Best way of doing abilities?

[Rushhour2]

Hey guys.
I haven't done much in the editor yet, since I do the campaign, but I already see that VERY much stuff can be done in the Data editor, which needed to be done by triggers and JASS in WC3.

I am not too familiar with the actors and so I don't know everything they can do and do not know what they can't do.

Main question: When I want to have, let's say a basic chain lightning ability, I know I will need quite some actors, behaviours, ... but it could be done only with the data editor. But how flexible is this?
Is there a way a simple way to adjust the amount of jumps, damage dealt, behaviour on hit, searching for the next target,...?

An easy adjustment would be to deal 20*level of ability damage. Can the data editor do this?

A more complex adjustment would be for example dealing damage based on the number of nearby allies (counting/enumerating them ). Can the data editor do this?

And if there is NO simple way of getting such flexible abilites, how could I do the code? I know how to build up a chain lightning and stuff (well, finding the right functions/function names will get tricky ) , but how do I do the visual stuff?
Can I use an actor as a lightning (aka beam) in triggers? Can I use actors as special effects? Do I need to create an actor for every effect (so is there no way anymore to use sth like AddSpecialEffect("BigBang.mdl") )?

Pretty many questions, but pretty essential for me. So I need answers by someone who already did some abilities and knows how to avoid too much work.

Thanks & +reps!

 

[kewlthis]

Its a bit tought to say which is better way to do abilities, I quess it also depends on your needs.

I personally mix quite a lot of data editor and trigger spells. If I can make good looking spell that doesnt lagg in multiplayer with triggers or data editor, I choose triggers (faster to make?, its easier for me).

And as for grenade like spells, I prefer doing it with data editor, since its hard to make such a smooth looking grenade spell with triggers.

I dont know how to make the chaing lightning spell, but yes you need to do visual effects with actors.

I usually do something like this. ACTORS TAB: Create actor type: model, based on model oneshot.

MODEL ACTOR EVENTS: events+: actorcreation(yourarctor) -> playanimation death, animation done, animname.death (term), destroy

So when you create your actor with triggers/events. It will diplay the models animation and destroy after the animation is done. You can also create the actor by linking it with actor events like behaviour on -> create, or effect.start -> create.

I quess I could explain a bit better, but hope it helps. You have to create new actor for every different effect/model you want to display as special effect.

 

[Rushhour2]

Yep thanks, that helped.

I am not too familiar with all the different actors and the actor events. But from the tutorials I read I see that there will be quite powerful and countless possibilities to use them.

Maybe it's stupid to ask it, because I haven't tried anything yet myself, but how would I use the beam actor for this ability? The actor events focus on creation and destruction of the actor if I see that correctly. But there won't be a possibility to react to a trigger event.

Basic example: A unit uses its ability on a target unit. A huge beam (a former 'lightning') gets created from the unit to its target.

Ok, now that I think of it, I am pretty sure there exists a way to do this visual stuff in the data editor only. But I feel like I felt when starting with the WC3 editor: Too much stuff! And here I even have 500 buttons and submenus more :-O

+repped

 

[kewlthis]

Yep thanks, that helped.

Maybe it's stupid to ask it, because I haven't tried anything yet myself, but how would I use the beam actor for this ability? The actor events focus on creation and destruction of the actor if I see that correctly. But there won't be a possibility to react to a trigger event.

Basic example: A unit uses its ability on a target unit. A huge beam (a former 'lightning') gets created from the unit to its target.

Well im not sure how lightning effects work for actors. Can you link effect from unit to another unit or do you have to do it with weaponns/attack? There certainly is bunch of events you can use.....

The actor events work the way you want them to work. I havent learned the full potential of actor events yet, I just use them as I need myself....as basic visual effects....

Indeed there propably isnt a way to detect trigger actions with actor events, but you can use events like behaviour or effect multiple ways. You can even create dummy effects or something like that, the effect doesnt always have to do something (it can be used just for detecting).

I quess you should read some tutorials or try the actor events yourself, they pretty much work like you expect them to work, when you understand basics of the actors.

 

[Renadi]

Idk how the Mutalisk's glave wurm works but that might be a way for you to do all the target searching stuff without triggers, the whole model system in starcraft 2 is still beyond me, but maybe it's a starting point.