Editing map with protection?

[patrick-the-bomb]

Alright, so as I have voiced before I play a lot of Island Defense. I've been reading on their forums that a BUNCH of people are seriously considering quitting because of what Panda has done to the map. I really want the community to continue and grow, so I thought I could take it upon myself to edit the map. Although I don't have too much JASS skill, I've been reading about it for the past few hours and think that I'd probably stick to GUI for a while lol.

Anyhow my question is this:
Island Defense is completely protected, and as I really, REALLY, don't want to have to go through the whole "restoration" process of this bull crap, can I edit things without deprotecting and fucking everything up?

I know I can edit the .j file and stuff like that. Is there any way that I can edit Terrain, and add/edit units in the map also?

[Senethior459]

Extract the war3map.w3* files
Import them into a blank map in WE
Edit
Export (not sure if this is possible, if not, save and extract)
Replace in original

war3map.w3* files:
war3map.j - Jass Triggers
war3map.w3b - Destructibles
war3map.w3d - Doodads
war3map.w3a - Abilities
war3map.w3t - Items
war3map.w3h - Buffs/Effects
war3map.w3q - Upgrades
war3map.w3u - Units
war3map.w3e - Terrain
war3map.wts - Strings

[patrick-the-bomb]

That works? Can't I just leave it all in the new map then if I'm just stealing it all from the old one? lol

[Senethior459]

Oh. Well, yeah, you can just leave it in the new map... Most people just want to make a few changes to the original.

[patrick-the-bomb]

Oh. Well, yeah, you can just leave it in the new map... Most people just want to make a few changes to the original.

Well, what if I plan on like... Editing it for a while? Like putting out my own versions and things. Also, how do I change the name of the map? hahah is it just like Map Description > Write in new name?

[patrick-the-bomb]

Sorry for double post.

Alright, so I'm having a bit of trouble with this whole thing.
When I extract the files, do I take ALL of them from the original and put them into the new one?
I did that, and I keep getting a WE fatal error. What's happening? lol

[Senethior459]

Don't put in the war3map.w3i. It's probably the cause of the problem.
If it still won't open with all but the .w3i inserted, then try just putting one .w3* in and opening it. If it doesn't fail, try another, and another, until you figure out which one makes it fail. Keep doing that until you've gone through them all. Then, put the ones that don't make it screw up in, and it should work!

[patrick-the-bomb]

That's quite the plan. However, what if something major is the problem? What if the JASS file or the unit file is the problem so when i open it there's no triggers or units? That kind of defeats the purpose of trying to edit it. Even if the terrain or "region" file is fucked, I'm still kind of boned...
Senthior, you have like an easier way for me to communicate with you? lol. MSN or maybe chat here?

EDIT: Ok, so I tried it without the .w3i and when it loaded up it couldn't load unit data. It said "unit data cannot be found" or something. I think it was unit data. It didn't give me a fatal error, but it still didn't open. Any more ideas?

[Syre]

Dont know if its gonna help ya out or not, but usually you need to delete the Attributes file from the map. Its a common overlook that sometimes doesn't allow maps to be loaded when you replace the .w3 files.

[patrick-the-bomb]

After it crashed the first time that was exactly what I thought. I went back and looked for it, but there wasn't one for me to delete...

Question- When I open the new map in MPQ Master, should I delete the base stuff in there, or just let it be? That could also be the problem no?