I am yet to use this tool but I think it's a great step towards 'fixing' the Galaxy Editor - as many people attribute it with being too difficult or confusing.
If I knew how, I would create a 3rd party tool that acts as a VisualBasic 'wizard' of sorts. The shortest 'pipeline' I have managed to figure out in Data Editing is by creating new objects, based off similar existing objects, repeating and relinking, then modifying all statistics and fields with a final (and lengthy) debugging period.
Imagine if we could open a standalone .exe file and create
a Unit, Actor, Weapon>Persistent>Launch Missile>Set>Damage>Apply Behaviour>Behaviour
or
a Button>Ability>Effect - Target>Search Area>Set>Validator>Damage>Apply Behaviour>Remove Behaviour
or even
a Mover>Projectile Unit>Actor>Action Actor>Weapon>Create Persistent>Launch Missile
Or any other iteration of the above object-trees... The standalone exe would enable us to alter all 'relevant' fields, and automatically link and assign IDs to objects we create. Vastly simplifying the current data creation process, at maybe a slight cost in complexity we are able to achieve.
Anyway /rant over :) I'll look into using this tool tomorrow.
I'm creating a space-themed map which essentially has no terrain (and I've removed the background skybox model/image for now also).
I seem to have a hard time causing my Launch Missile effects to
1) Launch from the unit that is firing them.
and
2) Cause them to hit at the relevant Z height
The premise is that players get a number of weapons to put on each ship. Automatic weapons fire while moving and automatically shoot nearby targets, a lá diamond back style.
However, Targetted Weapons reward the players for achieving skill shots - in determining the velocity and direction of an enemy ship and firing (using a target-point ability) accordingly.
My first ability Hellstorm Missile Barrage copied many elements from the Missile Turret. It launches 8 missiles at target point, with a bunch of random offsets. All works fine. I had a lot of trouble getting the missiles to launch from the caster origin, and cannot fully remember how I achieved it. However, the missiles still 'hit' below the target point on the Z axis, as though they were firing a point on the ground.
My second ability, Antimatter Rocket Storm copies elements from the Scout's Left&Right anti air missiles. However, I can't seem to get them to fire from the caster, they shoot from about 4 range lower. The persistent effect fires 17 missiles which hit in a X formation around the targetted point, achieved through Periodic Offsets+ (and no 'random offset' flag).
Judging by the obscurity of this, I doubt it is possible, and I'd reckon Blizzard replays store such data arbitrarily - ie, externally to what we can mod through the editor. As such, Interceptors and Creep Tumors, for example, are simply hard coded not to be detected by the Blizzard replay dialogues.
Unfortunately command cards are quite limited in how they can be altered on the fly.
I would use a sub-menu and put all upgrades available on that (up to a possible maximum of 12). I would give each upgrade a 'Charge', so that it can only be used once (or three times as the case may be for weapons/armour). You can find out more about 'Charges' under the Ability>Cost field, and take a look at how Vulture - Spider Mines operate.
Not sure if there is a flag you can untick, maybe channelling? Somewhere for the research ability.
Alternatively:
Give the unit an instant effect ability that costs the amount the research should cost.
Make this ability apply a Buff (behaviour) to the unit for 60 seconds, or however long you want the upgrade to take.
When this Buff expires, you can make it apply another buff (that controls what the upgrade effects) which lasts forever.
I used this system in a map I abandoned ages ago. Each unit had the ability to be 'upgraded' or 'levele'd' uniquely. All upgrades costed certain amounts of vespene and took varying amounts of time. And you can effect anything from what weapons a unit uses, how fast it moves, it's base stats etc...
Out of curiosity. I've made a proof of concept that relies on cameras, minimap bounds, clever region usage, dialogs and background models. You can pretty much have everything listed in your OP but no walking around your ship, or actually being on a planet.
With all the features you have outlined... to fully produce that map, even to a playable format (ie: all features implemented in their most basic form)... would easily take a team of 5 to 10 people, just over a year.
Also, the concept is pretty much Eve: Online, and all it's inspiration sources.
Not specifically. All Zerg ground units in SC1 had Zerg Ground Carapace, same with Terran and Protoss, yet still in SC1 each unit had an individual named weapon type.
But anyways, as Super said, a behaviour cannot alter the fields of an actor, unfortunately.
