Installation Melee Patch for Vanilla 1.16.1 + Map Pack



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Download the Installation Melee Pack for Vanilla 1.16.1 + Map Pack on ModDB

It replaces the default exe and patch_rt. No other changes are included, save an alternate effect color palette for Installation (proof of concept).

Note: The included maps may not be necessarily very good. They were made as proof of concept for Installation Melee maps. Skilled mappers can make and publish better ones.

Extra note: In Ultimate Starcraft: Age of Darkness this system will also be included, but is not yet live in the available 0.9 series release - This is thus, the first iteration of the Installation patch (and self sufficient within a 1.16.1 install)

Technical notes and readme:
I am releasing a small gameplay/tileset package that makes the normally campaign-oriented Installation tileset usable for standard melee games in vanilla StarCraft: Brood War 1.16.1.

The release also includes 4 original melee maps made specifically around the newly enabled Installation terrain.

What this changes

Installation has always existed as a complete StarCraft tileset, but Blizzard never intended it for normal base-building gameplay.

There were several separate problems preventing it from functioning properly as a melee tileset:

• Installation maps were explicitly forced to Use Map Settings by the game.
  
• Most useful Installation terrain was marked unbuildable.
  
• The tileset had no functional interior creep tiles.
  
• The original creep-edge graphics existed, but the actual creep body was absent.
  

This package addresses all of these issues while otherwise retaining the original Installation tileset and normal StarCraft melee rules.


1. Installation maps can now be played as Melee

StarCraft actually accepts Installation as a perfectly valid map tileset internally.

The restriction was elsewhere: after loading the map, the executable performs a special compatibility test specifically when the tileset ID is 2 (Installation).

If the selected game type does not satisfy that special test, the game produces the familiar message:


This is not a limitation in the CHK map format and is not controlled by the menu BIN files.

The supplied vanilla 1.16.1 executable contains a minimal patch which bypasses only this Installation-specific validation.

Original code:



Patched:



File offset:



This is a one-byte modification.

Installation maps consequently follow the same normal game-type validation path as maps using the other tilesets.

Melee itself remains completely normal: standard Melee.trg, player starting conditions, races, resources, victory conditions, etc. are unchanged.


2. Installation terrain is now usable for base building

The original Installation CV5 terrain definitions mark nearly all of the useful terrain as unbuildable.

The modified tileset makes the principal playable surfaces usable for normal construction:

• Substructure - buildable
  
• Substructure Plating - buildable
  
• Floor - buildable
  

The intention is not to make every piece of Installation scenery buildable.

Walls, cliffs and other structural transitions remain obstacles.

In particular, the walls separating Substructure and Floor are explicitly left unbuildable, even though both terrain types on either side are valid building ground. This makes them behave like ordinary StarCraft cliff walls rather than allowing building footprints to overlap the wall graphics.

Transitions between appropriate flat terrain types are retained where useful.

Roof, pits and other unsuitable terrain remain non-buildable.


3. Installation now has functional Zerg creep

This required more than simply enabling a flag.

In the original Installation tileset, CV5 group 1 -- the group reserved for creep -- is completely empty.

That is why attempts to use normal creep on Installation historically resulted in missing/black creep interiors.

Interestingly, Blizzard did provide Installation with its own:



which contains the 37 creep-edge frames.

So the tileset already had correct Installation-specific creep borders, but no interior creep terrain to go with them.

The pack supplies a proper creep group by adapting the normal Space Platform creep terrain.

The required creep megatiles were transplanted into Installation's:



The donor megatile and minitile references were fully remapped into new Installation IDs rather than simply reusing Platform indices.

The resulting Installation creep group uses newly appended megatiles while leaving the native Installation terrain data intact.


4. Creep palette correction

There was another complication.

VR4 graphics contain palette indices, not literal RGB colors.

Copying Platform creep graphics directly into Installation therefore caused them to be interpreted through Installation's different WPE palette. The result was an incorrectly colored dark/orange-speckled creep interior.

The existing Installation creep-edge GRP provided the solution.

Platform's and Installation's creep-edge GRPs have the same frame geometry and transparency layout. Their corresponding pixels therefore give a direct reference for how Blizzard intended Platform creep colors to be translated into the Installation palette.

That relationship was used to remap only the imported creep VR4 pixels.

The native Installation VR4 graphics were left completely untouched.

The final result is an interior creep color which matches the existing Installation-specific creep edges instead of looking like incorrectly paletted Platform creep.

The original:



remain in use.


5. What was NOT changed

This is deliberately a narrow compatibility package rather than a general reworking of Installation.

It does not change:

• Normal melee rules
  
• Unit statistics
  
• Race mechanics
  
• Melee triggers
  
• Resource behavior
  
• Player initialization
  
• Installation's native palette
  
• Installation's existing creep-edge GRP
  
• Doodad placement data
  

The Installation doodad compatibility file, dddata.bin, does not require modification. The relevant CV5 group numbers remain the same; only their buildability flags and the previously empty creep group are changed.


Included Map Pack

The release contains 4 original melee maps designed for this enabled version of Installation.

They are intended as both playable maps and examples of how Installation terrain can now be used for conventional StarCraft base layouts.

Because Installation was never designed around melee construction, map authors should still keep normal building-footprint considerations in mind. Start locations and expansions need sufficiently large areas of Floor, Substructure or Substructure Plating and should not overlap wall transitions or other unbuildable structural terrain.


Files / installation

The package includes the patched vanilla 1.16.1 executable and the modified Installation tileset data.

The relevant tileset files are:



The game's original:



are intentionally retained.

As usual, make a backup of your original executable and game data before installing modifications.


Technical summary

In short, the original game already had almost all of the machinery necessary for Installation melee.

The final pipeline is now:



So Installation is no longer merely a campaign/UMS novelty tileset: it can now support Terran, Protoss and Zerg in ordinary vanilla 1.16.1 melee games.

Attachments: