The only problem I see using morphing (as it is in my tutorial) is that your going from 2 bodies to 1. It might be easier to make like a "mind control" type ability that also causes your main unit to become invisible/untargetable and possibly follow along as a "ghost" type of thing, I don't know. Especially if the new unit would have other abilities that the main unit has.... Hmm... I'll think about it and see if I have any bright ideas.
I haven't even booted the editor up in a few days but I think theres a thingy either in the unit or the actor that has "starting - health" (or shields or energy) as a value. I think if you edit this properly it should work. If this doesn't work I can think of a couple other possibilities but I'm not 100% clear as to what exaclty your ability does.
Is it:
A. Like he targets a unit and then shapeshifts into a copy of that unit (duplication)
B. Targets the enemy then takes control of that unit (mind control)
C. Targets the unit then becomes that unit (thus either leaving his body behind or having it disappear).
The difference in the ability would dictate slightly different answers (I think).
Actually, that won't work since the Dark Templar has a permanent cloak. You must first actually REMOVE the permanant cloak ability and then go back and create a new cloaking ability with the restrictions you require from it to make it turn off. So, I'll just cut and paste my own tutorial here and show you where to tweak it for you own needs.
Shadowmeld
Shadowmeld is a cloaking ability that is only active while the unit is stationary. If he moves or attacks he becomes visible until he stands still again.
Ok, So this is actually pretty simple.
First off, we make a button (follow the steps above, I used the button for Dark Templar Perma-cloak since it's basically the same thing it just isn't always on.)
Name: Shadowmeld
Tooltip should say something like : Cloaked while stationary.
No hotkey needed since this will be a passive ability.
Next we go to "Behaviors", search for "Permanantly Cloaked" Right click it and hit "Duplicate Object", put a check in all the boxes and hit "OK"
Rename the behavior "Shadowmeld", suggest, hit "OK"
On the right find "Behavior - Validators (Disable)" and bring up it's window.
Hit the green "X" to add and choose "Caster is Stationary"
Repeat and add "Caster not Attacking"
(this tells the behavior that if the unit is moving or attacking the behavior turns off, but if he fulfills both those validators it turns on)
As a note "Behavior - Validators (Remove)" will permamantly remove the ability if the requirements are not met.
This paragraph above ^ is where your tweaks will come into play. Simply open the box next to the "validators - remove" and in here you add whatever you want to make turn the ability off permanently. It's tuesday morning so I can't opent he editor and check, since b-net is down. But I remember it being simple. Just keep in mind, these are requirements that when NOT fulfilled turn it off.
Now go to the "Actors" tab. There should be a "Cloak on copy" and a "Cloak off copy" if you duplicated the original behavior properly.
Pick one (lets say Cloak on copy) and go to the right near the bottom to "Sound - Sound". Bring this up and set it to "Ghost_Cloakon" (the sound a ghost makes when cloaking)
Repeat for the other but use the "off" sound.
Now go to "Unit". Bring up the unit that will use Shadowmeld.
First, on the right find "Unit - Flags" make sure the check box "Cloaked" is NOT checked. This is VERY IMPORTANT, you must turn off the perma cloak if his new cloak will ever be able to turn off
Then find "Behavior - Behaviors +" hit the green "X" and add Shadowmeld.
Your unit now has a working shadowmeld! But let's let the player know that.
Still on your unit, near the top go to "Ability - Command Card +" and add a button.
Choose the Shadowmeld button you made and set the command type to "Passive"
That should be it!!!
So simply follow this, but tweak it to your own needs and it'll work fine.
Now go to "Unit". Bring up the unit that will use Shadowmeld.
First, on the right find "Unit - Flags" make sure the check box "Cloaked" is NOT checked.
Make sure you didn't miss that line. It's very important. You have to remove the DT's perma-cloak for his sometime-cloak to work.
Oh wait. I see, you mean like if you give this ability to a unit that can cast spells or something? that would just be in the "validators - disable" box. You'd simply add something like "caster not casting" or something, those validators are pretty simple. Just pick the ones you need for your purposes.
