As an avid war3 mapper, I'm having a great time working with the new triggering system, but I still get a bit lost from time to time with these new units/behaviors/etc.
Basically, I want to create an effect when a type of unit dies at the point where he dies. In war3, this was simply "create special effect at location," but this has been replaced by creating actors/behaviors/effects. What is the best way (memory wise and simplicity wise) to do this in this editor? Do I have to create an actor and a model AND an effect and create the effect? Or can I just create a behavior and a model, or actor and model? Any help is greatly appreciated it.
the best way, is to learn why actors behave the way they do. in short; actors are the 'visuals/sound effects/ etcc EVERYTHING EYECANDY' behind a unit. units now are simply a 'class' of sort place holders for 'actors' if you will. so from what i get you want when a unit dies, X to happen VISUALLY, and Y to happen VERBALLY (maybe i just threw that part in but it entails the same part).
the point of 'creating an effect' from what i gather is the same as war 3 world editor but they took the need out for 'dummy' units. if you unit has an effect 'shoot yamato canon' then by 'creating an effect on 'unitX' from 'unitY'' you are making unitY shoot a yamato canon at unitX without the need for a 'dummy unit'. this is quite enjoyable when you are making a unit shoot a 'shed spread' of missiles or osemthing like that as you wont need a bunch of dummy units to shoot it.
so to do what you want, i would tell you to take a unit, say a marine. look at what happens to him when he dies in game. revert back to the data editor and click on the 'unit' then see all the actors attached. see what one makes him do what he does when he 'dies'. then you can 'copy' or 'duplicate' only the actor and model/sound(or both) attached, and look at the events / model paths that codes for what makes it animate the way it does and change it for your own.
now in the sense of the world editor, the previous understanding of 'create effect' is NOW 'create actor'/'create model'. those are the eyecandy functions triggerable currently from my understanding. so memory wise, all actors have a default 'on death..... destroy(||)' command. and that takes care of 'memory leaks' so as long as you create an actor and it plays itself out to death, it will 'self clean' itself.
so to summarize, the best way to handle this is to attach an actor
AKA behaviors from what i get are simply 'buffs' from war3, but with much more power. its best to start thinking of behaviors as buffs, and just dig in until you realize that yes they are buffs, but soooo much more. especially when you get into validators IMO. and behaviors can cross BACK into effects.... they are so empowering once you realize their potential. but for basics, they are simply 'buffs'.
sorry if this doesnt make sense, but you are asking a short hand answer to soemthing that has multiple parts to it. plus, the bottle of jim beam is gone, and this is the most sense i can make without posting an 'eye cancer' sorts of info. my suggestion HONESTLY; save your map, make a new one, and pull up the marine unit, and try to make it when the unit dies, different things happen than normal. keep playing and reloading and youll soon realize that when you change X, Y will happen. post a map of yours if you want specific responses possibly is all i have to say.
IMO what you are asking is like saying 'how do i draw a person' welll.... it starts with the head, and then the ratio of eyes to mouth, then the lining of the mouth to inner eyelids etcc..... theres a lot entailed, but it ALL revolves around the basic 'actor' of your unit.
when theres a marine, marine death, marine death fire, etcc actors, most are specific and the one you need to focus on learning about IMO is simply the 'marine' actor. look at the 'events' field as a good start. GL!
its amazing that there are so many ways to handle things. like the way you explained, is so basic and clear cut. but i dont think blizz intended for us to make every unit die with a certain behavior attached. but your way works easily and nicely. i mean, your way kinda of does away with all the attached actors that add make effects on death, as your behavior does that, but which is better/ the intended way? i dunno, and as long as they both work and dont lag a map, who cares i guess right?
