i want to recreate a Zerebrat and give him some abilities to keep the swarm as one.
So he will be more a passive unit lying in the sun the whole day, only for collecting some energy and showing off his power over a long distance while he is in his safe swarmcluster. I want to take Overlords have a very important role here, as they are his direct minions.
The two abilities i currently working on are the "Swarm-Unit" and the "Presence of Will".
First one:
Swarm-Unit is an ability that should have a differnt energy cost depending on its target. It will work a little like the neuralparasit of the infestor, but there is no tendril and no channeling is needed. It can only target zerg units and only within a range of 10... but off any overlord. So it doesn't count where the Zerebrat be, cause Overlords are the key-unit. Also the brainwashed unit costs food for the player and the Zerebrat must have 75*foodcosts of the target as energy to be sucessful.
So far my biggest problem here is the thing with the range of the overlords or the way how i can check if the target is in range of an overlord(controlled by you of course). I found nothing that was helpful so far. Maybe you know a solution, but i don't want to use some trigger! Maybe you also know how i can do that the range of this ability is shown ingame while i'm able to select a target.
Hmmm... and okay i haven't tried anything about the food-thing yet, but soon i will. What above is biggest problem.
Second:
Presence of Will is a passiv ability that only adds 2 supply or food to each of your overlords. So each overlord gets 10 food. I tried to make an ability based on "effect - target" and choose overlords for the only possible target.... but somehow only the Zerebrat gets 2 additional supply and all overlords doesn't care about the ability... but maybe i can solve it by making it an upgrade and not an ability. Will try it soon.
So, that's it for now. Doesn't seem to be much but it costs me some neurocytes...
I have looked at the datatypes effect, checkfactors (it's Prüffaktoren in germany but i don't know how they named in english) and the behaviour. I didn't find a function that can "check" the distance between an Overlord and a target anywhere. And maybe i also want to add the Overseer as reference.
I hope you aren't to busy and annoyed by the load of questions of people who aren't skilled mappers.
i want to recreate a Zerebrat and give him some abilities to keep the swarm as one.
So he will be more a passive unit lying in the sun the whole day, only for collecting some energy and showing off his power over a long distance while he is in his safe swarmcluster. I want to take Overlords have a very important role here, as they are his direct minions.
The two abilities i currently working on are the "Swarm-Unit" and the "Presence of Will".
First one: Swarm-Unit is an ability that should have a differnt energy cost depending on its target. It will work a little like the neuralparasit of the infestor, but there is no tendril and no channeling is needed. It can only target zerg units and only within a range of 10... but off any overlord. So it doesn't count where the Zerebrat be, cause Overlords are the key-unit. Also the brainwashed unit costs food for the player and the Zerebrat must have 75*foodcosts of the target as energy to be sucessful.
So far my biggest problem here is the thing with the range of the overlords or the way how i can check if the target is in range of an overlord(controlled by you of course). I found nothing that was helpful so far. Maybe you know a solution, but i don't want to use some trigger! Maybe you also know how i can do that the range of this ability is shown ingame while i'm able to select a target. Hmmm... and okay i haven't tried anything about the food-thing yet, but soon i will. What above is biggest problem.
Second: Presence of Will is a passiv ability that only adds 2 supply or food to each of your overlords. So each overlord gets 10 food. I tried to make an ability based on "effect - target" and choose overlords for the only possible target.... but somehow only the Zerebrat gets 2 additional supply and all overlords doesn't care about the ability... but maybe i can solve it by making it an upgrade and not an ability. Will try it soon.
So, that's it for now. Doesn't seem to be much but it costs me some neurocytes... I have looked at the datatypes effect, checkfactors (it's Prüffaktoren in germany but i don't know how they named in english) and the behaviour. I didn't find a function that can "check" the distance between an Overlord and a target anywhere. And maybe i also want to add the Overseer as reference.
I hope you aren't to busy and annoyed by the load of questions of people who aren't skilled mappers.
Thanks a lot and have a nice day.
