Questions to a pc map-maker...

[haravikk]

Just got a few things to ask any PC map-maker out there who has played around with the 1.5 features. I cannot as I am a Mac, man I hate having Windows players able to do stuff Macs can't

Flaming death
I'm sure most map-makers jumped out of their skin when they heard about the new flaming death projectile group, wondering immediately how they can cram as much fire into a single map as possible.
Well, I am wondering, what takes precedence, the fire or the damage? As you may know if a unit suffers an amount of damage greater than its hard death value and as a result dies, it will break into pieces (the exploding PRGR), if it suffers less than this value then it will instead die a 'soft' death.
However, if a unit were to die from a flaming attack that causes more damage than the hard death value, would they use the flaming PRGR, or the explosion PRGR? I'd like to know this for something nifty I want to try and do

Attacks that suck
Say I have an attack like the warlock's ring of fire which causes constant damage, and which has a very large, negative value for damage to velocity, and this attack is set off somewhere (most likely a short distance off the ground). Will this attack draw all projectiles to its centre and hold them there, or will they fly towards and past the centre, perhaps being pulled back toward the centre a second or third time?
Also, does this damage to velocity appear to be constantly applied? If it is then every time the projectile is pulled toward the centre it will be getting faster and faster to the point it will eventually be moving so fast that it will 'break out', ie it will be going to fast for the damage to velocity to pull it back in again, and as a result will go flying away.

[lank]

flaming: some damage types are forced to cause a particular type of death. gas, for example, always causes a soft death, and explosion hard death (iirc). fire causes (caused?) soft death (afaik) and blackens projectiles. lightning forces a hard death and blackens projectiles. the rest all behave as described wrt hard death system shock. so i presume fire now forces only the burning death in 1.5.

sucking: actually, sucking attacks seemed to work in 1.3 and 1.4, as weirdobodomons attests with its cannonballs (check out landing at white falls, or the cannonball piles in limbs, heads and smoking craters). the way it worked then and the way i presume it works now is that the initial explosion causes a single "push" (or in this case pull) in a direction away from (or towards) the origin of the explosion (or implosion). thus the projectile will pass through the origin (at least in a zero-gravity case - with gravity it'll go where the origin would be if it were falling too ) and out the other side. so if you provide another implosion it'll suck the projectile towards the middle yet again, which should speed it up if it's still heading towards the origin or slow it down (or even stop it or, after a third implosion, bring it back) if it's on the other side. if you had enough implosions of great enough magnitude and radius and occurring at frequent enough intervals it should concievably hold objects in the middle or cause them to oscillate through/around it.

what i think would be a cool explosion effect would be overpressure-underpressure, like in those classic bits of footage of nuclear tests: first everything gets blasted away, then the vacuum in the middle from *everything* being blasted away sucks everything back in again. and of course the opposite effect would be nice too...

in fact, i just like explosions.

(i should go to bed...)

would the myth engine be able to pull that off without major lag or fps drops? Someone should try that, just make a test map where all it does it make a replica of an nuclear explosion.

[GHOST®]

[color=DFC99B]

would the myth engine be able to pull that off without major lag or fps drops? Someone should try that, just make a test map where all it does it make a replica of an nuclear explosion.

I really dont think there`d be an FPS issue as long as the concurrent explosions werent producing mass projectiles themselves. ie they were invisible doing just damage.

Of course I am just guessing, but using "Bad Blood' as a past reference to what will haul your FPS down in a hurry.

lank knows what I am speaking of mb ? ;op

On another completely unrelated note . . .

SPAWN just plain fOOkin ROXORZ !! Man, where was this ability in single player mode when I first started making maps ??

::thinks back on ALL the enemy units he could have been saved from having to place and link to in the past::

Anyways, back to chores, will sneak back as time allows. ;op[/color]

[Road]

As far as I know the new feature to 1.5 works on living units as opposed to say B&G which only works on projectiles (the guys soft death projectile). Currently I dont think that the new 1.5 "repulsion" works yet anyways (and neither does the "give object to unit").

