Hey,
After spending a few hours searching around for this information, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to share what I've learned as to quicken development on other servers. Before I start typing out this guide, I will admit that I'm no expert on DBC editing and that some of this information
may be incorrect. If you know of any additional information, notice an error, etc.. just comment and I'll do my best to keep this thread updated.
There are a few things that you will need before editing a DBC file. I've seen many different programs, and even more people recommending each program over every other program, but the vast majority either didn't work or corrupted the DBC files. I will only be recommending the programs that work for me. So, before you continue reading, please
download this; it contains everything that I use. These programs will only work on Windows.
Just in case anyone wants to know what I'm running:
- Windows 8, x64 -- Home
- Debian 7 x32 -- Server
- TrinityCore -- Latest version as of 5/June/2014
- WoTLK 3.3.5a
Assuming that you've followed my instructions and have downloaded the
tools that we'll be using in this tutorial, lets begin!
The first question that you should ask yourself is "What do I want to rename?". Pick out something and then refer to the bullet-points below to figure out what file you should edit.
- WMOAreaTable - Buildings such as the Lion's Pride Inn in Goldshire and Scholomance (the instance and the keep above it).
- AreaTable - Zones such as Western Plaguelands, towns such as Goldshire, and most other areas not in the WMO section.
- Map - I've had no luck changing map names, does anyone have information on this DBC file?
Tip:
When editing any files that can be packed into an MPQ file, you can just go into your Data/enUS/ folder and create a new folder, lets call it "patch-enUS-n.mpq", and place all of the files that you would place into the MPQ file in there. This is extremely useful if you don't want to keep on creating a new MPQ file every time you go to test new edits. When you release the edits you should place them into an MPQ file as it hides everything from the average user.
Credits to MyLilSuccy for this information.
If you already know how to edit DBC files, which I'm going to assume that most of the people reading this don't, then you can stop reading here and go have a great time playing with area names.
The rest of this will be a simple explanation of how to change the name of Scholomance(The dungeon, not the keep above).
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Assuming that you already have the DBC files extracted I will recommend keeping a folder of unedited DBC files just so that you can quickly revert any errors you make or restart if you mess up. If you don't want to, that's fine, but I strongly recommend keeping a folder of unedited files.
Now, to rename Scholomance we will need to edit one of the DBC files. Think about this for a little while if you don't understand it, Scholomance is just a bunch of models combined together to make an instance. Each model (room) has its own area and area name. Because Scholomance, and all of the rooms that comprise it are models (specifically WMOs), we need to edit the WMOAreaTable DBC file.
Copy WMOAreaTable.dbc into the DBCUtil folder within the Tools folder that I you downloaded earlier. Now double click on DBCutil.exe, this will turn the DBC file into a CSV file to allow for editing. Next, you need to go to into the CSVed folder and double click CSVed.exe.
Click File, then Open, then go to the DBCUtil folder, and open WMOAreaTable.dbc.csv. Now scroll to Column 12 and click on the column name "Column 12". Press CTRL+F and type in "Scholomance". I've done a bit of the work for you by testing out which piece to edit, although I'm not entirely sure about the third Scholomance record. Press "Find Next" and when it finds the first record of Scholomance, click "Find Next" again, and again.
Edit:
The first record with "Scholomance" as the area name is for the keep above Scholomance (in Caer Darrow). Although I'm not 100% sure about this, I believe that the second and third records with "Scholomance" as the name are both for the instance. The third record definitely is, but I haven't completely tested the second record. For the purpose of this tutorial, just change the third record.
To edit the row just double-click on it to open up the edit form window. To edit the area name just change the text in column 12 from "Scholomance" to "Party Central". Now you just need to click "Apply Changes" in the bottom left-hand corner of the edit form and then save the file. That's it for this step, you can exit CSVed now.
Go to the DBCUtil folder and delete WMOAreaTable.dbc then drag WMOAreaTable.dbc.csv onto DBCUtil.exe to create a new WMOAreaTable.dbc file containing your area name edits. Make a copy of WMOAreaTable.dbc and put it into the DBC folder of your server, replace the WMOAreaTable.dbc file that's already in there.
I like to keep my edited DBC files in their own folder just as I do for the unedited DBC files. Again, you don't have to do this, but it helps to keep things organized.
Go to the folder mpqediten64 and double-click on MPQEditor.exe. This next step only needs to be done once; click the Tools tab, then click Compatibility and set it to "World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King". Now you're ready to make an MPQ file! Return to the Operations tab and click "New MPQ". Name it "patch-numberHere", I'll call mine "patch-5". You should see a little folder appear in the left-hand window, right-click on it and select "New Folder". Name this folder "DBFilesClient". Now click on "Add New File(s)" and select WMOAreaTable.dbc. You can exit the program now, it auto-saves.
In the mpqediten64 folder you should see a new file named "patch-numberHere.mpq", or in my case "patch-5.mpq". Copy this file into the Data folder within your WoW directory. Now restart your server, delete your cache, and go check out Scholomance... or should I say Party Central!
My last little tidbit of information is that, if you want to rename a zone such as Western Plaguelands, just follow the steps above, but with AreaTable.dbc. The area name will be in a different column in AreaTable.dbc, but I have faith that you will know what to do with your new-found knowledge. ^.^
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Thanks for reading this guide, hopefully it doesn't bore you too much, but I like to write out all of the steps instead of giving a few bullet-points on what to do for things like this.
If you want to stay up-to-date with my latest tutorials or if you just want an easier way to view all of my tutorials and releases in one place then take a look
at my blog.
