Staredit Network

....... -=Avoding splash=-
1. Is there any easy way to save other huuman players from one person's splash damage? I'm thinking along the lines of a special ability to create a seiged seige tank. My thoughts were this: since the seige tank isn't gonna exist too long, have all the players in it's zone become invulerable. But, once the invulerablity wears off, would the units retain their orginal hp? Is there any easier, realistic way? I think we all hate the person who runs around with a seige tank in special forces and such as .
.......-= Center screen on unit =-
2. What do you think about forcing the players screen to follow their own unit? I'm thinking it'll enhance realism due to the fact you won't have god like vision of other players or terrain. Example: Player 1 runs into a group of hydras, turns around and runs. Player 2 won't see these hydras until he's actually there. Would it be too annoying? I already know some of the complications this may cause, but I think I can work around them.
.......-= Sprites=-
3. How would you go about creating / deleting sprites during midpoint in the game? Such as maybe an uncompleted terran building? Does it create problems?
.......-= Leaderboard =-
4. Somehow, someone had two leaderboards run simlanteanously (sp? ;/ ). They also, instead of using words, showed a picture of a mineral and a picture of a gas orb. How is this possible?
.......-= Create Unit =-
5. So, I guess I can't use this random grid idea (that concept was a big tease ;| ) So, is there anyway I can create units in a line with moving locations?
U = unit with location
X = units to be spawn
.......X
.......X
X X U X X
.......X
.......X
6. Is there anyway to stack units in mid game? I'm thinking like having two ghosts on top of each other, owned by the same person, and only seeing one due to being unvisioned with himself.
.......-= Advanced cloaking =-
7. I need an explaination of advanced cloaking. Is there any quick guide to what I can and can not do with advanced cloaking?
.......-= Mission events / cut scene =-
8. Okay... this one is complicated. How should I go about making sure all of force 1 is at a specific location to activate cut scenes or events? I was thinking Force 1 brings all to location x, but what if they have random summons floating about? Kill them? Or how annoying would that even be? What if you have a noob that is just concerned about getting xp and not even worried about the actual game going on... everyone knows they love pwning everyone else and having the most xp... Looking for realism here... nothing like player x brings at least one unit to location, move all other players here.
.......-= Game Timer =-
9. If there is a game timer, can each player have their own timer running (as in, own instance)? If there is no game timer, would game timer = 0?
.......-= Size =-
10. How much does it take to make a map an unbearable long download? What if I max strings and switches and have like, so many triggers you can't read them all in one day? How much does sprites affect size? A lot? A little? Depends on sprite? Such as the unfinished terran buildings I want to use.
11. If renaming switches takes up one string perminately, is there any possible way to revert the switch back to a normal name? It would be rather annoying to try to use all switches as numbers, but I'm worried about maxxing strings as well.

.......-= Random Map Making Tips =-
A. Is there anyway to view all the random map making tips (without refreshing)? Some of them are quite helpful... such as a starcraft screen is 20x12 (I WAS gonna ask this as a question but it came up again).
.......-= Little poll for anyone =-
B. How many days do you spend thinking about a map before you actually open the editor?


Lookie, I made it all pretty for you.

1. You can't avoid splash; If you wantto try invonurability just preserve a set to 100% hp trigger.

2. Good idea, except for the minimap and you couldn't get somewhere else to use spells if your game involved them. I'll leave that one up to you.

3. Impossible. Sprites are nto affected by triggers.

4A.

Trigger

Description:

double leaderboard

Conditions:

¤ Always

Actions:

¤ Show leaderboard 1

¤ wait time preferred around 1000-5000

¤ show leaderboard 2

¤ wait time preferred around 1000-5000

¤ preserve trigger

4B. Impossible

5.Not sure if there is a convoluted method for this, but there isn't anything close to simple, tha I'm sure of.

6. There's this disable/enable method but I forget how it works, its creator (was it salacious?) can telkl you.

7. Do you mean P161 cloaking or disable-cloaking?

8. Perhaps when one reches the spot, give all units to P12 and order them to the spot, then when they arrive or after a wait, run the cut-scene. Or yto be realistic, run it no matter how many people are there.

9. No. Yes.

10. THe only thing that seriously affects size is sound. Otherwise I think you'll be okay.

11. I don't think so...

A. There is a place with them all listed somewhere I'm sure...

B. one to two days

To do the gas and minerals you do leaderboard greed.

Seriously....

..yes leader board greed will give you a picture of the minerals and gas

Ouch, I never knew that since I never needed it.

Noooooo because then players will get healed I was maybe considering having the splash damage offseted by having:
Enemies with low hp, high damage
Players with high hp, low damage

That way, player x casts a splash type spell, it'll deal a tiny bit of damage... enough that it would hurt the enemies but just scratch the players... but mmm... it'll get weirder and weirder as the enemies are supposed to get harder.

