Custom Modifications




	Gundam Century in full swing.

Most of the custom scenarios and campaigns use the existing editor shipped with the game, although many newer campaigns use custom hacks to cut a few corners and get around some restrictions. Some creators even go to the trouble to record their own sound effects and voices. There's a few notable exceptions, but most StarCraft custom mods don't really alter its polished, integrated structure: the careful balancing is too easily broken and its harder to produce nice artwork that fits in with Blizzard's excellent graphics. StarCraft predates the in-built mod switching that comes with more recent games; its very much a closed and sealed black box.

But no dedicated gaming community worth its salt is going to sit back and just let the publisher call the shots: there are custom mods that actually modify the program with third party utilities, adapting StarCraft's data files and changing graphics and sounds. Some of these hacks are little more than enhanced game AI's for more intense single player action, but others are more ambitious, changing graphics, sounds, unit stats and limitations and sometimes even the guts of the game engine.

Camelot Systems was a fantastic site that built many of the tools that allowed people to make their own StarCraft custom mods outside the constraints of Blizzard's story universe. Their main claim to fame was StarDraft, which let you build your own custom patches for your custom games, and MPQDraft, a utility that went a step further and (I think) switched StarCraft with any custom mod. Without these tools any custom mod you install permanently changes your StarCraft game install.

Alas, Camelot Systems closed down some time ago, but you may want to check out this alternative: The Sovereign Modding Empire, which is now the official mirror for all the old Camelot System tools. You can also source a number of tools and utilities from Stormcoast Fortress.

http://www.starcraft.org/customs/CustomsDB/heavymodifications/1

http://www.starcraft.org/customs/CustomsDB/heavymodifications/2

http://www.starcraft.org/customs/CustomsDB/heavymodifications/39


	StarCraft Custom Mods


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	StarCraft Total Conversions There's a lot of StarCraft mods lurking out there. 90% of them are little more than the odd unit hack here or the occasional sound change there. But very few are full total conversions or major alterations. This is a partial list of some of the more involved custom mods that make major changes to the game. You can also find a pretty comprehensive selection at StarCraft.Org.

			Aliens Vs Predator: Retribution TC: Its Das Aliens vs Der Marines vs Der Predators in this Deutsche speaking total conversion hosted by Brutkrieg.de Mods & TC's site. Good luck.

			Aqueous Rift: In the early days of StarCraft, Aqueous Rift (formerly known as Water StarCraft) showed promising potential as a fan-built custom expansion, giving all three forces their own water based units. Unfortunately, it never went anywhere, but you can browse this old archive site and see what might have been...

			Brutkrieg.de's TC pack: An in-house mod compilation by the German speaking Brutkrieg.de Mods & TC's site, affiliated with Broodwar.de. This mod is a collection of different homemade add-on packs and TC's, all bundled into the one package.

			Gundam Century was originally to be called GundamCraft, a conversion that replaced the StarCraft unit graphics with the Gundam manga mecha characters and their robotic vehicles. Two of the three StarCraft races have been replaced: the Federation replacing Terrans, Neo Zion replacing Protoss, but a third group, the Vortomn were never made since production has been halted. The site shut down for a while, before being resurrected due to the sheer popularity of the mod. The new site is slick and polished, but production hasn't been resumed. Gundam Century was designed to work with the 1.07 patch, and might not be compatible with later StarCraft patches. Never mind - its still definitely worth a look. Its pretty amazing, and its smart looking web site even goes through some of the mod's production history. Its current - and last - version comes in two versions: 1.06b (PC) and 1.06 (Mac).

	Heidomus Kaladonmus		This is a wild looking total conversion with over the top custom units and graphics. There's nothing to download at present, but its showing some interesting potential, and worth keeping an eye on at its Star Alliance forum.

			NeoTech: This is essentially a huge upgrade to all the Terran forces, replacing most of their units with beefier and more spectacular looking units. You can find this wonder at StarCraft.Org's Customs Conversion Packs section, here. Or not. Its disappeared again. Current version: 1.3.

			Open Rebellion: A complete Stars Wars total conversion for Brood War. This looks like its almost close to completion. This mod has ceased production. Last version: Beta 2..

			Robotech: Enemy Frontier: Formerly the Robotech: Expeditionary Force. Yes, a total conversion to the 80's anime classic: Robotech. This mod jumped ship become a WarCraft III TC, but you can still source the old StarCraft version at its modDATABASE entry.

			StarCraft Sickel Add-On: This is like a fan built expansion pack for the Brood War expansion pack: adding to the existing line-up of units and tweaking some of the originals to accommodate the new arrivals. For example, the Terrans get two new tanks (an anti-air tank and the BFG Tank!), the Protoss acquire several capital ship classes (as do the Zerg!), you get to have your own Zerg Overmind unit, and a lot more. Unfortunately development of this mod seems to have dried up and all its old links have long since expired, but you can now find it at Brutkrieg.de Mods & TC's site.

	StarCraft Team Fortress		StarCraft Team Fortress (STF) is hosted by Campaign Creations and essentially changes the game into something similar to Half-Life's Team Fortress Classic mod. You get to produce a wide range of infantry units found in the original shooter mod: Scouts, Heavy Weapons Guys, Snipers, Pyros, and so on. Current version: beta 2.4.2.

