Rabarber
You can change this now in User CP.
- Reaction score
- 94
Ever played one of those maps with boring heroes that use the same spells as the original Warcraft ones? Well, following these simple guidelines, your heroes won't.
Tools requires
Warcraft 3 - The Frozen Throne
Yes, you need it. There are spell-editing plug-ins for RoC, but the simplest way is buying TFT. Ok, no more talking.
Step 1 - Names, model files,sound sets, icons, descriptions
The main thing about making original heroes is the name and description. We could use the Paladin model and icon, and still, by changing the name, type and description, we could turn him into something completely random.
Don't be afraid to test! It's not like anyone is going to laugh.
-Hero name
Play around with the keyboard. Press some random letters. Lets have a try.
Hhuhba - I came up with these letters. Lets remove two...
Huha - This might not sound like a hero name, but check this!
Hurhakh - Look at that! A hero name! I added 3 letters. Adding H's, K's and S's is usually good.
Hurhakh the Phalanx Commander - Next step is adding a title. Never make this the same as the unit type. Take something that's related to the unit type instead! The unit type in this case could be "Macedonian Warchief".
If you don't like the name you came up with, try again. You are bound to like it eventually.
Names can also be a combination of a name and title. Take Andromath. It's a name for the human Archmage. It's random letters that sound good in combination with the rest (andro) and a built-in title (math). Maybe the Archmage is a mathematical genious?
-Unit type name
This part is harder. Here, use your imagination. If you have already decided for a model file, do a little bit of brainstorming.
What does it look like he does?
Mess around a bit, as said:
-Icon
Most people think that an icon that is the one of the model file is always right, but in some cases, doing otherwise is smarter.
Pick an icon that suits the hero's personality. Is he arrogant? Agressive? Or just a undead monstrosity?
For example, look at my hero "The Eredar Necrolyte", found at page 3 in this thread. The Lament icon suits his class and personality perfectly. A burning skull. Voilá.
-Model file
The model file should suit the class. If you want to make the model file first, randomizing is good. Press a random button, a random ammount of times on the up or down arrow button, and check it out. Didn't like it? Cheat. Retry. No one is going to yell at you for cheating here.
Downloading models (http://www.wc3sear.ch) is one way to do it, but absolutely not needed. Blizzard has it all. Except for Star Wars models.
-Sound set
Sound set is a way to give your Hero a personality. Adding sound sets are very simply, yet think about these guidelines;
-Don't add a woman's voice to a dragon.
-Give the unit a sound set that fits in somehow with it's model, adding the "Gnoll King" sound set to a human isn't the best thing you could do.
-Most monsters or creeps can have just about all sound sets.
-Small units should have small sound sets; big units should have evil, darkened voices.
Step 2 - making the abilities
This part takes a little bit of time, but tweaking with field values is fun. Sometimes.
Remember!
A original Warcraft III hero has four skills.
One aggressive skill.
One defensive skill.
One original skill*.
One ultimate skill.
*The original skill is different from hero to hero. The ultimate is usually like an original, but more effective.
-Agressive skills
Example - Holy Light for the Paladin
This skill usually damages. but that's not all! Most agressive skills have a special effect, the healing effect for the Holy Light.
Base your hero's agressive skill of any other agressive and tweak the values. Don't be afraid to build you abilities with triggers.
-Defensive skills
Example - Devotation Aura for the Paladin
Defensive skills are sometimes auras, and sometimes spells. They have one thing in common: they make allied units of the caster, or the caster himself, fight better.
Base the skill of another defensive. Remember not to overpower auras. Auras are the hardest skills to remove in Warcraft III; the only way is to kill/remove the caster.
-Original skills
These skills are usually the hardest to make. In most cases, they are not to be based on other abilities. Basing them on another skill, nulling all fields and making it completely trigger-based is the best way.
Remember not to put 0 in the effect fields. 0 means forever/infinite in some situations.
-Ultimate skills
There are two types of ultimates.
Morphing spells enchances the casters health/attack, and so on, for a cost. The cost is usually the loss of abilities or slower movement speed.
Other spells are all the others. If you are going to make one of these yourself, base it of Channel and make it trigger based. Follow the Channel Spells tutorial for more info of channel.
Step 2 b - Triggered Abilities
The base of any original hero is triggered abilities. Triggered abilities are abilities based of Channel or another target-less ability.
If you are making a channeling spell for your hero, remember:
A hero CAN'T have two abilities that are based on the same. It will mess things up, and make him think that he is casting one when he is casting the other!
Tip: Base your hero's ultimate spell of Channel instead.
Base your spell of whatever ability that is as close to the one you were thinking about, remove the parts you don't want, and trigger the rest.
The easiest way to make a hero's no-target abilities work together, and making them not being based on each other, is basing them of these three abilities.