I am currently assuming that a death caused by fire will intiate the "flaming death" projectile group. At this time all the units that Im working on do have flaming deaths its just too bad there isnt any fire around...:/

More interesting about the 1.5 is that you can now allow units to carry up to 9 objects-scroll threw them-or- drop them. The artifacts can actually override the monster itself so when you switch weapons you can make it so the unit carries that weapon in hand or has effects to the monsters features

[GHOST®]

[color=DFC99B]Spawn 101 ;op

Couldnt resist, and been playing around / getting familiar with this new feature, man its gonna cut nearly 100+ Map Actions from RotD`s script and allow me to remove 100`s of units off the map and use a few to the same effect. :o) Ive also come up with a quick way to move those few units around the map so that when they do respawn, its always from a random location. ;op

Anyways, what Ive learned so far . . .

the 4 previously unused (or was it 3 ?) boxes in each MONS Option box now has the following options.

Respawns
Respawn via Script
Respawn at Death Loc`n
Use Monster Entrance

First off to have a unit just coninually respawn,or to have it respawn AT all, (ie when using any of the other 3 flags), Respawns needs to be checked.

When the unit dies, it reappears at its placed location via the Tain Entrance effect.

Respawn via Script, (remember Respawns still needs to be checked), now allows you to create a TUNI/CTRL loop to control how and when the units respawn. You can do much more in this time before you respawn them, such as the afore mentioned random localizing. Respawn via Script, however, forces you to add an entrance effect in the CTRL, as it wont use the 'Use Monster Entrance Flag' set in the monster respawn flags, and units will just appear without the Tain effect if one isnt provided in the CTRL.

Respawn at Death Loc`n is pretty self explanatory I think, just remember you need Respawns checked as well. :o)

Use Monster Entrance is again pretty obvious, 2 things to keep in mind of course, 1 needs the Repawns Flag checked, and if Respawns via Script is used for monsters with this flag set, it will be overridden and needs to be set in the CTRL making them visible.

Quick little loop I made so that 5 units Spawn , when ALL 5 die, then they will all respawn again, of course 1 is tied to the TUNI for < 1 ??, but not tied to the CTRL to be respawned, nor has the Respawn via Script flag checked so that as soon as it dies, it reappears via the Tain entrance effect and picks up where it left off. ;o)

Anyways . . .

Ghasts Count < 1 ?? [Test Unit]

initially_active

deactivates_on_successful_execution

5.00, 5.00

{

Monsters

10197 (ghast)

10195 (ghast)

10194 (ghast)

10196 (ghast)

10198 (ghast)

Unit Count Less Than

1

Activates on Success

Respawn Ghasts

}


Respawn Ghasts [Unit Control]

deactivates_on_trigger

0.00, 0.00

{

Monsters

10197 (ghast)

10194 (ghast)

10196 (ghast)

10198 (ghast)

Visible Flag

Use Monster Entrance Flag

Activates on Success

Ghasts Count < 1 ??

}


Ghasts Attack !! [Attack]

initially_active

deactivates_never

1.00, 2.00

{

Attackers

10197 (ghast)

10195 (ghast)

10194 (ghast)

10196 (ghast)

10198 (ghast)

Attack Unit Type

1

}

Now just let your imagination go and the possibilities this can allow are immense mb. ;o)

I cant wait to get back to adding MUNG/MOMA locations to respawn from in RotD and eliminating uneeded units and MAs. ;o)

::Thinks it wouldnt take but an hour to redo Gabe in the Wimble :oO runs off to do lousy arse Real Life© stOOf :o( Wonders what this new flag in Fear does exactly ?? Rise to Flying Height ?? Hmmmmmm::

::goes off pondering::[/color]



Edited By GHOST® on 1082832078

[Road]

Damn, thats pretty sweet ghost!

[haravikk]

Heh, maybe I can finally finish that map I was making that inspired Gabe in the Wimble