Detecting Unit Attacking Ground

[Crusad3r91]

EDIT: blast, posted in the wrong section, is it possible to move this in "Triggers & Scripts"? Thanks.

Greetings everyone,

I have been trying to find a way on how to detect when a unit attacks using the "ground attack" command; looking around, I've found this:

Attack Ground Event 1.01

which, in theory, would serve the purpose alright, but judging by the review it seems it can bug out, which is a bit annoying if I am to make it foolproof.

The purpose of the system I'm looking for is to work similarly to the "A unit is under attack" event, so I can register a few valuable data for other things to work. I kind of need the artillery attack so I can have the projectile actually hit where it goes (whereas just using "missile" acts wonky against moving targets) and I have opted against using a full projectile system (for the time being, at least).

Any ideas on how to detect ground attacks, then (working on patch 1.29)?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Macadamia]

I am not sure the natives were there in 1.29 as I was not back to map making yet.

But you could try to use the event "A unit takes damage".

Unfortunately, last time I checked, you have no native constant to access the object editor field "ua1w" that is "Combat - Attack 1 Weapon Type".
But as you probably don't change the attack weapon type ingame, you could just use that kind of trigger :

• Events
  • Unit - No unit Takes damage
• Conditions
  • (Unit-type of (Damage source)) Equal to *unit-type of your unit with artillery here*
• Actions
  • Do your things

 

[Crusad3r91]

...

I'm currently using Bribe's damage detection system (version 3.8), so damage detection isn't an issue. The problem is that I need to detect when a unit fires (as opposed to when it deals damage), otherwise things wouldn't quite work out.

Unless I've misunderstood what you meant, of course.

 

[Macadamia]

I see !

Well why not just using the event "A unit is attacked" ?

I suppose it would be pretty easy to add a check in Conditions to filter out source damages that don't have artillery attack.

IIRC, A unit is attacked fires just before the attack is actually fired.

 

[Crusad3r91]

...

Problem with that is that if I use "attack ground" then the trigger doesn't fire up.
To give you an example, I have a "unit is attacked" trigger that spawns a smoke puff in front of the attacking unit; as long as said unit attacks a target, the smoke appears - if I use attack ground, it doesn't.

 

[Macadamia]

Yes that makes sense as the unit is damaged but not targeted.

I suppose you already tried the event "a unit is issued an order" and checking if the order is attack ground ?
I don't think there is any simple alternative if you want to detect the attack ground before the attack actually starts.

If there are unexpected side-effects with detecting when the order is issued, you probably could add extra conditions to make it fit.

 

[Crusad3r91]

...

There are a few caveats with that approach, including but not limited to:

- A unit is ordered to attack ground out of range
- A unit is ordered to attack ground (once) and fires multiple times
- A unit is ordered to attack ground but is stopped before actually firing (example: has to turn first)

Like you said, simple alternatives don't seem to exist... but hey, fingers crossed!

 

[Macadamia]

Yes I am aware of quirks.

Maybe use :
- Range check
- stop order detection on the unit with artillery (anything that prevents attack ground will end up with a stop order)

- as for the multiple attack it gets trickier and probably requires a global boolean and a dummy unit with invisible model that would change the boolean and gets removes the first time it takes damage, then the event for attack ground order could be stopped from firing more than once thanks to the boolean.

In all fairness I admit that there is currently no way to do this perfectly.

It reminds me the nearly impossible issue I had when I wanted to detect when a unit roots / unroots. It would simply have required a ton of triggers to make it work properly.
But it does not mean it's impossible. This said I don't see any easy way to detect when a unit starts firing an attack ground.
If this is the only way for you to set the "valuable data" you were mentioning, you'll have to take steps ans study every possibility.

I have the feeling implementing this in GUI will end up being extremely complex if you want to make it mui and not leak.
I would sincerely advise you to consider Lua for this.