Data Editor Theory

Data Editor Theory

Unit

The Unit is the primary object for any unit in Starcraft 2.

Important Fields

• Ability - Abilities +: This dictates what your unit can and cannot do. I suggest you add 'Move' and 'Attack' to all your units, as a minimum.
• Combat - Weapons +: This is where you link what Weapons this unit uses. If your unit has no weapon, it can have no attack.
• Cost - Cost: This is where you say how much it costs to produce this unit in Minerals, Vespene Gas, Terrazine and a Custom Resource.
• Movement - Acceleration: This says how quickly your unit reaches top speed. All units in Starcraft 2 Melee and Campaign use 1000.
• Movement - Collide : This will add collision to your unit. Air units tend to have no collision, but Ground units typically do.
• Movement - Deceleration: The opposite of Acceleration. This will make your unit slow down when it reaches the point of a move order.
• Movement - Plane Array: What the unit is classified. Air or Ground. Or Both (like the Colossus unit).
• Movement - Speed: The move speed of a unit. This typically varies between 1 and 5.
• Stats - Life Armour: The amount of armour the unit has (for example, Zealots start with 1 Life Armour).
• Stats - Life Maximum: The maximum amount of life a unit can have (Marines have 45, Combat Shield adds 10 to this number)
• Stats - Life Regeneration Rate: The amount of life the unit recovers each second (Zerg units gain 0.2734 life each second)
• Stats - Life Starting Amount: The amount of life a unit begins with, when it is trained I presume.
• Stats - Shield: The exact same as Stats - Life, except for Shields.
• Stats - Energy: The exact same as Stats - Life, except for Energy.
• Stats - Race: This is usually for organisational purposes within the editor. Using this field is not necessary but is considered good practice.
• Stats - Sight Radius: This is how far your unit can see. Without this, he won't be able to attack!
• Stats - Supply: The supply used or given by a unit (Marines give -1 and Supply Depot gives 8)
• Stats - Name: What the unit is called in the game (Zergling, Marine, Hydralisk, Brutalisk etc...)

For a complete list of all the fields found under the "Units" tab, please follow this link.

Actor

There are over 60 different Actor Types in the Galaxy Editor - and most of these types have 10+ 'Based on Properties' In short, there are a lot of actors because an actor is used for pretty much anything you see in game.

This list below follows the premise that you are creating an actor for a unit (such as a custom Marine or Zealot). For more detailed information please seek out this tutorial on creating a unit from scratch. This list is for a Actor Type: Unit with Based On: GenericUnitBase with type equal to Not Doodad copied from Marauder.

• Token - Unit Name: This field is crucial to linking your Actor to the Unit it represents. Typically you create a unit first and then create the Actor for it. This field should be set to the Unit you wish this actor to portray in-game.
• Animation - Walk Animation Speed: This is a 'real' value field and determines how quickly the Actor (NOT THE UNIT) walks. Purely animation based. Please see Unit Section for information regarding a units actual speed.
• Art Model: This is the Model object type which represents your unit.
• Art Model (Build): This field determines the Model object type which represents the unit when it is in construction. Primarily this is used for buildings being constructed and Protoss Warp-In's.
• Art Model (Placement): This field is what the unit looks like before it is placed in-game. Usually used for constructions and as above, Protoss Warp-In's.
• Art Model - Scale: This 'real' value determines the Size of the actor's model. 1.00 is equal to 100%, so, 1.50 would mean the unit is portrayed 50% larger in game.
• Art Model - Random Scale Range: This value alters the Scale of the model used between a value determined in this field. This is typically used in doodads (so that tree's are not all the same size etc...)

/// this section is unfinished... please refer to this tutorial for more detailed information - until this section is completed.

Weapon

A Weapon is the primary object required for giving a unit an attack in Starcraft II. Weapons typically inherit a variety of effects.

Important Fields

• Effect - Effect: This field determines what effect the weapon has. Usually this is a Launch Missile or Damage effect.
• Stats - Period: This is the amount of in-game time the weapon has to wait before firing again, think of it as a cooldown for the attack.
• Stats - Random Delay: This field modifies the Period by a minimum and maximum amount - so that when groups of units are firing it seems more realistic.
• Stats - Range: This is the range, in 'units' which the weapon can fire up to. 1 is melee (Zergling / Zealot), and 5 is average (Marine) , 13 is long range (Siege Tank - Siege Mode)
• UI - Icon: This field sets the image which is displayed for the weapon. Good map-making polish usually involves spending a lot of time picking the right image for the weapon.
• Weapon - Name: This is what the weapon is called in-game and in-editor.
• Weapon - Options +: This field allows you to set various settings for the weapon. Please see the detailed Weapon Tutorial for more detail.
• Weapon - Target Filters: This field determines what the weapon can and cannot fire at. Generally, dead, missile, hidden and invulnerable are excluded.

Effect

An Effect is a secondary object and can be linked to Abilities and Weapons.

It would be nearly impossible to give you a concise list of all important Effect fields here, so please refer to the detailed Effects Tutorial here.

See Also

• Data Editor
• Data Editor Tips