(This process ONLY works with Frozen Throne maps) (Its a little blue icon and its named .w3x if its frozen throne) (its .w3m I think if its Reign of Chaos) (sorry
) (you can still request ROC maps be unprotected or modified by me if you wish) But for everyone else, the tutorial starts now.Lets learn how to unprotect maps, or just be lazy and request it.
Why?
Cause unprotecting maps is fun, the world editor is addicting, and making changes is sometimes necessary, or, making changes is sometimes fun. That and theres learning... Meh.
Before we start (the tutorial), let me just have you all know, this is possibly the easiest way to unprotect maps, and it works, most of the time (seriously, it works a lot, and saves time if it does work), any other methods that require more work, but, work every time or even more of the time, will not be described here, as they require more work, and its hard to explain these things, and besides, I'm willing to do those requests for you if you wish to request a map be unprotected and or modified.
BEFORE We start:
*. Tools We Need to unprotect us some maps / modify maps! <_<
- 1. Xdep (required unless you wanna do loads of work)
- 2. MPQMaster (highly recommended)
- 3. MPQ Recover (mostly recommended)
- 4. Nothing else is required for this tutorial, but there are many other programs which may or may not help.
- 1.World Editor Unlimited 1.20(recommended)
- 2. If WEU fails, trying WE (normal editor) is the next step, so, its not really required... =/
- 1.Vexorian's wc3mapoptimizer (recommended)
- 2. other tools not mentioned cause this is so freaking easy and most of the time helpful.
.. Or me, either one I suppose. 
(btw if anyone wants me to upload them somewhere else let me know, or if someone can get a direct link upload place for me, let me know)Edit: A few new links to files:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9d0nshg9lcb - xdep
http://www.mediafire.com/?adzb94xnaug - wc3optimizer
http://www.mediafire.com/?apekxotvntz - mpqrecover
http://www.mediafire.com/?9jw254mmyw0 - mqpmaster
Also, fyi you can find these files at other parts of this forum!
Unprotecting Our Map (with xdep, and xantans guide, and with you!)
1. Xdep, Lets try it out, eh?
Take the map you want deprotected. Copy it, put it on your desktop, or anywhere. Rename it to " MyMap" (without quotes).
Take the map you just renamed MyMap, and (assuming you have extracted xdep to a folder) Put it in the same folder as xdep.
Double click the exe file named Xdep and a little command prompt will open up.
You should have gotten the command prompt to say something like this.(click it to see image) (It may take awhile) Scroll down to where is sais XDEP WORKED to continue OR
If you got something that looks like this then you need to make sure the map is a frozen throne file, .w3x, and that it is correctly named "MyMap" and that it is in the same folder as the .exe file, xdep. then, run it again. OR
If you got something that looks like this -ish then you need to use MPQMaster and maybe MPQRecover. Go down to continue.
2. MPQRecover lets use this weird Russian program
Unrar it and open it up (the .exe)!
Ok, so you've got it open, should look like this.
Where it sais war3map.%%%, make no changes. Then at the top right, click the little folder with a magnifying glass, and direct it to your map, then, make sure Deep MPQ Scanning is selected.
Ok, now after you've done all that, it should now look like this.
Ok, now you need to press brute force, then click Scan. If it crashed, reopen it, set it all up, then don't check Deep MPQ Scanning, and press brute force, then scan, if it crashed again, try not pressing scan, just brute force.
Ok, now after you've done all that it should look like this.After you have done all that, go ahead and click where it sais Save List (Not Save MPQ, do not click this), and direct it to your MPQMaster's folder (assuming you have unrarred it) and go inside the listfolders folder and save this list with a name you will remember.
Now we are ready to move on to MPQMaster, one of my favorite programs for several reasons.
3.MPQMaster
Unrar it if you haven't, and open it up!
It should look like this.
Now then, press File, then Open(or alternately press ctrl+O)direct it to the map which you have already made a listfile for.
It should look something like this.
