Are you reusing existing abilities? "MothershipCorePurifyNexus" has both a cast animation and the buff-based AnimGroup set, I doubt that will work properly.
Once you've ensured only one animation controller is executing you can start working on the animation itself. If AnimGroupApply doesn't work you can try AnimBracketStart or AnimPlay, but those will probably get cancelled if the unit casts other spells in the meantime.
Ignore and move on, lots of editor-only classifications are wrong. Has no effect on actual gameplay unless you use the RaceID validators with it, and that's only relevant for units.
Probably the way the animation is played by the actor. How exactly does the animation bug out? I assume the MsCore resets to "normal" when ordered to move, but does it "snap back" once it's stationary again?
You have to edit the size manually, as far as I know only "targeting guide" actors can auto-scale to actual effects. Unless other actors inherit the parameters the Scale fields on Actors and Models are essentially equivalent. If the AoE changes continuously the SetScale actor event might have sufficient timer options, anything more you have to do manually with multiple actors or Timer events.
Please state in which way the ability fails, or upload a demo map so we can test it ourselves. In particular those images show neither the Persistent effect nor the monitor buff, which are the actual core of the "blink back" mechanic in this case.
Unless you are on a deadline I would also suggest creating everything from scratch, or copying existing setups, as this a) forces you to gain a deeper understanding of how the ability works and b) leaves the original intact and functional for comparison.
"Range" indicator, no chance, probably can't even do straight lines. In terms of coding that's only the little white arrow-dots around the caster though.
You can easily replace the Cursor model with any shape you desire, this is the fancy, colourful ground marker you see when casting AoE abilities at range. Most of their actors are called "something"CursorSplat, just change the Model field.
The third component is the "pre-targeting" visuals, aka the red-white blinking tint and crosshairs over individual units. These can be drawn from other shapes somehow, but the standard cursor guide again only does circles. The new HotS "Guide Quad" actors (see Kerrigan's Psionic Shift from campaign) can mark units along the line, but I have no idea how they do it.
Behavior type ability with On/Off toggle enabled, or Effect-Instant that applies a Remove Behavior effect on the Caster. The latter allows more control via validators, stack count etc.
You can actually have both effects in the same ability by using a switch effect as the effect called by the ability then use it to define which chain of effect should be used. So use once to blink, use again to blink back, now the unit is free to make a standard blink again. It really depends if you want the unit to be able to freely blink to new locations or not.
You can kill the specific beacon that Stalker created.
That will run into issues with the cooldown/energy cost though, you'd have to wait for the full recharge before you could use the back-port (thinking of LeBlanc from League of Legends here, who can blink back instantly after casting the main spell)
Thanks ! <3 I'll test that tomorrow, now i will sleep...
I got the idea to create a little protoss beacon at the position of the back blink. So i'll just create another effect spawning the protoss beacon with a spawn fate of 4 second. But i dont know what to do for kill the beacon prematurely if the user back blink their stalker. I think something like kill the nearest beacon, but i think i'm wrong.
Thanks :)
If this beacon doesn't have to be targetable as a unit you can tie it to the Persistent effect, exactly how Psi Storm does it. This is only feasible if each Stalker can only have one beacon at a time, as the casting player wouldn't be able to select one either.
If the beacon should be destructable or the like, replace the Persistent effect with a Create Unit effect and use the "creation effect" field to apply the Persistent or a Buff to the beacon unit. This gives you access to both scopes, Stalker and beacon, to validate for buff stacks, either getting destroyed, ability/weapon use via a dummy buff and so on.
A nice trick here would be the use of advanced scope selection: You can specify a previous effect in the chain to draw the scope reference from. In this case, since the back-teleport is launched by the Persistent, you can put it in a Set effect and aim the TP at "Persistent: Target Point", then a "kill" effect aimed at "CreateUnit/Persistent: Target Unit" (the beacon). Try slight variations if this doesn't work immediately, I'm not sure how Create Unit defines its own scope (i.e. is the Target the created unit or the location where the spawn takes place)
Then add more Set effects to catch other exceptions as necessary, i.e. remove monitor buff if beacon gets killed, "dispell" effects that should prevent the back-port, "expire" handler if the beacon has a timed life and you don't want the Stalker to be forced back. That last part also is a problem if the beacon isn't a unit, and may require another dummy buff or something to prevent it, as Effect: Final obviously also runs if the buff/effect expires naturally.
