Looking at the Terran Missile Turrent and all aspects of its missile weapon, I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly causes the missile to cease to exist upon impact.
I ask because I already have some missile weapons that work fine, but I now want to make a laser weapon based off of these, except the laser should pass through enemies instead of disappearing upon impact. Otherwise I'm going to have to work from scratch.
The Impact itself, its a behind the scenes thing...
If you missile fails to hit it (dosnt get within the impact range defined in the 'Launch Missile' event) then it wont die, you can see this with missiles that have had there abbility to redirect nerfed enough that they miss (missiles without enough accelleration to turn and hit a moving unit for example)
I dont think you can supress its death if it DOES impact...
If you make your impact radius 0 and make your missile miss by a tiny ammount it wont die, if you do this you will need a persistant effect to search for targets close enough to damage as any impact event wont fire if you dont impact.
Alternatly if you choose to let your missile succeed in hitting the impact site you would need to create a new event on impact (like the mutlisk attack does) to create a new unit. This could work if you make the target for the 2nd missile the origonal fireing unit and force the missile to go in the opposite direction to the one it wants.
For ballistics this is impossable (as it would go crazy with the height), for Guidance/Throw/Prabola(possibly) this MAY be able to be acheived through assigning a negative max/min/current speed (im not sure if this is possible or not) and 0->negative accelleration values.
Another way to possibly do this would be to have an impact effect on your missile that creates a new missile using a throw driver... that way the yaw and possibly the pitch would be preserved... rember with throw vectors, X is lateral offset, Y is longitudional offset (-Y is forward), Z is... Z offset...
(To kill a missile that has found a target with search rather than impacting, use the neutral damage effect 'Suicide (Kill Self - Generic)' or something similer. (combine effects to do a damage AND this using a 'set' effect)
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I was hoping to find and manipulate that "behind the scenes" aspect of missiles. I'll have to try messing with the impact radius.
As you mention, I had also considered the Mutalisk Glaive method: creating new missiles at the location of the previous one. I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to with ballistics/guidance/throw/etc. Is there an example of units in SCII with these projectile types?
In any case, my laser would be very simple. It would be going 0 degrees to the right, hit an enemy and pass through continuing at 0 degrees. No need for complicated vectors. As I said, I had considered creating a "new" laser at the spot in a way that it appears seamless with the original, but was just hoping it might be easier by disabling the death of the first laser entirely. In any case, now I need to find the exact way to the the former.
Not entirely sure about this, but from looking at the Terran Missile Turrent (structure) a little, it probably has something to do with an attack of type "channeling" (dead caster can no longer cast, interrupting and breaking the attack/spell)
As you mention, I had also considered the Mutalisk Glaive method: creating new missiles at the location of the previous one. I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to with ballistics/guidance/throw/etc. Is there an example of units in SCII with these projectile types?
Hmm... good question.
I was referring to an attribute of Data Editor->Movers
They are very complex, but for a simple breakdown there are 3-4 types:
Ground:
Ground are used for ground units.
They allow a unit to move when/where it is told to by a user/trigger.
Ground has an attribute called 'path' which effects where it will try to walk/where it can walk... (Marine is ground, Colossus uses scalier, Reaper uses jumper)
Ground has an attribute called height? or somesuch. This effects the height the unit is seen at (Fly:Smoothed height changes, about 6 units above the ground. Ground:Un-smoothed height changes, 0 units off the ground. Glide: Semi smoothed height changes, about 6 units off the ground.
Flock
Much the same as ground but WITHOUT smart pathing! (used for air units... direct line from A to B)
Allow units to TRY and move anywhere... Set up a flock mover the exact same as the default ground one, and units will have ALL the same pathing rules, but they will not know it... so will smack into the sides of cliffs/buildings and stand against the side of it TRYING to run through he wall : /
Flock is very useful for first/third person shooters, as you DONT want your avatar trying to walk around the wall, if you tell him to run forward he had best run right into that wall face first!
Another?:
Cant recall the name? not hugely important for most uses... (Could be building??? if so self explanatory)
Missile;
This is a mover that is NOT controlled by telling it to move from A to B... (sorry boss, select and attack command wont work on this sucker)
These movers are controlled by a thing called 'drivers' which I will go into later
These movers have a source point, a destionation point and a set of physics (kenetic) rules... such as angles/targets/gravity/accelleration/whether to ignore the ground/other meaning of life stuff
Now you know enough about movers to know that they are what control a units movement in starcraft... Now into some depth about missile drivers
Drivers (Missile):
Throw Driver: (First movement phase of Left and Right movers (name???) for the Brood Lord's attack)
An example of this driver can be found in the start of the brood lord attack (tosses one of his 2 broodlings from behind him to in front of him, after this a guidance driver takes over to shoot the broodling to the target)
Throw is based off the source unit (the brood lord) and 'throws' in an angle controlled by the throw vectors (X is left/right, -Y is forward +Y is behind, Z is up/down). Throw is nifty, it can be affected by gravity, and as it is relative to the source (brood lord) if you only threw (note brood lord missile then changes to guidance) the chances of ever hitting your target are nill (unless you happen to throw in the perfect direction...
Guidance: (Banshee LM Mover for the Banshee Seeker Missile)
Most important stat is acceleration... without this the missile cant turn/track (possibly some other stats can allow it to change direction WITHOUT changing absolute speed, test this yourself if you want...)
The missile will accelerate towards its target (but its speed is bound within the minimum/maximum speeds set in the mover.
I think there is a mover called Banshee LM or something smiler that uses ONLY guidance, fiddle with the values of this to make your missile do nifty tricks and to learn about guidance (obviously this mover is for the banshee missile!!!)
Ballistics: (Cant think of an example... I don't believe there is one in any of the default movers...)
