I'm still looking for a way to solve this... I still haven't found anything to really prevent a building from being placed next (if not on) cliff sides when its position is chosen randomly.
I just heard the news from a friend on Facebook... and I had pretty much the same reaction as Mozared!
Diablo III is really expensive though, especially in Europe (90€ for the collector edition, even though it contains a lot of cool stuff)... 60€ is a lot, even though it's quite common for AAA games I'd rather buy it in the US when I'll be there, it will cost me slightly less and I don't really care about multiplayer in that game (assuming it will use BNet 2.0 just like SC2 and you're limited to your continent).
I'm crossing my fingers now, hopefully HotS will be out at the same time or a month later...
This method will only work 100% if the unit has vision of its target. When the target enters the fog of war for a certain amount of time, the order is replaced by some kinf of a "move to last known location of target" order. You can easily prevent this by giving entire vision of the map to the player owning the unit which is ordered to move, it doesn't really matter when the owner is Hostile (or controlled by AI) but it can be a problem if it's a human player. And besides, the map you're sharing does exactly what I said in my first response.
EDIT: I just remembered it's actually much better to use a "While (triggering unit is alive)" for such a script, rather than a Repeat Forever loop + Break.
If you include this action and a Wait in a Repeat Forever loop, the action will repeat itself permanently every X seconds. Be careful though, the action will keep repeating even when the triggering unit is dead, it may cause errors or worse depending on how many times the event happens (too many iterations of the loop will cause lags and/or crashes). You'll have to include a condition inside the loop to check if the triggering unit is alive. If it's not, Break the loop. If it is, order the unit to move.
To sum up:
Repeat Forever:
If (triggering unit) is alive == FALSE
Then Break
Else Issue Order
It's actually pretty simple once you understand how it's done, but basically you just have to create a trigger with an Issue Order targeting a Unit, just like this (important parts are in bold):
Unit - Order (Triggering unit) to ( Move targeting (Closest unit to (Position of (Triggering unit)) in (Zergling units in (Playable map area) owned by player Any Player matching Excluded: Missile, Dead, Hidden, with at most Any Amount))) (Replace Existing Orders)
I just tried the dummy trick, it doesn't seem to be enough. Actually the trigger runs fine, but the nydus worms and/or drop-pods are just placed the same way as they used to... Which means drop-pods often end up next to a cliff side, thus spawning units on both the top level of the cliff and the bottom level. I don't know how nydus worms react to doodads yet because it didn't happen while testing, but I assume if it happens it won't prevent it from being destroyed either. Looks like I'll have to find a better way, or maybe I'm just completely misusing the "unit is valid" condition...
Hmm, looks pretty useful... I just checked, there is "unit is valid" and "order is valid"... The thing is I don't really know how I should use them. "Order is valid" does not help here since no building is ordered to create/train the unit. My nydus worm is created directly after I checked its placement, but I think I can't really use "unit is valid" so soon, when the unit doesn't even exist and is not stored in a variable yet. So I guess it's still all about "unit is valid", but what should I do with it?
I attached a picture of my current trigger just in case it helps. There is no event for the trigger because it's only executed via another trigger (basically a switch selecting a mission type at random, one of these missions is about nydus worms being spawned on multiple locations and you need to destroy them).
I'm doing some kind of survival map "just for the lulz" and I have an issue with something related to positioning drop pods (and nydus worms) at random on a safe spot. Basically, what I did (which works) is something like:
While (droppodisplaced == FALSE)
Set droppodtarget == (random point in playable map area)
If (droppodtarget and pointwhereunitsmustconverge are connected by pathing == TRUE) AND (number of units in region (droppodtarget, 3.0) == 0)
Then (Create a drop-pod and all that stuff), (set droppodisplaced == TRUE)
Else (wait 0.25 seconds)
This trigger actually works, BUT sometimes the drop-pod is placed on a cliff side so the units inside are dropped randomly on either one height of the cliff or the other. Basically some of them will get stuck on top of a building while the others will head towards the point where they should all converge. It's even more obvious when I use this method for summoning a nydus worm, sometimes the nydus worm just spawns then immediately dies because he was being summoned right next to a doodad with footprint, or because it is placed partially under a cliff.