Ok, now then, select the options you want, should select; the listfile you created in mpqmaster, and any other listfiles you have that may help, I suggest, Warcraft III.txt, and Listfile.txt if you have them, then press the big OK Button.
It should now look like this.
Ok, now that we've got your map all opened up in mpqmaster, it should have everything all set, meaning no files are named Unknown000000000.xxx, if it isnt all setup, you need to make a better listfile, so compile one up, or use the one in xdep as well as the one you made, and open it again, then, lets move on.
You need to extract all files to the folder in which xdep created when it tried to unprotect the map, in the folder within that folder named 'files'.
It should look like this when extracting.
and in the folder, it should look like this.
Now then, go ahead and run xdep again, if it worked, grats, you did it well, if it didn't I'm sorry, maybe this wasn't for you, or this was a hard map, lets request it for Xantan to do it?
Our map was successfully unprotected by xdep. (and xantan/his guide) oh, and you!
Ok, time to modify the map or add cheats, or just learn from it, cause it should be successfully unprotected. (that was easy!)
4. Lets make sure our map works before we read on and or maybe attempt to add commands etc.
Try to open your map with the normal World Editor, save it somewhere else with what the old name of the map used to be, or whatever you want.
If it saved functionally without compile errors or crashing, or any errors of any kind, your map worked.
IF for any reason it did not work, I don't really wanna hear about it, I'm sorry this doesn't work for all maps, well then, lets request Xantan to do this map.
(for further testing to see if this map works before we waste time adding commands, put it in your download folder [c:\Program Files\Warcraft III\Maps\Download] by default, and play it, and test everything out thats normally in your map)
You can also open it with WEU (teh win editor)and try and do what is listed above if it fails, or if you wish to, but, I do reccomend you try WE (normal editor) first.
Adding Cheats or modifying your map
A few simple cheats/modifications you can look forward to adding/changing are:
5. Changing Your Maps Name
Have your map open in the world editor or world edit unlimited. Go to and click on the tab/word that sais Scenario, then click map Description, you should find your maps name here, along with a description and the auther of the map, free to change, you'll need to save the map as the change you do too, though.
6. Changing Your Maps Picture The little minimap preview when youre in the pre-ingame part of your map, AND OR the loading screen. Other images will not be explained, but, you may be able to do them on your own with the knowledge you will have from reading and learning below.
6A. The Map Preview Picture:
Direct yourself to the import manager in the world editor, Modile \ Import Manager (or hit f12)
The maps minimap preview is usually a 128x128 pixel picture, or 256x256, which has to be in the form of .tga. You are going to need a program to edit and or make a TGA picture, I suggest IrfanView, it is free and easy to get, just google it.
Now, in the import manager there will be a image file named war3mapPreview.tga exactly, right click it, select export file, and put it somewhere you will remember like on your desktop, now, open it up with irfanview, or make your own minimap preview in any program, then save it as a .TGA (targa image). The picture must be 128x128 or 256x256 pixels, and its usually smart not to make it too big of a image (size wise) to save space for other things in your map, as 4mb (4000 something kb) is the maximum size of a warcraft map (that can be played online).
Once you have made or edited your image to your liking, save it as war3mapPreview.tga (with the exact same spelling and capitalization.). Go back to the import manager, delete the old war3mapPreview.tga if you havn't already, just select it, and press the delete button, then, right click anywhere and select Import File. Direct the world editor to your picture you have created, and import it up.
One last step, you need to select the picture you have created and change its custom path, to do this, double click it, open it, select the box that sais use custom path, and then change the custom path to exactly: "war3mapPreview.tga"
That should look like this.
Then press the ok button, and you should have completed your minimap preview! congratulations :]
6B. The Map Loading Screen Picture:
Direct yourself to the import manager in the world editor, Modile \ Import Manager (or hit f12)
now loadingscreen names tend to vary, but, to find out what this map used as a loading screen, there are a few ways, then, we get to modify it! yayyy
More explanation to come.
