Im trying to make concussive shells a little less effective on light units, i dont really get the chain of events from the concussive shell to the slow effect in behaviors. Do i need to create a new slow-effect that applies to light units only?
Simple way is to just duplicate the whole Marauder weapon, so that it has 2 copies of the same weapon. Now, make one weapon's target filters require light, and the other to exclude light.
Give the copied weapon back to the Marauder (tick the Hide flag on the weapon entry if you don't want 2 to appear on the Marauder). Change that weapon's copied behaviour to suit your needs, specifically, reduce the change in movement speed.
I saw your thread though, and I would greatly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the data editor before jumping in head first. It's got a steep learning curve and unless you're a wizard, you're setting yourself up for a lot of frustration.
Specifically, the "Effects", "Behaviours" and "Validators" tabs. I'd throw in "Actors" too but I don't think you're going to run into many actor issues with what you're attempting.
I figured the best way to familiarize myself with the editor is to just get started, i hope i'll learn everything i need by trial-and-error and by you guys here in the forums.
I cant find any tutorial that really suits me because most of them are about making hero arenas, TDs and such. If you have any links please post them.
The tutorials here usually teach you how to do very specific things. You want to get a broader grasp on the editor.
For that, you need to know how it works.
To put it simply;
The editor is like a giant lego set. You have different pieces that do different things that each have to fit together in order for your project to work.You can combine the pieces however you like to produce some really complicated, or simple, events, but understanding how each piece of the editor fits together is paramount before attempting anything complicated. Learn to run before you walk. Make basic weapons, learn basic actors, one step at a time.
A unit is anything in the game world that interacts with things, usually other units. Note that a unit is invisible, it is the actor that you see ingame. A unit has all the vitals and functions. The actor is what plays those functions out. Think of an actor as the puppet and the unit as the puppet master. Units and actors are very closely interlinked. Missiles are also a type of unit, though simplified ones. Units move using Movers, but I would ignore those for now. Suffice to say that Movers are most important for missiles, while regular units use either the ground mover or the air mover.
Then there exists effects. Effects are the meat of the editor and play a role in nearly everything. Effects are usually chained with more effects to produce complicated results. Open up different weapons and note their attached effects. Most commonly you'll see Damage (obvious), Launch Missile (also obvious) and Persistent. Note the banshee weapon, this has a chain of 3 different effects.
A persistent is basically a command to repeat the next effect. The banshee has a persistent of 2, which means it launches 2 missiles (as that is the linked effect). If it had a value of 3, it'd launch 3 and so on. Launch Missile effects are pretty simple. They create a missile that goes from point A to point B, and won't trigger their next effect until they reach that point. Damage, well, I'm not explaining that one.
Launch Missile (LM) effects have an associated actor. As I said above, missiles are units, and units are visually represented by actors, so I hope you can see some consistency here. LM actors are notoriously painful to use, but well worth the frustration. There are tutorials on getting LM actors to work properly.
There are other kinds of effects, but generally they are used for abilities rather than weapons. It's entirely possible to make a weapon do anything by chaining events up to create complicated processes, the editor is really powerful in this regard but it is also what accounts for most of it's learning curve. Bare with it, it's worth it.
Great explanation! I'm really trying to get a hold of how things are linked up in the editor and this helps alot, never thought of units and actors this way. Thanks.
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Im trying to make concussive shells a little less effective on light units, i dont really get the chain of events from the concussive shell to the slow effect in behaviors. Do i need to create a new slow-effect that applies to light units only?
Simple way is to just duplicate the whole Marauder weapon, so that it has 2 copies of the same weapon. Now, make one weapon's target filters require light, and the other to exclude light.
Give the copied weapon back to the Marauder (tick the Hide flag on the weapon entry if you don't want 2 to appear on the Marauder). Change that weapon's copied behaviour to suit your needs, specifically, reduce the change in movement speed.
I saw your thread though, and I would greatly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the data editor before jumping in head first. It's got a steep learning curve and unless you're a wizard, you're setting yourself up for a lot of frustration.
Specifically, the "Effects", "Behaviours" and "Validators" tabs. I'd throw in "Actors" too but I don't think you're going to run into many actor issues with what you're attempting.
wheres the weapon entry? (to hide it)
where are the target filters?
(edit: found it)
@Eiviyn: Go
I figured the best way to familiarize myself with the editor is to just get started, i hope i'll learn everything i need by trial-and-error and by you guys here in the forums.
I cant find any tutorial that really suits me because most of them are about making hero arenas, TDs and such. If you have any links please post them.
@Eiviyn: Go
Hmmm... I did exactly what you suggested and now the marauder launches ITSELF towards any light target. And dies. wtf?
Sounds like progress to me!
The tutorials here usually teach you how to do very specific things. You want to get a broader grasp on the editor.
For that, you need to know how it works.
To put it simply;
The editor is like a giant lego set. You have different pieces that do different things that each have to fit together in order for your project to work.You can combine the pieces however you like to produce some really complicated, or simple, events, but understanding how each piece of the editor fits together is paramount before attempting anything complicated. Learn to run before you walk. Make basic weapons, learn basic actors, one step at a time.
A unit is anything in the game world that interacts with things, usually other units. Note that a unit is invisible, it is the actor that you see ingame. A unit has all the vitals and functions. The actor is what plays those functions out. Think of an actor as the puppet and the unit as the puppet master. Units and actors are very closely interlinked. Missiles are also a type of unit, though simplified ones. Units move using Movers, but I would ignore those for now. Suffice to say that Movers are most important for missiles, while regular units use either the ground mover or the air mover.
Then there exists effects. Effects are the meat of the editor and play a role in nearly everything. Effects are usually chained with more effects to produce complicated results. Open up different weapons and note their attached effects. Most commonly you'll see Damage (obvious), Launch Missile (also obvious) and Persistent. Note the banshee weapon, this has a chain of 3 different effects.
A persistent is basically a command to repeat the next effect. The banshee has a persistent of 2, which means it launches 2 missiles (as that is the linked effect). If it had a value of 3, it'd launch 3 and so on. Launch Missile effects are pretty simple. They create a missile that goes from point A to point B, and won't trigger their next effect until they reach that point. Damage, well, I'm not explaining that one.
Launch Missile (LM) effects have an associated actor. As I said above, missiles are units, and units are visually represented by actors, so I hope you can see some consistency here. LM actors are notoriously painful to use, but well worth the frustration. There are tutorials on getting LM actors to work properly.
There are other kinds of effects, but generally they are used for abilities rather than weapons. It's entirely possible to make a weapon do anything by chaining events up to create complicated processes, the editor is really powerful in this regard but it is also what accounts for most of it's learning curve. Bare with it, it's worth it.
@Eiviyn: Go
Great explanation! I'm really trying to get a hold of how things are linked up in the editor and this helps alot, never thought of units and actors this way. Thanks.