Dummies for AOE Spells

[plumsy460]

• Healing Touch / Mass Inner Fire
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Starts the effect of an ability
  • Conditions
    • (Ability being cast) Equal to Healing Touch (Inner Fire)
  • Actions
    • Set T1empPoint = (Target point of ability being cast)
    • Set U1GTemp = (Units within 250.00 of T1empPoint matching ((((Matching unit) is A structure) Equal to False) and ((((Matching unit) belongs to an ally of (Owner of Shaman)) Equal to True) and ((((Matching unit) is alive) Equal to True) and (((Matching unit) has buff Healing Touch ) Equal to False)))
    • Unit Group - Pick every unit in U1GTemp and do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • Unit - Create 1 The Dummy for (Owner of Shaman) at T1empPoint facing Default building facing degrees
        • Unit - Add Healing Touch (dummy) (Inner Fire) to (Last created unit)
        • Unit - Order (Last created unit) to Human Priest - Inner Fire (Picked unit)
        • Unit - Add a 1.00 second Generic expiration timer to (Last created unit)
    • Custom script: call DestroyGroup(udg_U1GTemp)
    • Custom script: call RemoveLocation(udg_T1empPoint)

I tried testing this ability on a large group of units and it appeared to be working -at first-. However 1/4 casts missed about 30% of the units.

Is there an obvious problem to this?

Thank you in advance for your help!
I can post a video if an illustration is needed.

 

[Nichilus]

Does the dummy unit have 0 movement speed? Else if it isn't properly facing the target, it will attempt to turn and it may not make the turn in the 1.00 second time.

 

[plumsy460]

After changing the ms to 0 it only had effect on one unit o_o

Maybe I have adjusted something wrong.


The dummies are classified as Wards, which should make facing irrelevant though.


My first thought was that it might be the too large amount of units (since the bug doesn't appear on smaller groups).
But strangely, it actually still works 75% of the time in spite of a big count of units.

I'm testing on the SAME group of units so I find it very strange indeed.

 

[Ceday]

Try displaying the name of picked unit to see if you are picking the right units or not.

 

[plumsy460]

Not sure what you mean. I tried adding a special effect on Picked Unit to display, and the special effect works optimal (on every unit every time) - but the bug remains the same.
It seems that the dummies somehow dont catch all the units. It still confuses me how it only bugs on 1/4 casts.

 

[Nichilus]

such spell as you have can usually be done with only 1 dummy casting the buff on the whole area of targets.
Problems like these are usually in either the spell itself (inner fire in your case) or badly set up dummy unit.

What Ceday meant is that you display the name of (picked unit) to see if all units are picked.
If only some names are shown, then the problem lies in the trigger. Else it lies in the dummy /ability.

If you can't solve it, you could post the map.

 

[plumsy460]

I'm still not sure what you mean or how to do it. Using a game message with the unit string name to show it?


What I used to do with one dummy, was using a fast temporary perodic timer to make the dummy cast the ability on all units.

This idea (the one in the trigger) felt more "solid" to me, but its unfortunately showing bugs.


Can you show me a trigger with only one dummy? Maybe I can learn something fixable from that.


ps: I would prefer not posting my map since its way huge in size.

 

[Ceday]

So you can see the special effect on all picked units, but dummy unit doesn't use ability on some of them.

-Show us where you change/set Shaman variable.
-Show the object editor settings of ability which dummy unit uses(also tell which ability is it based on)
-Posting map or video would be helpful.

 

[plumsy460]

I was just now preparing a test map and something horrible happened.

No bugs appeared :S


There is something in my original map that is messing this up and I have no clue what it is. Any suggestions?

I might have to submit into posting my map.

 

[plumsy460]

I FOUND A SOLUTION.

The problem lies in the dummy facing... Which is pretty weird. Ward units shouldn't care about facing.


Is there an example of a "perfect" dummy that you can download/see somewhere? I would like to try it out with one of those.

 

[Nichilus]

I'm not sure if there is any, but it's easy enough to make your own.

Create the dummy unit in object editor (for example from Peon) and edit the following fields:

Name	Value
Abilities - Normal	Locust
Art - Animation - Cast Backswing	0.00
Art -Animation - Cast Point	0.00
Art - Death Time (Seconds)	0.00 (Hold down SHIFT button when opening this field)
Art - Model File	none
Art - Shadow Image (Unit)	None
Combat - Attacks Enabled	None
Combat - Death Type	Can't raise, does not decay
Movement - Speed Base	0.00
Movement - Turn rate	0.00 (hold down SHIFT button when opening this field)
Movement - Type	Fly
Stats - Can Flee	False
Stats - Food Cost	0
Stats - Food Produced	0
Stats - Gold Bounty Awarded (all fields)	0
Stats - Hide Minimap Display	True
Stats - Sight Radius (Day / Night)	0
Stats - Sleeps	False
Stats - Unit Classification	Walkable
Techtree - all fields	shouldn't use upgrades and build structures

You should add the ability it should cast via triggers. This way you can use only 1 dummy to cast various spells instead of having multiple dummies all same except each has different spells in Abilities - Normal field.
Movement Type - Fly will make sure the dummy is placed in correct position even if it were to be placed on cliff, etc.
For the Sight Range -> This is a bit of a problem. If it is set to 0, then your spell won't affect units you cannot see. However if it does have sight range, then your dummy will reveal part of the map for your.
Also make sure the ability they cast does not require mana, nor does it have cast time, etc. The application of the spell must be instant.

Anyway, with this, you can use only one dummy to cast the spell on whole area. Just tested it myself.

 

[plumsy460]

Thank you very much Nichilus! This is very useful information indeed!

I consider my problem solved. Thanks to all again^^

As for the sight radius, I have an idea: The dummy could be created for a different player (Neutral Hostile/Passive - and then adjust Targets Allowed for dummy ability).
In this case you will have to set target units in the trigger (pick every unit matching conditions) and of course set the sight radius up. This way the dummy should be able to target unseen units without revealing them for the casting player.