Projectile Problems

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:15 pm

I'm trying to create a spell that shoots a line of explosives along the ground but I'm having some troubles. So far I've been able to create an attack that shoots an arrow with a contrail of satchel charges on fire behind it. The arrow glides over the ground much like a warlocks fire ball and the satchel charges on fire detonate a short while after the arrow has been fired to create the explosive line. This works okay but I don't want the explosives to fall to the ground and explode I want them to burst up from the ground. How far the explosion will go is also unpredictable which I don't want.

Any help would be nice. Thanks.

lank · Post by **lank** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:44 pm

if you duplicate the satchel charges that you're using, you can modify those so that they detonate immediately (in the flags section of the projectile dialogue) and use them instead of the original satchels.

if you want them to fall just a little, change the lifespan of the new satchel charge to something smaller than what it currently is, and reduce the difference between the min and max lifespans.

hope that helps.

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:45 pm

Yeah I think I tried that out and it dint work out very well

.
Here is some screen shots so you have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

This is what i actually want. More of a line that exploding upwards out of the ground like a line a satchels.

Another problem is once the explosions reach the source of their creation (the arrow) it gets destroyed and no longer produces satchels. I checked it the flags "destroyed only by lifespan" but it doesn't work... I think..
I'll do some more fooling around but more help would be nice.

teepens · Post by **teepens** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:14 pm

To at least prevent the arrow from being destroyed by explosions that are catching up, modify your object tag for that arrow so that it's invincible against explosions (value 0.000). At the same time I'd suggest trying to make the arrow size smaller so that you can hide the arrow that's dropping the satchels for the explosions.

I bet that if you work with the contrail settings you could get something closer to what you want. However, I have little experience with contrail settings so I just suggest you keep it at

Good luck

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:49 pm

Thanks for help. I still need to know though.. Is there a way to make the arrow glide closer to the ground? So it doesn't look like the explosives are falling. And eventually I will get rid of arrow and satchels so it looks more like a stream of explosives.

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:05 pm

teepens wrote:To at least prevent the arrow from being destroyed by explosions that are catching up, modify your object tag for that arrow so that it's invincible against explosions (value 0.000). At the same time I'd suggest trying to make the arrow size smaller so that you can hide the arrow that's dropping the satchels for the explosions.

I bet that if you work with the contrail settings you could get something closer to what you want. However, I have little experience with contrail settings so I just suggest you keep it at

Good luck

lol now that the arrow is immune to explosions when the explosions reach the arrow it gets shot forward like a rocket. ----> oooooo-> O--------------------->

Any advice as to what I do now?

Horus · Post by **Horus** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:38 pm

First in order to have the satchels not fall you need to set maintains constant height above mesh in their object tag. This way they will explode in the air.

Second in your special arrow's projectile tag you need to set Cannot be Accelerated.

Try those and see how it looks.

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:30 pm

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that out.

So I'm guessing there is no know way to make the arrow fly lower?

Edit:It's all good now I fixed everything and it looks exactly how I want it. I figured out how to get the explosions on the ground. In the projectile groups for the explosion I just checked "is on ground" then I removed the flight sequence for the "arrow" so all you see is a line of explosions on the ground. While I was in the projectile group for my spell explosion I added a mesh effect and some sparks (instead of bottle pieces). It looks awesome. Thanks for the help. If I can I'll post a video of it.

Oh one small problem. In order for the explosions not to kill monster using attack I made him invincible to explosions in object tag. I still want him to be able to be effected by explosions, just not his attack. I would check "cannot hurt owner" in projectile flag but I think that would only count for the "arrow" which would mean the explosions that fallow the "arrow" would still hurt him. Am I correct? So how do I make him unaffected by the explosions he creates but not other explosions?

Horus · Post by **Horus** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:53 pm

Try the cannot hurt owner setting on the arrow anyways, and also add it to the explosion's projectile tag.

If that doesn't work, you may need to have a delay between when the arrow is launched, and when it's contrail of explosions appear, so it only starts once it is far enough away from him.

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:28 pm

I've thought of that too. I think I'll just do that.

Now, One last thing... If I remove the flight sequence for the arrow (or w/e projectile I'm using) the explosions stay small and centered on a small spot. But... If I place an object in front of the explosions they seem to "bounce" off of that object and make the explosions look bigger. So if I use an spark as the flight sequence the explosions won't "bounce" much but will still look good. If I put a warlocks fire ball the explosions "bounce" a lot and it looks really cool. Is there any object I can put as the flight sequence that is invisible but will still be there for things to bounce off of?

Here's and example:

Horus · Post by **Horus** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:10 pm

There isn't anything like that to my knowledge, but I can easily make a collection like that.

I'll put a link to it when I'm done.

Edit: Invisible Fireball Collection

Use the Invisible Fireball seq. It's set so that there is no bitmaps in the collection, just the selection box of the fireball (meaning things will bounce off it, but the fireball won't be visible).

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:30 pm

Thanks for all your help Horus!

I'll tell you how to works out.

Oh btw, how do I use this exactly?

Horus · Post by **Horus** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 1:58 pm

Nekura wrote:Oh btw, how do I use this exactly?

Put it in your collections folder, in your local folder.

Go into the projectile tag your using, and set the collection to the one I gave you, then set the flight seq with the only seq on the collection. That will make that bounce your talking about without having a visible leading object.

Nekura · Post by **Nekura** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:25 pm

Cool it works now. For future reference, what program did you use to make the invisible fireball?

Thanks a lot!

Lugas · Post by **Lugas** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:57 pm

I would have thought he used Photoshop to make it and Amber to assemble it.

The Tain

Projectile Problems

Projectile Problems