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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:28 am
by ska
Hello, helpful and handsome sers. I want to make a zerk with a different attack for each of his 3 attack animations. Each of these attacks should be initiated by hitting T (like a wight's special) instead of clicking on the enemy. The two attacks using the overhand chop animations should be avoidable by moving to the side, and the attack using the sidearm chop animation should be avoidable by ducking (using the zerk's pickup animation). If each attack could somehow have two seperate "explosions," one with a small radius for direct hits and another with a larger radius for glancing blows, that would be really neat.
Sorry, I realize I'm practically asking you friendly fellows to make this zerk for me, but it would be great to find out how to do some of these things without spending a lot of time reading the documentation and doing boring trial-and-error stuff.
So the two questions I really want to know the answers to are: "how do you make a short-ranged attack that can be ducked or dodged?" and "how do you make a short-ranged attack that can be initiated with T?"
Thanks so much! 
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:47 am
by ska
I almost forgot: I want to be able to switch between these attacks using the inventory. So, another question I have is: "how can I start this zerk off with two or three artifacts before the game begins?" Thanks again.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:44 pm
by haravikk
Ducking and dodging aren't quite possible in Myth, however there are some alternatives:
- Blocking - have the units you are going to hit able to block attacks
- Missing - give the unit a miss fraction. So every so often it will swish but cause no damage to anyone
For short-range T (special) attack, just make sure it isn't set to be reflexive, the player can hit T then click on the target to use the attack. Basically just set up the attack EXACTLY the same as any normal melee attack, but check the "Is secondary attack" box and uncheck the partner box for primary attack.
As for inventory, this will require scripting I believe. On the map simply place the artifacts you wish to give, in the script create a unit control action (make it initially active if no other script is required). Add in the subject (there's a handy "Add" button which lets you choose options) parameter and click on your unit/units to make this action apply to them.
Then add the "Give object to unit" (or similar) and select the artifacts. This action will now give the artifacts to your beserk(s).
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:45 pm
by ska
Thanks for your post, haravikk!
I'm afraid I wasn't very clear on this: these attacks aren't strictly melee attacks, they're just really short-ranged projectiles. What I want is for these short-range attacks to be initiated with T instead of a click (and instead of pressing T, followed by a click), so you have to "line up" your zerk before attacking. Forget the "how do you make a short-ranged attack that can be initiated with T?" anyway, I'm pretty sure I know how to do that.
"Ducking and dodging aren't quite possible in Myth"
I should have clarified this. By "dodging" I simply meant moving to the side, just like you'd dodge an arrow or bullet. So the overhand attacks would probably be a very tiny explosion representing the melee attack, and by being off-axis with the zerk performing this attack you could avoid getting hit.
By "ducking" I meant using that new feature that redraws the selection box to fit the unit's current animation (I think it's used on that paintball map). So by using that feature for the zerk's pickup animation, which brings him low to the ground, I hope it will be possible to duck a "sidearm swing" projectile that originates too high off the ground to hit him.
The scripting info was exactly what I needed. Thanks!
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:44 pm
by haravikk
Ah now I think I get you. To do short range attacks that fire straight forward, you set the attack to "reflexive" and have it as a secondary attack, hitting T will therefore instantly trigger it. You then need to have the attack itself simply a projectile (invisible, you can use a object tag with scale of 0.000 to do this) which expires after a very short time, give it a lifespan of a fraction of the second. The minimum is 0.033, this should be okay if you set the initial velocity of the attack nice and high in the monster tag, set it to around 1.000 to begin with and adjust to suit, best keep the projectile visible until you get it to disappear at about the right distance. You could probably get away with just copying an arrow for this, upping the damage as you require.
Make sure the projectile isn't set to be a melee attack (as the unit will end up targetting itself).
By dodging then I think you'd be okay as you say, if your special attacks are actually projectile based then you would be able to dodge them if you keep away from the targets front, since they'd only cause damage if they impact with something.
Ducking is an option in the extended flags, accessible if you have a PC version of Fear. Alternatively you can use terrain values in the Mac version using this guide.
However, the beserk collection is not correctly set-up for this, you'd need to get yourself a copy of Amber, or a similar tool (or someone with a copy) to modify the sequence.
First of all to change the size of the selection box, in most Bungie units the selection box is either constant in all sequences, or it is the correct size in one then left as the default size in all others (since they never expected it to change). Simply find the pick-up/drop sequence and resize that (in Amber there's a "Selection box" checkbox you can choose to show/edit it when viewing the animation).
However you'll also need to adapt it to be used as a taunt (which allows you to duck by hitting 'U'). To do this take you need to take the sequence (or create a copy, in Amber you can drag images from one sequence to another to 'duplicate' them). You will want to expand the sequence to some 30 frames or so, and have it repeat the frame where the zerk is actually on the ground. So:
Frame 1 = zerk lowering part 1
Frame 2 = zerk lowering part 2
Frame 3 = zerk lowering part 3
Frame 4 = zerk kneeling
Frame 5 = zerk kneeling
...
Frame 30 = zerk kneeling
You can then set up the loop frame in the sequence window to be frame 4 (or 3 since it counts from zero) and your zerk, when you taunt, will now drop to the ground and stay there until you hit stop or move him or whatever.
If you can't get the sequence stuff done then don't worry, if I have some spare time I can do that part for you as really it's a five minute job.
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:53 pm
by ska
Thanks a million