I have been having troubles with mod utilities, such as DatEdit1.5b and WinMpq1.64 I frequently receive errors in program and trouble saving the material. It seems the programs I use (firedit, datedit, winmpq, etc...) are not very compatible with each other, and by opening Mpq may return errors. Also I was unable to set proper weapons to certain ships. I tried to equip science vessel with ground and air units, and the game crashing when unit attacks. Plus battlecruiser attacks air units with ground weapons o.O
Also is there a way to load more grps then there is into MPQ? (I mean also to use it duh)
I spent 3 days ( god i have no life) trying to figure out how to utilize these mod editors, and well all I made is battlecruiser with shields
that fires an arbiter attack to a guardian range.
I am kinda new to this, perhaps you could please give me some tips on how to use it?
Any tips would appreciated, thanks in advance =)

You can't just give the sci vessel an attack animation, you have to also tell it to use that animation in its iscript using IceCC. Take a look at the iscript of a unit that is supposed to have an attack as an example and make the neccessary changes to the vessel iscript.

I'm pretty sure you're limited to the grps mpq has to offer.

No you are not limited to the GRP's the MPQ "has to offer", just edit Images.tbl and add the GRP's path to it (note: the path in Images.tbl excludes the "unit\" folder, so if you add "mygrp.grp" to Images.tbl, its pointing to the file "unit\mygrp.grp" in the MPQ's).

Don't try to access the MPQ from one program if another is accessing it. Most modding programs are selfish, and they hold onto complete read/write access to the MPQ/EXE they are editing.

When testing in SC, crashes are common when modding. It just means you've done something the engine doesn't like, so you'll have to fix whatever bad input you're giving it.

With most crashes, the cause can be determined quickly, as they are pretty easy to reproduce. Some of the more subtle ones take time, but if you get one of those...well, you'll have learned a lot about modding to get to that point.

Just so you know, the latest version is 1.5d.

It should be fine to leave the archive open in WinMPQ, though. It does not actually keep the file open when you have it "open" in the program. It only opens the file when it actually needs to read or write the file.

Thanks so much for your tips!
I started to understand a lot of things, but am still facing obstacles to realize my ideas for the map. It seems I am unable to create any new animations in iscript.bin.
Unused animations or 411+ crash the game I think that to add new entries in iscript.bin the other file iscriptx.bin must be edited (which has no editor ).
Is there a way to create my own new animations instead of editing existing?
WTFAGE!!

Yes, you create a new ISID for the animation and compile it into ICECC and you refrence that ID in images.dat.

That's what I did, added ISID 412 in the iscript.bin. I run the game, and BAM!! ...error: Script Id 412 doesn't exist!
The same goes when I replace any unknown animations such as 1, 35, etc.. also venom (unused) gives me a vessel, which shows its frame for the first second then dissappears (the graphic) in the SCMDraft Editor. In game instead of dissappearing it crashes the game

What version of ICECC are you using? Are you sure you saves the new iscript.bin in "scripts\"? It should work, I've done it quite a bit.

I checked that I have the right version of iscript.bin in my mpq, yes. Are you telling me that you actually made use of scripts 412+ and the unknowns?? It is strange, because whenever I opened other people's mods of iscript.bin, none of these used these IDs, instead they replaced EXISTING IDs.
Actually right now I am having a different bug, after I replaced the animation to 257, both in Dat and in iscript.bin, it does loads in SCMDraft editor, but crashes the game with no information error just after the startup (couldn't even load the main menu)
I don't have any Forging idea what that bug could be))

AO probably uses around 40-50 new id's.

AO? I looked it up its a mod that is still in development, which means I can't download it and try it out.
Don't know about this, but game still crashes when I load it, it doesn't leave any informative message. Perhaps it had something to do with using illegal filngy/sprite/images/ISID?
Can anybody fix this bug for me? I can just send you my mpq. Pretty please!

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 26 2009, 11:26 am by Dominus Sacerdus.

Create a new mod that only makes the Dragoon's attack deal splash damage and give the attack the Attack 3x3 property. Does the mod work without crashing?

If so, modify the mod's Dragoon iscript file. The only change you will make is to create a few more "attackwith 1" opcodes (or "attack") where the existing "attack(with 1)" opcode already is.
Now, load the mod with your changes saved. When attacking with the Dragoon, is it amazing (attacks with 5 phase disruptors)? If so, congratulations, because that means your real mod is suffering from a real bug. If the Dragoon's attack is not amazing, then you need to ask how to save iscript.bin changes.

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Alternatively, if you already absolutely know that all of your changes always work, then check if you have edited any of the TBL files under the folder "rez". If so, remove them all from the mod and test the mod. If the mod works, include the "stat_txt.tbl" file. Test. If the mod works, great - now, delete all of the other TBL files.

You should tell us all of the files that are in your mod that have also been changed.

In regards to the lack of IsID changes, I am suspicious that you're not properly loading and compiling your files that deal with the iscript.bin.

Check out Temptation, I used at least 3 new IDs. Let's see your iscript for these new IDs.

A_of-s_T reminds me:
I'm fairly certain that units using images that point to extended iscript ID's tend to bug out when moving. I should do some more tests on this, however. Contrary to that, non-units should act fine with custom ID's.

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BTW:
Make sure that any imgol's/sprol's/etc. that you have included are pointing to the image/sprite that you want - I frequently mess up typing ID's when I'm tired, e.g. if I wanted to spawn ID 343, I might type in 434 instead.

I have diagnosed the problem... it seems to lie in using IsID 500.
What I did, is create a new mpq from scratch. I had there a mercenary gunship with 2 weapons, which was originally made from Dugalle Battlecruiser.
(I copied the data and modified it) I putt a new flingy -> a new sprite -> a new image.
The game always crashed without info whenever map with this unit was loaded.
BUT!
It didn't crash when I changed the image of the sprite from 985 which said (unit/scivessel2.grp, ISID 500) to the same image that regular science vessel has. And it worked! The weapon worked, and it didnt crash...
But I want custom graphics, damnit!

(Note that SCMDraft opens the map and is able to place this unit, and it loads the graphic, and it loads the right frame i chose in ISID 500)

Also I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I'm using 1.15.1
Firegraft 0.93
DatEdit1.5b

Please if you have any ideas, post replies

There is nothing wrong with certain "ISID's", you are the one doing something wrong... Either im too tired to figure it out from the limited info you gave or there just isn't enough info. Post up the MPQ.

Yeah, higher iscript IDs are fine. There shouldn't be any reason it would crash just because you used a higher ID than is used in the default script. I've used them plenty of times with no issue. It isn't like the dat files, where they have a fixed number of entries.

There's no need to upload the entire MPQ. It must be an iscript problem. Copy and paste the iscript into a [code] BB code tag and post it here.