I ended up doing more or less that, and it worked out quite elegantly. I have to tweak the numbers on the speed behaviours to make it look more natural, but all and all the effect is looking extremely solid. The same search area effect is used for splash damage application and controlling the beam speed behaviours.
I'd post a video, but my computer is potato quality.
With the speed buffs on the ammo unit just use greater than logic for the range validator that way as it goes further it is slowed more.
Really? That surprises me, but I guess it explains why this has been so finicky.
Does the game not keep track of units being parent-child outside of how the act because of the effects?
Are there any units in the editor you know of that I could look at for examples of the type of validator you're describing? They're sort of like black magic to me.
Quote from DrSuperEvil:
I would just use a single Damage effect with splash on the ammo unit behaviour. For the Speed I would use the release effect to apply 2-3 buffs that adjust speed that are validated by Location Range validators based on distance from caster.
Did just that for splash damage, but as I expected I got a bit lost on the speed debuff. To make it a smooth accel/decel I'm actually doing about 8 regions but for simplicity sake here, we'll use one.
I'm not quite sure I understand the way you're suggesting--would that be a buff per location range validator, all stacked on the Interceptor?
The way I tried to do it initially is a search-area that applies buffs from the Colossus with multiple ranges. I have it only targeting the dummy interceptors, but I can't figure out how to exclude the interceptors from other Colossi in the search. Is there a way to do that?
I ended up using the release effect to apply a behaviour to the interceptor, which is removed when the Interceptor becomes hidden; definitely inspired by the above mention of them acquiring hidden when holstered.
So that's more or less the entire graphical effect done, now onto the splash aura and differential speed buffs. I'm sure I'm going to have problems with the latter, so I'll just leave this thread opened for now...
Plan for splash is a further periodic effect on the same behaviour, and for the speed I plan on stacking a series of concentric auras around the Colossus.
Thankfully got it working without having to go that route!
Release effect that targets the interceptor applies a persistent, which creates a beam actor, then I use Implicit:Implicit _Unit for the impact host, and Implicit:Scope Caster _Unit for the launch.
Which sounds more or less the same as what I was trying above, but after many hours of banging my head I tried creating the actor from the Interceptor's actor, instead of the Colossus'.
<<quote 2864920="">>
You would need: Actor::Actor Find if you are using an effect as a reference for the scope.
Issue is the launch magazine effect only targets the caster. Carriers just use it so the weapon and attack ability can guide the Arm Magazine to the attack target. Rather use the effect used as the Release effect of the Arm Magazine ability.
Would it not be easier to just have a channelled weapon that uses a Create Unit effect and Issue Order to make the created unit "attack" the target of the colossus.
<</quote>>
Alright, I have a working effect firing from the 'release' field in the arm magazine ability, but using Find Actor and effect I made as scope, the beam attachment still only seems to work when it can resolve the Colossus. I've just been trying the different scopes under the effect, with alias set to _UnitSmall to search for the Interceptor, but only attaching back to the Colossus will show a beam.
For additional context I currently have the launch host set to sopWeaponRight, and the impact set to sopOrigin. I don't know if that affects the ability to target the interceptor or not.
I also have confirmed the effect is targeting the interceptor; as it runs a basic speed buff. So, looks like I'm getting closer :)
Also,
The latter option may be easier for the bare bones implementation, but there's a few things that attracted me to the dummy-magazine idea, and I don't know if it would be easier or harder to do them the channelled weapon way.
First, I want the behaviour of the interceptor launching and returning to remain intact. Pretty sure I could recreate that through more issue order effects but it's already there with the magazine.
Second, I want the beam to behave realistically like a light beam. I plan on changing the speed of the dummy interceptor through behaviours based on the distance it has from the Colossus. The Colossus itself has a much slower moving turret than the stock model, so when it re-targets at 12 range vs. 6 range vs. 3 range, the speed on the impact point of the beam will vary noticeably, and this effect needs to stay consistent when there are no targets and the beam is sweeping back to the Colossus as in ( 1 ).
