War2xEd: the Unofficial Map Editor
version 5.51

Released on October 4^th, 1996 by Daniel Lemberg
© Copyright May 21^st, 1996 by Daniel Lemberg

1. Introduction

By using War2xEd, you can use every unit type in your PUD, including the expansion CD units, attack peons, rangers, and more!  You can also set the map terrain to swamplands (cheer), and edit everything to an extent you only dreamed of before.

You can use War2xEd no matter what version of WarCraft II you have, but if you use the swamplands terrain, the heroes from the expansion CD, or any of the Expansion AIs the resulting PUD files won't be useable unless you have WarCraft IIx.

Note: War2xEd is a 32 bit, Windows 95 program.  It will run under Windows 3.11 if you have Win32s version 1.3, but it will not run under Windows 3.1.

2. Using War2xEd

War2xEd is not meant to be used to create PUD files (although by 6.0 it should be able to).  Instead, it is meant to edit already fleshed out WarCraft II PUD files.  So you need to start by creating or modifying a PUD file using the WarCraft II map editor.  Important: if you add the swamp terrain to a PUD with War2xEd, you should change it back before reloading the PUD with the WarCraft II map editor, because otherwise the WarCraft II map editor will crash.

Load the PUD with War2xEd by clicking on the "Load File" button in  the bottom left corner.  If it finds any errors in the PUD, they will be reported and fixed.  There will most likely be some; several errors are introduced every time you save a PUD with the WarCraft II map editor, which can't stand the expansion pack heroes.   Then edit away!

A. The Button and Tool Bars

On the bottom of War2xed is a row of buttons.  The button with a single sheet of paper on it is the load button.  Click this to load a PUD file into the editor.  Right next door is the save button, which shows the sheet of paper going into a diskette.  The save button will update the PUD on your hard drive with the changes you have made.  Last in that section is an export button, which will save the PUD as a bitmap (the mini-map) and as a text file (a report about the PUD).

After these are two radio buttons and a check box. The radio buttons are labeled "Edit Units" and "Edit Terrain".  These change the behavior of the right mouse button, and determine whether units are displayed on the map. The check box is labeled “Show movement”. If checked, this overlays a colored grid on the map. This grid shows you how the terrain affects movement.

Over on the far lower right is the last group of buttons. The question mark brings up this help file and  the light bulb brings up a table depicting all the AI types.

You can also perform all these tasks with the tool bar, plus a few more: the Tools section of the tool bar brings up a tabbed dialog box with many useful functions, such as search and replace, and Files section has a Save As command. 

B. The Mega and the Mini Maps

First, the disclaimer.  You will note that your PUD looks slightly different in War2xEd than it does in the WarCraft II editor.  This is because they have ten or so icons for a geographic feature, while I only use one.  They can do this because they load their images from maindat.war, while I have to grab mine in a round about fashion, and then ship them with War2xEd.  If I kept all the details War2xEd would become very big, very fast!  Not to mention I would go bonkers from the cutting and pasting.  That being said, the map gives you a very good idea of what your PUD looks like.

Units on the map are depicted by their icons, allowing you to easily tell at a glance the difference between Teron Gorefiend and a regular Death Knight.  Each unit is surrounded by a box of their side's color.  Note: The only units that do not have a unique icon are the Attack Peasants and Attack Peons, which look like normal Peasants and Peons.

Floating above the mega-map is the mini-map.  The right half of the mini-map has a small map.  If you click on this, the mega-map will jump to that location.  The left half gives some information about the most recently selected square, which is framed on the mega-map with a bright cyan box.

a. Using “Edit Units” Mode

If you left click on a unit, it will be selected, and the unit's type, X and Y coordinates, and owner will be displayed next to the mini-map.  If the unit is a Gold Mine or Oil Well, the quantity in it will also be shown, otherwise an active/passive check box will appear.  If you make changes to any of this information, and want to keep those changes, click on the OK button before selecting another unit on the mega-map. The other button is a short cut to the “Edit Units” dialog.