So my question is:
Is there a way to make the drop-pod (or nydus worm) be placed ONLY away from any doodad and/or cliff, to prevent this issue? I'd like to avoid having to place a list of points on the map to choose from, I'd rather keep the randomness but make sure the unit is spawned on a "clean" spot. Any idea?
I would NOT recommend doing this through triggers:
- your unit is given an order to move (no problem so far)
- then your trigger runs as many times as there are units of the same type in the whole map, which means potentially 200 instances of your trigger for just one click! (just imagine how micro-managing your unit would cause mayhem)
- each unit being given the order to move by the trigger, will trigger it themselves because they are also using the ability to move at any stage.
- basically, the number of orders given is going exponentially higher and higher.
- any PC would crash here
- ...
- profit
If that's what I think it is, I remember people were VERY interested in being able to retrieve the name of a player for a few triggers in their map... Mind explaining what you did and what you've found?
I feel the same way as Zenx1. It's nice to see people like him promoting custom maps, but if it's only to promote melee-ish maps I can't help but feel it's worthless... I don't play custom games which are like melee, the melee as it is suits my needs already. What I enjoy when playing custom maps is to find something else, something never seen before and/or very entertaining even if I play alone. The save/load system in this video is quite impressive though, to be honest... But I think it would be better to try maps that have nothing in common with melee, if the purpose is really to help the custom games scene. At least, it would make some people realize there is much more than just melee to be done, and that the possibilities offered by the editor go far beyond "yet another lame and broken TD map" being published.
...I only wish! I'm still junior actually. :)
About Australian companies though, I think I heard of a few names in Sydney and Melbourne. If I wasn't already planning on moving to Canada this year, I would have probably moved to Australia instead. It would have been a great opportunity to work for Sega, Konami, 2K Games,... To anyone interested, you can check for companies worldwide (indie groups included) on this website:
http://www.gamedevmap.com/
I know a few people who are like that, but the point still stands that it's a rare combination.
Fun fact: In a video game company, level designers making campaign maps and those making melee maps are actually not in the same team. It requires different skills but pretty much the same amount of time and work to do a melee map.
@XenoYoxa: Go
No reason to get offended, really. :)
I think "all they care about is graphics" is extreme though. Not every company cares about awesome graphics, just look at Nintendo games on Wii or DS, or even their previous consoles. If you want my opinion, I think gamers are not really ready to play games "just because they're fun" (despite what they say), or else the Wii would have had more success worldwide. It failed in the US and a few other countries, PS3 and X360 just crushed it. It kind of proves people are not looking for good gameplay alone. And the PC is dying (more or less) because MMOGs and console games conversions are everywhere.
Don't forget the indie games scene though, which often combines both good gameplay and good graphics. You can't say "all they care about is graphics" just by taking blockbusters into consideration. The video games scene is the #1 media worldwide (the movies scene is 2nd), so there is obviously much more to it than just big blockbusters with boring gameplay and awesome graphics. There is much more than Hollywood in the movies industry. The problem is there is much more advertising for blockbusters, because big companies can afford it.
Right now, the only way to find good games is to get informed (through Steam or websites offering reviews for example). Hopefully, in the next few years casual gamers will realize there is not only blood on your face and guns pointed at terrorists in the video games industry, and the indie games scene will be able to grow...
To be even more accurate, the problem in the video games industry is the fact that it's "yet another media" that has fallen under the influence of marketing/advertising. When the main objective of video games was still to entertain, there was almost no advertisement at all and the games still made good sells. It's not the case anymore, that's also why the indie groups are taking much more risks than big companies (innovation = people talk about it = free advertising). Big companies have chosen to make massively online games and/or DLCs because that's the quickest way to make profit, considering the huge cost involved in creating AAA games (you can't blame them for that, they need to make a living).
Just look at how each trailer tells that this game is "the best game ever of its kind! never seen before, awesome gameplay!" everytime a game comes out... It's obviously bullshit, but as long as people keep being fooled by these videos you can be sure the video games industry will keep making shitty games for $60. The day they'll realize their trailers are not fooling anyone anymore, they'll invest their money in correcting bugs and providing 50+ hours of gameplay instead of spending millions in advertising. But we're far from it... People keep dreaming while watching trailers without a single picture of gameplay footage inside!