The "Neural Parasite" type effect can easily be done, with the possible exception of the energy cost scaling by food. One can create behaviors that modify the Control of a unit (this is how infestors work) then you can just create abilities that apply the behavior, set up the range of the ability, and you are done. I would recommend doing the scaling energy cost by having a trigger going off when the Overlord starts casting, checking the food cost of the unit and comparing it to the Overlord's energy, and then canceling the spell and giving the player a message if there is not enough energy. When the spell goes off, you just do another check and remove the appropriate amount of energy from the Overlord.
You can make the ability require a Cerebrate by creating a new requirement in the data editor.
The second ability is even easier to do. You can create behaviors that modify the supply provided by a unit. Then you just give the cerebrate an ability with unlimited range, a validator that checks if the unit is an overlord, and an effect that applies the behavior.
Yeah that's a good idea,...
but Overlords doesn't have any energy and i even don't want them to have some energy.
I have right now an ability thats able to take control of Zerg units. My problem is the thing with the range and i want a Cerebrate have this ability.
I'm very close to solve energy requirement without any trigger. I made a picture for you. I hope now it's more clear what my problem is.
In the top frame you see the value of the target which was picked for a compare. The lower one should be the energy value of the caster (Cerebrate) divided by 75. Alternativ to this the first value can be multiplied with 75. (The value Caster_Energy is just a dummy.)
So the only think i wan't to know is have i declare this value "Wert" and how i can make a own one. I havn't found a data type for this.
Edit: And... maybe you can tell me how to make a own error massage, because if i try to chance it the value becomes "OKPlaceholder". oO
I don't think the first thing is possible without triggers. The method I mentioned would work even if Overlords don't have energy, just have the trigger check the Cerebrate's energy instead. I didn't really understand that bit. At any rate, the ability button would still appear on the overlord. If you want the ability button to appear on the Cerebrate and give it unlimited range, you still have to use a trigger to check the energy cost, but now you also need to see whether the unit is in range of an Overlord. Should be easy enough to do.
I'm having a hard time understanding your image since it is in German, but what I gather is that you are looking at a validator of the "Unit Compare Field" type, Field is "Food," Compare is "Greater than or Equal to" and value is "Caster_Energy." Is that all correct? This validator would return true when the unit's food is greater than the caster's energy (or the other way around if the Compare is "Less than or Equal to" sorry I can't read it.) But this isn't particularly useful. Even if we can somehow multiply the food by 75 before the validator checks it, we will still need a trigger to remove the energy from the Cerebrate when it is cast. It is a lot easier just to check the energy with a trigger.
You can find error messages in the Text editor (F8). Though most of the error messages are not categorized as such and fall under (None) instead. I don't know how to create a new one or change the ID of an existing one, but you can change the text and even the color and such.
Yes you are right. It isn't useful sometimes to can't change the language of the editor. I will try are screen of raw-data.
And i found where the error messages are stored! They are in sound-data in the race sections under Alerts and there ID's start with e_cmd[errortyp]_[race]. It seems that you don't have to write the _[race] part in the error value. I will try if i can make some own errors this way.
Anyway... by looking in this sections you can find any error message you want. Well and in the text editor for sure, but the mass of entries is kind of chaotic.
As well i found a validator that checks the distance between two ... "things". I upload a screen for this too. And... i'm not really sure what the outer unit should be. I think it's an other unit, so it isn't target or caster. Is that right? Is there a way to declaire the typ of an outer unit? So i can say search for a nearby overlord, in a range of 10 around of the target if it's true, well all it's fine => The cast goes on. If not error and end.
And now to the food problem. Yes you are correct with your interpretation exept with the "Caster_Energy" that doesn't declaire anything (exept by are luck cause i choose the value only by what i want to put in there...), but i want them to declaire the Caster_Energy... divided... by... 75... :(
I hoped the editor was able to do this, but doesn't seems so. I want to do the remove of energy by a effect thats only happens if the valitators work and say "Fine! No errors."
I want to avoid triggers because i want to make this a mod data. So that i can easily use this unit with all it's ability in lot's of maps and i thought that triggers aren't supported in mods... or?
And... do you know if it's able to link the CValidatorCampareField_Value to and other Validator? That whould be great!
Great thanks for all you answers until yet.
And sorry for my english today there was no one here to correct it ;) hope you can understand it anyway.
