@Wark the Item Life Steal works great -but only for melee. There is no ranged life steal in the standard editor. And there is another problem when i do it that way. Not often -but often enough to be a spoiler, the add/remove filter doesn't misses a unit, and they end up with permanent life steal without the buff, or with no life steal at all while having the buff. Then i have to build a second screen to filter them out too.
The best i came with the editor this time around to producing what i wanted with Unholy Armor was adding several item abilities to the target while buffed. They were modified from the item abilities. They included: Item Life Steal, Item Armor Bonus, Item Runed Bracers (Magic Damage Reduction), Item Spell Shield with the cooldown tweaked. Add/remove four passive abilities to a unit. It worked about 95% of the time.
Something i did in the past was Add a tweaked troll Berserk button to a unit, & auto press it. When you have the damage increase set as high as it goes, like 10, it would make the berserked unit damage immune, but still fully targetable. As good as the function of the modified Berserk was in itself, forcibly adding/removing it the way i did was just too clunky.
I will show you how simple it was doing those same things using the DDS (Damage Engine).
First the Unholy Armor spell. In WC2 Unholy Armor gave a unit brief invulnerability at the price of half it's current health. While it was fully damage proof, it was not necessarily debuff proof. A unit clad in Unholy Armor could still be polymorphed. WC2 really didn't have disenchants in the same way WC3 did. In WC2, the disenchant was that a mage spell would trump a death knight spell. But Ogres with bloodlust were definately more powerful than Paladins with heal. Anyway, i digress! ;P
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Unholy Armor Damge Proofing
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Events
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Game - DamageModifierEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
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Conditions
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(DamageEventTarget has buff Unholy Reduction (UF base)) Equal to True
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Actions
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Set DamageEventAmount = 0.00
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Set DamageEventType = DamageTypeBlocked
Next, the Life Steal attack that includes ranged, melee, & magic. This trigger is more complicated, but it also distinguishes between physical damage & magic damage, and gives different life return rates between melee, ranged, & spell. And it calculates damage actually delivered, rather than damage projected. I just can't do that with the prepackaged GUI -not on the level that i understand it anyway.
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Unholy Armor Life Recoup
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Events
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Game - AfterDamageEvent becomes Equal to 1.00
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Conditions
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(DamageEventSource has buff Unholy Reduction (UF base)) Equal to True
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(DamageEventTarget is A structure) Equal to False
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(DamageEventTarget is Magic Immune) Equal to False
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(DamageEventTarget is Mechanical) Equal to False
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(DamageEventTarget is an illusion) Equal to False
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(DamageEventTarget is dead) Equal to False
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Actions
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If (All Conditions are True) then do (Then Actions) else do (Else Actions)
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If - Conditions
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(DamageEventSource is A ranged attacker) Equal to True
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Then - Actions
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Unit - Set life of DamageEventSource to ((Life of DamageEventSource) + ((DamageEventAmount / 2.00) + 0.00))
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Game - Display to (All players) the text: The Humans be slaug...
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Else - Actions
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Unit - Set life of DamageEventSource to ((Life of DamageEventSource) + ((DamageEventAmount / 1.00) + 0.00))
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Game - Display to (All players) the text: The Elven scum must...
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If (All Conditions are True) then do (Then Actions) else do (Else Actions)
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If - Conditions
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IsDamageSpell Equal to True
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Then - Actions
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Unit - Set life of DamageEventSource to ((Life of DamageEventSource) + ((DamageEventAmount / 4.00) + 0.00))
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Game - Display to (All players) the text: Death wills it!!!
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Else - Actions
Yes, i know classic Unholy Armor did not have a health recoup in it. I added it for the sake of the AI which would not be able to use it effectively otherwise. But admittedly, i like the idea too!
As much as i love dinking around. I can not deny that the DDS delivers results that i can not produce no matter how long i fudge with it.
And these are only very basic applications of the DDS.
I guess i am saying: yes, i was very skeptical, but now i'm actually quite impressed. Damage Engine has really been helpful!
So i am giving it a commercial!