0
BUMP
I'm still looking for a way to solve this... I still haven't found anything to really prevent a building from being placed next (if not on) cliff sides when its position is chosen randomly.
0
I just heard the news from a friend on Facebook... and I had pretty much the same reaction as Mozared!
Diablo III is really expensive though, especially in Europe (90€ for the collector edition, even though it contains a lot of cool stuff)... 60€ is a lot, even though it's quite common for AAA games I'd rather buy it in the US when I'll be there, it will cost me slightly less and I don't really care about multiplayer in that game (assuming it will use BNet 2.0 just like SC2 and you're limited to your continent).
I'm crossing my fingers now, hopefully HotS will be out at the same time or a month later...
0
@xKenneth: Go
This method will only work 100% if the unit has vision of its target. When the target enters the fog of war for a certain amount of time, the order is replaced by some kinf of a "move to last known location of target" order. You can easily prevent this by giving entire vision of the map to the player owning the unit which is ordered to move, it doesn't really matter when the owner is Hostile (or controlled by AI) but it can be a problem if it's a human player. And besides, the map you're sharing does exactly what I said in my first response.
EDIT: I just remembered it's actually much better to use a "While (triggering unit is alive)" for such a script, rather than a Repeat Forever loop + Break.
0
If you include this action and a Wait in a Repeat Forever loop, the action will repeat itself permanently every X seconds. Be careful though, the action will keep repeating even when the triggering unit is dead, it may cause errors or worse depending on how many times the event happens (too many iterations of the loop will cause lags and/or crashes). You'll have to include a condition inside the loop to check if the triggering unit is alive. If it's not, Break the loop. If it is, order the unit to move.
To sum up:
Repeat Forever:
Then Break
Else Issue Order
0
It's actually pretty simple once you understand how it's done, but basically you just have to create a trigger with an Issue Order targeting a Unit, just like this (important parts are in bold):
Unit - Order (Triggering unit) to ( Move targeting (Closest unit to (Position of (Triggering unit)) in (Zergling units in (Playable map area) owned by player Any Player matching Excluded: Missile, Dead, Hidden, with at most Any Amount))) (Replace Existing Orders)
0
I just tried the dummy trick, it doesn't seem to be enough. Actually the trigger runs fine, but the nydus worms and/or drop-pods are just placed the same way as they used to... Which means drop-pods often end up next to a cliff side, thus spawning units on both the top level of the cliff and the bottom level. I don't know how nydus worms react to doodads yet because it didn't happen while testing, but I assume if it happens it won't prevent it from being destroyed either. Looks like I'll have to find a better way, or maybe I'm just completely misusing the "unit is valid" condition...
0
@zorbotron: Go
Hmm, looks pretty useful... I just checked, there is "unit is valid" and "order is valid"... The thing is I don't really know how I should use them. "Order is valid" does not help here since no building is ordered to create/train the unit. My nydus worm is created directly after I checked its placement, but I think I can't really use "unit is valid" so soon, when the unit doesn't even exist and is not stored in a variable yet. So I guess it's still all about "unit is valid", but what should I do with it?
I attached a picture of my current trigger just in case it helps. There is no event for the trigger because it's only executed via another trigger (basically a switch selecting a mission type at random, one of these missions is about nydus worms being spawned on multiple locations and you need to destroy them).
0
I'm doing some kind of survival map "just for the lulz" and I have an issue with something related to positioning drop pods (and nydus worms) at random on a safe spot. Basically, what I did (which works) is something like:
While (droppodisplaced == FALSE)
Set droppodtarget == (random point in playable map area)
If (droppodtarget and pointwhereunitsmustconverge are connected by pathing == TRUE) AND (number of units in region (droppodtarget, 3.0) == 0)
Then (Create a drop-pod and all that stuff), (set droppodisplaced == TRUE)
Else (wait 0.25 seconds)
This trigger actually works, BUT sometimes the drop-pod is placed on a cliff side so the units inside are dropped randomly on either one height of the cliff or the other. Basically some of them will get stuck on top of a building while the others will head towards the point where they should all converge. It's even more obvious when I use this method for summoning a nydus worm, sometimes the nydus worm just spawns then immediately dies because he was being summoned right next to a doodad with footprint, or because it is placed partially under a cliff.
