Hi guys,
I gave my Kerrigan hero the Graviton Prison ability. It's an ability used by Hybrid Maar. I noticed when I use the ability with Hybrid Maar, the beam effect is attached to his hands/claws. However, this is isn't the case when I use the ability with Kerrigan. Anybody know how I can attach the beam effect to Kerrigan's hands as well?
You'll need to attach the Actor for the Graviton Prison to Kerrigan's "weapon". Check the Actor "GravitonPrisonBeamLaunchSite (Unnamed)" actor for reference:
"Hosting - Host Site Operations +" should be modified to SOpAttachWeapon:Disabled:Disabled. So for whatever actor you have taking care of the launch site for Kerrigan's similar ability (I'm assuming you have a different actor, otherwise you probably wouldn't have this problem), you need to set the Host Site for the Weapons also (since Kerrigan's "weapons" are her hands).
Hi Johnzee. I wasn't able to get everything to work.
Before I go on, let me explain that I duplicated the Graviton Prison ability, but I didn't duplicate any of its actors, effects, models, etc. So my Graviton Prison_Hero ability is linked to all the original actors.
So I checked the actor "GravitonPrisonBeamLaunchSite (Unnamed)". This is the actor that I have taking care of the launch site for Kerirgan's Graviton Prison_Hero ability. "Hosting - Host Site Operations +" was already set to "SOpAttachWeapon:Disabled:Disabled". I didn't have to modify anything.
How do I set the host site for Kerrigan's weapons?
Well I checked out Kerrigan's model and I have some good news and bad news.
The bad news is that it seems Kerrigan's hands aren't actually the "weapons". If you've messed around with her normal attacks you know what I mean: she shoots out a ball of energy for an attack right in front of her chest, and THAT area is the "weapon"... which is why when you have SOpAttachWeapon set like you do, it's attaching to that area, where her hands would be when she's attacking normally. Further, I unfortunately can't find (or there simply isn't) a point on the Kerrigan model that corresponds to the hand areas. :-(
The good news is that there are always solutions... I came up with one here:
Keep the SOpAttachWeapon where it is and simply give Kerrigan an animation that lines up with where the ability Launch site is... go to Kerrigan's unit actor (it's "Queen of Blades (Valerian 03)"), go to Event - Events + and add the following anywhere (right-click on the list and select "Add Event"):
Event:
Msg Type: Ability
Source Name: Hybrid C - Graviton Prison
Sub Name: Source Cast Start
Action:
Msg Type: Animation Play
Name: (whatever you want here, I customized a new one called "Spell")
Animation Properties: Spell
Flags: (check the "Non Looping" checkbox in here)
leave the rest alone (blend in, blend out...).
This will make Kerrigan do the put-your-hands-together attack animation when she casts Graviton Prison, which makes it look better.
ALTERNATIVELY...
you can do the same thing except change Animation Properties to "Stand Work" (you'll have to put "Stand" in the first drop-down box and "Work" in the second. Then go to the "GravitonPrisonBeam (Unnamed)" actor, go to Event - Events +, then remove the Effect.GravitonPrisonCreatePersistent.Start event entirely (it's the event in Blue text).
This will make Kerrigan do a cool one-hand lift animation and remove the beam... it makes it look like she's using the Force to lift up the target, which I think is pretty cool.
Bear in mind that removing the beam means that if you want to use that same HybridC - Graviton ability with someone else, the beam won't be there either... you'll have to put it back in or duplicate and rename the "GravitonPrisonBeam (Unnamed)" actor to get two different sets.
Give these methods a try and see which ones you like better. I hope this helps, good luck in your mapping!
Hi Johnzee. After reading your post, I was like "oooooooh". lol. I understood what you said. I did have Kerrigan using the put-your-hands-together attack animation when she cast Graviton Prison. But I like your Force lift animation idea better. I'm gonna try that right now. I'll post here when I'm done.
[Edit]
You were right, the Force lift animation looks better! I will use it! Thanks for looking into my problem and offering a better solution!
I have a quick follow up question: When Kerrigan casts Graviton Prison near a group of enemies, she slides towards the enemies while the Force lift animation is playing. How do I get her to not move until the animation is finished playing? She does this when she casts Razor Swarm, so there must be a way.
Thanks again for your help! Here's a small token of my appreciation.
Lol, that's the first time I've gotten a prize for helping someone a forum...
Actually, I've checked both Graviton Prison and Razor Swarm on Hybrid Maar and Kerrigan (respectively), and on both you can get that "slides towards enemies" thing if you immediately move the unit (or the unit sees an enemy to attack and moves towards it) after the ability shoots off. There doesn't appear to be any blending capability between the use-ability and move animations, which gives the slide (it's more pronounced on Kerrigan because she has a walking animation, whereas Maar just floats).
There's no way to make the Graviton Prison, Razor Swarm, or any other action immediate and be able to move afterword immediately afterword without the sliding animation - it's just going to happen. Unless of course, you edit the Kerrigan model itself and make a new blending animation.
Or if you remove one of those "immediate"s -
Go to the HybridC - Graviton Prison Ability and change two fields:
Ability - Uninterruptable: Check Prepare, Cast, Channel, and Finish
Stats - Cast Finish Time: (1.0000)
The Uninterruptable field means the unit using the ability cannot preform other actions, like moving, during those ability phases. The Cast Finish Time field is how long it takes after the ability fires off until the ability is actually "over"... note that by making Finish "Uninterruptable" this means the time in this box is how much time the unit won't respond to commands during that phase. The time should be 1 second because that's exactly how long Kerrigan's "lift" animation takes.
This will fix your problem. You can do the same thing to the Razor Swarm ability to fix that slide, too.
