Bug with Item Permanent Damage Gain and Heroes that Metamorphize/Change Form

[Scathainn]

Howdy folks. I'm working on a Warchasers-style dungeon crawling map, and I've been experiencing a bug with one of my types of tomes, Tomes of Prowess, which use the "Item Permanent Damage Gain" (ALAA) ability.

When a Hero picks up a tome of prowess, they gain 2 base damage.

However, if they are a hero with an ability that changes form between one unit and another (e.g. Metamorphosis, Burrow, Chemical Rage, Bear Form, etc), the unit that transforms loses any damage they gained from this type of tome. As near as I can tell this is the only type of tome that this bug occurs with, as all attribute tomes work normally, along with Manuals of Health.

Is there a way I can ensure that units with transforming abilities can keep their permanent damage bonus?

 

[Uncle]

How are you adding the 2 base damage? Because there isn't any ability that would add +2 permanent base damage as far as I'm aware.

Edit: Okay, I found it, didn't realize that was a thing, I assumed you were talking about +2 green damage (non-base).

One solution would be to track the number of times the Hero acquires these tomes so that you can subtract the damage upon morphing. On version 1.31+ you can modify a unit's base damage via triggers so it wouldn't be too difficult to manage. In fact, you could trigger all of the damage yourself.

On older versions, you could create and give X "negative" versions of the Tomes to the morphed Hero which subtract 2 base damage.

 

[Dr Super Good]

On older versions, you could create and give X "negative" versions of the Tomes to the morphed Hero which subtract 2 base damage.

It is my understanding that the issue is that the morphed hero loses the damage automatically due to the morphing process. They want it to keep the bonus damage. As such it would be a similar idea but re-applying the damage at the time they lose it, such as when they change form.

Be aware that consumed on pickup "powerup" items die rather than be removed like a when a regular item has all charges consumed. This means that regular TFT tomes leak items when picked up. You need triggers to explicitly remove the tome item after it is picked up and use. This applies to TFT style tomes and powerup runes, but not do RoC style tomes which are charged items used in a unit's inventory.

 

[Uncle]

It is my understanding that the issue is that the morphed hero loses the damage automatically due to the morphing process. They want it to keep the bonus damage. As such it would be a similar idea but re-applying the damage at the time they lose it, such as when they change form.

Be aware that consumed on pickup "powerup" items die rather than be removed like a when a regular item has all charges consumed. This means that regular TFT tomes leak items when picked up. You need triggers to explicitly remove the tome item after it is picked up and use. This applies to TFT style tomes and powerup runes, but not do RoC style tomes which are charged items used in a unit's inventory.

Yeah, late night post, what I wanted to say was that you can add both positive/negative tomes to the units as a solution on older versions. I have a feeling that when the unit morphs back to normal it will need to have it's stats reduced with negative tomes but that may not be the case. Depends if the normal form will retain both the original tomes + morphed tomes.

 

[Scathainn]

One solution would be to track the number of times the Hero acquires these tomes so that you can subtract the damage upon morphing. On version 1.31+ you can modify a unit's base damage via triggers so it wouldn't be too difficult to manage. In fact, you could trigger all of the damage yourself.

As such it would be a similar idea but re-applying the damage at the time they lose it, such as when they change form.

This was my thought, but I haven't been able to successfully apply the tomes via triggers. I figured that if I used either "Unit starts the effect of an ability" or "Unit finishes casting an ability" and listed all the morph abilities in question, that would work, but so far I haven't been able to get it to function properly.

 

[Uncle]

This was my thought, but I haven't been able to successfully apply the tomes via triggers. I figured that if I used either "Unit starts the effect of an ability" or "Unit finishes casting an ability" and listed all the morph abilities in question, that would work, but so far I haven't been able to get it to function properly.

That narrows the Events down to Uses An Item or Acquires An Item. One of them will work.