2. Look at "Hybrid - Psionic Shockwave", all "search" type fields support limited firing arcs. Just make sure the search is centered on Caster Unit so it inherits the local "forwards" direction. If the ability should be castable without interrupting other actions check the Transient flag, note this also makes it impossible to queue up (and targetable abilities won't even allow you to order a cast outside their maximum range, as they can't order the unit to move in range)
The height modification is still necessary to my knowledge, otherwise units just hit the ground instantly and aren't pushed back.
Many ways to do that, no idea which is the simplest/most elegant. I would suggest the following: The ability first creates a Set effect aimed at a Point. This Set contains three effects in that order:
ApplyBehavior "TP back monitor", set to apply a dummy buff to Caster
Persistent effect aimed at Caster Point with a periodic validator checking that the Caster has the "monitor" buff given above
Standard Blink teleport effect
The order is important so the Stalker gets the buff before it is checked for, and creates the back-port marker (the Persistent effect) before teleporting itself.
Then create another Teleport effect, this one aimed at Persistent: Target Point, which is the Stalker's position at the time it began casting Blink. Place standard Blink validators on this effect so you can't back-port while under Fungal Growth or such. Then set this effect under the Effect: Final field of the persistent. Effect: Final is run if the persistent stops for any reason, including when the periodic validator fails.
Now make a second ability to remove the "monitor" buff, again with all standard Blink validators. To have both buttons on the same spot add a node to the Requirement of this ability to hide the button when the caster has 0 monitor buff stacks (CountBehavior."monitor".CompletedAtUnit), and place its button above the one for regular Blink.
Behavior.On/Effect.Persistent.Start->AnimBracketStart "Name" Intro Main(looped) Outro
Behavior.Off/Effect.Persistent.Stop->AnimBracketStop Name
Where "Intro" is the first animation key on the AnimBracket and plays once when the event fires, "Main" is the second key and is looped as long as the bracket runs (i.e. not "stopped" or overwritten by new animation events) and "Outro" is played once when an AnimBracketStop event fires (but not when the animation is overwritten)
You can look up the correct animation keys in the Curscene module, I would guess it's Stand-Work(-Start/End).
Some continuous visuals instead use the AnimGroupApply event, which appends the given keys to the baseline animations, which still has OnApply/OnRemove for Intro/Outro respectively.
Modify Unit effect or Behavior, the latter is easier to "cleanse"/cancel. For the Modify Unit effect tick the "Owner" flag under Effect: Modification Flags+ and set the Modify Owner Player+ field. For Buffs copy the Infestor one, untick the "Channeled" flag under Behavior: Buff Flags+, and remove the validators if necessary ("Not Hidden" would otherwise fail when a worker "enters" a gas mine, for instance)
Use either a Splat or Model type actor set to the cursor model. View the cursor in the Cutscene module and make sure the desired animations are being played by the actor, the standard is Birth-Stand(loop)-Death. Depending on the model and desired visual you might need some SiteOps (SOpShadow should be enough for a ground-level effect, if any) or some additional animation work, but for most things I'd expect them to simply work when copied into the Psi Storm actor (good test if you don't trust your own ability to create an actor from copy/scratch, just hit Undo after the test)
If the "Stand" animation doesn't loop by default replace the standard BSD bracket events with the following:
ActorCreation->AnimPlay Birth Birth
AnimDone->AnimName Birth->AnimPlay Stand Stand PlayForever
"kill message"->AnimPlay Death Death
AnimDone->AnimName Death->Destroy
Where "kill message" is your destruction trigger, such as Effect.Persistent.Stop. Note animations have two "name" options, the first is an editor-only tag to reference in other events, the second is the actual animation key sent to the model itself (and can only be selected from a loooooong dropdown list).
The "pulsing field" variety is called Psi Storm. You can create one at each offset of a line AoE chain, with the buff capped at 1 stack they won't pile up either. Circles, rectangular lines and cones are the only shapes with direct actor support, and overlapping multiple guide actors might be tricky.
Stacking up Probes would probably equate to a net loss as they sit idle, and if you look at the cursor image on the wiki the AoE is easily large enough to cover an entire mineral line anyway. A properly rendered "boost lane" would definitely look better than "plop, now go mine for 30s" though...
That reference doesn't really imply the complexity you're talking about, to me it sounds like a Fungal Growth-type ability that increases gather amount instead of rooting+damaging targets. Click once, anything under the cursor gets buffed for 30s, anything outside is out of luck. Since the description specifically mentions "enhancing Probes' Proton Cutters" I sincerely doubt it affected the minerals provided by fields in the AoE and only boosted the harvester units themselves.
