Allied Building Blueprints

[theoligarch]

Hey, quick question: Is there a way to let allies with advanced shared control see the "blueprint" buildings that show where a player is going to building a new structure?

Picture below in case you're not sure what I'm referring to (The tomb of relics in the top right)

 

[DaneTheBeast]

Dont think so. But I don't know much about it so don't take my answer for granted

 

[Wietlol]

Not by default... but you can create it yourself.

When a unit is ordered to build something somewhere, you create the same structure, add locust and change the vertex coloring to (25%R, 100%B, 25%G and ~50%A).
When the building is actually started constuction, or when the builder decides to do something else, then you remove that dummy structure.

There may be one small problem that when you create a farm for example, you may already have the bonus food because of the dummy building.
In that case, you would have to create a dummy structure for each building or use something like the Object Data Extractor to load in the model of the structure and create a special effect of it instead. (On a dummy unit ofc.)

 

[Flux]

Follow the guy above me said but you don't need to create dummy unit-types. Just give it to neutral player so it won't affect the gameplay, and change the player color based on the player that is about to build it. You might also wanna hide the minimap icon of that locust unit using SetAltIcon

 

[Wietlol]

Locust units dont have minimap display dont they?

 

[Flux]

Locust units dont have minimap display dont they?

I can't remember.

 

[Dr Super Good]

When a unit is ordered to build something somewhere, you create the same structure, add locust and change the vertex coloring to (25%R, 100%B, 25%G and ~50%A).
When the building is actually started constuction, or when the builder decides to do something else, then you remove that dummy structure.

Does Locust remove pathing footprint from units? I know it disables collision however pathing footprints was not something it was ever designed to encounter.

Do not forget to pause the placement ghost as well.

and change the vertex coloring to (25%R, 100%B, 25%G and ~50%A).

This probably has to be run locally. You will want to completely hide it from enemies (who should not see the placement ghost) and the owning player (who already has a placement ghost). It might also be possible to locally hide it if it is paused however this usually results in the game going out of sync.

This is just one of many useful features which was added into StarCraft II.

 

[Wietlol]

Yes it indeed has to be run locally for all allies.

 

[Flux]

This probably has to be run locally. You will want to completely hide it from enemies (who should not see the placement ghost) and the owning player (who already has a placement ghost). It might also be possible to locally hide it if it is paused however this usually results in the game going out of sync.

Or instead of hiding locally he can set the alpha to zero locally. Something like this
if IsPlayerAlly(GetLocalPlayer(), whichPlayer) then
call SetUnitVertexColor(255, 255, 255, 100)
else
call SetUnitVertexColor(0, 0, 0, 0)
endif

 

[Wietlol]

Be aware that you have 255 as full alpha and not 100.
Also, you should do some tests about what the right color is.

I think it will be a good practice
Lemme think some more...

EDIT:
This should work... for now.
As you can see, (I thought this was already said,) it leaves the ground texture on the ground before it started building.
But this will work for all players. There are a few other cases that the blueprint has to be removed (builder dies, etc).

The dummy unit with attachment seems to play the birth animation and cannot play the stand animation... dunno if that can be changed, but that would solve the ground texture.

 

[Flux]

Be aware that you have 255 as full alpha and not 100.
Also, you should do some tests about what the right color is.

I know, I set it to 100 in my example to have transparency.
And as you said, OP will probably try to find the desirable alpha level through trial and error.