[Solved] Custom Inner Fire Targeting Bug

[KhalJyanoz]

I'm trying to make a custom race map and I gave a hero a custom spell based off of Inner Fire (Neutral). It is coded to target "Air, Ground, Friend, Organic, Notself", however some bugs keep arising. The main issue being that it will always autocast the buff on enemy units if there are no nearby allies, and if I don't have the Organic tag on, the hero can even cast the spell on buildings! I've tried many possible combinations including using the "Allied" and "Player Units" tag instead of "Friend", but the hero can still cast this Inner Fire variant on enemies. I've tried having the standard Inner Fire spells on the unit, and attempting to use them claims they cannot target enemies, so I'm at my wit's end trying to get this custom spell working.

The enemy force I'm using to test spells on is set as an enemy in both the scenario properties tab as well as force-set via triggers, even in seperate Force tabs, so there's no chance the game is mistaking them for a targetable ally. I've attached a collaborated screenshot of the entire Editor fields for the spell so anyone can see how it's set up.

 

[Uncle]

Strange, I think I've seen an issue similar to this before. Try searching for recent threads with similar issues.

Anyway, a potential workaround for now would be to use a different base ability, one that hopefully works as intended like Bloodlust, and have a Dummy unit cast the real Inner Fire ability.

 

[KhalJyanoz]

I've searched for any threads I can referring to targeting issues and Inner Fire, but they've all been unrelated topics.
Dummy triggers could work, but first, I plan on making a new ability based off of the Neutral Hostile Inner Fire and seeing if that's also bugged, and then if that doesn't work, see if the Priest's version is any different. It's worth a shot, at least, I've experienced a few bugs in WE since I installed the 1.31 patch (AI Editor is completely busted when trying to test stuff), but this is the first I haven't got a workaround for.

 

[Uncle]

Do you have a reason for not patching to 1.32?

 

[KhalJyanoz]

Well, the thing is that 1.32 is Reforged and onwards. I purchased it legitimately and all I got was a fancy main menu that took forever to navigate. I didn't even get the fancy HD graphics in-game, so as offended as I was for an overpriced reskin that didn't even work, I asked for my money back. I still have it, but refuse to touch it, so I'm sticking with the Classic version for as long as I can, or at least until they finally bring the ability to play custom campaigns in Reforged.

That aside, I've done some tweaking around with this spell. I tried using the different version of Inner Fire, and it had the same problem. Autocasting always prioritized enemy units if there were no viable targets. Before deciding upon the Bloodlust - Trigger idea you mentioned, I thought of turning it into a Roar-type spell instead, basing on the Battle Roar ability, seeing as it is a Hero ability by default. However, it seems to have the same issue. Regardless of alliance, enemy and friendly units alike get the buff. (I did make a new Buff state for the Roar type as well as reusing the one based on Inner Fire, but it doesn't seem to matter.) Viable targets are set to "Air, Ground, Friend, Organic, Notself", in that order. "Prefer Friendlies" is set to TRUE and "Prefer Hostiles" is set to FALSE.

I might try coding the spell so that "Friend" comes before "Air, Ground" and see if it makes a difference, though I don't really think it will. Doesn't hurt to see if it will, I've been proven wrong by weirder coincidences. I will also try giving the spell to all my custom heroes and some standard ones and see if it happens with them, as well.

 

[KhalJyanoz]

UPDATE!

I've chalked the source of the problem down to the targeting tags. I've been including the "Not Self" tag, obviously so that the Hero doesn't buff itself with its own spell, but that seems to be why its autocasting on enemies. Even if Friendly units are specifically set, Not Self seems to override and literally target everything that isn't the caster. This works for both the Roar and Inner Fire-based copies of this spell, so long as I don't reference the "Self" tag, it won't target the caster.

Must have been a major oversight error on my end. I declare this problem solved.