ok i had the current one. This looks great so far. I will dig into this in the next few hours but I am being called away from the editor for something at the moment. I will post more later.
ok i am a little unsure of which version i have. Did u change the filename at all? I guess I will just redownload it and look at the freshest one. What changes did u make or 1 specific change i can look for.
Disabling the abilities until the hugger dies is easy. What's more difficult is the actual effect you are trying to create. Can the hugger detach itself, or is it permanently stuck on the marine once it's attacked?
I agree applying the behavior to disable the marine is ofc simple. To answer the ? about permanently stuck. The hugger would first run to its victim then attach and do dmg periodically, if the hugger dies (other units shooting it) then the marine is freed and regains his normal status. However, if the marine dies first, then the hugger would move on to its next victim and repeat.
Off the top of my head, I would try an approach similar to what Blizzard did with the Reaper. Create a missile model that looks exactly like the Face Hugger. Create a custom Mover (sorry can't help with this, but through experimentation you may be able to get t to work) that makes it 'leap' upwards and finish its attack in a vertical position. When the hugger starts its attack, make it commit suicide and give it the Electrocute death type for the Suicide Damage Effect. In its main actor, change the model for Electrocute death animaitons to be Invisible.
I have never looked at how the reaper works, perhaps I should. The custom mover shouldnt be a problem because I have made several complex movers already in my map and would even be willing to help you learn them if needed. Although I should say I learned movers from Prozaic's tutorial and then just practicing modifying them on my own. I follow everything you're saying about death actors and suicides and all.
Next, make sure the weapon fires the missile that looks like the hugger. Finally, upon impact, create a third actor (Model > Model Addition) that looks like the hugger and give it an Explicit Rotation so it's vertical. Make sure its Host settings and whatnot are assigned to a Marine and the Host Site Operations are set to SOpAttachHead.
smart solution and I was pretty much thinking this same thing but hadnt considered the missile part, still with you at this point, just create the model addition actor and have it created on the host when the "hugged" behavior is on.
That should make it look good. However, you'll have problems with the fact that it's simply an actor with no health...To solve that, I would use a behaviour (which is added to the marine upon being attacked) which disables all his abilities and suppresses Attack and Movement. Give it a shield (or additional health) and change its owner to an enemy. Once its health goes low enough or its shield are zero, remove the buff and return it to its original team. There may be other ways to make allies target it without needing to change the unit's owner, but I'm not sure.
i like this part, this is very creative and I had never come close to thinking of this. My thoughts are to add shield with the current hp of the hugger when it suicided (using a trigger I assume) to the "hugged" marine. Then use a Modify Unit type effect for the periodic hp dmg on the marine because this will bypass the shield. Changing the owner to an enemy to allow allies to attack is clever, but my only concern is how to perfectly change the ownership back to ally (and prevent hp dmg) when the shield is consumed. This is for a survival type map and every little hp on your marine is critical so accidental friendly fire would be a travesty.
There's probably a better way to do that, but its the first thing I thought of. The Data Editor is great for combining character models and actors, but combining two units that keep their own allegiances and health bars may require 'cheating' (like changing the Marine's owner for a time). I'm going to experiment a bit with the actual effect of attaching a zergling (I know you aren't using a zergling, but it's the same basic steps) to a marine's head and let you know what I come up with.
[Edit]: Got exactly what you want. A few final touches and I'll attach it to this post.
[Edit 2]: Done for ya. You'll have to play with it some more to allow the hugger to be shot off, but I nailed the look. I used one trigger to maintian team colours, simply because it's easier than using Data and I don't know what your map entials. If your zerg are always one team colour and your marines are only ever one team colour, then you could easily do that through the data editor. If you are still having trouble with Removing the hugger, let me know and I can cntinue to work on it.
Thank you, I havent looked at the map file yet, but will do so immediately. I will post some feedback when finished.
I actually have a small request for you now. I think this ability has a lot of potential and would like to have permission to alter it a bit and put it in the 'assets' section of this site (they accept abilities, right?). I won't do it without your permission, since you came up with the idea and it gives people an early look at one of your game mechanics. It's up to you, but I'd love to take this further and share it.
