[General] Damage types

[Sadalbari]

native UnitDamageTarget takes unit whichUnit, widget target, real amount, boolean attack, boolean ranged, attacktype attackType, damagetype damageType, weapontype weaponType returns boolean

attackType and weaponType speak for itself. But I wonder: what's damageType for? How is DAMAGE_TYPE_ACID different from e.g. DAMAGE_TYPE_SONIC?

How can I use different damage types of a unit's attack in the object editor? For example, I would like to make a unit that does sonic damage, and an upgrade that increases armor against sonic attacks. Is this possible?

 

[Bannar]

It's a thing that blizzard planned to use for some cool stuff but.. unfortunetaly they haven't finished the project.

There are only two usefull damage types. Universal (always deals 100% damage, no matter the armor) and Normal (takes the reduction).
There is no difference between the rest except for the name, and I'm sorry to tell you that there is no function that can check what's the damage type of damage source.

If you were playing some of great projects/maps uploaded on hiveworkshop you should remember that some of them have thing like: 'firebolt deals fire damage' - reduction to water armor (I just wrote what was on my mind, hope you get what I meant).
Remember though, that it's all about triggering and adding invisible abilities, although it's always just to make game cooler and doesn't change other ascpects of the game.

 

[Bribe]

You can use a damage engine to achieve similar things, to make the damage type useful to some extent.

For the most part you should be passing "UNIVERSAL" or "NORMAL" as the damage type, as has been said above.