How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

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noy0003
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How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by noy0003 »

Hi. I'm a big fan of Doom. Have been since I was about, 7 years old. I only learnt about other Doom engines this year, and ZDoom is one of my favourites. I have 2 favourites, ZDoom and JDoom (Doomsday Engine and HAS to be 3D, a.k.a JDoom Resource Pack). I see a lot of .wads with different monsters and weapons, and I've always wondered; how do I edit monsters (looks, damage, size, and health), and weapons (looks, and damage)??? Please answer. I'd love to know.

Also, please check out my other forums.
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Cutmanmike
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Cutmanmike »

[wiki]DECORATE[/wiki] is what you need but you'll need a wad editor to do that. I recommend [wiki]SLumpEd[/wiki]
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Phobus
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Phobus »

I'll make the assumption that you are fairly competent in learning new things, and tell you this much:

If you look up DECORATE on the ZDoom wiki, you can see everything I've needed to learn DECORATE myself, and hopefully it can do the same for you.

DECORATE is the code that you can use to create new monsters, wepaons and things in general, and is fairly simple once you get to grips with it.
noy0003
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by noy0003 »

Cutmanmike wrote:[wiki]DECORATE[/wiki] is what you need but you'll need a wad editor to do that. I recommend [wiki]SLumpEd[/wiki]
Ok, where do I get DECORATE, and SLumpEd?
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Enjay »

You don't need a WAD editor to use DECORATE. DECORATE is merely a text file. Nowadays, you don't even need to put your project into a WAD (except for any actual levels that you make) because a zip file will do.

In fact, when you are testing stuff, it's easy just to add your DECORATE lump to the command line:

zdoom -file decorate.txt
noy0003
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by noy0003 »

Enjay wrote:You don't need a WAD editor to use DECORATE. DECORATE is merely a text file. Nowadays, you don't even need to put your project into a WAD (except for any actual levels that you make) because a zip file will do.

In fact, when you are testing stuff, it's easy just to add your DECORATE lump to the command line:

zdoom -file decorate.txt
???????????????????????????????????????
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Enjay »

noy0003 wrote:???????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????

In other words, what bit are you questioning?
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Zippy
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Zippy »

I think he didn't understand a single word of it.

DECORATE is not a tool. That means it isn't some program you run to do monster/weapon editing. It is a language. That means you write text, just like you're doing to make posts, in a certain way which describes the monsters/weapons and is understandable by ZDoom.

That's why you're supposed to read about [wiki]DECORATE[/wiki] on the wiki, and follow a lot of those links, and figure it out. People here will help, sure, but we're not holding classes.
noy0003
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by noy0003 »

Zippy wrote:I think he didn't understand a single word of it.

DECORATE is not a tool. That means it isn't some program you run to do monster/weapon editing. It is a language. That means you write text, just like you're doing to make posts, in a certain way which describes the monsters/weapons and is understandable by ZDoom.

That's why you're supposed to read about [wiki]DECORATE[/wiki] on the wiki, and follow a lot of those links, and figure it out. People here will help, sure, but we're not holding classes.
I asked a simple question, and I want a simple answer. I just want to know a tool that can edit weapons and monsters. I'll go from there.
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by wildweasel »

I asked a simple question, and I want a simple answer. I just want to know a tool that can edit weapons and monsters. I'll go from there.
Try Notepad. That's a tool that can edit weapons and monsters.
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Ninja_of_DooM »

Guys, learn to use less jargon when dealing with newbies. We don't all have several years experience in Doom editing. The least you can do is make it clear to them.

SlumpED would be the choice utility for making DECORATE monsters and weapons. You might find some tutorials in the ZDoom wiki. If not, someone else is bound to be able to help you there.

Now to go into detail. If you want to make new weapons and monsters you have to make the model first of all, obviously. Monsters, items and weapons in Doom are make up of sprites rather than 3D models. But that's an aside here.

Now once you have the sprites, you need to give the model life and stuff, like how it shoots if it's a weapon, how it attacks and how tough it is if it's a monster. This all goes into a file called DECORATE. This is where you enter all the data that make new monsters and stuff work. It can be made from a simple .txt file in notepad. All you do is enter the data into the .txt file then save it as 'DECORATE.'

Once you're done entering your DECORATE data you stick it into your .wad file and fire up the game. If you're using a program like XWE, that opens .wad files to let you see what's in there, you can actually edit the DECORATE entry when it's in the .wad file rather than having to keep the DECORATE file externally and loading it into the .wad each time you want to make changes. :)
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Enjay »

Ninja_of_DooM wrote:SlumpED would be the choice utility for making DECORATE monsters and weapons. You might find some tutorials in the ZDoom wiki. If not, someone else is bound to be able to help you there.
No it really wouldn't IMO. Why get a Doom specific tool when what you need is something that can edit text files? Get a text editor that you are happy with. If you already have one, that's the best tool for editing DECORATE files. There is nothing in Slumped that makes writing a text file easier than a dedicated text editor does.

Jargon? Sure, there's a bit being used but the bottom line is, editing a monster is a reasonably complex thing. Most people don't use an editor for it (but I vaguely remember someone writing one that could at least do some basic stuff).

To answer the question:
There is not a tool to make monsters.
Monsters are defined in text files.
The text file is called a decorate lump.
The syntax for the text file can be found in the Wiki along with countless examples.
There are a few ways to load the text file - the main ones are from within a WAD file (which is where slumped could be useful), from within a zip file (where any zipping util will be useful) or directly in Zdoom from the command line where no tool is needed.
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by XutaWoo »

Although Enjay, some of us like to load a wad with DECORATE instead of a text file/.zip with text file. Plus, SLumpEd is a generally better tool due to the features it has.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by Enjay »

If Slumped is not a fully featured text editor (and I don't know if it is or not - and perhaps it even calls notepad or an editor of your choice - I don't know), then it isn't as good for editing text lumps as as a fully featured text editor.

I'm not saying it's not useful. I'm not saying that if you like to edit a text lump from within a WAD it isn't a good choice. What I am saying is that a newbie to Zdoom editing who may already have a text editor of choice, who may be mystified by the intricacies of working with WAD files and who is more likely to be familiar with zip files would probably find editing a text file (which, after all, is all that DECORATE is - no special magic) with a program that they are already familiar with easier than grabbing a Doom-specific tool, having to learn its own particular quirks and at the same time possibly avoid a misconception that there is something special about DECORATE and that it has to be edited with something like Slumped.

Now that was a long run-on sentence. :lol:

[edit]OK, on a quick trial, Slumped does seem pretty good and I may well keep it on my HD and take the time to get to know it. The text editor is functional enough, but it certainly isn't any where near as fully featured as the text editor that I use (Textpad). Also, as a minor aside, when asking Slumped to filter the lumps in a multi lump WAD and only show me the text entries, it showed me a blank list, despite the fact the WAD in question had dehacked, sndinfo, sndseq amdn mapinfo lumps. Also, the (apparent) lack of a quick search like XWE and DeePsea is a pretty significant drawback for me.

[edit2]Oh, and to answer one of noy's previous questions

http://slumped.mancubus.net/
noy0003
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Re: How Do I Edit Monsters And Weapons?

Post by noy0003 »

XutaWoo wrote:Although Enjay, some of us like to load a wad with DECORATE instead of a text file/.zip with text file. Plus, SLumpEd is a generally better tool due to the features it has.
I got SLumpEd, but it says exactly: This application has failed to start because MSVCP71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

What do I do to get it to work? Re-installing it (or re-downloading it) won't work.
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