I am trying to make an ability that launches a pair of lasers. I think it all works OK, except I would like help with configuring it so that if the caster is given a damage-increase buff, the lasers deal more damage when they pass through units, and if the caster is given an attack rate increase buff, it attacks faster. Currently the lasers are launched using an Effect-Instant, and a series of periodic effects and launch missile effects.
So, basically, what I want to know is how should I go about converting this ability into an auto-targetable attack-type ability with the capability of responding to those two buffs I mentioned?
In testing, I created an attack ability with the effect-effect that ran a set for my laser launches. But I came across a problem. After clicking the attack button, the cursor is sent to a selection, and when I click on a target unit it says 'unable to turn to target' and when I click on the ground it says 'must target a unit.' Is there a way to eliminate this target requirement, so that the attack can target any unit/point without hitch?
Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
How do these "lasers" work? Do you mean 2 missiles that damage anything they "collide" with? Or is there some kind of continuous beam involved?
Any damage dealt by a unit is affected by damage buffs. The damage effect is assigned 1 of 4 "damage types": Standard(Melee), Ranged, Splash and Special Ability. The game can't even tell an ability that causes a Ranged type damage effect apart from a ranged weapon. Or did you mean the damage should increase with every collision?
The attack rate buff only works for weapons. If you make the ability a weapon (or have it activate a weapon) instead you can use the normal attack rate mechanic. This would also solve the auto-target issue, but it would also mean that the ability is blocked by weapon blockers (also make sure to un-check the "linked cooldown" flag on the weapon)
Or you can make it an Effect-Target ability with an autocast, but that would make it impossible to apply an "attack rate" buff (except Time Scaling and iirc upgrades)
Thanks for the help! To answer your first question, yes, the lasers are basically missiles that deal damage to any units they collide with. No continuous bean. The damage would remain the same for each collision.
So, are you saying that if I give my caster a weapon that triggers the laser launch effects, any damage effect nestled deep within the effect chain will be modified by a damage buff (even if the damage is dealt through a search area -> apply behavior -> deal damage effect?). That would be great. But do you know how I could set it up so that the attack ability can target any point/unit without returning one of the errors I mentioned above? Will I need to create a custom attack actor? Thanks again!
Weapon or ability, it doesn't matter for damage buffs. If you made a weapon trigger the Psi Storm main effect it wouldn't benefit from damage buffs designed for weapons, because the Damage effect is tagged as Special Ability. If you turned the Colossus weapon into an ability it would still benefit from boosts for Splash damage.
When you say "attack ability", is that a copy of the stock Attack ability? You should make an Effect-Target type ability that triggers the same effect as your original Effect-Instant setup. Copy from Psi Storm or whatever if you're uncomfortable with creating an ability from scratch.
I don't know about the "unable to turn to target" error (unless you put the ability on a building, which truly cannot turn at all), but the "must target unit" one might be because the effect the ability produces can only target units. Set the Location+ field of the effect to Target (Unit/)Point, and to Caster Unit for anything related to the launch location.
Switching from Effect-Instant to Effect-Target type abilities will most likely mess up your reference points of the effects, as an Effect-Instant always occurs at the caster, therefore Caster, Source and Target all point at that unit. For Effect-Target abilities Caster is the original caster (use this as a launch location), Source is the previous unit in the chain of effects (at first it's equal to Caster, but if you make a chain lightning ability Source will be the previous unit struck by the bolt) and Target is the "impact target" of the effect (originally this is where you clicked to use the ability, but you can also specify the Target of a specific effect. For the Mutalisk bounce attack this is used to fire the bounce missile at the next target)
Hi,
I am trying to make an ability that launches a pair of lasers. I think it all works OK, except I would like help with configuring it so that if the caster is given a damage-increase buff, the lasers deal more damage when they pass through units, and if the caster is given an attack rate increase buff, it attacks faster. Currently the lasers are launched using an Effect-Instant, and a series of periodic effects and launch missile effects.
So, basically, what I want to know is how should I go about converting this ability into an auto-targetable attack-type ability with the capability of responding to those two buffs I mentioned?
In testing, I created an attack ability with the effect-effect that ran a set for my laser launches. But I came across a problem. After clicking the attack button, the cursor is sent to a selection, and when I click on a target unit it says 'unable to turn to target' and when I click on the ground it says 'must target a unit.' Is there a way to eliminate this target requirement, so that the attack can target any unit/point without hitch?
Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
How do these "lasers" work? Do you mean 2 missiles that damage anything they "collide" with? Or is there some kind of continuous beam involved?
Any damage dealt by a unit is affected by damage buffs. The damage effect is assigned 1 of 4 "damage types": Standard(Melee), Ranged, Splash and Special Ability. The game can't even tell an ability that causes a Ranged type damage effect apart from a ranged weapon. Or did you mean the damage should increase with every collision?
The attack rate buff only works for weapons. If you make the ability a weapon (or have it activate a weapon) instead you can use the normal attack rate mechanic. This would also solve the auto-target issue, but it would also mean that the ability is blocked by weapon blockers (also make sure to un-check the "linked cooldown" flag on the weapon)
Or you can make it an Effect-Target ability with an autocast, but that would make it impossible to apply an "attack rate" buff (except Time Scaling and iirc upgrades)
Thanks for the help! To answer your first question, yes, the lasers are basically missiles that deal damage to any units they collide with. No continuous bean. The damage would remain the same for each collision.
So, are you saying that if I give my caster a weapon that triggers the laser launch effects, any damage effect nestled deep within the effect chain will be modified by a damage buff (even if the damage is dealt through a search area -> apply behavior -> deal damage effect?). That would be great. But do you know how I could set it up so that the attack ability can target any point/unit without returning one of the errors I mentioned above? Will I need to create a custom attack actor? Thanks again!
Weapon or ability, it doesn't matter for damage buffs. If you made a weapon trigger the Psi Storm main effect it wouldn't benefit from damage buffs designed for weapons, because the Damage effect is tagged as Special Ability. If you turned the Colossus weapon into an ability it would still benefit from boosts for Splash damage.
When you say "attack ability", is that a copy of the stock Attack ability? You should make an Effect-Target type ability that triggers the same effect as your original Effect-Instant setup. Copy from Psi Storm or whatever if you're uncomfortable with creating an ability from scratch.
I don't know about the "unable to turn to target" error (unless you put the ability on a building, which truly cannot turn at all), but the "must target unit" one might be because the effect the ability produces can only target units. Set the Location+ field of the effect to Target (Unit/)Point, and to Caster Unit for anything related to the launch location.
Switching from Effect-Instant to Effect-Target type abilities will most likely mess up your reference points of the effects, as an Effect-Instant always occurs at the caster, therefore Caster, Source and Target all point at that unit. For Effect-Target abilities Caster is the original caster (use this as a launch location), Source is the previous unit in the chain of effects (at first it's equal to Caster, but if you make a chain lightning ability Source will be the previous unit struck by the bolt) and Target is the "impact target" of the effect (originally this is where you clicked to use the ability, but you can also specify the Target of a specific effect. For the Mutalisk bounce attack this is used to fire the bounce missile at the next target)
@Photoloss: Go
Awesome, thank you very much!