If you right click on a unit in the mega-map, it will be deleted.  If  you right click on a blank spot of the mega-map a copy of the unit described next to the mini-map will be created there.  I still don't check to see if your unit is in an impossible place, such as a Peasant in the middle of the ocean; I'm getting around to it, promise 

Note: if WarCraft II runs into normal human or orc units (such as footmen and grunts) on the wrong side, it will convert them to the proper unit type for your race.  So if you stick a Dragon on the human side, don't be surprised when it shows up as a Gryphon rider.  However, and  this is important, heroes are not converted, you can put them on either side!

b. Using “Edit Terrain” Mode

During “Edit Terrain” mode, all units will be hidden. Left clicking on a square displays its X and Y coordinates, the terrain type and how the terrain behaves, as well as a group of check boxes in the lower right. Also, you will notice a check box labeled “No flying units”, which makes the square impassable to air units.

The terrain type is a drop down list of terrain types. Chose one to change the tile from, say, forest to mountains. Complimenting the terrain type is the behavior type, also a drop down list, which tells units how to move through a square and peasants whether they can build a building there. For example, if you change a water tile from “Treat as water” to “Treat as ground”, then naval units will no longer be able to travel over it, but land units can. There are a couple of entries that need explaining. “Treat as bridge” means that both land and naval units can travel over it, “Treat as space” means no units can enter it, and “Treat as rough” means air units only. Important: “Treat as walls” should only be used for actual wall squares, or the game will crash when that tile is “destroyed”.

The check boxes tell you which quarters of a tile have that type of terrain on it, or, for walls, which directions have other walls.  For example, a wall with the upper and left boxes checked would a corner.  Note: the Light  Ground and Space terrain have to take all of the tile; to make a tile which borders Light Ground, use a partial Dark Ground or Light Coast instead.

To keep the changes you have made to a square, click on the OK button.

If you right click on the mega-map, a copy of the terrain described next to the mini-map will be created there.

C. The Map and Upgrades Dialog

This map dialog is fairly simple.  In the top left corner is a box with the name of the PUD file, and some basic information.  Beneath it is a box with radio buttons for each terrain type.  To switch to a new terrain, just click on it.  In the bottom of the left hand side is a text box in which you can enter the description for your PUD.  Your description can be up to 31 characters long.

To the right is the Upgrades section, which also is very straightforward.  Just select an upgrade with the list box, and then enter its cost in time, gold, lumber, and oil. The check box lets you enable or disable the upgrade. People can still click on the upgrade, but nothing happens.

You can use the load and save buttons in the Upgrades section to load and save Unit Files, which are files containing a full set of unit statistics and upgrades.  This is useful because you probably have a few favorite configurations, mages disabled for example, that you use over and over again.  Once you have set up the units once, you can save that setup as a file, and then load them up into as many PUDs as you want!  Note: Unit Files are for convenience only, they do not have to be distributed with your PUD.  War2xEd comes with one Unit File, "default.unt", which contains all of the default statistics for each unit.  Note: "default.unt" is loaded automatically whenever War2xEd finds invalid unit stats in a PUD, so think twice before saving over it!

D. The Edit Units Dialog

Wow, lots of fun stuff here!  In the top left is a list box with the name of the unit you are currently editing.  Also, you will note there is another load and save button for Unit Files.  Remember that Unit Files store unit statistics, as well as upgrades (see The Map and Upgrades Dialog for more information).

In the Properties section, you can set the hit points, sight range, and point value of the unit.  Sight range is normally higher than attack range, but doesn't have to be.  Oddly enough, your units don't have to be able to see to shoot.  Note: sight has a maximum value of 9, while range has a maximum value of 255!  Your score for a scenario is calculated by adding together the point value of all the units you have killed, plus a 500 point bonus if you win the scenario.

In the AI section, you can set the reaction ranges for both computer and human players, and the priority of the unit.  Priority sets the value that all units place on killing this unit type.  The higher the value, the more intensely they will go after these guys. For example, Danath and a footman rush a guard tower. The guard tower will fire at whichever has the higher priority (usually Danath).  Reaction ranges determine how close other units can get before this unit will react to them, by charging, casting exorcism, etc.

Then there is boring Cost section.  This sets the cost in gold, lumber, and oil to build the unit.  Cost is done in groups of ten, so War2xEd will change your entry to be evenly divisible by ten.  Maximum cost in gold, lumber, or oil is 2550.

In the Missile section you can do two things: change the attack range of the unit, and set the projectile that the unit uses.  Different projectiles have varying properties.  For example, ballista bolts cannot hit air units, dragon breath does massive collateral damage, and flame shield creates a flame shield around the target.