at least this way wouldnt detect if it died to a 'fire' 'eviscerate' etc... to apply different models per way of death. but its just nice to learn all/new ways of making things work. :)
When he said "I want to create an effect when a type of unit dies at the point where he dies" I took that to mean an effect above and beyond the normal visual death effects. In that case, I believe this is probably the way Blizz intended for us to do it. If he is looking just the visual effects, then I agree, that isn't the way to do it.
well the way ive currently handled effects on death/impact is through other actors. ive used the events/behaviors for animations, but never for effects. though the actors i use for the effects do use events to create/destroy. but yeah, im always throughly happy to learn a new way of making things go down that does not entail a trigger that i didnt know about. so thanks again- :)
well not really (though im a bit tipsy and my brain is getting ready for bed so i may not be following everything currently) but you can make behaviors apply effects, which can do dmg. like make a unit contain a base behavior with a -1 duration that searches for nearby units and dmgs them. (the same thing as a baneling)
through events no, it seems strictly 'eye candy' to me thus far. but events play off all effects and behaviors, so to make something work off an event seems unnecesary as it would work off the effect first, then lead to the event of making an animation/sound/oppacity/unit height etc....
lately all the maps ive been playing with that dont use the built in move abilities of units, i use the events tab to make it animate how i want, be it walking forward, backwards, attacking, straffing, turning, etc.... so i think the events tab is just eyecandy, nothing actually functional from what i gather.
what really gets me going is the 'set physics state' in the actor tab. maybe ill play with that tommorow, and see what that does.... the problem with GE is that when i start learning something, i break into something new and dont finish with what i was stuck on. maybe in a month or two well all get it down!
@sirlyrrad, the trigger function 'create effect' is not create special effect, its LITERALLY create effect, like an effect from your data tab, so in that route, yes you can create dmg, w/e you spell/ability is sposed to do from that without the use of the 'abilities/button' tabs. doubt you were referring to that, but just ranting.
As an avid war3 mapper, I'm having a great time working with the new triggering system, but I still get a bit lost from time to time with these new units/behaviors/etc.
Basically, I want to create an effect when a type of unit dies at the point where he dies. In war3, this was simply "create special effect at location," but this has been replaced by creating actors/behaviors/effects. What is the best way (memory wise and simplicity wise) to do this in this editor? Do I have to create an actor and a model AND an effect and create the effect? Or can I just create a behavior and a model, or actor and model? Any help is greatly appreciated it.
the best way, is to learn why actors behave the way they do. in short; actors are the 'visuals/sound effects/ etcc EVERYTHING EYECANDY' behind a unit. units now are simply a 'class' of sort place holders for 'actors' if you will. so from what i get you want when a unit dies, X to happen VISUALLY, and Y to happen VERBALLY (maybe i just threw that part in but it entails the same part).
the point of 'creating an effect' from what i gather is the same as war 3 world editor but they took the need out for 'dummy' units. if you unit has an effect 'shoot yamato canon' then by 'creating an effect on 'unitX' from 'unitY'' you are making unitY shoot a yamato canon at unitX without the need for a 'dummy unit'. this is quite enjoyable when you are making a unit shoot a 'shed spread' of missiles or osemthing like that as you wont need a bunch of dummy units to shoot it.
so to do what you want, i would tell you to take a unit, say a marine. look at what happens to him when he dies in game. revert back to the data editor and click on the 'unit' then see all the actors attached. see what one makes him do what he does when he 'dies'. then you can 'copy' or 'duplicate' only the actor and model/sound(or both) attached, and look at the events / model paths that codes for what makes it animate the way it does and change it for your own.
now in the sense of the world editor, the previous understanding of 'create effect' is NOW 'create actor'/'create model'. those are the eyecandy functions triggerable currently from my understanding. so memory wise, all actors have a default 'on death..... destroy(||)' command. and that takes care of 'memory leaks' so as long as you create an actor and it plays itself out to death, it will 'self clean' itself.
