Custom Hero Abilities

[wolfman]

I want to make a trigger where i can add abilities to a hero. But i want them to start out at level 0 and the hero can upgrade them with each level, like normal abilities for a hero. Im doin it thru dialogs. I know how to do unit - add ability, but that just gives the hero the level 1 for that ability and you cant upgrade it.

 

[KingBob]

use Unit - Increase level of ability for unit

 

[Kingz]

Or use:

• Unit - Set level of *ability for *unit* to *value*

 

[errorz]

• Unit - Set level of your for triggering unit to +1

 

[wolfman]

Ummm, that isnt what i want. I want to make the ability a normal hero ability that the player can upgrade like any other normal hero ability, which would NOT require triggers to upgrade. I can just make another system if there is no way to do this.

 

[NoobMapmaker]

If you want abilities starting at lv 0 you can change it in the Object Editor.. just make the first one level 0 instead of 1.

 

[wolfman]

You must not understand... I want to add an ability via triggers where you can just click on the hero abilities icon or whatever it is (the red plus sign) and increase the level of the ability there. I was thinking of using a spellbook, but i dont think i could change the abilities in it with triggers. I dont wanna do something where the hero has to buy something or whatever to increase the level of the abiltiy.

 

[aznricepuff]

I may be mistaken, but I think you can just use the UnitAddAbility() function and just add abilities to your hero that are flagged as hero abilities.

 

[NoobMapmaker]

There is one way of doing what you want, but it only works only when the hero havent learn any abilities yet. So you basically give your hero any 4 abilities and have it appear inside the plus sign like normal.

-First make 3 normal dummy abilities and an ultimate ability.
They dont need descriptions, they are just there to reserve a spot.
Make sure those 4 abilities have the same amount of lv as your normal abilities for that hero.
-Give those dummy abilities to the hero.
-Disable those dummy abilities at game initialization.
-Make a copy of the Engineering Upgrade ability of the Tinker hero.
-Modify it so that the dummy ability is the first set of ability and add whatever ability you want your hero to have after that.
-Just trigger the game to add the modified version of the Engineering Upgrade ability to switch from the dummy abilities to whichever else you want.

I know its kinda confusing, but give it a try. It worked for me before.

 

[Zack1996]

I'm awed at how good you are at using stuff from the Object Editor.
Listen to NoobMapmaker, he's on to something. Just make several levels of the Engineering Upgrade and make the skill it replace with differents and stuff.

 

[NoobMapmaker]

I tried making diff versions of the Engineering upgrade, each with a diff set of abilities. You can also abuse that engineering upgrade by switching around the ability sets.

i.e. when the unit has engineering upgrade set A ability switches to set B, so if you put set B as the dummy abilities, after you trigger the game to add Engineering Upgrade and remove it right away, the unit would have set A abilities. It does work because i used it on a map a few months ago.

 

[wolfman]

ok, im trying to see how to do this. Maybe we have to explain a little more so i know what to do. I have 4 different types/classes of abilities: disable, offensive, defensive, and escape. I have 3 abilities for each type (3 disable, 3 offensive, etc) and you choose 1 disable, 1 offensive, etc for your hero. So should i just give the unit 1 of each ability randomly (in object editor) and then when it selects its abilities just add and remove an engineering upgrade? Example: i have chain lightning, attack bonus, and land mine for offensive abilities. So i give the default (say, chain lightning) to the hero (just thru object editor). If they choose maybe land mine instead should i give the unit engineer upgrade then remove it? And for the engineer upgrade, should i do the Data - Ability Upgrade thing to Chain Lightning, Land Mine in order to accomplish this. Sorry for the long post and thanks for all the help

EDIT:
Ok I tried it for myself and it seems to work, but when i remove the upgrade the ability that was added disapears. But i can just make it so the icon doesnt show, no big deal. Thank you sooooo much NoobMapmaker!! +Rep for sure
EDIT again:
Umm i cant seem to make the icon go away O.O How did you do this in your map that you mentioned?

 

[NoobMapmaker]

The trick is putting the ability that you want the hero to get first then the dummy ability second. If you think about it adding the engineering upgrade will give the hero the dummy ability and then instantly removing it would give the hero the ability that you want.

I always try to advoid using triggers if possible; Object Editor is my way pf advoiding those ennoying trigger bugs from minor mistakes when writing them.

EDIT: btw, after the hero learn an ability dont use engineering to switch that ability with another ability, it won't work.

 

[wolfman]

Thanks so much it works perfectly now! This was really helped my map out.