4A. (Trigger system)
Yeah... I know I was saying there were two boards on the screen at the same time (ore + gas, not gas... then ore... then gas).

7. Do you mean P161 cloaking or disable-cloaking?
Whatever works best... But I basically know about disable-cloaking or could easily find how to in the tutorials db.

10. THe only thing that seriously affects size is sound.
I thought sprites did as well... ?



But about this giving units to player 12 and then giving them back again, after I give everyone's unit to player 12, how would I go about giving the units back? Especially, let's say if there are multiple marines? Would it be easier just to use a holding spot? Move P1 Marine to Location A, Move P12 Marine to Location B and then back again?

4. THen sorry.

7. P161 works once per game on ANY unit and disable-cloaking works all the time but only on select untis.

10. Not that much...

If you dealign wiht giving to p12 you could probabally try giving to a bunch of player with number is the hundreds. I think that will work if the 100+ players have start locs.

5. So, I guess I can't use this random grid idea (that concept was a big tease ;| ) So, is there anyway I can create units in a line with moving locations?
U = unit with location
X = units to be spawn
.......X
.......X
X X U X X
.......X
.......X

So yeah... this whole question, and some others, revolved around the creation of a spell I've never seen in any rpg... not that I've played them all or even close but still.

The idea was to send out 4 damage bolts out from the player. I still think it's possible.

At work, I came up with this idea:
Along the borders of the map would be 4 closed off sections, 1 for each side, about sizes of 2x254 on top/bottom and 254x2 on the left/right. There would be a zergling or some sort of fast unit in these little sections. The zergling would constantly be issued a command to move towards the hero's moving location. Basically, it tried to get an x and a y coordinate for the hero. From that point, when the hero casted the spell, it would send 4 observers from the heros location to each of these zerglings (who each had their own moving location). The observers would drop the payload.

From this, I could probably make a complex way to create moving grids, if I found the need (instead of dropping payload, drop locations). I could even get more complex and find out what direction the hero was moving/facing for a 1 way firebolt spell, if I felt like coding a billion triggers. But yeah.

Now the problem with my system is the zergling. He wants to move towards the hero, but of course can't. He tries to wander around in circles. I knew he would, so I tried to have a constant reissue of the move order, figuring he won't have time to think about wandering. I tried issuing a command like clear previous combat data or roam like a dog between the move orders, figuring he'll try to move towards the hero, stop to recieve a new order, then try to move towards the hero. Nope.

It partially depended on the terrain... a straight voided line tended to have the zergling be a lot more calm, but, he was more happy staying at a diagonal from the hero. I tried having land and void in a riveted way... alternating void back and forth between grass every two squares. I thought, maybe the zergling would know each riveted existed and thought perhaps, that specific rivet would have a way to get to the hero. He did jump in and out of the rivets, but was mostly happy sitting at an angle from the hero rather than on top of him again. If I used normal basic grass + high dirt for terrain, the zergling would be a very angry little creature and run around a lot more.

So... does anyone have any ideas to make this work? Or perhaps, a better idea to achieve the same result? Perhaps I need better triggers?

My Triggers:
Player : 3
Conditional : Always
Actions:
Order(Zergling, P3, Zergling Follow North, Move, Hero 1 Follow);
DisplayText("Zergling North Moved Location", 4);
MoveLocation(Zergling Follow North, Zergling, P3, Anywhere);
DisplayText("Zergling North Issued Command", 4);
(x) Wait(500);
(x) RunAIScriptAt(Set Unit Order To: Junk Yard Dog, Zergling Follow North);
(x) RunAIScriptAt(Clear Previous Combat Data, Zergling Follow North);
PreserveTrigger();

The (x)'s is various additions I tried with the trigger, not necessarily all at once.




If I can't figure a way to get that to work, I figured maybe I could have 1x512 (?) and 512x1 location following the hero. I could have observers on the borders constantly moving from west to east or south to north. From that, when an observer hit the trigger, move location "north point" to a north observer, "south point" to a south observer, and so forth. It'll basically do the same thing. The hero locations would constantly be hitting the observers. However, the problem is that I would need a 512x1 size location for this to be possible. If a unit was in, say, location 1,1... and 256 location would reach 1,384... not big enough to reach the observers in the south. Seems a bit harder.


I have a feeling the first person to post something will be like "uhhh... I don't understand"

If all your units are ground make a small space of water or unwalkable terrain. When you want the units to not be able to move costantly move those units to the water area.

something like

-Switch 'don't move is set'
Actions:
-Move all men owned by current player to 'water'
-preserve trigger

For the answer to your random grid question read through this thread.

wow... thanks....

I went through the tutorial with the zerglings and it wouldn't have helped me at all because of such land features as cliff edges...

But then I saw the 2nd one used interceptors... and : .

Ideas.... racing.... too fast....

I think some people use Scourges instead of Interceptors. They're easier to manipulate in-game, I guess.