Everything you stated is perfectly doable though.
Quad actors are used by Kerrigan's Psionic Shift (dash) ability from HotS campaign if you need a copy source. For the most part they work like regular AoE cursor/range actors: specify an ability to draw the guide for, specify secondary properties like width, use regular actor stuff to adjust the visuals further (tint color, opacity etc.) Note there are 2 basic versions, one's name ends with "Attached" and always draws from the caster unit in the direction of the target point, the other always draws with the tip at the target point in the direction of the casting unit. These match the "get in range first" option for abilities, and for a stationary structure you'll want the "attached" version.
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Are you reusing existing abilities? "MothershipCorePurifyNexus" has both a cast animation and the buff-based AnimGroup set, I doubt that will work properly.
Once you've ensured only one animation controller is executing you can start working on the animation itself. If AnimGroupApply doesn't work you can try AnimBracketStart or AnimPlay, but those will probably get cancelled if the unit casts other spells in the meantime.
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Ignore and move on, lots of editor-only classifications are wrong. Has no effect on actual gameplay unless you use the RaceID validators with it, and that's only relevant for units.
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Probably the way the animation is played by the actor. How exactly does the animation bug out? I assume the MsCore resets to "normal" when ordered to move, but does it "snap back" once it's stationary again?
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You have to edit the size manually, as far as I know only "targeting guide" actors can auto-scale to actual effects. Unless other actors inherit the parameters the Scale fields on Actors and Models are essentially equivalent. If the AoE changes continuously the SetScale actor event might have sufficient timer options, anything more you have to do manually with multiple actors or Timer events.
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Please state in which way the ability fails, or upload a demo map so we can test it ourselves. In particular those images show neither the Persistent effect nor the monitor buff, which are the actual core of the "blink back" mechanic in this case.
Unless you are on a deadline I would also suggest creating everything from scratch, or copying existing setups, as this a) forces you to gain a deeper understanding of how the ability works and b) leaves the original intact and functional for comparison.
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"Range" indicator, no chance, probably can't even do straight lines. In terms of coding that's only the little white arrow-dots around the caster though.
You can easily replace the Cursor model with any shape you desire, this is the fancy, colourful ground marker you see when casting AoE abilities at range. Most of their actors are called "something"CursorSplat, just change the Model field.
The third component is the "pre-targeting" visuals, aka the red-white blinking tint and crosshairs over individual units. These can be drawn from other shapes somehow, but the standard cursor guide again only does circles. The new HotS "Guide Quad" actors (see Kerrigan's Psionic Shift from campaign) can mark units along the line, but I have no idea how they do it.
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Behavior type ability with On/Off toggle enabled, or Effect-Instant that applies a Remove Behavior effect on the Caster. The latter allows more control via validators, stack count etc.
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That will run into issues with the cooldown/energy cost though, you'd have to wait for the full recharge before you could use the back-port (thinking of LeBlanc from League of Legends here, who can blink back instantly after casting the main spell)
If this beacon doesn't have to be targetable as a unit you can tie it to the Persistent effect, exactly how Psi Storm does it. This is only feasible if each Stalker can only have one beacon at a time, as the casting player wouldn't be able to select one either.
If the beacon should be destructable or the like, replace the Persistent effect with a Create Unit effect and use the "creation effect" field to apply the Persistent or a Buff to the beacon unit. This gives you access to both scopes, Stalker and beacon, to validate for buff stacks, either getting destroyed, ability/weapon use via a dummy buff and so on.
A nice trick here would be the use of advanced scope selection: You can specify a previous effect in the chain to draw the scope reference from. In this case, since the back-teleport is launched by the Persistent, you can put it in a Set effect and aim the TP at "Persistent: Target Point", then a "kill" effect aimed at "CreateUnit/Persistent: Target Unit" (the beacon). Try slight variations if this doesn't work immediately, I'm not sure how Create Unit defines its own scope (i.e. is the Target the created unit or the location where the spawn takes place)
Then add more Set effects to catch other exceptions as necessary, i.e. remove monitor buff if beacon gets killed, "dispell" effects that should prevent the back-port, "expire" handler if the beacon has a timed life and you don't want the Stalker to be forced back. That last part also is a problem if the beacon isn't a unit, and may require another dummy buff or something to prevent it, as Effect: Final obviously also runs if the buff/effect expires naturally.
