SC2Mapster

Hey guys

So i'm taking my first crack at mapmaking ever, and i've had some successes and some definite frustrations.

The thing that's giving me the most issues is an ability i'm trying to make for Ultralisks to morph into Omegalisks and Brutalisks respectively via large eggs, like Zerglings morph into Banelings or Hydralisks morph into Lurkers via their cocoons. I've followed the morphing tutorials and tried to create replicas of the default Baneling and Lurker morph abilities (since they're slightly different from each other) for the Ultralisks, but nothing has really worked out perfectly.

After some help from zeldarules28, i've managed to get everything working except for some annoying things i can't find the causes of.

The closest i managed to get to a working ability was by following the Zergling - Morph (Zergling -> Baneling) ability. I managed to make the egg model and birth animation larger and add the cocoon sounds so it looks and sounds good when the Ultralisk morphs to the Omegalisk, and did the same for the Brutalisk morph. So the Ultralisk has two working abilities which cost minerals and supply and turn into eggs which hatch into new units, just like the Baneling or Lurker morph.

The only thing is i can't seem to find a way to add a queue bar and cancel button for the cocoon, so once the ability is clicked there is no way to cancel or see how far it is from finishing. I think this may have something to do with the "Zergling Morph (Zergling -> Baneling)" ability actually being a train ability and not a morph ability, although it's fine on the Baneling. I tried adding a queue and cancel ability to the egg abilities + and command card (like the Baneling egg command card) but it had no effect.

Also, if the egg is destroyed before it completes a Brutalisk/Omegalisk, it disappears abruptly without a death animation, but if it is a preplaced egg on the map (which naturally never hatches) and it is destroyed it dies with a huge death animation. I think this is my fault for fiddling with the model scales ;-)

I've been going around in circles and losing confidence, so i was hoping some one could maybe lend a hand. I'll attach what i've got so far.

@TheEschatologist: Go

You need to add the Queue(1) ability to your ultralisk as well, you only have it on the cocoon units. All the other problems are just having to do with getting your actor events straight.

Cheers :)

Damn, i knew you were gonna say that, the actors are by far the biggest headache for me, especially since it feels like i'm shooting in the dark with everything i'm doing. Adding the queue ability to the ultralisk allowed you to see the progress bar and cancel the morph, thank you very much for that fix!

Since i made a bit of a hash of the whole thing with the first try, i redid the whole ability by following the Lurker morph ability, duplicating everything as i went and editing the actors where necessary, and it felt like i knew more about what i was doing.

It works much better now, with cancel and progress bars working and a proper death animation when destroyed before hatching, but now the animation when it hatches and when it is cancelled is small like the Lurker egg death animation! This is actors i know, i'm just not sure which unit's actor's to look through to fix it, i'm pretty sure the Omegalisk egg's actors are exactly the same as the Lurker egg's actors except for where it was changed from "Lurker cocoon" to "Omegalisk cocoon" and that sort of thing.

An odd thing also happens when the the egg hatches or is cancelled while you have it selected. When the unit spawns after the animation and you click to move it, the green circle around it's feet stays where the egg hatched but the unit still moves away, being effectively selected in one spot but able to move around. Deselecting and reselecting the unit sets it back to normal, but this doesn't happen with the Lurker so i don't know what's causing it.

Please let me know if there are any tips for this, i'll attach the new version with the reworked ability, just in case.

It feels like it's getting closer to coming right. Thanks for the help guys!

Hey guys!

I've been away for a while and come back to finish the map that was started last month. I've looked over everything again and i still can't get it right. I'm not that worried about the hatching/canceling animation being smaller than the dying animation, since i know it's an actor problem, but if any one would happen to know where i could fix it, like in which actor one should look, i would be extremely grateful.

The main concern is just the selection circle going off when the selected unit morphs from the egg to the new unit, if any one has come across this before or has advice please let me know, it's the only real problem from completing it roughly.

Thanks in advance!

So, some good and weird news, while transferring (read re-doing) the morphing ability from this test map over to my main map the selection circle problem disappeared on it's own, i honestly don't know what i did, but now all that's left is the cancel/hatching animation being too small, while the animation when the egg is killed by units before it hatches is fine.

I just want to say sorry for double posting so much but actors really are my worst enemy and i can't figure this out no matter how i try, even a small tip would be greatly appreciated, it's all so close to being done.

Thanks and all the best!

@DrSuperEvil: Go

Hi DrSuperEvil

Thanks for always helping with questions. I assume by the Unit actor you mean the actor for the egg itself?

These are the events in the egg actor that are not grey.

UnitBirth.OmegaliskEgg

- Create SoundEmitter LurkerEgg_Ambience

UnitBirth.OmegaliskEgg

- Create

UnitRevive.OmegaliskEgg

- Create

UnitConstruction.OmegaliskEgg

- AnimPlay ConstructionDeath Stand,Birth,Death,FullMatch

(then there are all the grey events until the near the bottom)

AbilMorph.*.Finish

- MorphTo OmegaliskEgg

- Create

AbilMorph.*.Start

- MorphFrom OmegaliskEgg

- Destroy

AbilMorph.*.Finish

- MorphTo OmegaliskEgg

- MorphFrom Ultralisk

- AnimBaselineStop

AbilMorph.*.Finish

- MorphTo OmegaliskEgg

- MorphFrom Ultralisk

- AnimPlay Birth Birth 0 0.000000 -1.000000 0.000000

AnimDone

- AnimName Birth

- AnimBaselineStart

I couldn't see any events to do with the hatching or cancelling animation, is there something specific i should add? Or am i not seeing something obvious?

Thanks for you help!