 

[Scathainn]

That narrows the Events down to Uses An Item or Acquires An Item. One of them will work.

I'm not sure what you mean by this as I don't see how a unit acquiring an item would fix this issue. When the unit transforms into another Hero, the stats they would have gained from any damage tomes disappears, so shouldn't the fix relate to the transformation somehow, not the acquisition of the tome?

 

[Uncle]

I'm not sure what you mean by this as I don't see how a unit acquiring an item would fix this issue. When the unit transforms into another Hero, the stats they would have gained from any damage tomes disappears, so shouldn't the fix relate to the transformation somehow, not the acquisition of the tome?

I thought you were saying that you couldn't detect when a tome was used.

The solution I suggested was to detect whenever a tome is used and keep track of the bonuses in variables, this way when the unit finally morphs into it's alternate form you can re-apply the tomes based on this information.

Here's the idea:

• Track Tome Bonus Damage
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Tome of Prowess
  • Actions
    • Set Variable PN = (Player number of (Owner of (Triggering unit)))
    • Set Variable Player_Prowess_Count[PN] = (Player_Prowess_Count[PN] + 1)

^ Have an Integer array variable for tracking each Player's total number of Prowess Tomes used. This assumes that each Player only has one Hero that can use these Tomes.

Then upon morphing, which needs to be handled with special care, re-apply the tomes using the aforementioned variable:

• Bear Form Is Used
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
  • Conditions
    • (Issued order) Equal to (Order(bearform))
  • Actions
    • Wait 0.20 seconds of game-time
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • Set Variable PN = (Player number of (Owner of (Triggering unit))
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Player_Prowess_Count[PN] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to (Triggering unit)
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

So you'd need a trigger for each of your different types of Morphing abilities.

You may need to add an extra Condition to check the specific type of unit that is morphing:

• (Unit-type of (Triggering unit)) Equal to Druid of the Claw (Normal Form)

Also, you may need to adjust the duration of the Wait to give the unit enough time to morph. There are various threads regarding how to properly detect morph abilities that you can reference to get it working. Notably, Bribe's GUI Unit Event system has an Event for detecting when a unit morphs which does most of the hard work for you. It has the added bonus of coming with a Unit Indexer system which would allow you to track Tomes on a per-Hero basis (if that is needed).

 

[Scathainn]

I thought you were saying that you couldn't detect when a tome was used.

The solution I suggested was to detect whenever a tome is used and keep track of the bonuses in variables, this way when the unit finally morphs into it's alternate form you can re-apply the tomes based on this information.

Here's the idea:

• Track Tome Bonus Damage
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Tome of Prowess
  • Actions
    • Set Variable PN = (Player number of (Owner of (Triggering unit)))
    • Set Variable Player_Prowess_Count[PN] = (Player_Prowess_Count[PN] + 1)

^ Have an Integer array variable for tracking each Player's total number of Prowess Tomes used. This assumes that each Player only has one Hero that can use these Tomes.

Then upon morphing, which needs to be handled with special care, re-apply the tomes using the aforementioned variable:

• Bear Form Is Used
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
  • Conditions
    • (Issued order) Equal to (Order(bearform))
  • Actions
    • Wait 0.20 seconds of game-time
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • Set Variable PN = (Player number of (Owner of (Triggering unit))
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Player_Prowess_Count[PN] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to (Triggering unit)
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

So you'd need a trigger for each of your different types of Morphing abilities.

You may need to add an extra Condition to check the specific type of unit that is morphing:

• (Unit-type of (Triggering unit)) Equal to Druid of the Claw (Normal Form)

Also, you may need to adjust the duration of the Wait to give the unit enough time to morph. There are various threads regarding how to properly detect morph abilities that you can reference to get it working. Notably, Bribe's GUI Unit Event system has an Event for detecting when a unit morphs which does most of the hard work for you. It has the added bonus of coming with a Unit Indexer system which would allow you to track Tomes on a per-Hero basis (if that is needed).