In the Armament section, you can set the Basic, Piercing, and Armor ratings of the unit.  To calculate the average damage a unit does per hit against another unit, use this simple formula:

average damage = 3/4 * (X + Piercing damage)
where X is (Basic Damage - target's Armor) or 0, whichever is larger.

In the Time section you can set the building time and the decay time. Decay is super fun to play with.  Basically, it sets the amount of time it takes for the unit to decay away, like Skeletons and Eyes of Kilrogg do!  Setting decay to 0 means no decaying occurs, and setting it to one means that the unit will decay as soon as it is built, effectively disabling it.  On my machine, each extra point of decay over 1 allows the unit to live six seconds more.  Important: decay only applies to units you build or gain via a spell, not that you start with!  Note: decay works for buildings too!

One of the more interesting groups is the Can Target section.  This section has three check boxes: land, air, and sea.  By modifying these boxes, you can control which units this type of unit can attack.  The type of missile you are using can affect this: ballista bolts, catapult rocks, and large cannonballs cannot target air units.

Behavior changes how the unit acts.  For example, setting the behavior to “peasant” means that the unit will run for the hills whenever a fight brews up.

The last sections, on the right hand side, show the flags for the unit.  This looks different depending on whether the current unit is a building or not.  For buildings, you can set whether peons can bring gold, lumber, or oil to the building, and also if that building type is built on the shore or not.  Note: if you change a building so that you can bring gold to it, you can also bring everything else as well.  For other units, you can set whether the unit can bombard (like catapults and battleships), if it can cast spells (has a mana bar), if it can explode (right click on foe and kaboom!), if they can upgrade their armor and weapons, if it is organic (affected by spells such as polymorph and bloodlust), or is volatile (i.e. explodes when invisibility or unholy armor is cast on it).  Note: air and sea units can not be blown up, although they can explode.  For all units, you can set whether they are submarines or can see submarines, and whether the unit is undead (i.e. affected by exorcism).  Note: submarines cannot attack land units for some silly reason.  Also, submarine buildings are a little different than submarine units.  Submarine buildings can still be seen by all units, but can only be attacked if a unit that can see submarines is within visual range.

Armor and weapon upgrades are done according to that unit's normal upgrade scheme if there is one, and if there isn't, according to the blacksmithy.  For example, if you give a ranger the ability to upgrade both weapons and armor, the weapon upgrade will occur when you research arrows, and the armor upgrade, since rangers can't normally upgrade armor, will default to the armor that you upgrade at the blacksmithy.

E. The Replace Dialog

This is a fairly powerful search and replace tool.  To perform the search and replace, describe the units you want to replace on the left side, specify what you want to replace these units with on the right side, and then click on the replace button.

On the top of the left side is a list box of unit types.  If you only want to replace one type of unit, select it here.  Otherwise, leave this box blank.  Underneath are four text boxes, labeled "X … to …" and "Y … to …".  These set the X and Y range that is checked for units to replace.  The default setting is the entire map.  Note: you can also set the range by clicking and dragging on the mega-map.  Beneath these is a list box in which you can select the side the unit is on, from red to neutral.  Leave this blank if you want to replace all sides.  Nearby are a text box for entering the quantity of resources a gold mine or oil well has and an active/passive check box.  The check box's default setting is grayed-out, which matches either active or passive units.

The right side is similar to the left side, with two important differences.  First, a blank list box or a grayed-out check box tells War2xEd to keep the same statistic as unit that is being replaced.  Second, there are no X and Y boxes; each unit stays in its original spot.  So the original setting, all blank and grayed on both sides, would find every unit in the PUD, and replace them with themselves.  Real useful, huh?

In the lower right are two buttons.  The first, holding a pencil and erasing some data, clears the fields back to their original state.  The second, which is fingering through some data, performs the search and replace.

You can use this dialog for many things.  Say you decide that you want the red side to be violet.  Simply search for red and replace with violet.  Or what if you put Skeletons with the WarCraft II map editor everywhere you want Attack Peasants?  Set the units types to Skeletons on the left and Attack Peasants on the right.  You can also do less sweeping changes, such as setting all the blue Footmen to Active.  Anyway you look at it, this dialog will save you time, so use it!