so to summarize, the best way to handle this is to attach an actor
AKA behaviors from what i get are simply 'buffs' from war3, but with much more power. its best to start thinking of behaviors as buffs, and just dig in until you realize that yes they are buffs, but soooo much more. especially when you get into validators IMO. and behaviors can cross BACK into effects.... they are so empowering once you realize their potential. but for basics, they are simply 'buffs'.
sorry if this doesnt make sense, but you are asking a short hand answer to soemthing that has multiple parts to it. plus, the bottle of jim beam is gone, and this is the most sense i can make without posting an 'eye cancer' sorts of info. my suggestion HONESTLY; save your map, make a new one, and pull up the marine unit, and try to make it when the unit dies, different things happen than normal. keep playing and reloading and youll soon realize that when you change X, Y will happen. post a map of yours if you want specific responses possibly is all i have to say.
IMO what you are asking is like saying 'how do i draw a person' welll.... it starts with the head, and then the ratio of eyes to mouth, then the lining of the mouth to inner eyelids etcc..... theres a lot entailed, but it ALL revolves around the basic 'actor' of your unit.
when theres a marine, marine death, marine death fire, etcc actors, most are specific and the one you need to focus on learning about IMO is simply the 'marine' actor. look at the 'events' field as a good start. GL!
This can be done in just the editor. You haven't said what effect so I will assume you have already created your effect.
Now if you are anything like me you now should have a Zergling that goes Nuclear when it dies.
kudos sir lyrrad, kudos. ! :)
its amazing that there are so many ways to handle things. like the way you explained, is so basic and clear cut. but i dont think blizz intended for us to make every unit die with a certain behavior attached. but your way works easily and nicely. i mean, your way kinda of does away with all the attached actors that add make effects on death, as your behavior does that, but which is better/ the intended way? i dunno, and as long as they both work and dont lag a map, who cares i guess right?
at least this way wouldnt detect if it died to a 'fire' 'eviscerate' etc... to apply different models per way of death. but its just nice to learn all/new ways of making things work. :)
When he said "I want to create an effect when a type of unit dies at the point where he dies" I took that to mean an effect above and beyond the normal visual death effects. In that case, I believe this is probably the way Blizz intended for us to do it. If he is looking just the visual effects, then I agree, that isn't the way to do it.
well the way ive currently handled effects on death/impact is through other actors. ive used the events/behaviors for animations, but never for effects. though the actors i use for the effects do use events to create/destroy. but yeah, im always throughly happy to learn a new way of making things go down that does not entail a trigger that i didnt know about. so thanks again- :)
Are you able to create damaging effects that way, like an explosion that injures nearby units?
well not really (though im a bit tipsy and my brain is getting ready for bed so i may not be following everything currently) but you can make behaviors apply effects, which can do dmg. like make a unit contain a base behavior with a -1 duration that searches for nearby units and dmgs them. (the same thing as a baneling)
through events no, it seems strictly 'eye candy' to me thus far. but events play off all effects and behaviors, so to make something work off an event seems unnecesary as it would work off the effect first, then lead to the event of making an animation/sound/oppacity/unit height etc....
lately all the maps ive been playing with that dont use the built in move abilities of units, i use the events tab to make it animate how i want, be it walking forward, backwards, attacking, straffing, turning, etc.... so i think the events tab is just eyecandy, nothing actually functional from what i gather.
what really gets me going is the 'set physics state' in the actor tab. maybe ill play with that tommorow, and see what that does.... the problem with GE is that when i start learning something, i break into something new and dont finish with what i was stuck on. maybe in a month or two well all get it down!
@sirlyrrad, the trigger function 'create effect' is not create special effect, its LITERALLY create effect, like an effect from your data tab, so in that route, yes you can create dmg, w/e you spell/ability is sposed to do from that without the use of the 'abilities/button' tabs. doubt you were referring to that, but just ranting.
Thank you so much guys! Very helpful info.
I am, in this case, just doing a visual effect, but there will be certainly isntances of a spell-type effect.