All of this is very helpful, thank you. I appreciate your help

I will probably need to use the GUI unit event system, as it does matter on a per-Hero basis as to who has these tomes in some specific circumstances (normally, one player controls one Hero, however in One-player mode, they control 4 heroes, and in two-player mode each player controls two heroes.) With that said, I don't actually know how to implement said Unit Indexer system, any insight?

 

[Retera]

Random question that might be totally unhelpful:

Does the "UnitMakeAbilityPermanent" native apply in this case, wherein you could have a trigger that when a unit collects the tome, make the Item Permanent Damage Gain ability flagged as permanent so it wouldnt go away upon morphing?

It's possible that this idea doesn't work and doesn't help, but i was curious if you had tried

Edit: As in, I wrote this in passing, without testing for myself

Edit 2: after i said it, I tested it and it doesn't work. I suppose this is logical, as the ability is most likely lost upon consumption of the tome

 

[Uncle]

All of this is very helpful, thank you. I appreciate your help

I will probably need to use the GUI unit event system, as it does matter on a per-Hero basis as to who has these tomes in some specific circumstances (normally, one player controls one Hero, however in One-player mode, they control 4 heroes, and in two-player mode each player controls two heroes.) With that said, I don't actually know how to implement said Unit Indexer system, any insight?

So after looking into it, GUI Unit Event comes with a Unit Indexer built into it, so you really only need this "one system".

All you have to do is copy and paste the Unit Event folder into your map.

After that, the system will automatically run in the background when your game starts.

Two important rules:
1) This system won't become fully active until AFTER Map Initialization, but there's a good chance that you don't have to worry about that.
2) You must never use this Action yourself:

• Unit - Set the custom value of (Triggering unit) to 0

^ The Unit Indexer assigns custom values to units automatically, if you adjust it yourself you will break the system.


The next step is to learn how to use the Unit Indexer and GUI Unit Event system. Fortunately, both of these systems have demo maps, extensive documentation, and a million examples on Hive. But I'll give you a demonstration pertaining to the triggers I posted earlier:

• Track Tome Bonus Damage NEW
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Tome of Prowess
  • Actions
    • Set Variable CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • Set Variable Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] = (Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] + 1)

• Bear Form Is Used NEW
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
  • Conditions
    • (Issued order) Equal to (Order(bearform))
  • Actions
    • Wait 0.20 seconds of game-time
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • Set Variable CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to (Triggering unit)
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

These two triggers have been modified to use the Unit Indexer instead of relying on the Player Number. This allows us to save data directly to our Unit whenever it uses a tome as well as load that saved data whenever it morphs. Notice how this method relies on the unit's Custom Value as the [index] in our Array. This is a unique Integer value that the Unit Indexer assigns to each Unit upon creation. The system is basically giving each of our Units their own unique ID number.

This is similar to how each Player has their own unique Player Number (Red = 1, Blue = 2, Teal = 3). This system simply expands that concept to Units by giving each of them their own unique number in the form of a Custom Value. So by taking advantage of this you can use Array variables to attach data to a specific Unit or Player by using their (custom value) or (player number) as the [index] in your Array.


Then by using the GUI Unit Event system we can replace the above Bear Form Is Used trigger with this:

• On Transform
  • Events
    • Game - UnitTypeEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Hero_Prowess_Count[UDex] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to UDexUnits[UDex]
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

This is a custom Event that runs whenever a unit is finished morphing/transforming. This removes the need for the inconsistent Wait action and the Condition from before. The UDex variables are a way for you to reference the Unit and it's Custom Value, think of them like a custom version of (Triggering unit).

Note that I never actually tested any of these triggers but I believe they will work, and if not, I believe they can be made to work with some slight tweaks.

 

[Scathainn]

So after looking into it, GUI Unit Event comes with a Unit Indexer built into it, so you really only need this "one system".

