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Finally! After nearly 2 1/2 years of experimenting on/off and refinement, I've perfected the unlimited directional gunner system! I'm posting it now just because I'm happy about having it finished, more than anything else, though I doubt it would be too useful in its current form to anyone (that'll change that soon).

So what is it? A defiler-based (dark swarm activated) gunner system with unlimited range and point-and-click directional firing. It's not perfect (yet), as shots that hit the edge of the map instead of solid terrain will tend to "travel" along the edge, and the aiming precision is a bit low at the moment (also fixable), but the basic design is finished. You may now commence basking in its glory!

Uses? Where do I begin? You could make sniper maps, RPGs, shooters, arcade games, defense maps, and many other things with a little creativity. Once I finish perfecting it I'll post up a step-by-step tutorial on how to import it into your map and begin making use of it as you want (it's easier than you might think).

The attached map is unlocked, as I want to share this rather than keep it to myself (yes, this will be in A&O). I'll be interested to see what possible map types could come of this with a little creativity.

Some statistics:

• Only 4 locations used (not including 'Anywhere')!
• 2 switches used (and I'll modify it to 0 soon)
• 5 counters used
• 256 units total for a 256x256 map (not including start locations, map revealers, etc.)

That is sweet, great job tux, that is something that could be really useful and open up new oppertunities in the mapping community. (lots of phraise)

Very nice.
Although I won't play it for a while, this will enable a New era of good sniper maps, not the lame ones currently out in b.net.

I might start a new sniper map using this concept.
A true sniper rifle can hit way farther than about 8 spaces.
(50% of credit will go to you since you came out with the triggers and stuff).

Another Q: Does this uses clicking the minimap or clicking the actual screen and having to move it to shoot at the desired area.

Casting dark swarm in the direction you want to fire. You could put a range cap on it if you want, or add some kind of shot blocking system (terrain, locations, units, watever)... lots of flexability.

Aight, so if I want to shoot north I cast DarkSwarm a couple of spaces above my unit, but how do you make up for range and stuff?

The swarm cast only sets the direction. Another whole set of messy triggers comes into play to make the shot travel from your defiler in the intended direction.

Damn tux, thats some hardcore right there, 2 1/2 years?! DAMN!, well i think that owns, keep up the damn good work

Bolt came up with this a long long time ago.

EDIT: And apparently with a lot less triggers.. units.. etc.

HOLY LMFAO!!! I just looked at your "finding unit coordinates triggers". Holy dude that's 256 triggers (I think). I did the exact same thing with only 12 triggers and 2/3 as many units as you used. My map is called "Unit Coordinates" it's at www.clanuuu.cjb.net on the right bar. Download that omg lol!

EDIT: pardon me that's 256 triggers i think, one per unit?

You mean moving on the minigrid. Yeah thats been done. But moving I spent forever picking units to get the minigrid movement right and figuring the coordinate delta triggers to produce the aiming effect. It actually isn't that hard to make once you figure it out, but figuring it out was the real trick.

I think I spent more like a year instead of 2 on this. Can't recall.

EDIT- I did the coord triggers by cut n paste in guedit. 5 mins total. Doesn't matter to me to change them now.

I love you tux.

BTW my system does use 2/3 as many units as your does. That's a bonus, especially considering it looks like your A&O map is going to need all the spare units it can get.

EDIT: Nevermind, you do need your system to calculate the position of the dark swarm, and doubling them both up would be a waste of units

BTW, I just looked at your triggers and your using a bunch of unecessary switches. I could do the same thing without any.

That was some awesome stuff. just wondering, but is there a possible way to do "real" unlimited. yours had up, down, left, right and 2 directions for each corner. Maybe check the location of the "shot", count the number grids for left or right and up or down then repeating that..? possible? yes no? wtf am i talking about?

It seemed easier to use switches then counters for something like that. Not that the transition would be very hard.

You wouldn't need counters either. If I were at home I'd edit the map to show how.

Cheeze, it IS unlimited. Move anywhere on the map and cast in random directions. There are 16 possible directions to cast in right now, but I'll modify it later to have 1 direction for each delta coord possible (-4 - 4, X and Y).

I'm not exactly sure what you would do, but the switches ARE necessary if you ever move the unit with a trigger.

Nope. It involves giving the spider mines between current player, P7, and P8. I'd have to make the map to explain it better.

Wait, doesn't the Grid System that detects cardinal directiosns make this totally unneccesary? You can do the same thing with that much easier.

You overestimate the use of your system, it's no more useful, (in fact probably much less) then a regular defiler shooting system. Not to mention it's extremely slow. Also, multiple players would cause BIG PROBLEMS...

I just wrote this down really quick. someone tell me if this could work:

Wow tux... That a Über dÜper Map... Wow if you can compact it that could be a very interesting Dodging or Rocket launcher... Wow tux.. keep up the good work...

You'd be surprised, Salacious. The regular dark swarm method is too limited in range to be a good shooter system for anything but tiny single shots, whereas this you can have large (read: HUGE) scale warfare type stuff from across the map if you wanted (like nukes and base destroying stuff). If I upped the precision of the coordinate system (twice as many units but what the heck) it could be pretty smooth. The only problem, as normal, is conflicting dark swarms, but now since players dont have to get up close to things to shoot them, there's less worry about that.

Tux you're probably well aware of this error... But I was aiming towards the bottom right corner and the scouts began to cycle in a motion forever...

Yeah I know. Theres nothing to stop it along the map edge so it just keeps going on until you get unplacable errors. If you made a map with this you'd have to put in your own stopping for shots, like terrain or locations or units and whatnot. It's as easy as simply setting the shot counter (I think it was the unused Cargo Ship death counter) to 0 to end the trigger cycle whenever the condition is satisfied to do so.

You could creat a location in there and kill all the scout... no?

this is great!
you cant shoot more then once at a time tho..

At the moment. There's no reason why I couldn't use additional counters for other shots. Just duplicate the set that controls the movement for that current shot and the direction setting triggers for the new counter.