Third, given ( 2 ) there will be a 'sweet spot' range where movement speed of the Colossus will be higher than that of the ammo unit; if you're walking the Colossus backwards from the target it's attacking without allowing the magazine recall, I want the ammo unit to stay trailing behind with no objective other than returning to the hangar. The effect will look like the Colossus walking backwards, dragging the thermal lance behind.
Not to say these aren't all possible with create unit/issue order, but each of the points seems to make it more complicated, and the last one is something I especially wouldn't even know where to start with. All of them are pretty natural built in behaviour for magazine units though.
Keep it coming though, the input has been very welcome :) I only realised upon re-reading that you had to repeat yourself, sorry about that.
So I've been examining the Cyclone effect (which, btw, is way more complex than expected) and I think I'm generally meandering in the right direction but I am now at a definite loss.
The Cyclone ability uses a simple beam actor with the Host Impact fields set to:
Actor::Implicit
Scope::Scope Target
Subject::Alias._Unit
And this works fine, I've got lasers firing at my target, but if I change any parameters it appears to break the actor completely.
I've tried setting Effect to the magazine effect which launches the interceptor, I've tried changing subject to the interceptor actor explicitly, and I've tried most if not all of the scope options.
How do I need to set this up to have my beam host impact be on the interceptor?
Hey all, long time no see. I've been tinkering in the editor trying to recreate the Alpha Colossus weapon; I'm reasonably certain I've got the effect that I want under control, but setting up the actors is another story.
For anyone who doesn't remember the colossus 7 years ago (and why would you?) the original incarnation featured a single targeted beam, that swept from target to target and dealt splash damage along the way.
I want to recreate essentially this effect, with the aim that it's set up so sweeping the beam manually across groups of units will do higher DPS than focusing target to target.
~Preamble over~
So far, I have a colossus with a dummy hangar effect, modelled after the Carrier. It shoots one interceptor-like-unit with a melee range attack, and an aura behaviour that causes additional splash damage. This works, the Colossus can focus a unit and move the "beam impact dummy unit" (BIDU) to new targets, etc.
What I can't seem to figure out is generating a beam that flows from the Colossus to the BIDU. I've created a second dummy attack based on the Sentry Beam, and modified the beam actor's Hosting: Host Impact field, but no matter what I set it to it seems to still default back to impacting on the target actor, instead of the interceptor2 actor.
Does anyone know the most effective way to pull this off? Or if I should do it a different way than a dummy beam attack? I also seem to be having a problem with the Colossus not wanting to use both attacks at once, except at certain ranges. And I also want the turret to always face the Interceptor, but I'm having problems figuring that out.
@SyphonEight: Go I think the upgrade works by adding effects to the weapons. If you target an air unit the weapon also casts a search effect for a viable ground target and when you target ground this weapon casts a search for a viable air target to launch the missiles.
I'm not sure if this is how its done for the Goliath but it could work in your case. There are other ways of making multiple weapons work though.
The weapon I'm trying to make targets both air and ground. That frankly sounds too complex.
there are a couple of flags you have to uncheck in the weapons I believe. "Only fire at attack target" and "linked cooldown" are two of the ones you dont want, but I think there was another one as well. Just uncheck all the flags you think might be causing problems, and see if any of the non-default flags sound logical to be checked.
I'm really new to this, but I believe a unit can only fire upon one unit at a time and acquires the target with the highest priority in range. Hell, I can barely chew gum and walk at the same time, much less use 6 different weapons firing at 6 different targets simultaneously. :-)
In the campaign, there's an upgrade that lets Goliaths use multiple weapons simultaneously, so I know it can be done. But I seem to be having a problem with figuring out why the upgrade works :p
Hey, I can't seem to get this to work. Help's appreciated;
I have a unit set up with 6 weapons, with ranges 0-1, 1.1-2, 2.1-3 ... 5.1-6, and a rather short arc. So basically, I want 6 different shots firing at different units at different ranges.
What I instead get is that 1 unit is targeted and sometimes, if you click multiple units fast enough, you'll attack multiple units. What do?
