Hello, I want to create a simple mod with custom races. Nothing fancy, most likely no reskins and no new abilities.

I mostly want to make something like Kane's Wrath was to Tiberium Wars - so basically each race having 2-3 subraces with some units stronger than normal while lacking some other tech.
Also the most important thing for me is to have more units to work with in mapping. Having like like 5 different Zergling types would be a blessing (They don't have to be as different as HotS evolutions, just a base Zergling with the same unit AI, but with different hp, damage, cost ect). Also how would making UMS map work with a mod like this? I assume I can't just use already existing map editors to play around with more new (but actually the same) units? Or can I?

Can someone point me towards material on how to make basic mod that will be very easy to install, will work with multiplayer and will work with regular Broodwar and the remaster?
There is a lot of thing to go through and if someone could point me towards the proper article so I don't waste time learning stuff I will not need - I would be grateful.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Sep 1 2025, 4:28 pm by SPyro_Malin.

You can use SCMDraft 2 "import custom MPQ" function to edit maps for your mod. Regarding the creation of the mod itself - this is by no means "nothing fancy". Adding entire races or subraces requires a lot of knowledge and time to do. I'm not the best person to ask this, my modding experience isn't enough to help you. Check out the official StarEdit Networks Discord server, people will definitely help you out. Invite link is in the thread below.
https://staredit.net/topic/17219/

First off you need to choose, classic OR remastered, since mods work differently between these versions and some file formats have changed. They are mutually exclusive since they work with different modloaders, but no one's stopping you from making two versions, one for 1.16 and one for 1.23. Both have certain features that are not present on the other, though.

Subraces are doable though the issue will be with selecting them if you need them to be available in multiplayer (still, there's a way around it by - say - hooking the player colours selected in the game creation window).

Unit AI may not be working the same way between "regular" and "extra" units; say, even the stock siege tank hero doesn't siege / unsiege when controlled by AI like the basic unit does (it's less of a problem with single-player games where only the human player would have that unit, of course). However, at least spell casting and other behaviours can be reasonably well controlled with idle_orders (but that will not work in melee games, naturally, since that requires AI scripting).

All in all sounds like a good idea, and I'm sure people here (or on SEN's discord which is a lot more lively than this forum...) will be happy to help.