SC2Mapster

I've been trying to create an ability that strikes the first enemy in a straight line in front of the caster with a beam of lightning (Archon attack beam). The effects is working as intended but i struggle with the actors;

My goal is to make the beam launch from the casters weapon and end at the selected point or at the first unit it collides with. I can simply not figure out how to make the beam fire from the caster to a selected point.

I have been telling myself that there must be a simple solution to this problem, but i've tried for hours now without a result. I'm starting to wonder if beams simply can't be targeting a point instead of a unit.

I hope someone can help me solve this! :D

Sure you can target a point, you could set it up like that :

An effect Create Persistent that runs as long as you want the beam active :
Target: Location +    (None):Target Point
Target: Location Offset - End +    (None):Target Point
Target: Location Offset - Start +    (None):Source Unit

Set up your Action actor :
Actor: Action Flags +    Align Impact And Damage, Launch Force Site
Actor: Beam Scope    Caster
Actor: Lifetime    -1.0000
Event: Events +    Effect.MyEffect.Start --> Create    Effect.MyEffect.Stop --> Destroy

Your Beam actor referenced to by the Action actor above :
Effect.MyEffect.Stop --> FromEffectTreeDescendant --> Destroy or AnimBracketStop BSD

I realize I'm not covering the part about targeting the first unit OR the point, I assume you didn't have any problem searching for the first unit in front and targeting that point?

@StragusMapster: Go

That's not exactly what i meant, the ability itself already targets a point and collides with the first unit in the way. But the visual animation (the actor) seems to only trigger when the effect finds a unit. If the ability is used and no targets are found, the beam does not appear at all.

I want the beam the be visible even if no target is hit. I created a new action actor and changed the 3 fields listed below that you mentioned, before i've just ignored these fields but the result was not different from my own. :(

Actor: Action Flags + Align Impact And Damage, Launch Force Site

Actor: Beam Scope Caster

Actor: Lifetime -1.0000

Do you know how to make it so that the beam actor always trigger (even if no enemy target is found) from the casters location to a selected point?

Or am i just doing something wrong? :)

It can probably be solved easily by creating a dummy unit on the point and make the beam hit the dummy, but i hope that it wont be necessary to make such a workaround for such a simple spell.

@DrSuperEvil: Go

That is correct :)

I'm going to check how the colossus actors are set up and hopefully learn how to make this work by looking at them. Thanks for the tip!

The colossus is a little complicated, I assume you want a fixed impact point and not a moving one...

There shouldn't be much difference between targeting an unit or a point on the actors side... I have beams targeting points up and running, I'm not too sure what could be set up wrong in your case. Make sure the action actor is created by a create persistent effect with a Target: Location that is a point and not an unit.

@StragusMapster: Go

I attached a map in the first post, if you've time you could take a look at it :)

I'm working with the colossus actor right now, it works i just need to figure out how to change the height, the beam is currently partly under the ground right now. But since it's linked to a Site (Mover) i probably need to change the height of the mover in some way, i've tried the SopHigherby3 but then it's way to far up. I would like to create a new Sop file that is higher by 0.5 or something, but i don't know if it's possible. I will experiment more with this :)

It's almost working now but the impact point of the ability is below the unit rather than at the center, i don't know how to fix this since it's attached to a point and not a unit (Or more correctly, a Site (Mover)). I'm afraid i can't complete the last part on my own. But thanks for all the help so far, it's very appreciated!

I'm uploading the map as it is right now and hope that someone can help me to fix the height of the impact point.

@DrSuperEvil: Go

I ended up using a dummy attached to the mover to get a model with attachment points, and from there i could easily edit the impact point. I assume that is what you meant? I would have preferred to find an alternative solution rather than using a dummy actor. But with the dummy it works perfectly. =)

Thanks everyone!

Well, I certainly never used dummies, I just make the beams target the points. "Site" type actors are very flexible if you want to manipulate the target point, even make it move around over time.

Either way, I'm glad you found a solution!