F. The Players Dialog

This is straightforward, if a bit condensed.  The dialog is broken into eight rows, one for each player.  The leftmost column is a check box; if checked, that player is an orc.  Next column identifies the controller of the player.  If the player is unused, than the columns to the right of this will be invisible.  Next is the computer AI, and then the gold, lumber, and oil that the player starts with.

There are a lot of AI choices!  83 to be exact.  The standard Air, Land, and Sea attack you should be familiar with.  Passive means they just sort of sit there.  The AIs from the original game refer to a scenario, and sometimes even a color in that scenario.  This means that the player will act just like the players did in that scenario.  The expansion CD AIs are simply sorted by number, from Expansion 1 to Expansion 51.  You can see a table of all the AIs and what they have been observed to do by clicking on the light bulb button next to the help button that displays this file.

Important: If you don't have a start location for each player in use, then the game will crash if you select "One Peasant Only".

3. Tricky stuff

I virtually guarantee I've been using this longer than you have.  So here are some tips.

You can do sieges by setting the “Is submarine flag” on towers.  Then, give the “Can see submarine” flag to sappers and siege equipment.

Paladins and Ogre-Mages aren't going to start with any spells.  You can still make good use of them for a) that coolness factor and b) by editing their attributes.

Cho'gall is the only unit that starts with all its spells.  If you want a side to start out with blood-lusted Ogres, tone down Cho'gall and make an army of Cho'gall clones!

You can make gold mines, oil patches, etc. belong to particular players.  That gives that  player a near permanent scout range around that object.  Note: although any one can gather gold from an owned gold mine, the default (right click) action for enemy peasants is to attack the mine.  Also, no one, owner or otherwise, can build oil wells on owned oil patches, and they can only be destroyed by ships.

Attack Peons, used in WarCraft II during the "Peasant Rebellion" scenario, cannot be distinguished from normal Peons by clicking on them.  However, they can have different stats, and cannot gather resources.  Consider them militia; although they don't have an attack button their default action is to attack, and they will attack automatically if threatened.  I'm sure you can think of a few good uses for a Grunt that looks exactly like a Peon, grin.

Although submarines can't attack land units, spell casting submarines can!  Imagine submarine Death Knights, with the "Can see submarines" flag removed from everything but Eyes of Kilrogg.  Shudder!  Another fun thing to do is to remove the "Is submarine" flag from turtles, and let them attack land units.  Give them about 20 armor  to make up for the loss.

Submarine explosive scout sheep... need I say more?

Alleria looks great with bows of lightning, Skeletons kick with Death Touch, Zuljin loves lobbing Giant Turtle missiles, and Teron Gorefiend chills with Daemon Fire, but give Dragon Breath to Korgath Bladefist and zowie!!!

You can "disable" units by setting the decay on them to 1, which is such a short time period that they may as well not be there.  Since the decay doesn't apply to units that start on the board, you can give each player some of the "forbidden" units to start with, knowing that they will never have any more.  In addition, you can reduce the power of game-busting units by giving them a reasonable decay rate of 5 minutes or so.  This will prevent stock piling of nasty units.

You can have a form of mission objectives by playing for points, and then setting the point value of certain key targets very high, or alternately, everything else to zero.

You can have stealth distance attacks by setting the missile type to "No missile". They will literally never know what hit them, grin cackle grin.  Can we say, range 9 Rangers with invisible arrows?

Use you imagination, and you can make some incredible PUD's!

4. Identifying War2xEd PUD files

This isn't going to be regulated or anything like that, but I ask you to put a 2x somewhere in your map description.  Why?  So people know not to use these PUD's on older WarCraft versions, or if they load it up in the map editor, they will know not to save it, which could do funky stuff with the units the map editor doesn't support.  In addition, it will tell people which editor you used, in case others pop up that are somehow incompatible with this one.  Anyway, putting a 2x in there would be a good idea.

5. For further help

My e-mail address is lemberg@bayserve.net.  Send me a line if you are confused, if you think you have found a bug, or if you have found something about PUDs that I don't know.  In addition, I have a Web site at http://www.bayserve.net/~lemberg.  You can download the latest version of War2xEd and the FAQ there, as well as some War2x PUDs and Unit Files.

Thanks for reading the documentation!