Lol, it actually took very little repetition for most of it (I already knew how to do most things like create a unit and make buttons) and basically since I learned how to make the ability about 70% on my own and 30% from 2-3 different forum topics that I kind of patched together into what I felt was right. Once I made one I just quickly made more (the uber and muta I did simultaneously: made both units, then both buttons, then both, etc...). It's actually a relatively simple process.
Also, I'm pretty sure I even found a way to simplify the events in each actors data but I need to do a little tweaking to streamline it, but I'm pretty sure I can cut down the amount of events per actor by at least one and still have it work properly. Not that theres anything wrong with the way it is but making things simpler is always nice.
What I basically want is an "on contact" knockback that lasts for a specified duration. When my unit runs into the enemy unit it gets flung away.
Picture about 20 zerglings in a tight pack with my unit to one side of them, my unit runs a direct line through them and ends up on the other side. Those that were in his path got knocked back as they made contact. Thats my ideal. Without it looking totally weird and fake.
Oh definatly. I figured the damage thing before your reply (thanks anyway). But the problem was that it "looks" wrong. The efect I'm trying to get simply looks, weird. I'm not sure how else to put it but if this is the only way I can do it then it simply won't work because it looks terrible. I'm thinking, after finding a tutorial about "auras" (http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/tutorials/9277-applying-an-aura-to-a-unit-easy-difficulty/#p12) that I might try this instead. Creating an "aura" of knockback around the unit instead of a persistent knockback. Not sure if it'll be any different but it's worth a try I suppose.
Now, don't quote me on this cause I'm still learning force effects too but here's what I've learned so far:
Theres a number of variables involved with a blast and changing one or more can make drastic changes, you can make a blast big or small, fast or slow, weak or strong, etc... Some of the key numbers involved are:
In your "Search Area" effect > "Areas +" > Radius & Radius Bonus
In your "Create Persistent" effect > Period Count and Period Durations
In your "Apply Force" effect > Amount and Mass Fraction
Radius - has a smaller effect, basically it's the initial distance form the caster (in a circle) that the initial blast will happen
Radius Bonus - BIG factor here and it took me forever to learn this. Basically it is the distance that each period will expand the blast
Period Count - How many periods will happen
Period Duration - How rapid (or slowly) the periods happen
Amount - How much force is applied
Mass Fraction - not 100% sure what it does but it seems (to me so far with minimal testing) to effect how much of a target units mass it has when it gets hit (a small number like 0.001 makes it "lighter" in relation to the blast, a number like 4 makes it like 4 times as massive (I think, I could be TOTALLY wrong).
Anyway heres some examples of some of my testing. For these tests the radius was 0.5 The amount was 1 and the mass fraction was 1.
When I changed the other 3 here were some results.
Period | Period | Radius |
Count | Durations | Bonus | Results
100 | 0.1 | 0.2 | Slow moving, VERY strong (damage wise) and large blast
10 | 0.1 | 0.2 | Slow moving, VERY strong but significantly smaller area
10 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, small
100 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, large
400 | 0.001 | 0.2 | Almost exaclty the same size and strength as above but faster moving
50 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, medium size
50 | 0.01 | 0.02 | Fast, medium strength, very small size
500 | 0.001 | 0.008 | similar to above
50,000 | 0.001 | 0.008 | MASSIVE SIZE (took em like 3 min to come back), very weak, pretty slow moving
Ugh, that chart looked really nice while I typed it... I'll try to fix it
So you can see how just editing these 3 things can make a difference. From what I noticed too, making the mass fraction small made the enemies seem lighter (so like the weaker blast might not push an ultralisk much, changing the mass fraction makes it move more since it now has less resistance to force (it seemed that way anyway).
But the "radius bonus" plays a huge part in getting more than a teeny-tiny blast. Give it the correct setting and suddenly things get moving (get it?)