So my question is: Is there a way to make the drop-pod (or nydus worm) be placed ONLY away from any doodad and/or cliff, to prevent this issue? I'd like to avoid having to place a list of points on the map to choose from, I'd rather keep the randomness but make sure the unit is spawned on a "clean" spot. Any idea?
0
I would NOT recommend doing this through triggers:
- your unit is given an order to move (no problem so far)
- then your trigger runs as many times as there are units of the same type in the whole map, which means potentially 200 instances of your trigger for just one click! (just imagine how micro-managing your unit would cause mayhem)
- each unit being given the order to move by the trigger, will trigger it themselves because they are also using the ability to move at any stage.
- basically, the number of orders given is going exponentially higher and higher.
- any PC would crash here
- ...
- profit
0
If that's what I think it is, I remember people were VERY interested in being able to retrieve the name of a player for a few triggers in their map... Mind explaining what you did and what you've found?
0
I feel the same way as Zenx1. It's nice to see people like him promoting custom maps, but if it's only to promote melee-ish maps I can't help but feel it's worthless... I don't play custom games which are like melee, the melee as it is suits my needs already. What I enjoy when playing custom maps is to find something else, something never seen before and/or very entertaining even if I play alone. The save/load system in this video is quite impressive though, to be honest... But I think it would be better to try maps that have nothing in common with melee, if the purpose is really to help the custom games scene. At least, it would make some people realize there is much more than just melee to be done, and that the possibilities offered by the editor go far beyond "yet another lame and broken TD map" being published.
0
...I only wish! I'm still junior actually. :)
About Australian companies though, I think I heard of a few names in Sydney and Melbourne. If I wasn't already planning on moving to Canada this year, I would have probably moved to Australia instead. It would have been a great opportunity to work for Sega, Konami, 2K Games,... To anyone interested, you can check for companies worldwide (indie groups included) on this website: http://www.gamedevmap.com/
0
Fun fact: In a video game company, level designers making campaign maps and those making melee maps are actually not in the same team. It requires different skills but pretty much the same amount of time and work to do a melee map.
0
@XenoYoxa: Go No reason to get offended, really. :)
I think "all they care about is graphics" is extreme though. Not every company cares about awesome graphics, just look at Nintendo games on Wii or DS, or even their previous consoles. If you want my opinion, I think gamers are not really ready to play games "just because they're fun" (despite what they say), or else the Wii would have had more success worldwide. It failed in the US and a few other countries, PS3 and X360 just crushed it. It kind of proves people are not looking for good gameplay alone. And the PC is dying (more or less) because MMOGs and console games conversions are everywhere.
Don't forget the indie games scene though, which often combines both good gameplay and good graphics. You can't say "all they care about is graphics" just by taking blockbusters into consideration. The video games scene is the #1 media worldwide (the movies scene is 2nd), so there is obviously much more to it than just big blockbusters with boring gameplay and awesome graphics. There is much more than Hollywood in the movies industry. The problem is there is much more advertising for blockbusters, because big companies can afford it.
Right now, the only way to find good games is to get informed (through Steam or websites offering reviews for example). Hopefully, in the next few years casual gamers will realize there is not only blood on your face and guns pointed at terrorists in the video games industry, and the indie games scene will be able to grow...
0
@GlornII: Go
To be even more accurate, the problem in the video games industry is the fact that it's "yet another media" that has fallen under the influence of marketing/advertising. When the main objective of video games was still to entertain, there was almost no advertisement at all and the games still made good sells. It's not the case anymore, that's also why the indie groups are taking much more risks than big companies (innovation = people talk about it = free advertising). Big companies have chosen to make massively online games and/or DLCs because that's the quickest way to make profit, considering the huge cost involved in creating AAA games (you can't blame them for that, they need to make a living).
Just look at how each trailer tells that this game is "the best game ever of its kind! never seen before, awesome gameplay!" everytime a game comes out... It's obviously bullshit, but as long as people keep being fooled by these videos you can be sure the video games industry will keep making shitty games for $60. The day they'll realize their trailers are not fooling anyone anymore, they'll invest their money in correcting bugs and providing 50+ hours of gameplay instead of spending millions in advertising. But we're far from it... People keep dreaming while watching trailers without a single picture of gameplay footage inside!