Hello!
Is there any way that I could make an air unit, for example a gargoyle, to leave a corpse after death? Not just visually, but so that it could be picked up by a meat wagon and reanimated with DK's ultimate?
The
Combat - Death Type field defines the properties the unit's corpse has after the unit is killed and after the time defined in the 'Art - Death Time (seconds)' field had passed. Death type determines whether the corpse can be targeted by abilities such as 'Resurrection', 'Raise Dead', 'Animate Dead', 'Cannibalize' and also whether it experiences natural decay.
Death type typically depends on the animations of the model.
Can raise, Does decay
This death type is used by almost all organic units since their models have 'Decay Flesh' and 'Decay Bone' animations; they leave behind a decaying corpse after their death, that can be used by some abilities.
If the unit doesn't have any 'Decay' animations, its corpse is not visible, but it can still be normally used by the aforementioned abilities. If the unit has only one 'Decay' animation, that animation will be used used instead of both 'Decay Flesh' and 'Decay Bone', which means the unit finishes decaying, then becomes visible again and then decays again.
This death type also makes the unit explode when it dies from 'Finger of Pain/Death' abilities or from an attack by a unit that has their 'Combat - Attack x - Weapon Type' field set to 'Artillery' or 'Artillery (Line)'; the effect defined in the 'Art - Special' field is played at the position of the dying unit and no corpse is left behind.
Can't raise, Does not decay
Some units (e.g. flying units, spirits, skeletons) completely disappear in their 'Death' animation, which means that they don't have any 'Decay' animations; they don't leave behind a decaying corpse.
If the unit has 'Decay' animations, they are not played and the unit disappears after death.
Can't raise, Does decay
Some units (e.g. buildings, mechanical siege units, golems) have only one 'Decay' animation, that is played after their death. However, their remains (which are usually inorganic) cannot be used by any abilities.
Units that don't have any 'Decay' animations disappear after death. Units that have 'Decay Flesh' and 'Decay Bone' skip the 'Decay Flesh' animation and leave behind a corpse that cannot be used by any abilities.
Can raise, Does not decay
Behaves the same as 'Can't raise, Does not decay' but also makes the unit explode when it dies from 'Finger of Pain/Death' abilities or from an attack by a unit that has their 'Combat - Attack x - Weapon Type' field set to 'Artillery' or 'Artillery (Line)'; the effect defined in the 'Art - Special' field is played at the position of the dying unit. This death type is not used by any standard unit.
Death Type is irrelevant in Heroes; they never play their 'Decay' animations (if they have them); they always fade away after death and dissipate if they have a 'Dissipate' animation.