The problem I'm experiencing right now is the ability I want is becommming all janky. To get the ability to last the 15 seconds I want I had to A. make enough periods to make it last 15 seconds which slows the entire program down A LOT, plus makes a bigger blast than I desire or B. create a second create persistent which also governs the first one. But then I get problems with too much damage. I'd really like to just have a very small (but powerful) blast happens whenever an enemy makes contact with my unit and I feel like I'm missing something to get it to work properly.
If you get the whole "laser fence" finished I'd love to see how you did it. I've been trying this myself and having a terrible time of it. Even if you just make a map with just the info for the "fences" and noting else I'd really like to see how you did it.
1: A beam fence. Basically, a structure (lets say a pylon copy) that when placed within a certain vicinity of another of it's kind creates a beam between the units. Any enemy unit crossing the beam takes damage and/or is knocked back. Ideally to be able to create a ring of these around your base, or use two to block a ramp, etc.
2. An Impact knockback. Basically, a unit that when it touches an enemy unit blasts them backwards, but this ability would have an extended duration (say 15-20 seconds). Think of an ultralisk running through a crowd of zerglings and making a straight line through them scattering any in it's path.
"Charges" would refer to if you had like a grenade pickup that you could use X amount of times.... Like if the pick-up item had 4 charges, you could use it 4 times (provided it uses 1 charge each time). So if your using charges it should be something like this:
Count (Max) : 4 (if you want it to have 4 uses)
Count (Start) : 4 (you begin with all 4, you don't need to "pick-up" more)
Count (use) : 1 (it uses 1 charge per use)
If you want it to be infinate uses just don't use this at all, leave it blank.
Holy hell thats a lot of events! Tell me, now that I've looked through them. When the models are doubling. Are they doubling as identical models or are you getting like one model and one morphing model, or 2 side by side models, etc... I'm not even sure what some of those events do but looking through it, it seems like you possibly have multiple "create" models disguised as something else. Or possibly it's doing one morph and one morph with an animation type of thing. Also, I'll keep looking but after 5 min my head started swimming from all that text, but your "destroy the old model" events might need to be made more specific... If I see something in particular I'll let you know... Just so much info to sort though.
Ok, well as for the portrait (since it seems easiest, or at least simplest), like many sounds in the game a few of the models (whether units, animations, portraits, whatever) have more then one that fall under the same heading. For instance, if you go into the sound files and look you could set your sound for a specific event to be "Protoss - explosion -large" but there are actually 6 different versions of this (protoss - explosion - large1, large2, etc) this is so when multiple units play the same sound it has some variety thus sounding "right" to our ears. So you could specify just the general "large" sound and it'll pick which of the 6 to play or you could specify which of the 6 you specifically want. I'm thinking it's the same for the terran portraits. Your just going to have to find which one you want and specify it instead of just "Portrait - terran". I'm not sure where to find these files but if there are multiples (which we know to be true) they gotta be there somewhere.
As for the energy, I'm not so sure how to pull that off. My solution (if it was me) would just be to have them all start at max (but I'm lazy). Since it's essentially re-creating the unit when you swap it's also re-creating the energy it begins with. I'm sure theres an event or trigger that could be used to check current energy levels and carry that over to the new model but I haven't toyed with stats enough to get it yet. (I'm wondering how to do a similar thing with a morphing unit that "levels up" and how to keep the things added in to stay current. If I figure it out I'll get back to you but... /shrug
As for the morphing events. I'm sure theres a fix in there. There always is. But unless you screenshot the entire set of events or upload the map or give me some way to look at the problem first hand I can't really work blind.
If you want to upload a screenshot of just the events try using the "snipping" tool if you run windows. It's really fast and easy and most ppl don't even realize it comes packaged with windows. Just open your start menu and type "snip" into the search box. It'll come up. It's really self explanatory too. I understand not wanting to post a map (since I only really post maps packaged with a tutorial I really don't have your problem).
0
@MeltAge: Go
The only problem I see using morphing (as it is in my tutorial) is that your going from 2 bodies to 1. It might be easier to make like a "mind control" type ability that also causes your main unit to become invisible/untargetable and possibly follow along as a "ghost" type of thing, I don't know. Especially if the new unit would have other abilities that the main unit has.... Hmm... I'll think about it and see if I have any bright ideas.