All you have to do is copy and paste the Unit Event folder into your map.
View attachment 473379
After that, the system will automatically run in the background when your game starts.

Two important rules:
1) This system won't become fully active until AFTER Map Initialization, but there's a good chance that you don't have to worry about that.
2) You must never use this Action yourself:

• Unit - Set the custom value of (Triggering unit) to 0

^ The Unit Indexer assigns custom values to units automatically, if you adjust it yourself you will break the system.


The next step is to learn how to use the Unit Indexer and GUI Unit Event system. Fortunately, both of these systems have demo maps, extensive documentation, and a million examples on Hive. But I'll give you a demonstration pertaining to the triggers I posted earlier:

• Track Tome Bonus Damage NEW
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Tome of Prowess
  • Actions
    • Set Variable CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • Set Variable Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] = (Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] + 1)

• Bear Form Is Used NEW
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
  • Conditions
    • (Issued order) Equal to (Order(bearform))
  • Actions
    • Wait 0.20 seconds of game-time
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • Set Variable CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Hero_Prowess_Count[CV] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to (Triggering unit)
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

These two triggers have been modified to use the Unit Indexer instead of relying on the Player Number. This allows us to save data directly to our Unit whenever it uses a tome as well as load that saved data whenever it morphs. Notice how this method relies on the unit's Custom Value as the [index] in our Array. This is a unique Integer value that the Unit Indexer assigns to each Unit upon creation. The system is basically giving each of our Units their own unique ID number.

This is similar to how each Player has their own unique Player Number (Red = 1, Blue = 2, Teal = 3). This system simply expands that concept to Units by giving each of them their own unique number in the form of a Custom Value. So by taking advantage of this you can use Array variables to attach data to a specific Unit or Player by using their (custom value) or (player number) as the [index] in your Array.


Then by using the GUI Unit Event system we can replace the above Bear Form Is Used trigger with this:

• On Transform
  • Events
    • Game - UnitTypeEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Trigger - Turn off Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>
    • For each integer (Integer A) from 1 to Hero_Prowess_Count[UDex] do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Item - Create Tome of Prowess and give it to UDexUnits[UDex]
    • Trigger - Turn on Track Tome Bonus Damage <gen>

This is a custom Event that runs whenever a unit is finished morphing/transforming. This removes the need for the inconsistent Wait action and the Condition from before. The UDex variables are a way for you to reference the Unit and it's Custom Value, think of them like a custom version of (Triggering unit).

Note that I never actually tested any of these triggers but I believe they will work, and if not, I believe they can be made to work with some slight tweaks.

Once again, I immensely appreciate your help and your explanation was easy to understand. I've been programming Warcraft maps for a long time now but some of this kind of stuff gets a little muddled in the ol' noggin.

With that said, I implemented the two triggers exactly as you have them written here, and the desired behavior unfortunately did not work. Right now I have specifically been testing it with a hero with Chemical Rage, so theoretically maybe it works with other transform abilities and I simply haven't observed it yet.

 

[Uncle]

What doesn't work though? Are the triggers running? Are you able to manipulate the morphed hero in other ways?

The best way to debug something is with text messages so you can visibly see in-game exactly when things happen (or when they don't happen which implies a bad Event/Condition or something of that nature).

Also, I posted three triggers, which of the two are you using? One of them was setup to only work for bear form -> Issued order Equal to bearform

 

[Scathainn]

You're right, I should have been more specific. Let me do my best to show off what I can.

To start, here are the subjects of our experiments, the four heroes whose abilities don't work - these are, respectively, Burrow, Metamorphosis, Feral Form (essentially Bear Form), and Chemical Rage.

Here are the two triggers I am using to respectively track their stats and check for stats on morphing. I specifically went back and added game message checks to try to find the source of the problem.

The first trigger checks when a tome is picked up, and then adjusts the value of the unit accordingly. This does not seem to work at all, which is puzzling as this is the part that seems the simplest to me.