7.Gold
Triggering is very easy for me, hopefully it can be easy to follow my instructions :]
Go into the trigger editor Module \ Trigger Editor (F4) Now hopefully theres some little white documents already as well as a yellow folder inside of your trigger editor already, if there isnt, your map has no triggers, either xdep didnt restore them, or you unprotected a melee map, if they have triggers, it should look something like this.
Now then, lets create a new trigger, a blank white page, by selecting New \ Trigger (Ctrl+T). You may name this trigger whatever you want, I suggest, naming it something like what we will be doing with triggers within it, Like, Gold, or something
Once you have created a new trigger and renamed it, it will look something like this, when you click on it.
Moving on to making actual triggers.
For events, you will probably want your trigger to function when someone types a command, maybe you want just player one red, maybe you want all players, I'm going to do all players, and I'm going to do when you type -gold as a substring, so that we can use it in a variable later!
So, Events, its the little flag at the top, or press Ctrl+E, we go down to Player - Chat Message, then, we leave player 1 red for now, then for types a chat message containing text, as you see, text is red, click that, and for the value type '-gold', then hit ok. Now, we want to change as an exact match, to A substring. after you have done all that, it should look like this.
Ok, now, to save time and instead of doing that over and over 12 times, we want to select the event that we just made, and press Edit, Copy, or Ctrl+C. Now, while staying clicked on it, press Edit, Paste. Or Ctrl+V. Paste it 11 times.
Now then, you should have a trigger so far that looks like this.
Good job, just changing of events now, and maybe a condition, and only one action to go.
Now we want to change those 11 copies we just made, so that it sais Player - Player 1-12 instead of just Player - Player 1 (red) so that anyone can trigger this trigger by typing -gold as a substring. So, we double click on the 2nd trigger, and change Player 1, to Player 2. Keep doing this until you have All 12 players done for the event. When you are finished, it should look like this.
Now then, we don't want any conditions, as conditions are sorta advanced and require prior triggers usually if we wanted them do certain specific things.
So, we want Actions now, what should take place when someone types -gold?
Ok, so, making a new action, hitting the little movie set thingy, or ctrl+A, we scroll down all the way to Player - Set Property. Select this, then hit ok. It should look like this at default. Ok, now we are going to modify it, as it doesnt make sense to give the player only 750 gold, and why a preset number, why not do -gold xx, and give him xx? And why would we give only player one gold?
Take the trigger action by double clicking it. Change "Player 1 (Red)" by clicking it, then selecting function, scrolling down, and selecting Event Response - Triggering Player. (This is the player that typed -gold thus triggering the trigger, thus being the triggering player). Now, leave current gold how it is, thats what we want.
Now the fun part, changing the number and using variables to determine which number to set the players gold. Click the defaulted 750, Select function, scroll down to Conversion - Convert String to Integer. Now, you'll see a bit below it sais Integer((Entered Chat String)) Click Entered chat string. Select function, scroll up to Substring. Select it, now, you'll see it sais Substring(String, 1, 5). Select String, and for string, Click string, select function, then scroll down to Event Response - Entered Chat String. Hit Ok. Now, you're probably wondering what 1, 5 is. This takes the 1st letter of the entered chat string, all the way to the fifth letter, so that would take "-gold" we don't want that, so, we want the 6th letter, as that is a blank, where you can put a number, and all the way to the 20th, so we can input as big a number as we want. so, click one, change it to 6. Hit ok, Click 5, change it to 20. Now, hit ok alot, and we are done! This is how it should look now.
Good job, we're finished with that trigger, now, how it works ingame, you type -gold xxxxx (for x use any number) oh, and type it to observers, we don't want others knowing your cheat!
8.Wood
Wood is pretty much the same as gold, we just change current gold to current lumber, and instead of -gold, we use -wood, I'm not going to explain how to do this, you can read through the Gold explanation to figure out exactly how, as its exactly the same, with different names.
[url="http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/4436 ... 1.jpg"Here is how wood will look when you are finished.[/url]
Moving on to stats and other fun little modifications.
