Trying to make a few small tweaks to the game/my mods.

[jlhcorwin]

Hey y'all. Been losing my mind figuring this out...these are incredibly small tweaks, and I've been pushed from tool to tool, many of which are extremely confusing for a non modder. Some of the tools that I've downloaded crash upon start-up, so I've basically given up.

This is basically what I'm trying to do:

Make some of the add on unit classes available in the vanilla maps, and lower the requisite points to unlock them.
Edit the weapons for a couple of the Heroes
The Orbital Strike droid gets destroyed way too easily, so I'd like to give it more HP.

That's basically it. Feels like it'd be as easy as changing a couple of numbers and copy pasting things from one LVL/LUA to another.

[Led]

These things are possible with the mod tools.  I suggest you download them and review our tutorials sections.   

[Lumind]

incredibly small tweaks

Yes, except for "Make some of the add on unit classes available in the vanilla maps".

Some of the tools that I've downloaded crash upon start-up, so I've basically given up.

That's fine if you wanted to only adjust minor things. But if it's anything long-term, you don't give up (at least, not like that). If the issue seems to be hardware/OS-specific, give virtual machines a try. Even if you give up on swbf2, you will likely find a use for VMs from time to time.

lower the requisite points to unlock them

Open the .odf file of a unit that you want to change (e.g. cis_inf_droideka.odf in C:\BF2_ModTools\data_RED\Sides\cis\odf, where RED stands for the 3 letters of your mod/map name). Search for "PointsToUnlock" and set the desired value.

Edit the weapons for a couple of the Heroes

Open the .odf file of the needed hero (e.g. cis_hero_countdooku.odf in :\BF2_ModTools\data_RED\Sides\cis\odf). Search for "WeaponName" to identify the weapon's odf file name (e.g. WeaponName1            = "cis_weap_lightsaber"). Now open that file (e.g. cis_weap_lightsaber.odf) and modify what you need.

The Orbital Strike droid gets destroyed way too easily, so I'd like to give it more HP.

By this time, you should be able to do this following more abstract instruction: open the unit's odf, open the weapon's odf, change its MaxHealth.


As Led wrote, it's all possible with the mod tools and by reading tutorials (I first learnt with the Fierfek's Mapmaking Guide doc file which also has useful screenshots). There are also few videos on YouTube, mainly jedimoose32.

Here is a tip to prevent discouraging: you may come across a lot of links to gametoast but that website has been down for some time (with no guarantee of being resurrected). If you suspect that the provided links are the solution you need, try utilizing Wayback Machine.

Finally, here are some useful links:
1. SWBF2 modding encyclopedia (just my short nickname for it):
https://sites.google.com/site/swbf2modtoolsdocumentation

2. SWBFGamers SWBF2 modding section (there is another for tutorials and even more for SWBF1 tutorials):
https://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?board=113.0

3. PsychoFred's stuff
http://secretsociety.com/

4. Wayback Machine target stuffed with SWBF2 tutorials:
https://www.gametoast.com/