I decided to give Dark Swarm to the community. Originally, it had a dummy unit, and then I removed it, but then I placed it back in to correct an error with the casting. The original files (1.0 and 1.1) were functional, but if you cast Dark Swarm twice or more, the second/third/etc. Dark Swarm(s) would vanish when the first Dark Swarm's time (15 seconds) was up. So version 1.2 fixes that by adding a dummy unit and spell. It makes it more complex to bring into maps, but it works better.
It should work similarly to Starcraft 1's Dark Swarm.
One thing I'm working on is making Dark Swarm appear more clearly on all terrains. Does anyone have an idea on how to do this? It looks very dark on Shakuras-like terrain, but on the jungle terrain, you can hardly see it. How do I make it thicker?
What happens without the dummy unit makes it so that if you cast Dark Swarm twice, then the second Dark Swarm will last the duration of the first Dark Swarm. For example, without the dummy unit, cast Dark Swarm, wait 5 seconds, cast it again. The second and first casts will vanish at the same time. The Dummy unit prevents that.
... really? I didn't make the dummy cast it 6 times or so. It casts it once. All I did was made the HDR multiplier 2.0 on the tint. :/ Edit: Oh wait... *you* cast it 6 times. ... ha ha ha ha, I'm an idiot.
Why "-201"? Because I based it off Guardian Shield, which damage modifier is/was "-2", so I assumed that I'd need a high number in order to make it so that no single range attack exceeded that. I don't if '0' works or not. I could try it.
Really, though, what concerns me now is your graphical lag. I have no idea what's causing that, but I want to fix it.
The cast vanishing should not happen; 2 persistant effects do not cancel each other if not specifically told to do so. However the actors are a different story: Are you sure, both spell effects disappeared? Maybe it was just a visual glitch because of inaccurate actor events.
€ just tried it, it is indeed a purely visual glitch. I will have a look at your actors and suggest an improvement.
€€ The problem is caused, because you copied the guardian shield actor instead of creating a new one from scratch. It uses a bunch of crap, which might be important for the guardian shield to work properly with the sentry, but prevent your dark swarm from working properly. I would suggest remaking the actor from scratch, if you know what to do.
Some Suggestions for a quick fix:
Go to Actors -> select the "Dark Swarm" Actor. Modify the following fields:
Hosting - Host +:
Remove the _Splat from the "Subject" field and leave it empty.
Hosting - Host Site Operations +:
Delete the "SOpAttachCenter" from the "Operations" field , leave this one empty as well.
Event - Events +:
Effect.DarkSwarmPersistant.Start and .Stop both use a Term containing: "At Outer".
Select ONLY the terms (only the lines containg the text "At Outer", not the whole events), right click -> remove selection for both of these terms.
Should work now.
Well, my graphics card seems to have problems with particle effects scaled to a huge size. Not the HDR multiplier or the recolor are the problem, just the size of the effect. I encountered this before with fire effects. However, this could be just me, other people did not have this kind of problem. For me, setting the shaders in the options to a lower setting works wonders in case something experiences something similar.
Modify Amount: -2 means, any attack is reduced by 2 damage. That means, your dark swarm reduces any damage by 201, which is enough for the usual melee map, but might fail for other custom maps.
However, there are other fields, for example the Modify Fraction field, which multiplys the damage by a certain factor. It defaults to 1 (no amplification or reduction), setting it to 0 would cause every damage to be reduced to zero, regardless of the amount of damage actually dealt.
Oh, and btw:
Quote:
I did it by putting 3 models on top of each other. but also used an other model
Quote:
...how do you make it spawn the model three times?
Easiest would be copying the actor 3 times ;)
From my understanding, it should be kind of similar to using an HDR multiplier of 3, though.
Another model you could try is called "TerrorcystInfection.m3"
€ actually it looks way better when spawning the model 3 times ;)
... and another edit: I attached a map now. Sine I tried out everything I said already, I thought, I might as well share the results.
All changes I made:
changed the dark swarm to reduce damage to 0% instead of reducing it by 201
removed the dummy unit and all related data objects
removed most of the junk from the actor and made it work properly again
switched the model to TerrorcystInfection, made it appear 3 times
adjusted the height, color and scale of the effect a little
I like it A LOT. I just I don't like the model you used. :P But I do like it! It's awesome. Because of the triple actor, I was able to shrink the scale from 8,8,2 to 5,5,1, and it looks fine. That should, hopefully, not bust your graphics card. Thank you very much, I'll credit you in the next version.
BTW: Please tell me what the Dark Swarm SOP actor does and what "SOP" stands for, so I can understand what you did.
SOP stands for Site Operation. Site Operation actors are usually used to modify other actors; to give them an offset or a specific rotation of some kind.
I used it to increase the height of the actor, that way it does not look like it is halfway underground.
http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/data-spell-dark-swarm/
I decided to give Dark Swarm to the community. Originally, it had a dummy unit, and then I removed it, but then I placed it back in to correct an error with the casting. The original files (1.0 and 1.1) were functional, but if you cast Dark Swarm twice or more, the second/third/etc. Dark Swarm(s) would vanish when the first Dark Swarm's time (15 seconds) was up. So version 1.2 fixes that by adding a dummy unit and spell. It makes it more complex to bring into maps, but it works better.