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2. Look at "Hybrid - Psionic Shockwave", all "search" type fields support limited firing arcs. Just make sure the search is centered on Caster Unit so it inherits the local "forwards" direction. If the ability should be castable without interrupting other actions check the Transient flag, note this also makes it impossible to queue up (and targetable abilities won't even allow you to order a cast outside their maximum range, as they can't order the unit to move in range)
The height modification is still necessary to my knowledge, otherwise units just hit the ground instantly and aren't pushed back.
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Many ways to do that, no idea which is the simplest/most elegant. I would suggest the following: The ability first creates a Set effect aimed at a Point. This Set contains three effects in that order:
The order is important so the Stalker gets the buff before it is checked for, and creates the back-port marker (the Persistent effect) before teleporting itself.
Then create another Teleport effect, this one aimed at Persistent: Target Point, which is the Stalker's position at the time it began casting Blink. Place standard Blink validators on this effect so you can't back-port while under Fungal Growth or such. Then set this effect under the Effect: Final field of the persistent. Effect: Final is run if the persistent stops for any reason, including when the periodic validator fails.
Now make a second ability to remove the "monitor" buff, again with all standard Blink validators. To have both buttons on the same spot add a node to the Requirement of this ability to hide the button when the caster has 0 monitor buff stacks (CountBehavior."monitor".CompletedAtUnit), and place its button above the one for regular Blink.
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For continuous effects the standard syntax is
Where "Intro" is the first animation key on the AnimBracket and plays once when the event fires, "Main" is the second key and is looped as long as the bracket runs (i.e. not "stopped" or overwritten by new animation events) and "Outro" is played once when an AnimBracketStop event fires (but not when the animation is overwritten)
You can look up the correct animation keys in the Curscene module, I would guess it's Stand-Work(-Start/End).
Some continuous visuals instead use the AnimGroupApply event, which appends the given keys to the baseline animations, which still has OnApply/OnRemove for Intro/Outro respectively.
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Modify Unit effect or Behavior, the latter is easier to "cleanse"/cancel. For the Modify Unit effect tick the "Owner" flag under Effect: Modification Flags+ and set the Modify Owner Player+ field. For Buffs copy the Infestor one, untick the "Channeled" flag under Behavior: Buff Flags+, and remove the validators if necessary ("Not Hidden" would otherwise fail when a worker "enters" a gas mine, for instance)
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Use either a Splat or Model type actor set to the cursor model. View the cursor in the Cutscene module and make sure the desired animations are being played by the actor, the standard is Birth-Stand(loop)-Death. Depending on the model and desired visual you might need some SiteOps (SOpShadow should be enough for a ground-level effect, if any) or some additional animation work, but for most things I'd expect them to simply work when copied into the Psi Storm actor (good test if you don't trust your own ability to create an actor from copy/scratch, just hit Undo after the test)
If the "Stand" animation doesn't loop by default replace the standard BSD bracket events with the following:
Where "kill message" is your destruction trigger, such as Effect.Persistent.Stop. Note animations have two "name" options, the first is an editor-only tag to reference in other events, the second is the actual animation key sent to the model itself (and can only be selected from a loooooong dropdown list).
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The "pulsing field" variety is called Psi Storm. You can create one at each offset of a line AoE chain, with the buff capped at 1 stack they won't pile up either. Circles, rectangular lines and cones are the only shapes with direct actor support, and overlapping multiple guide actors might be tricky.
Stacking up Probes would probably equate to a net loss as they sit idle, and if you look at the cursor image on the wiki the AoE is easily large enough to cover an entire mineral line anyway. A properly rendered "boost lane" would definitely look better than "plop, now go mine for 30s" though...
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That reference doesn't really imply the complexity you're talking about, to me it sounds like a Fungal Growth-type ability that increases gather amount instead of rooting+damaging targets. Click once, anything under the cursor gets buffed for 30s, anything outside is out of luck. Since the description specifically mentions "enhancing Probes' Proton Cutters" I sincerely doubt it affected the minerals provided by fields in the AoE and only boosted the harvester units themselves.
Everything you stated is perfectly doable though.
Quad actors are used by Kerrigan's Psionic Shift (dash) ability from HotS campaign if you need a copy source. For the most part they work like regular AoE cursor/range actors: specify an ability to draw the guide for, specify secondary properties like width, use regular actor stuff to adjust the visuals further (tint color, opacity etc.) Note there are 2 basic versions, one's name ends with "Attached" and always draws from the caster unit in the direction of the target point, the other always draws with the tip at the target point in the direction of the casting unit. These match the "get in range first" option for abilities, and for a stationary structure you'll want the "attached" version.