Alright well I came up with the most reasonable compromise I could given the circumstances. I went with the behaviour stack/Target Sort route for maximum efficiency (TSRandom was hitting too few targets too many times), and if I need more targeting capabilities I'll just substitute the [Retarget fields that I was trying to to get to work in the Launch Missile] Effect with periodic [Search Areas that use Redirect Missile] instead. Speaking of which, I found out that the cause of my missiles disappearing when a target died was (ironically) because the Retarget fields were interfering with the missiles. I reset the fields and now the missiles complete their trajectory to their final destination (dead or not), which is acceptable.
For future reference, judging by all the research I've done, I don't think it's possible for abilities (Effect - Target, Effect - Instant, and Augment are the ones I tried) to utilize the Retarget Fields. It is a feature that appears to be reserved for weapons only.
I used to find you had to launch them from the missile unit before it died. Unless you do like the lurker and use events to move/create a site actor at the impact location. Are you setting the correct host subject for your Action actor and forcing the launch site?
You are correct, I now have the missiles set up such that their Effect:Death creates the final Persistent Effect instead, and everything is finally working (at least visually).
I still can't seem to figure out how the retarget feature works with abilities though. Ever since I made the change above, now even the weapon version of my ability doesn't retarget anymore.
I'd be happy enough if AT LEAST the missiles didnt disappear when their current target died. That just looks really awkward...
Issue 1: The final set of missiles that are supposed to be fired from the impact location of the first set of missiles isn't firing in the right place. I can only seem to make them fire from the origin point of the casting unit (ground level of where my unit is) or at the caster itself (such as in the video below). I want them to originate from the impact point of the initial set of missiles...
Issue 2: I took at a look at the Leviathan and it's Bile Swarm attack, and it does indeed use the Retarget function effectively. I tried having my cluster bomb mimic the Bile Swarm's retargeting behaviour, but haven't had any success. I've noted that the Bile Swarm is a Weapon (as such the effect fires from a weapon) vice my ability which is an "Effect - Instant".
I also noted that if I took the Leviathan's Bile Weapon and replaced its effect chain with my effect chain, my cluster bomb would behave as expected (the missiles would retarget with no issues). I'm now left to believe that abilities don't seem to function the same way as weapons when it comes to retargeting, and am wondering how I can set up an ability to use the retarget feature correctly.
Below are the various configurations for my ability, in hopes that it may help troubleshoot the issue.
Alright I got it working the way I want now, I just needed to set up my Search Area effect to use Target Sorts:Random and that's done the trick for now. I may have to set up either markers or a behavior and validate it later on if Target Sorts can't handle complex situations on its own, but for now its good enough.
Random question though, under "Launch Missile" effect, there are a bunch of fields set aside such as "Retarget Range" and "Retarget Filters" that are supposed to be used in conjunction with the "Retarget" flag. That being said, I'm not seeing any of my missiles retarget anything if a unit dies before the missile impacts, even if the "Retarget Filters" is set to exclude dead. What are these fields used for then?
I'm trying to make a Cluster Bomb-type of ability: essentially an ability that fires off a bunch of missiles [via a persistent, let's call it "Initial"] in random directions, and those missiles then explode into more missiles [which creates a second persistent, which we can call "final"] that fire off in random directions and then acquire a random target within a specified range of the first explosion.
That being said, I'm having issues trying to get the ability to behave the way I want it to. Right now, I have no way of telling the ability that I want the second set of missiles to each track targets individually.
I have thought of setting up a search effect that fires off the missiles afterwards, but if I set up the search effect to fire the persistent afterwards, ALL the missiles in the persistent will acquire the same target. If I tell the search effect to fire each missile individually instead, it will only fire as many missiles as their are targets in the specified range, which isn't what I want either. I want it to always release 16 missiles, and those 16 missiles each acquire a random target.
What would be the easiest way to go about doing this?
Attached a video below showing the basic structure of my ability (I didn't set up the actors yet)
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Alright well I came up with the most reasonable compromise I could given the circumstances. I went with the behaviour stack/Target Sort route for maximum efficiency (TSRandom was hitting too few targets too many times), and if I need more targeting capabilities I'll just substitute the [Retarget fields that I was trying to to get to work in the Launch Missile] Effect with periodic [Search Areas that use Redirect Missile] instead. Speaking of which, I found out that the cause of my missiles disappearing when a target died was (ironically) because the Retarget fields were interfering with the missiles. I reset the fields and now the missiles complete their trajectory to their final destination (dead or not), which is acceptable.
For future reference, judging by all the research I've done, I don't think it's possible for abilities (Effect - Target, Effect - Instant, and Augment are the ones I tried) to utilize the Retarget Fields. It is a feature that appears to be reserved for weapons only.
I will call this case closed.
Welp I'm stumped again.
Issue 1: The final set of missiles that are supposed to be fired from the impact location of the first set of missiles isn't firing in the right place. I can only seem to make them fire from the origin point of the casting unit (ground level of where my unit is) or at the caster itself (such as in the video below). I want them to originate from the impact point of the initial set of missiles...
Issue 2: I took at a look at the Leviathan and it's Bile Swarm attack, and it does indeed use the Retarget function effectively. I tried having my cluster bomb mimic the Bile Swarm's retargeting behaviour, but haven't had any success. I've noted that the Bile Swarm is a Weapon (as such the effect fires from a weapon) vice my ability which is an "Effect - Instant".
I also noted that if I took the Leviathan's Bile Weapon and replaced its effect chain with my effect chain, my cluster bomb would behave as expected (the missiles would retarget with no issues). I'm now left to believe that abilities don't seem to function the same way as weapons when it comes to retargeting, and am wondering how I can set up an ability to use the retarget feature correctly.
Below are the various configurations for my ability, in hopes that it may help troubleshoot the issue.
Ability Setup
Actor Setup
Effects Setup
Linked to ->
Which is linked to ->
Which is linked to ->
Final link to ->
Alright I got it working the way I want now, I just needed to set up my Search Area effect to use Target Sorts:Random and that's done the trick for now. I may have to set up either markers or a behavior and validate it later on if Target Sorts can't handle complex situations on its own, but for now its good enough.
Random question though, under "Launch Missile" effect, there are a bunch of fields set aside such as "Retarget Range" and "Retarget Filters" that are supposed to be used in conjunction with the "Retarget" flag. That being said, I'm not seeing any of my missiles retarget anything if a unit dies before the missile impacts, even if the "Retarget Filters" is set to exclude dead. What are these fields used for then?
Hello,
I'm trying to make a Cluster Bomb-type of ability: essentially an ability that fires off a bunch of missiles [via a persistent, let's call it "Initial"] in random directions, and those missiles then explode into more missiles [which creates a second persistent, which we can call "final"] that fire off in random directions and then acquire a random target within a specified range of the first explosion.
That being said, I'm having issues trying to get the ability to behave the way I want it to. Right now, I have no way of telling the ability that I want the second set of missiles to each track targets individually.
I have thought of setting up a search effect that fires off the missiles afterwards, but if I set up the search effect to fire the persistent afterwards, ALL the missiles in the persistent will acquire the same target. If I tell the search effect to fire each missile individually instead, it will only fire as many missiles as their are targets in the specified range, which isn't what I want either. I want it to always release 16 missiles, and those 16 missiles each acquire a random target.
What would be the easiest way to go about doing this?
Attached a video below showing the basic structure of my ability (I didn't set up the actors yet)