0
@MeltAge: Go
I haven't even booted the editor up in a few days but I think theres a thingy either in the unit or the actor that has "starting - health" (or shields or energy) as a value. I think if you edit this properly it should work. If this doesn't work I can think of a couple other possibilities but I'm not 100% clear as to what exaclty your ability does.
Is it:
A. Like he targets a unit and then shapeshifts into a copy of that unit (duplication)
B. Targets the enemy then takes control of that unit (mind control)
C. Targets the unit then becomes that unit (thus either leaving his body behind or having it disappear).
The difference in the ability would dictate slightly different answers (I think).
0
@Yaos01: Go
Actually, that won't work since the Dark Templar has a permanent cloak. You must first actually REMOVE the permanant cloak ability and then go back and create a new cloaking ability with the restrictions you require from it to make it turn off. So, I'll just cut and paste my own tutorial here and show you where to tweak it for you own needs.
Shadowmeld
Shadowmeld is a cloaking ability that is only active while the unit is stationary. If he moves or attacks he becomes visible until he stands still again.
Ok, So this is actually pretty simple.
First off, we make a button (follow the steps above, I used the button for Dark Templar Perma-cloak since it's basically the same thing it just isn't always on.)
Name: Shadowmeld
Tooltip should say something like : Cloaked while stationary.
No hotkey needed since this will be a passive ability.
Next we go to "Behaviors", search for "Permanantly Cloaked" Right click it and hit "Duplicate Object", put a check in all the boxes and hit "OK"
Rename the behavior "Shadowmeld", suggest, hit "OK"
On the right find "Behavior - Validators (Disable)" and bring up it's window.
Hit the green "X" to add and choose "Caster is Stationary"
Repeat and add "Caster not Attacking"
(this tells the behavior that if the unit is moving or attacking the behavior turns off, but if he fulfills both those validators it turns on)
As a note "Behavior - Validators (Remove)" will permamantly remove the ability if the requirements are not met.
This paragraph above ^ is where your tweaks will come into play. Simply open the box next to the "validators - remove" and in here you add whatever you want to make turn the ability off permanently. It's tuesday morning so I can't opent he editor and check, since b-net is down. But I remember it being simple. Just keep in mind, these are requirements that when NOT fulfilled turn it off.
Now go to the "Actors" tab. There should be a "Cloak on copy" and a "Cloak off copy" if you duplicated the original behavior properly.
Pick one (lets say Cloak on copy) and go to the right near the bottom to "Sound - Sound". Bring this up and set it to "Ghost_Cloakon" (the sound a ghost makes when cloaking)
Repeat for the other but use the "off" sound.
Now go to "Unit". Bring up the unit that will use Shadowmeld.
First, on the right find "Unit - Flags" make sure the check box "Cloaked" is NOT checked. This is VERY IMPORTANT, you must turn off the perma cloak if his new cloak will ever be able to turn off
Then find "Behavior - Behaviors +" hit the green "X" and add Shadowmeld.
Your unit now has a working shadowmeld! But let's let the player know that.
Still on your unit, near the top go to "Ability - Command Card +" and add a button.
Choose the Shadowmeld button you made and set the command type to "Passive"
That should be it!!!
So simply follow this, but tweak it to your own needs and it'll work fine.
Copied from: http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/tutorials/11028-tutorial-data-misc-how-to-morphing-shapeshifter-druid/#p8
0
@PSGMud: Go
Now go to "Unit". Bring up the unit that will use Shadowmeld.
First, on the right find "Unit - Flags" make sure the check box "Cloaked" is NOT checked.
Make sure you didn't miss that line. It's very important. You have to remove the DT's perma-cloak for his sometime-cloak to work.
Oh wait. I see, you mean like if you give this ability to a unit that can cast spells or something? that would just be in the "validators - disable" box. You'd simply add something like "caster not casting" or something, those validators are pretty simple. Just pick the ones you need for your purposes.
