Ever since I bought SC2, I've been wanting to replace a heap of sounds with better ones. Especially the Zerg -- their sound effects reminds me of very bad cartoon shows from the 80s. Though, trying to replace sounds in SC2 is not as easy as it was in SC1, where you simple had to have data/sound in your SC directory and it was all your oyster. I've already tried /base.sc2assets/assets/Sounds/ and /assets/Sounds but those don't seem to work. I'm not talking about replacing sounds in a map, I mean the whole game without syncing problems with Battle.net and without modifying the MPQ files.

Anyone know of a good alternate way? I can't take the Zerg seriously anymore becuase of their ridiculously cartoony sounds.

EDIT: Search bar seems to be broken ;_;.

Search bar is broken, but if you go to Site --> Search, it works fine. I think I've heard people say that replacing the sounds is pretty damn hard (if not impossible) to do, so I'm not sure if you can do it.

Well, Good thing I'm incredibly persistent .

Replacing sounds is easy. All you need to do is make a mod! Yeah! Oh, wait, that's not as obvious to do now....

Alright, this is what you do. First, you find the latest patch files. These'll be in the version folder in the base directory. Newest folder is the one with the biggest number iirc. Stick stuff into the desired mpq. I think the internal path for them (replacing the sfx that is) is a bit long/confusing so make note of that. It took me a few tries to get it to work but I can't remember what the path was. It was insanely long.

I am not responsible if blizzard bans you for touching the mpqs like they've said they would.

MODDING FOR LIFE

(folder hotloading was removed so mpq is the only way.)

Damn. I was hoping for at least a complex hotloader solution, but I guess not. But if I tamper with the MPQ file, as replacing the sounds in it will essentially count as editing the file, will it sync with online play? I don't think it would, as theres a huge difference between SFX and script files. I'll give it a go, if you've done it and have not been banned, then maybe it'll work for me.

The sounds are still client-side AFAIK and should never desync you. XML changes, even for only sfx-related things, and stuff like that I imagine would desync you.

I have tested it online successfully in the past but not through ladder play or anything like that as I stopped playing ladder after beta. Blizzard has stated they're monitoring the mpqs now and will ban you if they see you changing stuff (As far as they're concerned you're hacking the game). Though people have claimed to have mpq-based sound and texture mods in use since release without issues, the uncertain factor behind this is one of the biggest reasons why I haven't attempted modwork in sc2.

I am certain it would work. But I am not certain you would be safe doing it. I can't tell you how Blizzard runs their business with this, other than that it's really bad for us.

In brood war, GRP's are all clientside. I had a small mod that made stuff like marines and zerglings tiny while leaving bcs normal-sized and it worked perfectly fine online. Not particularly useful for anything but was a fun thing to try out. I would take a wild guess that m3's are client-side in sc2 and not synced, but AFAIK textures are certainly client-side as there were several mods for unit skins on TL throughout beta and exist to this day.

I know in WoW if you try change a model, for example, there's hash stuff going on that basically means (IIRC) that if the model has a different amount of vertices, it will detect it and not let you join. So if they have a similar thing for sounds on SCII, you may have to have the same amount of bytes in your sound clip or something.

It couldn't hurt to ask Blizzard, either on their forums or via email, whether editing sounds will get you in trouble or not.

You are NOT allowed to modify the game mpqs.
Source

Yeah, there's the post I was thinking of. That came out and I held a funeral for modding.

Well, not that post specifically, but a news post a while back.