*** WARNING! Though highly unlikely, like all modifications to the game, this could potentially give blizzard a reason to ban you. Please use at your own risk. ***
STC by pzea
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/lsupz/finally_uploaded_rstarcraft_interviews_dustin/ Interview where Dustin says that they support the mod. It's just vocally, but I thought I'd post this up anyways. This isn't a guarantee Blizz won't ban you somehow, but it strongly suggests that you have nothing to fear. No one has been banned yet for modifying anything. Just stating this warning so that you don't blame me if Blizz has a change of heart.
To those wondering why I'm not updating much anymore. It's because I'm limited by the current tools, mainly the 3d importer/exporter. Once the HOTS tools are released, I'll be able to edit a lot more things and hopefully make the mod even better.
The last patch stopped it from working again. Sooo....
Alright, here's what can be done. Please back up your enUS.SC2Assets file that's located in Program Files/Starcraft II/Mods/Liberty.SC2Mod (Not the similarly named Multi one since it no longer works there). Now that it's backed up and safe, here's what to do.
Double click on the mpq editor and click on the top left button that says OPEN. now locate the enUS.SC2Assets file inside Program Files/Starcraft II/Mods/Liberty.SC2Mod(the one you just backed up). For the love of all that is holy, please remember, NOT THE MULTI folder. Now that it's open, you will see a folder called Assets. Now download STC from the link i gave and you will see that it too has an Assets folder. So here's what you need to do. The contents of the STC need to go INTO the enUS.SC2Assets. So just drag in the Assets folder inside STC right to the mpq editor. It might ask if you want to replace stuff, say "yeah".
now CLOSE the mpq editor before you start SC2. Or you will experience very weird stuff, like probes being spheres and crap. You can go ahead and try this if you're curious, but otherwise close it and then start SC2.
Try it out, play a few matches, have fun, and leave me feedback in the thread[/spoiler]
Alt+F green and red are always going to be a lot stronger than the regular colors. This mod was made with the aim to make the default colors better. The Alt+F were already pretty strong. The problem is that as spectators, when we watch two guys duke it out in the NASL for example, Alt+F is not an option. And even if it was, it would limit us to watching players play in 2 colors only. So focusing on Alt+F colors wasn't the way to go. So with this mod I am concentrating on the regular colors, the red and blue in ladder, and all the other colors you can pick in custom games. When people play and use the Alt+F colors plus this mod, the colors are going to be very strong. Some people may like that, but others will be turned off by how strong the colors are.
I'm doing this to show how sc2 could become an even better spectator sport with the help of stronger team color.
Streams that use these texturesmight need some serious updating, but I don't keep up with streams much anymore)
I think sc2 needs stronger team color. It's not too bad while playing(especially since you can ALT+F), but when watching a stream that isn't 1080 things can appear messy. Ive been modding sc2 textures since beta, just playing around making units look different, but I figured since I wanted more team color in the game, I'd just try doing it myself.
I figure this could help people with sight problems, or people who just find sc2 team colors to sometimes be confusing. Zealots, Lings and Banelings were pretty hard to distinguish sometimes in mirror matchups for example.
I made the teamcolor stronger for all units and buildings, and then added more team color to units and structures I felt needed more. (For example, I made the team color on the stalker stronger, and it seemed fine. But the stalker doesn't have much team color on one of its sides, so when it would turn, it would again be confusing. So i added team color to that side).
(OUTDATED)ingame(All these pics are without ALT+F, meaning when you go into ALT+F mode, team colors will be even stronger.) + Show Spoiler +
This isn't finished(somethings I plan on still changing), and I will keep updating it as I change things. I'm trying to not change the look of things too much, but simply make things more clear to the eye, which I think is important for a spectator sport. I think eventually Blizzard will update their teamcolors to be stronger, but until then I'm gonna play around with it and have some fun.
I decided to put up other things I've done here. The reason, is that I don't want to clog TL with threads of mods. Since there is not modding section I'd rather just put it all in here for people to check it out. I'll add more stuff later.
Classic BW Probe I originally made this probe for the wonderful SC2BW mod that MavercK made. But I find myself using it instead of the default probe a lot. Brings back all the BW memories of me getting eaten alive on ICCUP
If you are using my color mod, or any other mod i made, then you will have to open this mpq with an mpq editor and merge it with the one already in your LibertyMulti folder. If you are not using any other mod, then simply drag this mpq to your LibertyMulti and it shouldn't overwrite anything.
Playing with Bnet Sounds! Edited bnet sounds so I get a friendly greeting when I log in. And also a message informing me that my troops are ready for combat once a match is found.
DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/?9dng3tmsdcspd9c Instructions: Drag the mpq file located inside the zip, to your StarcraftII/Mods/LIbertMulti.SC2mod/ ***MAKE SURE you put it in LibertyMULTI, not just Liberty.
If you already have an mpq named the same in that folder, then you already have some mod that uses this mpq, such as my Stronger Team Color Mod. If this is the case, you will have to open both mpqs with an mpq editor, and merge the files from this mpq into the other.