0
@MLGAzrael: Go
Lol, it actually took very little repetition for most of it (I already knew how to do most things like create a unit and make buttons) and basically since I learned how to make the ability about 70% on my own and 30% from 2-3 different forum topics that I kind of patched together into what I felt was right. Once I made one I just quickly made more (the uber and muta I did simultaneously: made both units, then both buttons, then both, etc...). It's actually a relatively simple process.
Also, I'm pretty sure I even found a way to simplify the events in each actors data but I need to do a little tweaking to streamline it, but I'm pretty sure I can cut down the amount of events per actor by at least one and still have it work properly. Not that theres anything wrong with the way it is but making things simpler is always nice.
0
@Rushhour: Go
What I basically want is an "on contact" knockback that lasts for a specified duration. When my unit runs into the enemy unit it gets flung away.
Picture about 20 zerglings in a tight pack with my unit to one side of them, my unit runs a direct line through them and ends up on the other side. Those that were in his path got knocked back as they made contact. Thats my ideal. Without it looking totally weird and fake.
0
@Vortexx2010: Go
Oh definatly. I figured the damage thing before your reply (thanks anyway). But the problem was that it "looks" wrong. The efect I'm trying to get simply looks, weird. I'm not sure how else to put it but if this is the only way I can do it then it simply won't work because it looks terrible. I'm thinking, after finding a tutorial about "auras" (http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/tutorials/9277-applying-an-aura-to-a-unit-easy-difficulty/#p12) that I might try this instead. Creating an "aura" of knockback around the unit instead of a persistent knockback. Not sure if it'll be any different but it's worth a try I suppose.
0
Now, don't quote me on this cause I'm still learning force effects too but here's what I've learned so far:
Theres a number of variables involved with a blast and changing one or more can make drastic changes, you can make a blast big or small, fast or slow, weak or strong, etc... Some of the key numbers involved are:
In your "Search Area" effect > "Areas +" > Radius & Radius Bonus
In your "Create Persistent" effect > Period Count and Period Durations
In your "Apply Force" effect > Amount and Mass Fraction
Radius - has a smaller effect, basically it's the initial distance form the caster (in a circle) that the initial blast will happen
Radius Bonus - BIG factor here and it took me forever to learn this. Basically it is the distance that each period will expand the blast
Period Count - How many periods will happen
Period Duration - How rapid (or slowly) the periods happen
Amount - How much force is applied
Mass Fraction - not 100% sure what it does but it seems (to me so far with minimal testing) to effect how much of a target units mass it has when it gets hit (a small number like 0.001 makes it "lighter" in relation to the blast, a number like 4 makes it like 4 times as massive (I think, I could be TOTALLY wrong).
Anyway heres some examples of some of my testing. For these tests the radius was 0.5 The amount was 1 and the mass fraction was 1.
When I changed the other 3 here were some results.
Period | Period | Radius |
Count | Durations | Bonus | Results
100 | 0.1 | 0.2 | Slow moving, VERY strong (damage wise) and large blast
10 | 0.1 | 0.2 | Slow moving, VERY strong but significantly smaller area
10 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, small
100 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, large
400 | 0.001 | 0.2 | Almost exaclty the same size and strength as above but faster moving
50 | 0.01 | 0.2 | Fast, weak, medium size
50 | 0.01 | 0.02 | Fast, medium strength, very small size
500 | 0.001 | 0.008 | similar to above
50,000 | 0.001 | 0.008 | MASSIVE SIZE (took em like 3 min to come back), very weak, pretty slow moving
Ugh, that chart looked really nice while I typed it... I'll try to fix it
So you can see how just editing these 3 things can make a difference. From what I noticed too, making the mass fraction small made the enemies seem lighter (so like the weaker blast might not push an ultralisk much, changing the mass fraction makes it move more since it now has less resistance to force (it seemed that way anyway).
But the "radius bonus" plays a huge part in getting more than a teeny-tiny blast. Give it the correct setting and suddenly things get moving (get it?)