It should work similarly to Starcraft 1's Dark Swarm.
Feedback goes here. :) Enjoy! :)
One thing I'm working on is making Dark Swarm appear more clearly on all terrains. Does anyone have an idea on how to do this? It looks very dark on Shakuras-like terrain, but on the jungle terrain, you can hardly see it. How do I make it thicker?
I did it by putting 3 models on top of each other. but also used an other model
What other model? And also... how do you make it spawn the model three times? Also, are there any other suggestions?
Dark Swarm ver. 1.4 uploaded. I'll be making a movie soon for it.
Why modify the damage amount -201 and not simply set the damage fraction to 0?
What exactly was the reason for adding the dummy unit again? I don't see a problem here. Maybe your actor settings were incorrect?
Also the effect seems to kill my graphics kart pretty badly 0_0. Casting 6 times causes some serious lag for me.
What happens without the dummy unit makes it so that if you cast Dark Swarm twice, then the second Dark Swarm will last the duration of the first Dark Swarm. For example, without the dummy unit, cast Dark Swarm, wait 5 seconds, cast it again. The second and first casts will vanish at the same time. The Dummy unit prevents that.
... really? I didn't make the dummy cast it 6 times or so. It casts it once. All I did was made the HDR multiplier 2.0 on the tint. :/Edit: Oh wait... *you* cast it 6 times. ... ha ha ha ha, I'm an idiot.Why "-201"? Because I based it off Guardian Shield, which damage modifier is/was "-2", so I assumed that I'd need a high number in order to make it so that no single range attack exceeded that. I don't if '0' works or not. I could try it.
Really, though, what concerns me now is your graphical lag. I have no idea what's causing that, but I want to fix it.
@AegisRunestone: Go
The cast vanishing should not happen; 2 persistant effects do not cancel each other if not specifically told to do so. However the actors are a different story: Are you sure, both spell effects disappeared? Maybe it was just a visual glitch because of inaccurate actor events.
€ just tried it, it is indeed a purely visual glitch. I will have a look at your actors and suggest an improvement.
€€ The problem is caused, because you copied the guardian shield actor instead of creating a new one from scratch. It uses a bunch of crap, which might be important for the guardian shield to work properly with the sentry, but prevent your dark swarm from working properly. I would suggest remaking the actor from scratch, if you know what to do.
Some Suggestions for a quick fix:
Go to Actors -> select the "Dark Swarm" Actor. Modify the following fields:
Remove the _Splat from the "Subject" field and leave it empty.
Delete the "SOpAttachCenter" from the "Operations" field , leave this one empty as well.
Effect.DarkSwarmPersistant.Start and .Stop both use a Term containing: "At Outer".
Select ONLY the terms (only the lines containg the text "At Outer", not the whole events), right click -> remove selection for both of these terms.
Should work now.
Well, my graphics card seems to have problems with particle effects scaled to a huge size. Not the HDR multiplier or the recolor are the problem, just the size of the effect. I encountered this before with fire effects. However, this could be just me, other people did not have this kind of problem. For me, setting the shaders in the options to a lower setting works wonders in case something experiences something similar.
Modify Amount: -2 means, any attack is reduced by 2 damage. That means, your dark swarm reduces any damage by 201, which is enough for the usual melee map, but might fail for other custom maps.
However, there are other fields, for example the Modify Fraction field, which multiplys the damage by a certain factor. It defaults to 1 (no amplification or reduction), setting it to 0 would cause every damage to be reduced to zero, regardless of the amount of damage actually dealt.
Oh, and btw:
Easiest would be copying the actor 3 times ;)
From my understanding, it should be kind of similar to using an HDR multiplier of 3, though.
Another model you could try is called "TerrorcystInfection.m3"
€ actually it looks way better when spawning the model 3 times ;)
... and another edit: I attached a map now. Sine I tried out everything I said already, I thought, I might as well share the results.
All changes I made:
Have a look, maybe you like it.
I like it A LOT. I just I don't like the model you used. :P But I do like it! It's awesome. Because of the triple actor, I was able to shrink the scale from 8,8,2 to 5,5,1, and it looks fine. That should, hopefully, not bust your graphics card. Thank you very much, I'll credit you in the next version.
BTW: Please tell me what the Dark Swarm SOP actor does and what "SOP" stands for, so I can understand what you did.
SOP stands for Site Operation. Site Operation actors are usually used to modify other actors; to give them an offset or a specific rotation of some kind.
I used it to increase the height of the actor, that way it does not look like it is halfway underground.
Cool! Thanks a bunch! :D
Anyway, the new version is up, and you're in the credits.
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVTQwiR3nXE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVTQwiR3nXE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
VIDEO! :D
it looks like it works. but don't like the graphics that much. its hard to see.
What do you mean? Can you show me a screenshot? Because it looks rather clear to me on any terrain.
@AegisRunestone: Go
sorry to necro this so badly but can you turn that from map to mod for me? i could use it. aka the dark swarm map be changed to a mod...