			Star Trek: Dominion War: This smartly produced mod is very much alive and comes in two versions: PC and Mac. Its compatible with the 1.10 StarCraft patch, but needs StarGraft to function properly and apparently work is underway to make it Windows2000 compatible. Its currently at a pre-Alpha stage.

			YoshiCraft: Custom mod that attempts to change nearly all the game's units, graphics and sounds. YoshiCraft has a definite Anime flavour, and the artwork and design is really quite impressive. Also by the same author is WormCraft, which is a StarCraft mod that looks like its based on the old Worms (and Lemmings?) game! Produced by the same author as YoshiCraft. Worms, Savages and Striders fight it out...


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	Miscellaneous Leftover items for your interest...

	Project: Revolution		A WarCraft III to StarCraft total conversion. The web site for this TC is empty at the moment, though. But - you can keep track of its progress via the Supreme StarCraft web site

	StarCraft D6		Switch off your computer and clear off the dining room table! A D6, for all the non-roleplayers reading this, refers to six sided dice (i.e. regular dice) used in Dungeons & Dragons style role playing. This is a comprehensive DIY guide and resource for role playing: StarCraft for the tabletop.


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Modding Links

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	Modding Sites A selection of surviving mods, tattered remnants and some old and hallowed institutions

	BrutKrieg.de Mods & TC's		Its all in German, but its got the goods! A smart web site with an impressive collection of mods and total conversions, many of which are in English. You'll find long lost mods in here that would have otherwise disappeared off the web.

			Alas, this site has closed down. Camelot Systems was an excellent start for all things customisable with StarCraft. Home of StarDraft, its successor MPQDraft (a StarCraft patch switcher) and many other useful utilities. Much of this material has moved to Stormcoast Fortress.

			Campaign Creations: After being trashed over a spat between its webmasters, Campaign Creations has returned in a new format. This is one of the biggest custom campaign, scenario and mapping sites for StarCraft on the web, with a long and distinguished history. If you were looking for a brand new set of single player campaigns, or keen to try some fresh StarCraft adventures, this is the place to start. There's a huge selection of downloadable's and fan built resources here.

	Custom Creations		Unrelated to Campaign Creations, this is another campaign and mappers' site with a large indexed list of StarEdit tutorials, sorted into simple, advanced, specific techniques and a tutorial on how to run StarDraft, for newcomers. Their selection of maps was rather small, but the extensive tutorials make up for it. Still missing: link entry scheduled for demolition!

	Era Creations		A small, fledgling site for maps and campaigns for all PC games, but thus far all I've found is the StarCraft stuff.

			Infoceptor's Customs pages lists an impressive catalogue of everything from simple graphic and sound hacks through to custom AI's and full conversions. Start here.

			Hellss Site: modest map site, and part of a small school of communally minded StarCraft map sites. This is currently in the process of moving, and offers scenarios, UMS maps, RPG (role playing.) maps, campaigns, and various map editing files, tutorials and sounds for any would be editors. Its currently down, along with its host, Custom Creations.

			The modDATABASE StarCraft mods page.

	Single player StarCraft Campaigns		A modest campaign site with only two campaigns: After BroodWar and Forgotten World.

			StarCraft Editing Resource (SCER): Old and moldering resource site that hasn't been updated since 2000. Nevertheless, old resources like these can sometimes help you find esoteric scraps that new generations of modders can often take for granted...

			StarCraft.Org: For those of you keen to have a go at building your own custom mod out of StarCraft, or just browse a huge selection of big and small modifications, you'll find Starcraft.Org's Customs Section extremely useful. It details everything you'll need to know: which editors and file utilities to download, composition of StarCraft data files, how to create your own units, screens and animations.

			Shadowflare's Realm: Another fan built modding and resources site. This gets into the nitty gritty of file specifications, utilities and anything else you may need to mod the game.

			Sovereign Modding Empire: SME picks up where the now defunct Camelot Systems left off. Probably another of your first ports of call for anything to do with modding StarCraft. There's a huge list of modding tutorials, downloadable utilities including a section that archives all the great old stuff of the long defunct Camelot Systems, such as MPQDraft, the memory patching StarGraft. To find these modding treasures go into their Download Index --> StarCraft --> CamSys Tools section. Unfortunately, a lot of these old tools are Win95/98 compatible only, but the SME has built a number of utilities (like MemGraft) that makes old mods made by StarGraft Win2K and WinXP compatible. Good luck!

			Star Alliance: An active and sizeable web site devoted to StarCraft mods, campaigns, articles and fan faction and supporting the people who build them. They host a large number of Custom Mods, with some in development, plus a huge swag of downloadable StarCraft mods, articles and tutorials. They even offer a voice over and dialogue service!

			StarEdit.net is and excellent and mature site concerned with everything to do with producing and disseminating great StarCraft maps and scenarios for all occasions. Well worth your while to check out. Its Downloads sections sorts maps by Melee, Campaigns, RPG, Experimental, Defence/Offence, Bound (obstacle course type maps) and Movie.

			StormCoast Fortress: While very plain, this site hosts much of what existed in the original Camelot Systems web site: utilities, tutorials, and a huge amount of useful information.


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Last updated Wed, Feb 28 2007 by Lindsay Fleay