This mover is hax...
It will move a missile from its start point to its end point and give it a sufficient vertical velocity to EXACTLY compensate for the gravity*flight time
This makes a missile LOOK ballistic (like a gun shot or a cannon shell) as it will arc perfectly for the gravity/flight time
This does NOT make a missile ACT ballistic... if you have a TINY speed or HUGE gravity you will get an insane arc to make the distance... it wont fall short... ever... it just hacks the verticle angle/muzzle velocity to cheet (unless you cap the max velocity... it REALY dosnt like this and will do some crazy buggy things if you do)
Parabola: Reapers Jump Down (Reaper turns into a missile for duration of jumps and uses 'Jump Down' (for both up and down jump... go figure!)
This is kinda hard coded... I have a heuristic understanding but its not clear enough to put in writing...
For the example... Reaper has a 'cliff jumper' mover (or something close to it...) its a ground type mover with path type Jump (this allows jump type 'behaviors' to be linked to it). The jump behavior (the only Data Editor->Behavior->Terran->Jump in there so its not hard 2 find) references the reapers mover and states rules for its jumping, and the mover that controls jumping 'reaper jump down'.
Reaper Jump down is self explanatory, fiddle with values and test how it effects the jumping of a reaper...
That's about enough on movers and specifically missile mover drivers for one day... Anyhow as I said, go experiment with movers to get the effect you want... Good Luck
What you want to achieve is very simple. Instead of launching the missile at the target unit, use a persistent effect to offset a point past the target unit (take a look at the hellion's attack for an example.) Then give the missile a behavior that constantly searches for units within its radius and damages them.
Looking at the Terran Missile Turrent and all aspects of its missile weapon, I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly causes the missile to cease to exist upon impact.
I ask because I already have some missile weapons that work fine, but I now want to make a laser weapon based off of these, except the laser should pass through enemies instead of disappearing upon impact. Otherwise I'm going to have to work from scratch.
Any thoughts?
@HeroicPrinny: Go
The Impact itself, its a behind the scenes thing... If you missile fails to hit it (dosnt get within the impact range defined in the 'Launch Missile' event) then it wont die, you can see this with missiles that have had there abbility to redirect nerfed enough that they miss (missiles without enough accelleration to turn and hit a moving unit for example)
I dont think you can supress its death if it DOES impact...
If you make your impact radius 0 and make your missile miss by a tiny ammount it wont die, if you do this you will need a persistant effect to search for targets close enough to damage as any impact event wont fire if you dont impact.
Alternatly if you choose to let your missile succeed in hitting the impact site you would need to create a new event on impact (like the mutlisk attack does) to create a new unit. This could work if you make the target for the 2nd missile the origonal fireing unit and force the missile to go in the opposite direction to the one it wants.
For ballistics this is impossable (as it would go crazy with the height), for Guidance/Throw/Prabola(possibly) this MAY be able to be acheived through assigning a negative max/min/current speed (im not sure if this is possible or not) and 0->negative accelleration values.
Another way to possibly do this would be to have an impact effect on your missile that creates a new missile using a throw driver... that way the yaw and possibly the pitch would be preserved... rember with throw vectors, X is lateral offset, Y is longitudional offset (-Y is forward), Z is... Z offset...
(To kill a missile that has found a target with search rather than impacting, use the neutral damage effect 'Suicide (Kill Self - Generic)' or something similer. (combine effects to do a damage AND this using a 'set' effect)
On the subject of missiles dying, what's causing missiles to die right after its associated unit that shoots the missile dies?
@UmbraLamina: Go
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I was hoping to find and manipulate that "behind the scenes" aspect of missiles. I'll have to try messing with the impact radius.
As you mention, I had also considered the Mutalisk Glaive method: creating new missiles at the location of the previous one. I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to with ballistics/guidance/throw/etc. Is there an example of units in SCII with these projectile types?
In any case, my laser would be very simple. It would be going 0 degrees to the right, hit an enemy and pass through continuing at 0 degrees. No need for complicated vectors. As I said, I had considered creating a "new" laser at the spot in a way that it appears seamless with the original, but was just hoping it might be easier by disabling the death of the first laser entirely. In any case, now I need to find the exact way to the the former.
@tordecybombo: Go
Not entirely sure about this, but from looking at the Terran Missile Turrent (structure) a little, it probably has something to do with an attack of type "channeling" (dead caster can no longer cast, interrupting and breaking the attack/spell)
Hmm... good question.
I was referring to an attribute of Data Editor->Movers
They are very complex, but for a simple breakdown there are 3-4 types:
Ground:
Flock
Another?:
Missile;
Now you know enough about movers to know that they are what control a units movement in starcraft... Now into some depth about missile drivers
Drivers (Missile):
Throw Driver: (First movement phase of Left and Right movers (name???) for the Brood Lord's attack)
Guidance: (Banshee LM Mover for the Banshee Seeker Missile)
Ballistics: (Cant think of an example... I don't believe there is one in any of the default movers...)
Parabola: Reapers Jump Down (Reaper turns into a missile for duration of jumps and uses 'Jump Down' (for both up and down jump... go figure!)
That's about enough on movers and specifically missile mover drivers for one day... Anyhow as I said, go experiment with movers to get the effect you want... Good Luck
What you want to achieve is very simple. Instead of launching the missile at the target unit, use a persistent effect to offset a point past the target unit (take a look at the hellion's attack for an example.) Then give the missile a behavior that constantly searches for units within its radius and damages them.
@UmbraLamina: Go
I'm just going to dredge this thread up for this post, I'm getting loads of great info out of your post, thank you.
Is it possible to make it so an AE damage ability destroys missiles within it's area, so they don't impact their target?
edit: nm it is :)