Acquisition Range and Attack Properties

[Stilljester]

Hi all. I'm using a weapons/ammo system of my own devising. It works like a charm, except some weird...things:

I am using triggers to add the weapon properties to the hero when the owner of the weapon has it in the upper-leftmost item slot. So far so good. Damage and rate of fire work like they are supposed to.

My problem is that the game seems to ignore it when I tell it (in trigger form) to change the hero's acquisition range. When it's a flame thrower I want it to have a short range like 300, but the acquisition range stays at whatever I set it to in the object editor, be it 100 or 2000 or whatever. This is a problem. If I can't fix this, a flame thrower will have the same range as a sniper rifle...

Is there some kind of flag I don't know about that I have to use to enable changing the acquisition range? Is it some weird thing that doesn't work with heroes (a la "ignore guard position")? Or maybe you guys know a better way to do this?

I thought maybe I could use the two attacks each unit has to alleviate this problem: I have attack 1 and attack 2 set to different things (i.e. attack one is instant, normal attack type, range 900, while att2 is missile, piercing, range 2000, etc, etc). I enable neither attack. Then when the unit equips a weapon (as described above), I enable attack index 1 or 2. But it doesn't seem to matter which one I enable. For instance, I noticed that even if att 1 (with the "instant" attack type) is enabled and att 2 is not, the missile animation travels from the attacker to the attackee as though it were "missile" attack type. I don't get why it isn't doing what I tell it to do. Both att 1 and att 2 have the same legal targets, but I didn't think this would be a problem since (in theory) only one of them is enabled at a time... Any thoughts?

Thanks,
StillJester

 

[Leopard]

First you must know the differences between is acquisition range and attack range.

Unit with 400 attack range means - this unit MUST get 400 distance from its target, if it want attack (launch a missile) the target. It means - if you order this unit to attack creep that stands at long distance, it will approach the target, until it get 400 distance, then shoots the target.

Ok, now acquisiton range means - the range required for this unit to notice enemy unit. Let says a unit has 600 acquisition range, if there are enemy stands at range 600 of this unit, it will notice that there are anemy around and start to attack the enemy.

So, how about unit with 600 acquisition range and 400 attack range. This is the answer:

if there are enemy stands at range 600 of this unit, it will notice that there is enemy around and start to attack the enemy
....then....
it will approach the target, until it get 400 distance, then shoots the target

So, back to your problem. Even if you set the unit's acquisition range to 2000 BUT its range is still 400, so it still need to approach the target to start launch its missile. The only thing that changed is this unit will notice enemy EVEN the enemy on far distance.

Unfortunately, there are no trigger to change unit's attack range BUT there are upgrade to change unit's attack range (rifleman's long rifle). Use this upgrade to change unit's attack range, if the unit (i mean single specific unit) that you want to change is a hero.

Hope that will help.

 

[Stilljester]

thx

Hey - thanks for the tip about upgrades. I'll give that a try. I'm confused about what you said re: acquisition range, though. It doesn't...seem to be...true? I mean, try setting a unit's attack range to 900 and then set it's acquisition range to 100. now start the map and order your unit to attack something. He'll run up right next to it before he attacks...

Regardless, thank you very much for the tip about upgrades - I had never given them much thought and I bet you're right about them being the solution to my issue.

Thanks again,
StillJester

 

[Leopard]

Re: thx

It doesn't...seem to be...true? I mean, try setting a unit's attack range to 900 and then set it's acquisition range to 100. now start the map and order your unit to attack something. He'll run up right next to it before he attacks...

That's exactly what i mean. Acquisition range, range required to alert enemy's presence. Attack Range, range required to attack (launch a projectile) an enemy.