Here is the section that checks if a unit morphs.

This part does work; however, interestingly I discovered this trigger does not work when the unit that morphs does so for the first time per game. So for instance, the trigger activated the second time NerdRage uses Chemical Rage, but not the first time. I did confirm this works with each of the morph abilities, but again, only from the second cast onward.

I thought maybe part of the issue might be mis-matched variables for the tome tracking trigger (since the morph check references UDex but the tracker does not), so I made a version keyed to that variable, but this trigger also does not function.

I also thought, "maybe it's Uses an item instead of Acquires an item, since a tome doesn't stay in a unit's inventory" but nope, that didn't work either.

If there are further questions I can answer please let me know and I will do so as best as I can.

 

[Uncle]

Edit: Oh, your first trigger literally doesn't run. Well, you need to fix that problem first.

A unit acquires an item is the correct Event.

It doesn't matter if you use UDex in the Track trigger, in fact I advise against using UDex there.

Also, in your bottom picture, the trigger is off.

 

[Scathainn]

Edit: Oh, your first trigger literally doesn't run. Well, you need to fix that problem first.

A unit acquires an item is the correct Event.

It doesn't matter if you use UDex in the Track trigger, in fact I advise against using UDex there.

Also, in your bottom picture, the trigger is off.

The trigger was only off in that screenshot, in the actual map, both triggers are on (and neither one works)

 

[Uncle]

Edit: I figured it out, the system has two Abilities that need to be imported and configured. My mistake!

 

[Bribe]

Does Chemical Rage change the unit type? Try with Bear Form

 

[Uncle]

Does Chemical Rage change the unit type? Try with Bear Form

Sorry, I made a mistake (see last post, edited).

@Scathainn
It works great now, here's my setup:

• Acquire Prowess Tome
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Base Damage Tome
  • Actions
    • Set Prowess_CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • Set Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV] = (Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV] + 1)
    • Game - Display to (All players) for 30.00 seconds the text: (String(Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV]))

• Morph Prowess Fix
  • Events
    • Game - UnitTypeEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Game - Display to (All players) for 30.00 seconds the text: (String(Prowess_Count[UDex]))
    • For each (Integer Prowess_CV) from 1 to Prowess_Count[UDex], do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Hero - Create Base Damage Tome (HIDDEN) and give it to UDexUnits[UDex]

I have two tomes now, the (HIDDEN) version which is added upon morph uses a custom version of Item Permanent Damage Gain which has no Art effects so it's completely hidden. Otherwise, you get the annoying tome poof effect/sound when morphing on/off. This also means we can simplify the triggers to not Turn anything off.

 

[Scathainn]

Sorry, I made a mistake (see last post, edited).

@Scathainn
It works great now, here's my setup:

• Acquire Prowess Tome
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Acquires an item
  • Conditions
    • (Item-type of (Item being manipulated)) Equal to Base Damage Tome
  • Actions
    • Set Prowess_CV = (Custom value of (Triggering unit))
    • Set Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV] = (Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV] + 1)
    • Game - Display to (All players) for 30.00 seconds the text: (String(Prowess_Count[Prowess_CV]))

• Morph Prowess Fix
  • Events
    • Game - UnitTypeEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Game - Display to (All players) for 30.00 seconds the text: (String(Prowess_Count[UDex]))
    • For each (Integer Prowess_CV) from 1 to Prowess_Count[UDex], do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Hero - Create Base Damage Tome (HIDDEN) and give it to UDexUnits[UDex]

I have two tomes now, the (HIDDEN) version which is added upon morph uses a custom version of Item Permanent Damage Gain which has no Art effects so it's completely hidden. Otherwise, you get the annoying tome poof effect/sound when morphing on/off. This also means we can simplify the triggers to not Turn anything off.