Even if we can somehow multiply the food by 75 before the validator checks it, we will still need a trigger to remove the energy from the Cerebrate when it is cast. It is a lot easier just to check the energy with a trigger.
Energy can easily removed by an effect. The real problem is the variable amount of cost and the mathematic chances at the value of energy and/or food. ...okay... the real problem beside the Overlord-range.
3.5.2010 - Edit:
I solved the Overlord-range. In the end it was easy to do, now i just working on the range-acteur. It's still shows nothing =( but the range requiement works well! It's kind a wierd not to see what can be targeted. Maybe if anyone wants i can upload the ability when it`s finished. I will edit updates.
I have done some tiny icons for the specialization ability for my cerebrate. He will be able to choose one of them and stay at this value for the whole game.
Also his passive ability to increase supply has now an own icon.
What is still to be done:
RangeActeur creation on each overlord of the player. I absolutly can't get this to work... Does anybody know how i have to work with "Set reference" and "Signal" or similar?
Modal casting costs for the ability "Swarm Unit" also working on an icon for that...
Is there a way to get a wireframe for the energy to work?
ATTACHMENTS
btn-ability-zerg-specialize.png
expert-eco.png
expert-defense.png
Watching_Overmind.png
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Hello there,
i want to recreate a Zerebrat and give him some abilities to keep the swarm as one.
So he will be more a passive unit lying in the sun the whole day, only for collecting some energy and showing off his power over a long distance while he is in his safe swarmcluster. I want to take Overlords have a very important role here, as they are his direct minions.
The two abilities i currently working on are the "Swarm-Unit" and the "Presence of Will".
First one: Swarm-Unit is an ability that should have a differnt energy cost depending on its target. It will work a little like the neuralparasit of the infestor, but there is no tendril and no channeling is needed. It can only target zerg units and only within a range of 10... but off any overlord. So it doesn't count where the Zerebrat be, cause Overlords are the key-unit. Also the brainwashed unit costs food for the player and the Zerebrat must have 75*foodcosts of the target as energy to be sucessful.
So far my biggest problem here is the thing with the range of the overlords or the way how i can check if the target is in range of an overlord(controlled by you of course). I found nothing that was helpful so far. Maybe you know a solution, but i don't want to use some trigger! Maybe you also know how i can do that the range of this ability is shown ingame while i'm able to select a target. Hmmm... and okay i haven't tried anything about the food-thing yet, but soon i will. What above is biggest problem.
Second: Presence of Will is a passiv ability that only adds 2 supply or food to each of your overlords. So each overlord gets 10 food. I tried to make an ability based on "effect - target" and choose overlords for the only possible target.... but somehow only the Zerebrat gets 2 additional supply and all overlords doesn't care about the ability... but maybe i can solve it by making it an upgrade and not an ability. Will try it soon.
So, that's it for now. Doesn't seem to be much but it costs me some neurocytes... I have looked at the datatypes effect, checkfactors (it's Prüffaktoren in germany but i don't know how they named in english) and the behaviour. I didn't find a function that can "check" the distance between an Overlord and a target anywhere. And maybe i also want to add the Overseer as reference.
I hope you aren't to busy and annoyed by the load of questions of people who aren't skilled mappers.
Thanks a lot and have a nice day.
The "Neural Parasite" type effect can easily be done, with the possible exception of the energy cost scaling by food. One can create behaviors that modify the Control of a unit (this is how infestors work) then you can just create abilities that apply the behavior, set up the range of the ability, and you are done. I would recommend doing the scaling energy cost by having a trigger going off when the Overlord starts casting, checking the food cost of the unit and comparing it to the Overlord's energy, and then canceling the spell and giving the player a message if there is not enough energy. When the spell goes off, you just do another check and remove the appropriate amount of energy from the Overlord.
You can make the ability require a Cerebrate by creating a new requirement in the data editor.
The second ability is even easier to do. You can create behaviors that modify the supply provided by a unit. Then you just give the cerebrate an ability with unlimited range, a validator that checks if the unit is an overlord, and an effect that applies the behavior.
Yeah that's a good idea,...
but Overlords doesn't have any energy and i even don't want them to have some energy.
