SC2Mapster

This is a sloppy workaround I thought of, not sure if it would work for you.

How about setting your ability cooldown to 0 seconds and keeping track of how many times an ability has been used with triggers (Using Variables to keep track and "Unit uses Ability" with cast as the stage) and then setting the cooldown using Catalog Set Action when the variable (Say AbilityCharge) reaches 5 (Assuming you use Modify AbilityCharge +1 per ability cast). Once the ability comes off cooldown you set its cooldown to 0 again using Catalog Set. (From what I read it looks like you want to use some sort of rapid fire ability, but that's just my guess)

I have no idea how Data ability charges work though, so I can't help you work with those. If I wasn't very clear I can post a more organized list of steps.

In my map I want to give the player units that belong to him but that he cannot control nor do these units share their vision with the player (I want the units to be able to see enemies but I don't want the player to see what these units see.

I managed to make these units uncommandable through behaviors, but I have NO IDEA HOW TO FORCE A PLAYER to not be able to see units that belong to him. Please help me out because this is a critical need for what I want to accomplish (My map has 14 players, so I can't use dummy players that "fake" being the human player, they must belong to him and the player must not be able to see these specific units).

Additional information: 1) These units are stored in a unit group.

I'm still new to map making so take my observation with a grain of salt. I checked the "Is Detected" Validator and it seems to check The "Target" by default in the "Validator: Unit-" field. Have you tried changing "Validator: Unit-" from Target to "Caster"? I think caster is the unit which has the behavior.

My guess is that the Validator is checking if YOUR cloaked unit can detect units around it (Not the other way around) (And if they are not cloaked / burrowed, odds are he can).

If it still doesn't work, you could try also changing "Validator: Other Unit-" to different values (It seems like this field is for knowing which other unit is the one that has to be detecting your "Caster" unit.

I found out what was wrong.

The doodad transparency did work, but I was working with "critter" models which are by default set to Occlusion: None.

Basically, Doodads can only become transparent when they have "Occlusion" set to Hide and when a model with "Occlusion: Show" are behind them.

Now it works perfectly.

The "Art: Occluding Opacity" field for the tree models are all set to 0.35 (I figured it must have meant 35% Opacity).

I want to display an "upgrade" ability's cost to a player, but the problem is that the cost is stored in a variable (And isn't based on kills or anything like that) and it keeps increasing every time the player uses the upgrade.

I was wondering if there was a way to change the tooltip so I can display the cost?

EDIT: Managed to change the tooltip using "Catalog Field Value Set" for Button > Tooltip

Now I am wondering if I can somehow give it a color (Green looks pretty boring, Id like to give it Font and color if possible).

@AlphaTiberius: Go

So you can't make any small doodads transparent?

Is there a way to get around this or does the SC2 editor not have the flexibility to accomplish this? (I really think my map would benefit from this).

I want to make my tree doodads transparent when units get behind them (So players can see their units in cluttered areas).

I did the following:

Set Occlusion on the Tree models to "Hide" Set Occlusion Height on the tree actors to "0"

But the trees don't become transparent when units get behind them. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks so much, the menu no longer goes back to the first command card. I'll try to be more observant from now on (Never bothered checking those two checkboxes in the submenu).

I know it is probably not a bug, but it feels like one to me.

Whenever I use a research ability in command card #2, the game comes up with the genius idea of switching back to command card #1 (I hate you too galaxy editor). But I don't want the game to reset the command card (Doesn't work for my map). Is there a way to correct this so that a player can stay in the same command card (Until he decides to leave it!)?

I've been looking for the option in the unit's command card field, but not luck so far.

EDIT: Maybe I could add two buttons, one for the ability I want and a second button which sends the player to Command Card #2 again, but can you activate two buttons at the same time if the are in the same spot?

I have a second problem: I tried to enable/disable a research ability for all my units when it is being currently researched through triggers, it works, but it doesn't just disable it, it hides it...The action is am using is called "Allow / Disallow ability for player" (Using the "for units" actions would take A LOT of extra work, so I want to avoid using those), is there a way to just gray out an ability for a player using actions?

SOLVED MY SECOND QUESTION. Since directly disabling abilities for players is impossible, I disabled a behavior (Via triggers) and the behavior disables the ability for the unit (I added this behavior to the unit in data), this way I can have the ability still visible as a gray button and I don't have to keep track of units. I won't be able to have a research time (Since as soon as the ability is disabled the cast time is interrupted, so I can only use instant researches using this), but I guess it is the only POSSIBLE way to do this in the Galaxy Editor.

I still haven't found a solution to my first problem though, tough nut to crack.

I have a question about keeping track of players. I recently began to experiment in making my map adapt to different numbers of players. And most of my player trigger use the [ While "PlayerCount" < Number of Active Players ] do (PlayerCount + 1) and the actions for that player, using PlayerCount to reference the player directly by using his number, so in a 6 player map I would use [ While PlayerCount < 6 ] do (PlayerCount + 1) and actions.

But now I had that paranoid moment where I began to think, if player 3 leaves the game, does player 4 become player 3? If that were true, my triggers might malfunction since they always assume player 3 will be player 3 even if player 1 and 2 left the game.

I also want to try and optimize my triggers by having them skip players whom have left the game to make the map process less information.

So

1) Do other players take the spots of players who leave the game? (Say 3 players are active, player 2 left the game, so now Player 1 is player 1, and player 3 is the new Player 2, there are now a total of 2 active players and player 3 no longer exists).

2) Is there a way I can reference only players that HAVE NOT left the game? And would this save my map space or help me avoid / cushion lag?**

I want to confirm this knowledge before I go basing my ENTIRE MAP off potentially incorrect information.

Thanks duck, I tried changing my custom mover to a guidance type (No longer throw) and it works perfectly. Now I know movers decide how orientation works. I am only using one phase since it is hard to keep track of more than one phase on that tiny window inside the mover window.

I checked around 4 times, haven't seen any errors. So frustrating DX, I should be able to spot the error, but no luck so far.

I made progress, but still feel extremely lost (Oh me). I managed to make the missile fire in a straight line using offsets through an initial persistent effect (I think this is a non intuitive system blizzard made, not sure why missiles have this magical relationship with the persistent offset, but oh well now I know).

I followed the fireball section in the tutorial (The Test map was super fun), and replicated what I saw.

My new problem is that the missile doesn't take the caster's facing into account when deciding the direction. Instead of shooting in front of the caster, it shoots directly to the bottom of the map (I feel the author left something out of the tutorial or I missed some HUGE step, I even checked the test map to match my setup with his), how do I link the offsets to the unit?

@DuckyTheDuck: Go

Thank you for the explanation guys, I THINK I am starting to understand how this is supposed to work.

What I wanted to accomplish was for the player to CAST the ability without the need to target anything (Since I want it to launch a missile directly in front of the caster, according to your post I need to create a persistent to achieve that). I thought the missile's target point was decided by its mover (Not the Launch Missile Effect).

Once the missile collides with a unit I want the missile to be destroyed (like you guys said, I don't want a penetrating round).

AFTER THAT instead of the acid damage effect I am currently using, I want to order the caster to cast a different ability which make the caster charge at the unit which the missile collided with (It is a "find target" missile).

Ingame you would see this, you press the ability hotkey, and the caster instantly launches a missile in a straight line in front of him, once that missile collides with a unit (If any) the caster automatically use a charge ability and deals damage to the target once the caster reaches it. (I haven't thought about how to do the charge ability yet, it will probably be equally as difficult to achieve).