Once again I appreciate your help. I have these exact triggers, and as mentioned before, for reasons I don't understand it's the tome tracking trigger that is not working for me. It makes no sense to me because, as you can see, my trigger is identical to yours, and furthermore I can't understand any possible reason why this function doesn't work as many other triggers in my map use "Unit Acquires an item" with no issues whatsoever.

 

[Bribe]

Do you have the Powerup Sentinel trigger in your map by chance? That's one reason I can think of why tomes don't work with this event.

 

[Scathainn]

Do you have the Powerup Sentinel trigger in your map by chance? That's one reason I can think of why tomes don't work with this event.

I have no idea what this is, so probably not?

 

[Bribe]

try also adding a game message that just shows "trigger is running" just to make sure it isn't an issue with your array variable

 

[Scathainn]

Nope, it's definitely just not working at all. Added a second message to see if the trigger is firing at all and, no dice.

 

[Bribe]

try removing the condition then. maybe your item type in the condition is not what you expect

 

[Scathainn]

try removing the condition then. maybe your item type in the condition is not what you expect

Nope, didn't change anything. I also tried entirely recreating the trigger from scratch, along with combining the trigger with another trigger on the map that was also a "Unit acquires an item" trigger. Neither approach worked, and I'm very frustrated as I have no idea why.

 

[Uncle]

So you can't detect when a unit acquires any item?

It's either:
1) The Conditions aren't being met (you should just delete all of them for testing purposes).
2) The trigger is off.
3) You're on a very broken version of Warcraft 3.
4) Maybe you're clearing text messages at the same time (from a different trigger). Try adding different kinds of Actions that would signal that the Actions are occurring (add gold, create a unit, etc).

 

[Pyrogasm]

Disable every other trigger in your map that you can, or try copying the relevant triggers and OE data to a blank map to test there.

 

[Scathainn]

So you can't detect when a unit acquires any item?

It's either:
1) The Conditions aren't being met (you should just delete all of them for testing purposes).
2) The trigger is off.
3) You're on a very broken version of Warcraft 3.

I can detect when units acquire an item, just for some reason specifically not the Tomes of Prowess. I have several other triggers on the map that are keyed to picking up items and they all seem to work just fine.

 

[Uncle]

Okay, then it's either the wrong Event or the wrong Item.

I've confirmed on the latest patch that Acquires An Item works for Tomes, but perhaps it didn't always.

Also, what Pyro just said, you could have another trigger interfering, for example maybe one that Removes the item from the game.

 

[Scathainn]

Update - I figured out why it wasn't working and now it works!

I had a second trigger in the map that was removing tomes whenever they were picked up (in order to fix the bug where the tome model never disappears and just shrinks to become very tiny). I thought that might be the source of the issue, so I combined that trigger with the trigger that tracks the tomes, but it still wasn't working. But then I realized a very small but important mistake - if the "remove item" action occurs before the tome is to be tracked, then of course it won't track!

Here is the updated trigger, with everything working out just fine now. Thanks again everyone for all of your help, you've helped me fix one of the oldest and most persistent bugs in my map!

 

[Uncle]

I recommend removing it after a 0.01 second Wait, that way you don't need to keep adding special conditions like this Tome of Prowess check.

 

[Scathainn]

Probably a good idea; I remember someone saying a while back that "waits" are not super good for multiplayer focused maps, is this accurate?

 

[Uncle]

Probably a good idea; I remember someone saying a while back that "waits" are not super good for multiplayer focused maps, is this accurate?

It depends on what you're doing. This is a case where it should be fine because (Item being manipulated) acts like a local variable. Also, the rest of your "Acquires an item" triggers should be finished before the Wait. You'll have to be making other mistakes for things to go wrong here.

 

[Bribe]

The best solution is to use Item Cleanup rather than the really poor method of removing it without letting the death animation play.

Anyway, my first intuition about PowerupSentinel was correct, but evidently you had a GUI version of it that did the same thing. Using a proper system like ItemCleanup would have avoided using bad hacks.