Hey so the ability I want to make is basically an energy transfer ability, caster projects a beam and it's energy is transferred to the target at a certain rate. The main point and problem of the ability though is I only want it to be able to send out a specific number of transfer beams at a time, say 4, so the caster could have all 4 beams on one target to transfer energy faster, or it could be targeting 4 different things at once. I don't want this ability to be channeled as the caster may need to be doing other things at the same time.
I've used the create healer effect type and just set it to fill and drain energy and this works perfect, except the caster fires out an unlimited number of beams. I want to know how to limit the number of healers it can have active at once.. Looked through validators and didn't find a solution, maybe something in markers?
You should be able to copy the Medivac double heal from the campaign, just remove the "Target isn't being healed" validator from the first Switch effect. The maximum number of beams is controlled by the "Heal beam available" validator and the maximum stack count of the "Heal beam active" buff.
You can apply markers with an effect that executes on each target (on the Create Healer effect should work) and then use a "sorting method by markers" on the Search effect "Medivac - Heal - Search" to make a "soft sort": Marked units can still be healed, but the Search will prefer unmarked ones if any are in range. If you don't do this at least 3 of the beams will likely converge on the same target all the time.
Yeah I thought about basing it off the Medivac double heal.. but come on, there are a good 20 effects in there plus the behaviors and validators, it's ridiculous just for one fairly simple ability.. I already tried copying it real quick and got nowhere, I really have no idea how that effect chain works, and don't know how switches work.. Copying that ability would he a huge headache while on the other hand the create healer effect seems like it could be made to work and would be so much easier and more efficient..
Also I don't know if the double heal needs to be channeled or not, can the Medivac still move?
The Medivac can't move, but you can always remove the channel flag and define a different cutoff condition (e.g. seperate cancel ability; periodically validating against a buff to make only certain actions interrupt it etc)
Most of the effect chain seems focused around allowing the Medivac to dynamically switch targets. Due to this it also uses a set + 2 modify unit effects for the actual healing rather than a Healer.
Switch effects basically work like a Set effect where each effect in the set has a Validator attached, plus the "standard case" which is used if none of the specific validators apply. (saves you the trouble of making an "ELSE..." validator)
To understand the effect chain, start with the Switch effect (the effect called by the Ability) and work your way down from there.
The Issue Order (Switch standard) generates an infinite loop of attempting to heal the primary target if the first try fails
The Scan Persistent and Search effects handle target acquisition
Anything with Behavior in its name is to maintain target lock/count through the above loop and to support continuous visuals
The "Target Persistent"+Modify set is the actual healing, the heal rate should be Modify HP/Persistent Phase, which is 9 by default (seems off though)
Most of the Validators are self-explanatory, and most others are checks to ensure no 2 beams hit the same target, even across multiple casters (which you don't want -> delete them)
Hey so the ability I want to make is basically an energy transfer ability, caster projects a beam and it's energy is transferred to the target at a certain rate. The main point and problem of the ability though is I only want it to be able to send out a specific number of transfer beams at a time, say 4, so the caster could have all 4 beams on one target to transfer energy faster, or it could be targeting 4 different things at once. I don't want this ability to be channeled as the caster may need to be doing other things at the same time.
I've used the create healer effect type and just set it to fill and drain energy and this works perfect, except the caster fires out an unlimited number of beams. I want to know how to limit the number of healers it can have active at once.. Looked through validators and didn't find a solution, maybe something in markers?
Thanks for any help
You should be able to copy the Medivac double heal from the campaign, just remove the "Target isn't being healed" validator from the first Switch effect. The maximum number of beams is controlled by the "Heal beam available" validator and the maximum stack count of the "Heal beam active" buff.
You can apply markers with an effect that executes on each target (on the Create Healer effect should work) and then use a "sorting method by markers" on the Search effect "Medivac - Heal - Search" to make a "soft sort": Marked units can still be healed, but the Search will prefer unmarked ones if any are in range. If you don't do this at least 3 of the beams will likely converge on the same target all the time.
Yeah I thought about basing it off the Medivac double heal.. but come on, there are a good 20 effects in there plus the behaviors and validators, it's ridiculous just for one fairly simple ability.. I already tried copying it real quick and got nowhere, I really have no idea how that effect chain works, and don't know how switches work.. Copying that ability would he a huge headache while on the other hand the create healer effect seems like it could be made to work and would be so much easier and more efficient..
Also I don't know if the double heal needs to be channeled or not, can the Medivac still move?
The Medivac can't move, but you can always remove the channel flag and define a different cutoff condition (e.g. seperate cancel ability; periodically validating against a buff to make only certain actions interrupt it etc)
Most of the effect chain seems focused around allowing the Medivac to dynamically switch targets. Due to this it also uses a set + 2 modify unit effects for the actual healing rather than a Healer.
Switch effects basically work like a Set effect where each effect in the set has a Validator attached, plus the "standard case" which is used if none of the specific validators apply. (saves you the trouble of making an "ELSE..." validator)
To understand the effect chain, start with the Switch effect (the effect called by the Ability) and work your way down from there.
Lol, at first glance I read thread name as "Hitler with limited targets"