SC2Mapster

So Aczchef asked me to help him work on a spell for a guy he is helping.

The spell ended up being Extremely Complicated and I figure it would make for a good write up on how some of it works.

I will not be covering how the "Learn Ability works" this can be found in other tutorials.

This is the first time Ive written a tutorial on data components, and as this spell has may layers too it, the average mapster by have some difficultly following it. If you have anyway questions feel free to ask.

Spell Description

1. Summon an oblesk that converts your dying units into spirit pets that follow your hero

Spell Requirements

1. Multiple Spell Levels ( each level allows you to control more spirits)( 2 at Lvl 1, 5 at Lvl 2)
2. Player Creates Oblesk (to convert dying nearby units of his control to spirits)
3. Player's Units die and create spirits if near oblesk ( not enemy or ally units)
4. Spirit pets follow caster

Data Components

1. Units
   1. Zealot (Hero) -Heroic (has veterancy behavior and "Learn ability")
   2. Oblisk (has behavior "RaiseTheDead_Apply_If_Dead_Buff" )
   3. Spirit (has behavior "RaiseTheDead_Follow_Caster")
2. Buttons
   1. RaiseTheDead_Button
3. Abilities
   1. RaiseTheDead
4. Behaviors
   1. RaiseTheDead_Follow_Caster [BUFF]
   2. RaiseTheDead_Level [BUFF]
   3. RaiseTheDead_Apply_If_Dead_Buff [BUFF]
5. Effects
   1. Apply Behaviors Effects
      1. RaiseTheDead_Apply_If_Dead_Buff [Apply Behavior]
   2. Search Effects
      1. RaiseTheDead_FindNearbyPlayersUnits [AreaEnum]
      2. RaiseTheDead_Find_Caster [AreaEnum]
   3. Set Effects
   4. Switch Effects
   5. Issue Order Effects
      1. RaiseTheDead_Follow_Order [IssueOrder]
   6. Periodic Effects
      1. RaiseTheDead_Follow_Positioning [Periodic]
6. Validators
7. Requirements

Triggered Component

1. Adds "RaiseTheDead_Level" behavior to unit learning the ability

The reason I use a trigger for this is because there is no other way to refer to the level of the ability a hero has

• The "count ability on unit" and "count abiltiy for player" do not work to give you Ability Level
  • It returns a value of "1" even if the unit has trained the ability to level 2 this just indicates that the unit has the ability
• Also when training an abiltiy there is no way to apply a behavior when training.

Notes

• You may find it odd that I am using a trigger to handling tracking the level of the spell by adding a behavior to the hero learning the spell. The main reason for this is that I am using a switch effect to handle each level of the spell. This lends itself very nicely to handling different spell levels.
• The method Im using will only work if the Player only has one "unit" that can possibly learn this spell. The validators are based on counting how many total behaviors the player has in total of this specific type. Since it is almost impossible to correctly reference the correct unit in a validator to count that specific units behaviors, after setting off a chain of events with a spell.

Spell Logic

• Hero "Learns" - "RaiseTheDead"
  • Trigger adds "RaiseTheDead_Level" behavior to hero

• Hero casts "RaiseTheDead" at a point
  • An Oblesk is summoned

• Oblesk's Behavior
  • Search effect nearby Players Units
    • Applies Behavior "RaiseTheDead_If_Dead_Check" [BUFF]

This is currently an incomplete write-up. I will be adding the map to this later. I will also try to make a small write up on every piece of data used in the spell which is actually quite a lengthy process.

Quote from DrSuperEvil: Go

Yup imagine how big a wiki page can get. Still I think you should in brackets mention what type of abilities/behaviours/effects you are using.

Well first Im gonna list them by type ... thats what you currently see I cant add much more till I can get home and look at the actual file..... I spent 10 + hours working on this spell over the last couple weeks

Quote from DrSuperEvil: Go

So why exactly do you need triggers again?

Trigger is for placing a dummy stack on the hero to track the level of the ability.

A behavior is added to the hero every time the hero trains the ability.

So at lvl 2 the hero would have a count of "2" of this behavior on him.

Quote from SouLCarveRR: Go

@DrSuperEvil: Go

Trigger is for placing a dummy stack on the hero to track the level of the ability.

A behavior is added to the hero every time the hero trains the ability.

So at lvl 2 the hero would have a count of "2" of this behavior on him.

Tracking the ability level works perfectly fine. For Triggers, its just that the ability level for the lvl 1 spell is 0, so the lvl 2 one is 1 and so on.
This also implies, that, if you need to check, if the unit actually has the ability, you need to check this separately instead of just checking the current level of the ability (since you cannot just compare it to 0, the first level would not even count in this case)

For requirements, this seems to be different. At least, I use requirements to check for the hero spell levels all the time, looking like this:

CountBehavior(MyVeterancyBehavior,CompleteOnlyAtUnit)>= 10 + (CountAbil(MyAbility,CompleteOnlyAtUnit)* 5)

This would be the learning requirement for an ultimate spell, learnable at levels 10,15,etc

wow!! this is FREAKIGN AWSOME!!! i have a summinor hero in my RPG . and i wanted to give him this spell but had not didea how.

id like to have it so , when unit dies . you need to cast a spell on the corps to revive ( like in D2 ) insted of having a summon , summining more spirits for you, is that^possible??

thanks

i do have a different versions for the guy im helping at lvl 2, 3 spirits spirits are attacked instead of hero some little things i will upload a vid of how it works later today