The problem I'm experiencing right now is the ability I want is becommming all janky. To get the ability to last the 15 seconds I want I had to A. make enough periods to make it last 15 seconds which slows the entire program down A LOT, plus makes a bigger blast than I desire or B. create a second create persistent which also governs the first one. But then I get problems with too much damage. I'd really like to just have a very small (but powerful) blast happens whenever an enemy makes contact with my unit and I feel like I'm missing something to get it to work properly.
0
If you get the whole "laser fence" finished I'd love to see how you did it. I've been trying this myself and having a terrible time of it. Even if you just make a map with just the info for the "fences" and noting else I'd really like to see how you did it.
0
Soory, I've been incredibly busy today. I won't have much time to sift more until tomorrow.
0
I got 2 requests:
1: A beam fence. Basically, a structure (lets say a pylon copy) that when placed within a certain vicinity of another of it's kind creates a beam between the units. Any enemy unit crossing the beam takes damage and/or is knocked back. Ideally to be able to create a ring of these around your base, or use two to block a ramp, etc.
2. An Impact knockback. Basically, a unit that when it touches an enemy unit blasts them backwards, but this ability would have an extended duration (say 15-20 seconds). Think of an ultralisk running through a crowd of zerglings and making a straight line through them scattering any in it's path.
0
@PredaN00b: Go
/bow
Glad I could help :)
0
@piepgras: Go
"Charges" would refer to if you had like a grenade pickup that you could use X amount of times.... Like if the pick-up item had 4 charges, you could use it 4 times (provided it uses 1 charge each time). So if your using charges it should be something like this:
Count (Max) : 4 (if you want it to have 4 uses)
Count (Start) : 4 (you begin with all 4, you don't need to "pick-up" more)
Count (use) : 1 (it uses 1 charge per use)
If you want it to be infinate uses just don't use this at all, leave it blank.
I don't think you need a duration at all...
0
@DotShadow: Go
Holy hell thats a lot of events! Tell me, now that I've looked through them. When the models are doubling. Are they doubling as identical models or are you getting like one model and one morphing model, or 2 side by side models, etc... I'm not even sure what some of those events do but looking through it, it seems like you possibly have multiple "create" models disguised as something else. Or possibly it's doing one morph and one morph with an animation type of thing. Also, I'll keep looking but after 5 min my head started swimming from all that text, but your "destroy the old model" events might need to be made more specific... If I see something in particular I'll let you know... Just so much info to sort though.
0
@DotShadow: Go
Ok, well as for the portrait (since it seems easiest, or at least simplest), like many sounds in the game a few of the models (whether units, animations, portraits, whatever) have more then one that fall under the same heading. For instance, if you go into the sound files and look you could set your sound for a specific event to be "Protoss - explosion -large" but there are actually 6 different versions of this (protoss - explosion - large1, large2, etc) this is so when multiple units play the same sound it has some variety thus sounding "right" to our ears. So you could specify just the general "large" sound and it'll pick which of the 6 to play or you could specify which of the 6 you specifically want. I'm thinking it's the same for the terran portraits. Your just going to have to find which one you want and specify it instead of just "Portrait - terran". I'm not sure where to find these files but if there are multiples (which we know to be true) they gotta be there somewhere.
As for the energy, I'm not so sure how to pull that off. My solution (if it was me) would just be to have them all start at max (but I'm lazy). Since it's essentially re-creating the unit when you swap it's also re-creating the energy it begins with. I'm sure theres an event or trigger that could be used to check current energy levels and carry that over to the new model but I haven't toyed with stats enough to get it yet. (I'm wondering how to do a similar thing with a morphing unit that "levels up" and how to keep the things added in to stay current. If I figure it out I'll get back to you but... /shrug
As for the morphing events. I'm sure theres a fix in there. There always is. But unless you screenshot the entire set of events or upload the map or give me some way to look at the problem first hand I can't really work blind.
If you want to upload a screenshot of just the events try using the "snipping" tool if you run windows. It's really fast and easy and most ppl don't even realize it comes packaged with windows. Just open your start menu and type "snip" into the search box. It'll come up. It's really self explanatory too. I understand not wanting to post a map (since I only really post maps packaged with a tutorial I really don't have your problem).