0
I ended up doing more or less that, and it worked out quite elegantly. I have to tweak the numbers on the speed behaviours to make it look more natural, but all and all the effect is looking extremely solid. The same search area effect is used for splash damage application and controlling the beam speed behaviours.
I'd post a video, but my computer is potato quality.
0
Really? That surprises me, but I guess it explains why this has been so finicky.
Does the game not keep track of units being parent-child outside of how the act because of the effects?
Are there any units in the editor you know of that I could look at for examples of the type of validator you're describing? They're sort of like black magic to me.
0
Quote from DrSuperEvil:
I would just use a single Damage effect with splash on the ammo unit behaviour. For the Speed I would use the release effect to apply 2-3 buffs that adjust speed that are validated by Location Range validators based on distance from caster.
Did just that for splash damage, but as I expected I got a bit lost on the speed debuff. To make it a smooth accel/decel I'm actually doing about 8 regions but for simplicity sake here, we'll use one.
I'm not quite sure I understand the way you're suggesting--would that be a buff per location range validator, all stacked on the Interceptor?
The way I tried to do it initially is a search-area that applies buffs from the Colossus with multiple ranges. I have it only targeting the dummy interceptors, but I can't figure out how to exclude the interceptors from other Colossi in the search. Is there a way to do that?
0
@DrSuperEvil:
I ended up using the release effect to apply a behaviour to the interceptor, which is removed when the Interceptor becomes hidden; definitely inspired by the above mention of them acquiring hidden when holstered.
So that's more or less the entire graphical effect done, now onto the splash aura and differential speed buffs. I'm sure I'm going to have problems with the latter, so I'll just leave this thread opened for now...
Plan for splash is a further periodic effect on the same behaviour, and for the speed I plan on stacking a series of concentric auras around the Colossus.
0
Oh, sorry. The interceptor actor creates the beam actors when the release effect starts.
However, I may have celebrated too early. Now I can't get the beam actors to die when the interceptor returns.
Is there a quick and easy way to figure that out right from the actors?
My current plan is to use a behaviour that lasts until the interceptor is hidden, and destroy when the behaviour ends... but I feel this is inelegant.
0
Quote from DrSuperEvil:
So not an independent actor?
Just the actors for the Colossus, the Interceptor, and each beam.
I don't have the other stuff I mentioned up there working yet though. So probably more to come.
0
Thankfully got it working without having to go that route!
Release effect that targets the interceptor applies a persistent, which creates a beam actor, then I use Implicit:Implicit _Unit for the impact host, and Implicit:Scope Caster _Unit for the launch.
Which sounds more or less the same as what I was trying above, but after many hours of banging my head I tried creating the actor from the Interceptor's actor, instead of the Colossus'.
0
<<quote 2864920="">>
You would need: Actor::Actor Find if you are using an effect as a reference for the scope.
Issue is the launch magazine effect only targets the caster. Carriers just use it so the weapon and attack ability can guide the Arm Magazine to the attack target. Rather use the effect used as the Release effect of the Arm Magazine ability.
Would it not be easier to just have a channelled weapon that uses a Create Unit effect and Issue Order to make the created unit "attack" the target of the colossus.
<</quote>>
Alright, I have a working effect firing from the 'release' field in the arm magazine ability, but using Find Actor and effect I made as scope, the beam attachment still only seems to work when it can resolve the Colossus. I've just been trying the different scopes under the effect, with alias set to _UnitSmall to search for the Interceptor, but only attaching back to the Colossus will show a beam.
For additional context I currently have the launch host set to sopWeaponRight, and the impact set to sopOrigin. I don't know if that affects the ability to target the interceptor or not.
I also have confirmed the effect is targeting the interceptor; as it runs a basic speed buff. So, looks like I'm getting closer :)
Also,
The latter option may be easier for the bare bones implementation, but there's a few things that attracted me to the dummy-magazine idea, and I don't know if it would be easier or harder to do them the channelled weapon way.
First, I want the behaviour of the interceptor launching and returning to remain intact. Pretty sure I could recreate that through more issue order effects but it's already there with the magazine.
