Patch + Current Mods

[Timskorn]

I was wondering how current mods will be affected by the patch? Can someone load the mod in a patched SC2, or will they experience some wonkiness unless the mod is brought up to date?

[pzgndr]

This is a good topic. Current games and mods are generally not compatible with a new version. Games will have to be restarted and mods will have to be updated. Since I've gone through this process more times than I can count during the development process, I'll share some insights.

First, prior to installing a patch over your current files, use the Export Data feature to save all of your existing data for a custom campaign(s). You may want to also zip all of your custom files just in case so you can go back to them if necessary. And perhaps rename your cutom campaign as campaign_old or something. Also, you might want to rename the templates directory to templates_old so you can check for changes.

After installing the patch, open a new campaign. I recommend saving it without doing anything else. This creates the campaign directory and default files. Then use the import data feature to get the old data. If you don't resize your map first, you'll get a message telling you what size it needs to be. So get your new map squared away and all your data imported. Save your work. You may or may not get some errors at this point.

Now comes some work. Edit your campaign.ini file to accept your customized localization.txt file and other stuff if applicable (sounds, bitmaps, interface). Use a text compare tool like ConText or something else to check for file structure changes in localization.txt and the event/AI scripts between what you imported in and what the new defaults look like. As you find differences, update your old files to the new format. Content doesn't change much, but a few little things here and there will be different. It took me less than half an hour to update an old campaign.

Reload the campaign in the Editor and be sure to update the event and AI scripts. Save your work. At this point, your old campaign should be updated for use in the new version. You might want to open a game and verify. After you're satisfied you have everything running OK, you can continue developing your custom campaign and/or playing it. After you're really satisfied everything is working fine, then you can go back and delete the unnecessary old files and directories.

Does this sound wonkish enough?? Any significant changes to the game and/or Editor with each patch will require similar updating of files. It's not as much of a pain as it used to be early in development, but there's is still some effort required. Hopefully this helps. If anyone has trouble or additional questions after the patch is released, one of us will respond.

[Hubert Cater]

After installing the patch, open a new campaign. I recommend saving it without doing anything else.

Great suggestions and I would only add one thing here as it should smooth out the process a little bit.

Once you've applied the patch and followed the previous steps listed above (backing up files etc.) do the following:

1) Open a new campaign using File->New

2) Set the new campaign map size to match the map size of your previous pre patch campaign.

3) Select File->Import and select the folder for the campaign in which you would like to import data files from. If you do not have the correct map size the Editor will inform you and you can then repeat step 2)

4) At this point, select Save and select the name of the older campaign you wish to update. This assumes you still have the original 'Campaigns' folder intact with the pre patch campaigns and subfolders. For example, let's say you had a file called '1939 Fall Weiss Custom'. Simply select this file when you are going to save.

WARNING: It will ask you if you would like to overwrite the scripts. Make sure you click "NO".

NOTE: If you click "YES" it will overwrite the existing scripts with the Template scripts. If you click "NO" it will use the existing scripts which is essentially what you want here.

5) At this point you have fully updated your campaign to the latest version and if there have been any script changes making previous scripts invalid, those scripts will not have been saved so you will need to take a look at the scripts via the Event viewer under Campaigns->Edit AI Scripts and/or Campaigns->Edit Event Scripts. In this case only the ACTIVATION#2 scripts will need to be slightly updated for full compatibility. The PLAN scripts can also be adjusted regarding the #STEAL flag (more options) but the current defaults will not raise an incompatibility error by the Editor.

I'll post this once again, including Bill's notes above as soon as the patch is about to be delivered.