War Stomp
Thunder Clap
Fan of Knives
These are all target-less abilities that won't have a target, and still do something when you click them.
If you want an ability with a target, base them of just about everything without auto casting enabled. There is no way to remove auto casting from abilities.
I made a new channeling spells for my hero. I called it "Shrinkwood Curse" and based it of Bloodlust.
I wanted my ability, not only to shrink the enemies, which was easily done by holding Shift and double clicking the "Scaling Factor" field, but also to change their tinting colour to purple.
I made this trigger;
This is a very simple triggered ability. Start off with this type of abilities, and move on.
Note that this ability only works on one unit at a time. The map with this ability can be downloaded below.
Step 3 - Primary ability
As you probably know, a hero has three stats/abilities. One of them is his primary. Heroes made for spellcasting should have intelligence as his primary. A brute with more power than brains should have strengh as his primary ability.
The easiest way to pick your heroes primary ability is to check his spells and attack type.
If the hero has a bow or a sword - it's agility based.
If the hero has a hammer - it's strengh based.
If the hero has a staff - it's usually intelligence based.
If your hero has a skill increasing its attack rate/attack damage, it's probably strengh based.
If your hero has a skill that summons a magical creature, it's intelligence based.
If your hero has a skill that summons a living creatures, it's strength based.
If your hero has a skill that somehow makes him invisible, he's agility based.
Rules are for breaking. Mix and play.
Step 3 b - Balancing your hero's stats
This is where the hard part comes in. A hero's starting abilities (the number he has in all stats on level 1) is usually 50 split up in three. His primary ability should have one third of the points, at least.
Spellcasting heroes have less points in strengh, berserking brutes have less points in intelligence.
When to decide the ammount of points your hero gets in his abilities when leveling, remember to have 6-8 points split up. Of course, your hero gets the most points in his primary ability.
Example
Hurhakh the Phalanx Commander - Macedonian Warchief
Agility based
Starts off with 21 points in agility, 13 point in intelligence and 16 points in strength.
----------------
//Rabarber
Remember never to steal other people's ideas.
If you found a typo, or think that you have something that should be added to this tutorial, say so. I'll add/change if i feel like doing it.
Tools requires
Warcraft 3 - The Frozen Throne
Yes, you need it. There are spell-editing plug-ins for RoC, but the simplest way is buying TFT. Ok, no more talking.
Step 1 - Names, model files,sound sets, icons, descriptions
The main thing about making original heroes is the name and description. We could use the Paladin model and icon, and still, by changing the name, type and description, we could turn him into something completely random.
Don't be afraid to test! It's not like anyone is going to laugh.
-Hero name
Play around with the keyboard. Press some random letters. Lets have a try.
Hhuhba - I came up with these letters. Lets remove two...
Huha - This might not sound like a hero name, but check this!
Hurhakh - Look at that! A hero name! I added 3 letters. Adding H's, K's and S's is usually good.
Hurhakh the Phalanx Commander - Next step is adding a title. Never make this the same as the unit type. Take something that's related to the unit type instead! The unit type in this case could be "Macedonian Warchief".
If you don't like the name you came up with, try again. You are bound to like it eventually.
Names can also be a combination of a name and title. Take Andromath. It's a name for the human Archmage. It's random letters that sound good in combination with the rest (andro) and a built-in title (math). Maybe the Archmage is a mathematical genious?
-Unit type name
This part is harder. Here, use your imagination. If you have already decided for a model file, do a little bit of brainstorming.
What does it look like he does?
Mess around a bit, as said:
-Icon
Most people think that an icon that is the one of the model file is always right, but in some cases, doing otherwise is smarter.
Pick an icon that suits the hero's personality. Is he arrogant? Agressive? Or just a undead monstrosity?
For example, look at my hero "The Eredar Necrolyte", found at page 3 in this thread. The Lament icon suits his class and personality perfectly. A burning skull. Voilá.
-Model file
The model file should suit the class. If you want to make the model file first, randomizing is good. Press a random button, a random ammount of times on the up or down arrow button, and check it out. Didn't like it? Cheat. Retry. No one is going to yell at you for cheating here.
Downloading models (http://www.wc3sear.ch) is one way to do it, but absolutely not needed. Blizzard has it all. Except for Star Wars models.
-Sound set
Sound set is a way to give your Hero a personality. Adding sound sets are very simply, yet think about these guidelines;
-Don't add a woman's voice to a dragon.
-Give the unit a sound set that fits in somehow with it's model, adding the "Gnoll King" sound set to a human isn't the best thing you could do.
-Most monsters or creeps can have just about all sound sets.
-Small units should have small sound sets; big units should have evil, darkened voices.