Second, I want the beam to behave realistically like a light beam. I plan on changing the speed of the dummy interceptor through behaviours based on the distance it has from the Colossus. The Colossus itself has a much slower moving turret than the stock model, so when it re-targets at 12 range vs. 6 range vs. 3 range, the speed on the impact point of the beam will vary noticeably, and this effect needs to stay consistent when there are no targets and the beam is sweeping back to the Colossus as in ( 1 ).
Third, given ( 2 ) there will be a 'sweet spot' range where movement speed of the Colossus will be higher than that of the ammo unit; if you're walking the Colossus backwards from the target it's attacking without allowing the magazine recall, I want the ammo unit to stay trailing behind with no objective other than returning to the hangar. The effect will look like the Colossus walking backwards, dragging the thermal lance behind.
Not to say these aren't all possible with create unit/issue order, but each of the points seems to make it more complicated, and the last one is something I especially wouldn't even know where to start with. All of them are pretty natural built in behaviour for magazine units though.
Keep it coming though, the input has been very welcome :) I only realised upon re-reading that you had to repeat yourself, sorry about that.
0
So I've been examining the Cyclone effect (which, btw, is way more complex than expected) and I think I'm generally meandering in the right direction but I am now at a definite loss.
The Cyclone ability uses a simple beam actor with the Host Impact fields set to:
Actor::Implicit
Scope::Scope Target
Subject::Alias._Unit
And this works fine, I've got lasers firing at my target, but if I change any parameters it appears to break the actor completely.
I've tried setting Effect to the magazine effect which launches the interceptor, I've tried changing subject to the interceptor actor explicitly, and I've tried most if not all of the scope options.
How do I need to set this up to have my beam host impact be on the interceptor?
0
Good tip on the Cyclone, I forgot it does that. I'm post a more detailed breakdown once I try that out.
0
Hey all, long time no see. I've been tinkering in the editor trying to recreate the Alpha Colossus weapon; I'm reasonably certain I've got the effect that I want under control, but setting up the actors is another story.
For anyone who doesn't remember the colossus 7 years ago (and why would you?) the original incarnation featured a single targeted beam, that swept from target to target and dealt splash damage along the way.
I want to recreate essentially this effect, with the aim that it's set up so sweeping the beam manually across groups of units will do higher DPS than focusing target to target.
~Preamble over~
So far, I have a colossus with a dummy hangar effect, modelled after the Carrier. It shoots one interceptor-like-unit with a melee range attack, and an aura behaviour that causes additional splash damage. This works, the Colossus can focus a unit and move the "beam impact dummy unit" (BIDU) to new targets, etc.
What I can't seem to figure out is generating a beam that flows from the Colossus to the BIDU. I've created a second dummy attack based on the Sentry Beam, and modified the beam actor's Hosting: Host Impact field, but no matter what I set it to it seems to still default back to impacting on the target actor, instead of the interceptor2 actor.
Does anyone know the most effective way to pull this off? Or if I should do it a different way than a dummy beam attack? I also seem to be having a problem with the Colossus not wanting to use both attacks at once, except at certain ranges. And I also want the turret to always face the Interceptor, but I'm having problems figuring that out.
Halp.
0
@SoulFilcher: Go
How would I enforce the range stipulations that I mentioned in the OP, then? Wouldn't the effect inherit the range of the weapon it's cast from?
0
The weapon I'm trying to make targets both air and ground. That frankly sounds too complex.
I've already unchecked these, nothing.
0
In the campaign, there's an upgrade that lets Goliaths use multiple weapons simultaneously, so I know it can be done. But I seem to be having a problem with figuring out why the upgrade works :p
0
Hey, I can't seem to get this to work. Help's appreciated;
I have a unit set up with 6 weapons, with ranges 0-1, 1.1-2, 2.1-3 ... 5.1-6, and a rather short arc. So basically, I want 6 different shots firing at different units at different ranges.
What I instead get is that 1 unit is targeted and sometimes, if you click multiple units fast enough, you'll attack multiple units. What do?