I need to figure out a way to simply make it so weapons make specified characters do more damage when a weapon is equipped.
Virtual unit hp seems to be the only way to do this but i cant find a good way to display virtual unit hp on opposing units. help
Setting the enemy's lifepoints helps. Use virtual hp that can be divided by the unit's current present squares that represent it's life (ya know, that bar across the bottom of the unit that represents how much life it has left..) yea, that thing. So if a marine has 5 (im guessing, I don't have sc opened), make the marine have 5 virtual health, and set it's hp depending on %. So... 5 VHP = 100%, 4VHP = 80%... etc.
Making different weapons do different damage requires several things.
It needs a virtual hp system, that detects whenever a unit is hit.
It needs to detect who hit that unit, and what weapon they were using.
It need to determine what the effects of that weapon on the enemy being hit.
Using Red2Blues method would work for displaying the health, but you could expand it to every percentage point. Basically, what I would do, is have some sort of counter someplace that would stand for the units health, then each time the unit was hit (using the virtual hp system) subtract a number from this ammount and display the ammount of hp on the unit.
Well, you can use virtual HP involving death counters, but you can always involve it doing minerals for your HP and gas for opponents HP so you can always see who's winning, and then you can use custom or death counters for things you can buy such as weapons, etc. But if you want to go old school, and you want to use minerals for buying things, you can't do it like this.
You could always have a little HP bar type thing at the bottom of the map, represented by units. When you lose a HP, kill a unit, and when you gain one, create a unit. Use flags or other powerups as the unit.
here's an idea...
each weapon has the same damage, but different abilities.
weapon 1 - normal
weapon 2 - automatically kills another unit within your attacking distance, after you kill a unit
weapon 3 - has aura, or curse spell
weapon 4 - automatically lowers units HP
weapon 5 - teleports unit to nearest enemy (possible jump over walls)
etc. you get the idea.
if all else fails, how about good old text messages used in conjunction with death counters?
of course, this would be the last resort because it'd mess up messaging. every mthod will use up one of the display outputs of starcraft, you just have to decide which one you want to use up. also, to see your own, just modify unit hp.