Step 2 - making the abilities
This part takes a little bit of time, but tweaking with field values is fun. Sometimes.
Remember!
A original Warcraft III hero has four skills.
One aggressive skill.
One defensive skill.
One original skill*.
One ultimate skill.
*The original skill is different from hero to hero. The ultimate is usually like an original, but more effective.
-Agressive skills
Example - Holy Light for the Paladin
This skill usually damages. but that's not all! Most agressive skills have a special effect, the healing effect for the Holy Light.
Base your hero's agressive skill of any other agressive and tweak the values. Don't be afraid to build you abilities with triggers.
-Defensive skills
Example - Devotation Aura for the Paladin
Defensive skills are sometimes auras, and sometimes spells. They have one thing in common: they make allied units of the caster, or the caster himself, fight better.
Base the skill of another defensive. Remember not to overpower auras. Auras are the hardest skills to remove in Warcraft III; the only way is to kill/remove the caster.
-Original skills
These skills are usually the hardest to make. In most cases, they are not to be based on other abilities. Basing them on another skill, nulling all fields and making it completely trigger-based is the best way.
Remember not to put 0 in the effect fields. 0 means forever/infinite in some situations.
-Ultimate skills
There are two types of ultimates.
- Morphing skills
- Others
- Bladestorm (i had to add this to please Darthfett)
Morphing spells enchances the casters health/attack, and so on, for a cost. The cost is usually the loss of abilities or slower movement speed.
Other spells are all the others. If you are going to make one of these yourself, base it of Channel and make it trigger based. Follow the Channel Spells tutorial for more info of channel.
Step 2 b - Triggered Abilities
The base of any original hero is triggered abilities. Triggered abilities are abilities based of Channel or another target-less ability.
If you are making a channeling spell for your hero, remember:
A hero CAN'T have two abilities that are based on the same. It will mess things up, and make him think that he is casting one when he is casting the other!
Tip: Base your hero's ultimate spell of Channel instead.
Base your spell of whatever ability that is as close to the one you were thinking about, remove the parts you don't want, and trigger the rest.
The easiest way to make a hero's no-target abilities work together, and making them not being based on each other, is basing them of these three abilities.
War Stomp
Thunder Clap
Fan of Knives
These are all target-less abilities that won't have a target, and still do something when you click them.
If you want an ability with a target, base them of just about everything without auto casting enabled. There is no way to remove auto casting from abilities.
I made a new channeling spells for my hero. I called it "Shrinkwood Curse" and based it of Bloodlust.
I wanted my ability, not only to shrink the enemies, which was easily done by holding Shift and double clicking the "Scaling Factor" field, but also to change their tinting colour to purple.
I made this trigger;
Code:
Shrinkwood
Events
Unit - A unit Starts the effect of an ability
Conditions
(Ability being cast) Equal to Shrinkwood Curse
Actions
Set Target = (Target unit of ability being cast)
Animation - Change Target's vertex coloring to (75.00%, 15.00%, 75.00%) with 0.00% transparency
Wait 5.00 seconds
Animation - Change Target's vertex coloring to (100.00%, 100.00%, 100.00%) with 0.00% transparencyThis is a very simple triggered ability. Start off with this type of abilities, and move on.
Note that this ability only works on one unit at a time. The map with this ability can be downloaded below.
Step 3 - Primary ability
As you probably know, a hero has three stats/abilities. One of them is his primary. Heroes made for spellcasting should have intelligence as his primary. A brute with more power than brains should have strengh as his primary ability.
The easiest way to pick your heroes primary ability is to check his spells and attack type.
If the hero has a bow or a sword - it's agility based.
If the hero has a hammer - it's strengh based.
If the hero has a staff - it's usually intelligence based.
If your hero has a skill increasing its attack rate/attack damage, it's probably strengh based.
If your hero has a skill that summons a magical creature, it's intelligence based.
If your hero has a skill that summons a living creatures, it's strength based.
If your hero has a skill that somehow makes him invisible, he's agility based.
Rules are for breaking. Mix and play.
Step 3 b - Balancing your hero's stats
This is where the hard part comes in. A hero's starting abilities (the number he has in all stats on level 1) is usually 50 split up in three. His primary ability should have one third of the points, at least.
Spellcasting heroes have less points in strengh, berserking brutes have less points in intelligence.
When to decide the ammount of points your hero gets in his abilities when leveling, remember to have 6-8 points split up. Of course, your hero gets the most points in his primary ability.
Example
Hurhakh the Phalanx Commander - Macedonian Warchief
Agility based
Starts off with 21 points in agility, 13 point in intelligence and 16 points in strength.
----------------
//Rabarber
Remember never to steal other people's ideas.
If you found a typo, or think that you have something that should be added to this tutorial, say so. I'll add/change if i feel like doing it.