9.Agility
Agility, now this is basically the same as gold or wood, we just use new words to trigger it, and we have to do a different trigger then Player - Set property, we would use Hero - Set Agility.
More explanation to come.
10.Strength
Str, now this is basically the same as gold or wood, we just use new words to trigger it, and we have to do a different trigger then Player - Set property, we would use Hero - Set Strength.
More explanation to come.
11.Intelligence
Int, now this is basically the same as gold or wood, we just use new words to trigger it, and we have to do a different trigger then Player - Set property, we would use Hero - Set Intelligence.
More explanation to come.
12.Leveling Up
Leveling, now this is basically the same as gold or wood, we just use new words to trigger it, and we have to do a different trigger then Player - Set property, we would use Hero - Set Level.
More explanation to come.
12.5(tobechangedlater) No ability Cooldowns and no Mana cost
It can be done, but, its probably hard to do it for a triggering player, so, we will probably have to do it for every player number / color that we want it for, ie -nocd on = for red -nocd2 on = blue, etc. (this will be added onto)
13. Other things wanted may be requested as a post below, few modifications and alot of cheats have been posted, so, ask for anything else.
Our map is finished (editing), or we failed.
Good job, and no problem, feel free to post any questions/comments/anything below.
If your map failed, (or didn't care to try to see if you would fail) please request this map to Xantan, cause, he likes to help, and he likes a challenge.
Ok, so now the question of optimizing, and or protecting this map, with:
14. vexorians wc3mapoptimizer 4.0.
I absolutely love this program, its so useful, it can shrink maps 60% and decrease load times, and lag by large amounts as well.
Not only that, this program can also protect your map fairly well so the outsider noobs cannot open your map. I usually protect my maps, as well as optimize them, to save space + not share my 1337 code!
15 . Test your map before playing it with others (if you wanted to do that)
Put your map in your Warcraft III\Maps\Downloads folder after naming it correctly (see step 5).
Now, open Warcraft III, test it online or on single player, should be in the downloads folder, and play it!
If everything works well, your triggering, protecting, optimizing, unprotecting, and anything else you may or may not have done worked out well, good job! Now remember, ALWAYS type your cheats, (if you made cheats), to observers, who wants others to hear your cheats? I sure don't
. Now go online and play this map with others if everything worked well. By the way, if your map failed; I'm terribly sorry, want to request it for Xantan to do after all?Our map is finished (completely), or we failed.
Good job, and no problem, feel free to post any questions/comments/anything below.
If your map failed, (or didn't care to try to see if you would fail) please request this map to Xantan, cause, he likes to help, and he likes a challenge.
Edit: As you can see, this is an unfinished guide, it is partly done, so please do not do it all yet, I will be finishing up and revising it later with the edit button. Enjoy what is here for now. You may however request any map that you want unprotected/modified/cheated below in the form of a post for now, Please do not do anything else unless you are commenting, this is unfinished.
Thanks + enjoy.
Edit2: I may also be uploading the files here for your download or at another site too if that is wanted/needed please include a post saying that, Thanks.
Feel free to post comments/questions/requests below.
Enjoy.
Edit3 I've pretty much outlined everything I plan on doing and showing people how to do in this thread, I may add more... I've done alot, the deprotection process of the guide is pretty much finished, still adding more however, you can, as a form of a post, request more be added to this guide etc, or, whatever you want, so please comment on what you would like, or what else you would want below, Thank you.
Edit4 Most of the modifications left out or not entirely explained are self explanatory, but, I will be adding onto those that I said I would be later, do be patient, it takes time, hope you can do what you wanted with what you have now! And remember, you can always request that I do the map for you!
More edits to come over time, Please be patient as I am sorta busy with a lot of things, but, I still have a priority or goal if that set to finish and improve this guide.
WAIT! Before you hit that post button, if you are posting a request on a map to be modified, deprotected, or cheats/whatever be added to a map, please read the request rules and post it in the correct section.
Thank you, any other type of post may be posted without reading if wanted, I suggest you do read, however. Yeah, thanks.