Hi guys, I gave my Kerrigan hero the Graviton Prison ability. It's an ability used by Hybrid Maar. I noticed when I use the ability with Hybrid Maar, the beam effect is attached to his hands/claws. However, this is isn't the case when I use the ability with Kerrigan. Anybody know how I can attach the beam effect to Kerrigan's hands as well?
@Marikh7: Go
You'll need to attach the Actor for the Graviton Prison to Kerrigan's "weapon". Check the Actor "GravitonPrisonBeamLaunchSite (Unnamed)" actor for reference:
"Hosting - Host Site Operations +" should be modified to SOpAttachWeapon:Disabled:Disabled. So for whatever actor you have taking care of the launch site for Kerrigan's similar ability (I'm assuming you have a different actor, otherwise you probably wouldn't have this problem), you need to set the Host Site for the Weapons also (since Kerrigan's "weapons" are her hands).
@Johnzee: Go
Hi Johnzee. Thanks for the instructions. I'll try this out today and post the results here.
Hi Johnzee. I wasn't able to get everything to work.
Before I go on, let me explain that I duplicated the Graviton Prison ability, but I didn't duplicate any of its actors, effects, models, etc. So my Graviton Prison_Hero ability is linked to all the original actors.
So I checked the actor "GravitonPrisonBeamLaunchSite (Unnamed)". This is the actor that I have taking care of the launch site for Kerirgan's Graviton Prison_Hero ability. "Hosting - Host Site Operations +" was already set to "SOpAttachWeapon:Disabled:Disabled". I didn't have to modify anything.
How do I set the host site for Kerrigan's weapons?
@Marikh7: Go
Well I checked out Kerrigan's model and I have some good news and bad news.
The bad news is that it seems Kerrigan's hands aren't actually the "weapons". If you've messed around with her normal attacks you know what I mean: she shoots out a ball of energy for an attack right in front of her chest, and THAT area is the "weapon"... which is why when you have SOpAttachWeapon set like you do, it's attaching to that area, where her hands would be when she's attacking normally. Further, I unfortunately can't find (or there simply isn't) a point on the Kerrigan model that corresponds to the hand areas. :-(
The good news is that there are always solutions... I came up with one here:
Keep the SOpAttachWeapon where it is and simply give Kerrigan an animation that lines up with where the ability Launch site is... go to Kerrigan's unit actor (it's "Queen of Blades (Valerian 03)"), go to Event - Events + and add the following anywhere (right-click on the list and select "Add Event"):
Event:
Action:
leave the rest alone (blend in, blend out...).
This will make Kerrigan do the put-your-hands-together attack animation when she casts Graviton Prison, which makes it look better.
ALTERNATIVELY...
you can do the same thing except change Animation Properties to "Stand Work" (you'll have to put "Stand" in the first drop-down box and "Work" in the second. Then go to the "GravitonPrisonBeam (Unnamed)" actor, go to Event - Events +, then remove the Effect.GravitonPrisonCreatePersistent.Start event entirely (it's the event in Blue text).
This will make Kerrigan do a cool one-hand lift animation and remove the beam... it makes it look like she's using the Force to lift up the target, which I think is pretty cool.
Bear in mind that removing the beam means that if you want to use that same HybridC - Graviton ability with someone else, the beam won't be there either... you'll have to put it back in or duplicate and rename the "GravitonPrisonBeam (Unnamed)" actor to get two different sets.
Give these methods a try and see which ones you like better. I hope this helps, good luck in your mapping!
Hi Johnzee. After reading your post, I was like "oooooooh". lol. I understood what you said. I did have Kerrigan using the put-your-hands-together attack animation when she cast Graviton Prison. But I like your Force lift animation idea better. I'm gonna try that right now. I'll post here when I'm done.
[Edit]
You were right, the Force lift animation looks better! I will use it! Thanks for looking into my problem and offering a better solution!
I have a quick follow up question: When Kerrigan casts Graviton Prison near a group of enemies, she slides towards the enemies while the Force lift animation is playing. How do I get her to not move until the animation is finished playing? She does this when she casts Razor Swarm, so there must be a way.
Thanks again for your help! Here's a small token of my appreciation.
@Marikh7: Go
Lol, that's the first time I've gotten a prize for helping someone a forum...
Actually, I've checked both Graviton Prison and Razor Swarm on Hybrid Maar and Kerrigan (respectively), and on both you can get that "slides towards enemies" thing if you immediately move the unit (or the unit sees an enemy to attack and moves towards it) after the ability shoots off. There doesn't appear to be any blending capability between the use-ability and move animations, which gives the slide (it's more pronounced on Kerrigan because she has a walking animation, whereas Maar just floats).
There's no way to make the Graviton Prison, Razor Swarm, or any other action immediate and be able to move afterword immediately afterword without the sliding animation - it's just going to happen. Unless of course, you edit the Kerrigan model itself and make a new blending animation.
Or if you remove one of those "immediate"s -
Go to the HybridC - Graviton Prison Ability and change two fields:
The Uninterruptable field means the unit using the ability cannot preform other actions, like moving, during those ability phases. The Cast Finish Time field is how long it takes after the ability fires off until the ability is actually "over"... note that by making Finish "Uninterruptable" this means the time in this box is how much time the unit won't respond to commands during that phase. The time should be 1 second because that's exactly how long Kerrigan's "lift" animation takes.
This will fix your problem. You can do the same thing to the Razor Swarm ability to fix that slide, too.
@Johnzee: Go
Hi Johnzee. Thanks again. I'll try your solution tonight and post the results here.
[Edit]
Hi Johnzee. It worked! Now Kerrigan doesn't slide while casting Graviton Prison. Thanks for all your help!