@Zenx1, replying purely to your OP. Take programming up as a hobby during your free time, add in some freelance jobs, become more competent and then phase out electrical engineering entirely. xcorbo has it spot on also, see image:
edit: I'm 100% happy in my chosen 'career' as freelance graphic design consultant, character artist, animator, poly modeller, architectural visualisation specialist, digital artist and all round awesome dude, who dabbles in the indi-game development circles.
Bad news. I got the map to a working point and well, it kinda doesn't work.
I underestimated the time it would take players to do 'their turn'. And, adding the scale and complexity of risk/diplomacy maps on top of this, meant there is just far too much down time while you wait for other players to do 'their turns'. I had initially hoped to fill this down time with mini-games, relating to trade agreements and diplomacy etc... But these detracted from paying attention to what was happening on the map and would become far too repetitive.
A more realistic mode of play would have set teams and each team has its turn collectively. But free for all play and shifting alliances was a major part of play in the initial concept.
I am shelving this project for the foreseeable future. A part of me wants to just simplify it and make it a real time medieval Risk type map, but I feel it will lose a lot of its value in this way. I guess I will wait and see what HotS or the community brings to the table in terms of map editing and then take it from there.
Sorry guys! I will be fleshing out a 'better' concept for something, and possibly recycle a lot of the already working systems in this map. I will keep those who applied for testing informed about any upcoming projects.
Is it possible... through a search area effect to then use a Set that contains effects both affecting
a) the Origin unit (unit with behaviour conducting the search area)
and
b) the Target unit (unit found by the search area)
Ideally, I want my search area to look for Unit A. Once found, remove unit a, apply a behaviour to self, remove a different behaviour from self, and also remove the searching behaviour.
I simply can't get this to work and am considering using On Death effects instead.
0
@Milfeus: Go
Never played BWC, or heard of it. But grats.
0
I am yet to use this tool but I think it's a great step towards 'fixing' the Galaxy Editor - as many people attribute it with being too difficult or confusing.
If I knew how, I would create a 3rd party tool that acts as a VisualBasic 'wizard' of sorts. The shortest 'pipeline' I have managed to figure out in Data Editing is by creating new objects, based off similar existing objects, repeating and relinking, then modifying all statistics and fields with a final (and lengthy) debugging period.
Imagine if we could open a standalone .exe file and create
a Unit, Actor, Weapon>Persistent>Launch Missile>Set>Damage>Apply Behaviour>Behaviour
or
a Button>Ability>Effect - Target>Search Area>Set>Validator>Damage>Apply Behaviour>Remove Behaviour
or even
a Mover>Projectile Unit>Actor>Action Actor>Weapon>Create Persistent>Launch Missile
Or any other iteration of the above object-trees... The standalone exe would enable us to alter all 'relevant' fields, and automatically link and assign IDs to objects we create. Vastly simplifying the current data creation process, at maybe a slight cost in complexity we are able to achieve.
Anyway /rant over :) I'll look into using this tool tomorrow.
0
Hey hey!
I'm creating a space-themed map which essentially has no terrain (and I've removed the background skybox model/image for now also).
I seem to have a hard time causing my Launch Missile effects to
1) Launch from the unit that is firing them.
and
2) Cause them to hit at the relevant Z height
The premise is that players get a number of weapons to put on each ship. Automatic weapons fire while moving and automatically shoot nearby targets, a lá diamond back style.
However, Targetted Weapons reward the players for achieving skill shots - in determining the velocity and direction of an enemy ship and firing (using a target-point ability) accordingly.
My first ability Hellstorm Missile Barrage copied many elements from the Missile Turret. It launches 8 missiles at target point, with a bunch of random offsets. All works fine. I had a lot of trouble getting the missiles to launch from the caster origin, and cannot fully remember how I achieved it. However, the missiles still 'hit' below the target point on the Z axis, as though they were firing a point on the ground.
My second ability, Antimatter Rocket Storm copies elements from the Scout's Left&Right anti air missiles. However, I can't seem to get them to fire from the caster, they shoot from about 4 range lower. The persistent effect fires 17 missiles which hit in a X formation around the targetted point, achieved through Periodic Offsets+ (and no 'random offset' flag).
Any help is much appreciated!