I have right now an ability thats able to take control of Zerg units. My problem is the thing with the range and i want a Cerebrate have this ability.
I'm very close to solve energy requirement without any trigger. I made a picture for you. I hope now it's more clear what my problem is.
In the top frame you see the value of the target which was picked for a compare. The lower one should be the energy value of the caster (Cerebrate) divided by 75. Alternativ to this the first value can be multiplied with 75. (The value Caster_Energy is just a dummy.)
So the only think i wan't to know is have i declare this value "Wert" and how i can make a own one. I havn't found a data type for this.
Edit: And... maybe you can tell me how to make a own error massage, because if i try to chance it the value becomes "OKPlaceholder". oO
I don't think the first thing is possible without triggers. The method I mentioned would work even if Overlords don't have energy, just have the trigger check the Cerebrate's energy instead. I didn't really understand that bit. At any rate, the ability button would still appear on the overlord. If you want the ability button to appear on the Cerebrate and give it unlimited range, you still have to use a trigger to check the energy cost, but now you also need to see whether the unit is in range of an Overlord. Should be easy enough to do.
I'm having a hard time understanding your image since it is in German, but what I gather is that you are looking at a validator of the "Unit Compare Field" type, Field is "Food," Compare is "Greater than or Equal to" and value is "Caster_Energy." Is that all correct? This validator would return true when the unit's food is greater than the caster's energy (or the other way around if the Compare is "Less than or Equal to" sorry I can't read it.) But this isn't particularly useful. Even if we can somehow multiply the food by 75 before the validator checks it, we will still need a trigger to remove the energy from the Cerebrate when it is cast. It is a lot easier just to check the energy with a trigger.
You can find error messages in the Text editor (F8). Though most of the error messages are not categorized as such and fall under (None) instead. I don't know how to create a new one or change the ID of an existing one, but you can change the text and even the color and such.
Yes you are right. It isn't useful sometimes to can't change the language of the editor. I will try are screen of raw-data.
And i found where the error messages are stored! They are in sound-data in the race sections under Alerts and there ID's start with e_cmd[errortyp]_[race]. It seems that you don't have to write the _[race] part in the error value. I will try if i can make some own errors this way.
Anyway... by looking in this sections you can find any error message you want. Well and in the text editor for sure, but the mass of entries is kind of chaotic.
As well i found a validator that checks the distance between two ... "things". I upload a screen for this too. And... i'm not really sure what the outer unit should be. I think it's an other unit, so it isn't target or caster. Is that right? Is there a way to declaire the typ of an outer unit? So i can say search for a nearby overlord, in a range of 10 around of the target if it's true, well all it's fine => The cast goes on. If not error and end.
And now to the food problem. Yes you are correct with your interpretation exept with the "Caster_Energy" that doesn't declaire anything (exept by are luck cause i choose the value only by what i want to put in there...), but i want them to declaire the Caster_Energy... divided... by... 75... :(
I hoped the editor was able to do this, but doesn't seems so. I want to do the remove of energy by a effect thats only happens if the valitators work and say "Fine! No errors."
I want to avoid triggers because i want to make this a mod data. So that i can easily use this unit with all it's ability in lot's of maps and i thought that triggers aren't supported in mods... or?
And... do you know if it's able to link the CValidatorCampareField_Value to and other Validator? That whould be great!
Great thanks for all you answers until yet.
And sorry for my english today there was no one here to correct it ;) hope you can understand it anyway.
Edit:
Energy can easily removed by an effect. The real problem is the variable amount of cost and the mathematic chances at the value of energy and/or food. ...okay... the real problem beside the Overlord-range.
3.5.2010 - Edit:
I solved the Overlord-range. In the end it was easy to do, now i just working on the range-acteur. It's still shows nothing =( but the range requiement works well! It's kind a wierd not to see what can be targeted. Maybe if anyone wants i can upload the ability when it`s finished. I will edit updates.
So here are some updates.
I have done some tiny icons for the specialization ability for my cerebrate. He will be able to choose one of them and stay at this value for the whole game.
Also his passive ability to increase supply has now an own icon.
What is still to be done: