Unit creation trouble

[MrJoeS]

OK. I’ve been experimenting some more with things I’ll be doing for my map, and I’ve hit a few minor annoyances.

First, is there any way to change the size of a custom unit’s shadow? If my base unit is a Paladin, or worse, Pit Lord, and the model I use for the unit is, say, a villager, I see this horrible huge grey shadow around my unit. I’ve seen this problem in other, finished maps (Crossfire TD, for one, where the Hellcaster casts a shadow that looks like it’s from an elven tower) so I’m not sure there’s anything I can do. I know I’ll be embedding files in my map, so maybe the answer is there, in one of the unit texts.

Second question, and one I think is more likely to have an answer: how do I ensure that a unit’s attack has a sound? I used a villager for a custom hero, and there is an animation for him to attack. Unfortunately, it seems that there is no audio. I think all I need to do is somewhere to define what sort of melee attack it is (stone, wood, metal) so that the game knows which soundset to use. War3.mpq has a vast array of collision sounds for combat, and I think I just need to key some of them to the villager.

 

[Darg]

It is possible to change both shadow and weapon hit sound, but unfortunately to make them take effect you have to import unitsmetadata.slk into your map. This is bad in multiplayer, because this file supposedly caches itself in the game, meaning that any subsequent games you play after your map will most likely result in mass desyncs.

It's perfectly fine to import that file for single player maps, however.

If you are making custom melee units, you need to base your units off units that are melee units, that way you can ensure they have a weapon hit sound. Ranged units do not have weapon hit sounds.

Same with the shadow as well. Base your units off units which have a similar shadow size to your desired unit size.

 

[MrJoeS]

I realized that the most efficient way of making shadow sizes right would be to find a base unit with a small shadow. I though I had the perfect one in Medivh's human form but ::utterly stunned:: he's not a hero. The next best I found was Kel'Thuzad (lich) but he's ranged. Do you know of any melee heros with smallish shadows?

I guess there are three things I need to consider now when I choose a base unit:

- Hero / Unit / Building / Item
- Shadow (heros, units and buildings only)
- Melee / Ranged (heros and units only)

So is it correct that the melee hit soundset of a custom unit is determined by the base unit, and not by the 3d model chosen?

 

[Darg]

Correct, the soundset is determined by the weapon hitsound given to the base unit. The 3d model is exactly that, just a 3d model, it's just there for looks.

While the sounds for melee units are specified in a hidden field, the sounds for range units are associated with their weapon missile model. Off the top of my head, I don't think it's possible to change these sounds, they're hidden away somewhere deep in the game.

Do you have the blink editor? It's like UMSWE, maybe not as good, but adds all those hidden fields that need unitsmetadata.slk to work, for example, the unit shadow and the weapon hit sound. That way, if you can actually see these fields, it will help you a lot towards deciding which base units to use.

Give me your email in a PM, and I'll email it to you.