0
@JimyStyles: Go
Judging by the obscurity of this, I doubt it is possible, and I'd reckon Blizzard replays store such data arbitrarily - ie, externally to what we can mod through the editor. As such, Interceptors and Creep Tumors, for example, are simply hard coded not to be detected by the Blizzard replay dialogues.
0
@Bilxor: Go
A Search Area object has two fields you need to look at.
One is: Search: Areas +, within that field you can set a maximum count for the area to be searched.
The other is: Search: Maximum Count.
My guess is that you are only changing one of the fields.
0
@megabuster33: Go
Unfortunately command cards are quite limited in how they can be altered on the fly.
I would use a sub-menu and put all upgrades available on that (up to a possible maximum of 12). I would give each upgrade a 'Charge', so that it can only be used once (or three times as the case may be for weapons/armour). You can find out more about 'Charges' under the Ability>Cost field, and take a look at how Vulture - Spider Mines operate.
0
@megabuster33: Go
Not sure if there is a flag you can untick, maybe channelling? Somewhere for the research ability.
Alternatively:
Give the unit an instant effect ability that costs the amount the research should cost.
Make this ability apply a Buff (behaviour) to the unit for 60 seconds, or however long you want the upgrade to take.
When this Buff expires, you can make it apply another buff (that controls what the upgrade effects) which lasts forever.
I used this system in a map I abandoned ages ago. Each unit had the ability to be 'upgraded' or 'levele'd' uniquely. All upgrades costed certain amounts of vespene and took varying amounts of time. And you can effect anything from what weapons a unit uses, how fast it moves, it's base stats etc...
0
@RushMaster: Go
Out of curiosity. I've made a proof of concept that relies on cameras, minimap bounds, clever region usage, dialogs and background models. You can pretty much have everything listed in your OP but no walking around your ship, or actually being on a planet.
0
@RushMaster: Go
With all the features you have outlined... to fully produce that map, even to a playable format (ie: all features implemented in their most basic form)... would easily take a team of 5 to 10 people, just over a year.
Also, the concept is pretty much Eve: Online, and all it's inspiration sources.
I'd suggest you start small, then get bigger.
0
@Selfcreation: Go
Not specifically. All Zerg ground units in SC1 had Zerg Ground Carapace, same with Terran and Protoss, yet still in SC1 each unit had an individual named weapon type.
But anyways, as Super said, a behaviour cannot alter the fields of an actor, unfortunately.
0
@Zenx1, replying purely to your OP. Take programming up as a hobby during your free time, add in some freelance jobs, become more competent and then phase out electrical engineering entirely. xcorbo has it spot on also, see image:
edit: I'm 100% happy in my chosen 'career' as freelance graphic design consultant, character artist, animator, poly modeller, architectural visualisation specialist, digital artist and all round awesome dude, who dabbles in the indi-game development circles.
0
Wait what? Hydralisks cost 1 supply and 50 minerals? lolol
0
@Sherlia: Go
Not 100% sure what you're trying to do...
Is the Ability an Effect - Instant or an Effect - Target?
0
@Eldrazor: Go
Bad news. I got the map to a working point and well, it kinda doesn't work.
I underestimated the time it would take players to do 'their turn'. And, adding the scale and complexity of risk/diplomacy maps on top of this, meant there is just far too much down time while you wait for other players to do 'their turns'. I had initially hoped to fill this down time with mini-games, relating to trade agreements and diplomacy etc... But these detracted from paying attention to what was happening on the map and would become far too repetitive.
A more realistic mode of play would have set teams and each team has its turn collectively. But free for all play and shifting alliances was a major part of play in the initial concept.
I am shelving this project for the foreseeable future. A part of me wants to just simplify it and make it a real time medieval Risk type map, but I feel it will lose a lot of its value in this way. I guess I will wait and see what HotS or the community brings to the table in terms of map editing and then take it from there.
Sorry guys! I will be fleshing out a 'better' concept for something, and possibly recycle a lot of the already working systems in this map. I will keep those who applied for testing informed about any upcoming projects.
0
Is it possible... through a search area effect to then use a Set that contains effects both affecting
a) the Origin unit (unit with behaviour conducting the search area)
and
b) the Target unit (unit found by the search area)
Ideally, I want my search area to look for Unit A. Once found, remove unit a, apply a behaviour to self, remove a different behaviour from self, and also remove the searching behaviour.
I simply can't get this to work and am considering using On Death effects instead.