Is that all it does?

 

[Necrach]

Thanks! Brushlist-off makes mine a bit faster. Not much, but a bit. What does it do? I noticed that the bottom left box disappears, but I never used that. Is that all it does?

That bottom left box, that's the Brushlist. The option is to show it, or not. See?

I suppose the idea of the brushlist is to get some kind of overview while editing the map, but it's quite pointless, I mean how many mili-seconds extra (if any) does it takes to open the Object Editor and check things?

 

[Bogrim]

I also prefer staying to custom units alone. It allows me to organize my units so that I can find and edit them faster.