Let me know what you think of it :).
I have no objection to you posting this as an asset although I would wait until you are satisfied that its refined enough (remember i havent opened the test map yet to see). This is not my original concept by a long shot so I would never claim ownership of the idea. I love this site and community because of how open and helpful the people can be.
i have one data task that has eluded me thus far. I am highly capable data editor and my partner is highly capable trigger editor.
In our map we have an enemy unit called a "face hugger". It will be either a swarmling model or a custom imported WoW model (cryptfiend which is available in the WoW model request thread). The face hugger should obviously run to its target enemy and leap onto their face. Once it attaches to a marine it disables (move, attack, abilities) the marine entirely and does periodic dmg (25) to the marine. This persists until the hugger is killed by other marines.
I have made the hugger unit, actor, model, weapon (dmg only). But I have been struggling with how to create the disable behavior on the marine and have it removed when the hugger dies. Also, and most importantly, I have not figured out how to have the hugger attach to the targets head in an vertical alignment while it "attacks". If you can help me with this, I would be very appreciative and probably mention you in map credits.
The solution could be done in data or triggers but I would much prefer data solution.
@wingednosering: Go
ok i had the current one. This looks great so far. I will dig into this in the next few hours but I am being called away from the editor for something at the moment. I will post more later.
Thanks again, this looks like a great start.
ok i am a little unsure of which version i have. Did u change the filename at all? I guess I will just redownload it and look at the freshest one. What changes did u make or 1 specific change i can look for.
I agree applying the behavior to disable the marine is ofc simple. To answer the ? about permanently stuck. The hugger would first run to its victim then attach and do dmg periodically, if the hugger dies (other units shooting it) then the marine is freed and regains his normal status. However, if the marine dies first, then the hugger would move on to its next victim and repeat.
I have never looked at how the reaper works, perhaps I should. The custom mover shouldnt be a problem because I have made several complex movers already in my map and would even be willing to help you learn them if needed. Although I should say I learned movers from Prozaic's tutorial and then just practicing modifying them on my own. I follow everything you're saying about death actors and suicides and all.
smart solution and I was pretty much thinking this same thing but hadnt considered the missile part, still with you at this point, just create the model addition actor and have it created on the host when the "hugged" behavior is on.
i like this part, this is very creative and I had never come close to thinking of this. My thoughts are to add shield with the current hp of the hugger when it suicided (using a trigger I assume) to the "hugged" marine. Then use a Modify Unit type effect for the periodic hp dmg on the marine because this will bypass the shield. Changing the owner to an enemy to allow allies to attack is clever, but my only concern is how to perfectly change the ownership back to ally (and prevent hp dmg) when the shield is consumed. This is for a survival type map and every little hp on your marine is critical so accidental friendly fire would be a travesty.
Thank you, I havent looked at the map file yet, but will do so immediately. I will post some feedback when finished.
I have no objection to you posting this as an asset although I would wait until you are satisfied that its refined enough (remember i havent opened the test map yet to see). This is not my original concept by a long shot so I would never claim ownership of the idea. I love this site and community because of how open and helpful the people can be.
i have one data task that has eluded me thus far. I am highly capable data editor and my partner is highly capable trigger editor.
In our map we have an enemy unit called a "face hugger". It will be either a swarmling model or a custom imported WoW model (cryptfiend which is available in the WoW model request thread). The face hugger should obviously run to its target enemy and leap onto their face. Once it attaches to a marine it disables (move, attack, abilities) the marine entirely and does periodic dmg (25) to the marine. This persists until the hugger is killed by other marines.
I have made the hugger unit, actor, model, weapon (dmg only). But I have been struggling with how to create the disable behavior on the marine and have it removed when the hugger dies. Also, and most importantly, I have not figured out how to have the hugger attach to the targets head in an vertical alignment while it "attacks". If you can help me with this, I would be very appreciative and probably mention you in map credits.
The solution could be done in data or triggers but I would much prefer data solution.