To use it, you need to take out the dds files from the zip you downloaded(drag them to your desktop) and then open the enUS.SC2Assets.mpq(the one in your LibertyMulti.SC2Mod) with an mpq editor. Inside the mpq, go to Assets/Textures/
Drag the dds files into there
Close the mpq editor and that's it.
If you don't have an mpq named that in the LibertyMulti.SC2Mod folder, then either create an mpq named that with the mpq editor and create the locations needed, or download Stronger Team Color and then you'll have it by installing it. This of course forces you to use the other mod so the best way to install just this is to just make the mpq yourself.
As for the pylons, I'll have to organize them and upload them some other time.
Last edit: 2012-05-13 10:44:34
Kill the Deathball
Mangemongen Sweden. April 26 2011 22:08. Posts 120
This is a great initiative, I've thought about this alot while watching streams. Specifically zerglings and banelings is just really, really hard to distinguish sometimes.
Also, (and why I think we might see something like this) is the fact that is makes the game more colourful, and that appeals to most. Not the hardcore, playing in a dark room gamers, but they are a minority (as always).
Last edit: 2011-04-26 22:10:17
ScrubS Netherlands. April 26 2011 22:10. Posts 434
Personally, I like it on the units, but not on the structures. IMO the structures are a bit ugly now and you only really need this during battles. Would that be possible?
looks alot better both for units and buildings (units more). would be nice if there was an option to switch to strong colors so even if players dont want to play like that observers could stream games in deeper color.
I support this. The color on some units (e.g. banshees, even uncloaked) is really hard to recognise. Small units in mirror matches (e.g. zealots) look also pretty similar to me.
Besides playing this would be a huge benefit for observing/watching streams I feel!
GagnarTheUnruly United States. April 26 2011 22:31. Posts 655
I think the art direction for SC2 was great, but I still support this. It would make it easier and more fun to watch (and play) matches with more defined colors. At the very least it should be a display option for multiplayer.
Afaik colors were toned down during the alpha due to a ton of people claiming that the game looked too much like WC3/too childish. Which was true to some extent and I think Blizzard found a good balance to it.
While your changes are much more tasteful than what I saw during the alpha, I think the current colors are fine. I don't remember experiencing any difficulties discerning which unit belongs to who. Of course, I won't object if they decided to enhance the colors a bit either. It's a delicate balance though. I'm probably a noobish scrub for caring about things such as this, but I like my Starcraft dark and gritty.
I loved some of the pictures, but some really looked like WC3. I think this would really help, as long as Blizzard puts some thinking into it and balance the tone of the colours, making it stronger, but not enough to turn it into WC3
"A coward is not someone that runs from a battle knowing he will lose. A coward is someone who challenges a weak knowing he will win."
Yea this is pretty cool. Don't feel like the adjustments for the buildings are necessary but the unit colors are much easier to discern and look decent too.
There was once a dream that was Esports. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... Now is the time to make that dream a reality!
I think it would be a great change, especially PvP. Changing laser color for each team would also be amazing. I think red vs blue lasers would just make stalker battles fun to look at and colossus vs colossus battles wouldn't look so weird.
I think especially Protoss is affected by this, so much golden/blue on every structure and unit by default. :/ Especially Stalker/Zealot vs Stalker/Zealot can get very confusing with the current colour schemes, imo - I think it looks much clearer with your setting.
Only complaint I would have is that the marauders got too much colour, at a quick glance, it's really hard to distinguish them from marines when they are bunched up.
legatus legionis Netherlands. April 26 2011 23:24. Posts 548
Love it, really good idea for all the right reasons. Especially what you said with compressed or lower resolution vods, that's so true. For me the biggest blur is when it's zvz ling roach vs ling roach for example. Partially because they are pretty close range units, it just becomes a mess with everything running everywhere and I literally go, WTF! I have no clue wtf is going on right now... and I just wait until I see the units stream one way and I'm like ohhh ok, so that guy must've won the battle. Similar story with pvp zealot stalker running around in circles. You notice the stalkers but the zealots.. no clue.
In other games I think they do this. CS for example for the spectator client they use different textures that give the CT's like a blue bulletproof vest and the T's a red one. Here's a picture: + Show Spoiler +
But yea I like it a lot, I think they should add it to the observer mode as an option or something. Extra color or whatever is the best way to implement it. I know you said to refrain from judging the models so I won't but it is very important that it's done properly. It does make the game feel different and it matters a lot which part of the models you start highlighting or put emphasis on. Here's to hoping they will implement it!
Also what alt+F mode, I don't know what that is? :O
I've complained in the past about team colours being to difficult to distinguish, as well as individual units being harder to pick out in battles than in BW. I've sniped my teammates units more than once in team games - the problem is especially prevalent with protoss (sorry, random teammate :/). This is utterly superb in almost all aspects! The one trouble I have with these textures is regarding marauders - they are a little too hard to pick out against marines like this, like the previous poster pointed out.
A dream would be blizzard having a toggle in the graphics option screen where you could choose "enhance team colours" or suchlike as an opt-in, so that people who like the current colour scheme are unaffected. A win-win for players.