attack detection

[GIMLI_2]

hi,
i know there are some ways to detect when a unit attacked a unit.
what i basically want to make: a passive ability that gives the unit a ranged magic attack for the next attack whenever he casts a spell. for the ranged magic form i'll use a passive unit transformation. so i want to transform the unit back if the attack landed on the target. what is the easiest way to do that?
thanks

 

[blancfaye7]

hi,
i know there are some ways to detect when a unit attacked a unit.
what i basically want to make: a passive ability that gives the unit a ranged magic attack for the next attack whenever he casts a spell. for the ranged magic form i'll use a passive unit transformation. so i want to transform the unit back if the attack landed on the target. what is the easiest way to do that?
thanks

You will really need an existing damage detection system.
I don't know what I can recommend you though.

 

[GIMLI_2]

i already have a damage detections system, but they usually dont detect if damage is done by attack. however, because all my damage sources are done inside the trigger editor, i could sort out the attack damage. but still, is there an easier solution?

 

[blancfaye7]

i already have a damage detections system, but they usually dont detect if damage is done by attack. however, because all my damage sources are done inside the trigger editor, i could sort out the attack damage. but still, is there an easier solution?

The easy solution I could offer is what you just said; the damage must be triggered to let you simulate if it was an "attack" that was made. If there was an easy solution, this must be the easiest so far.

Though to detect an attack, maybe you can make use of "Unit is Attacked" event, since that event fires when the attack will be done. Maybe if that event is fired, turn on the damage detection trigger. After executing the actions in the damage detection trigger, you can turn off the damage detection trigger.
You need an extra trigger to detect when the attack is stopped/interrupted so that the damage detection trigger will be turned off even when the damage was not done.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

All modern damage detection systems can do this.

See: looking_for_help, Nestharus, myself

 

[GIMLI_2]

All modern damage detection systems can do this.

See: looking_for_help, Nestharus, myself

as far as i know, you can only detect physical damage on looking_for_help's DDS, but not attack damage

 

[Cokemonkey11]

attack damage is what lfh is implying with physical damage - I can see where that might be confusing

 

[GIMLI_2]

attack damage is what lfh is implying with physical damage - I can see where that might be confusing

so even if you give a damage source physical damage with triggers, it will still consider it as magical damage?

 

[Erkki2]

Just a small note: if you decide to use physical damage detection (which is the easiest solution), there are some abilities, which also deal physical damage, for example slow poison. Make sure that your transformed unit doesn't have these abilities and if necessary, trigger them.

If you deal physical damage from triggers, you will have to turn off dds before dealing damage, and turn it back on after dealing damage. There are also other solutions, you could for example have your own damage type variable to detect, when physical damage is triggered:

set damageFromAttack = false //true by default
-- deal physical damage --
set damageFromAttack = true

Another option is to add a buff placer ability to the transformed unit, and check if damaged unit has that buff. For that method, your dds doesn't have to detect damage types. This method can only be used if the transformed unit doesn't have orb effects, buff placers and area attacks.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

so even if you give a damage source physical damage with triggers, it will still consider it as magical damage?

I've never used LFH's system, but in DamageType, triggered damage is a separate type "code"

It will recognize code, spells, attack, and NULL (0 damage can't be allocated a type)

Presumably LFH's system does something similar.

Edit:

Just a small note: if you decide to use physical damage detection (which is the easiest solution), there are some abilities, which also deal physical damage, for example slow poison. Make sure that your transformed unit doesn't have these abilities and if necessary, trigger them.

Those abilities aren't physical damage, they're just bugged and don't interact with Spell Damage Reduction (item ability) properly

 

[Erkki2]

AFAIK, the code damage type only refers to damage dealt from inside an onDamage handler using UnitDamageTargetEx. I might have misunderstood it though.

Bugged or not, those abilities are detected by the system as physical damage, which will cause unintended effects.

 

[Wietlol]

There is only one problem...
what if the unit attacks,
the missile flies,
the unit attacks again,
the missile that I mentioned before has now damaged the target and the unit transforms back,
the other missile hits the target.

This is not a bug but a very obvious glitch.
This means that I can have more attacks than told and so I break the system.
If you really want to do good stuff then you have to create the missile yourself and use instant damages for every unit.
I used this a pretty while until I used abilities as basic attacks where I could modify range without transforming for example or exceed attack speed limits.

For now you can just use that simple method I mentioned about indexing the basic attacks instead of detecting them.
It is pretty rewarding.

 

[GIMLI_2]

well you are right, thats definetly a problem

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Just assert the projectile duration less than the attack frequency

Edit: I've done this before in production maps. Fast projectiles and capped attack speeds produce better gameplay, anyway.