Genos Machinegun Blows [GUI/MUI]

[Antares]

Hey there, welcome to hive!

This is a great-looking spell and would be an awesome addition to an anime map. The GUI seems to be well-written. There are, however, some problems with your implementation and your test map.

• You're missing importing instructions. You are using a lot of custom assets in your map, some of which are used by the machinegun spell, others are not. Which ones are required is not specified anywhere. Please make a list of models that the spell needs. The same is true for units.
• You have a lot of other stuff going on in your test map besides the machinegun spell. Since the spell basically requires the model for the hero you're using, I think it would make more sense to rebrand your resource as a Genos hero concept (hero concepts are also included in this section).
• Your spell has a lot of moving parts, and for most of them, you have to dig deep into the code to change them. A better approach is to create config variables that the user can change without going into your triggers. You also have debug messages enabled by default that the user has to search for to delete. A better approach is to create a boolean named something like "MB_DebugMode" and enable the debug messages based on that boolean.
• More explanation about what the different variables do is required. For example, what if I wanted to change the number of punches from 11 to 10 on level 1, what would I have to do? There is little chance that the values you preset will work exactly for those using your spell, so it must be clear what they need to do edit to get the numbers right.

I'm assuming you're using dummies for the visual stuff because with your Warcraft 3 version it's not possible with special effects? It's hard to keep track when which feature was added.

Because of the aforementioned issues ->

Awaiting Update

 

[Sindobato]

I'm using dummy sfx because you can edit their transparency, size and 90 degree rotation, but the downside is their airborne height can look weird on elevations. It's possible to use sfx triggers to replace most of them if anyone wishes.

Yea I intended to make a spell pack or hero concept (I dont have Lua xD so I abandon this goal) and decided to make the primary spell a framework or template for a more advanced spell or an almost lore friendly spell at its current state. It should be customizable for anyone's purpose.

 

[Antares]

I see you were hard at work improving the user-friendliness. The importing instructions look good. One more round of changes before it can be approved.

There's the issue that the buff the spell is using is hard-coded and to an id (B000) that is very likely already in use in someone's map. This is a problem because you're using that buff deep in the Loop trigger, which someone might miss. You need to make the buff part of the config. Putting it on an id that is more likely to be unused (say "Bmgb") would also help.

Consider adding the Rage state to the config as well. For example, instead of overwriting the values that the user sets in the config within the Rage state logic, you could add a RageStateExtraPunchCount variable etc. How you're handling it right now with overwriting the values is quite awkward. The part with hard-coded unit types I would just remove.

What is the Unused Machinegun Blows Ori? Does it have to be in your map? I think it adds unnecessary confusion.

 

[Sindobato]

Thanks for the input! I added buff config but I can't change the ID with newgen nor copy from an empty map, it just overwrites with B001 so I have to settle with trigger.

I want the rage state to be the way it is for simplicity so user can change the damage and final knockback instead of making it exclusively for punch count because I think this spell is pretty versatile where more than 1 hero could use it in the same map with different behaviors (Using Or Conditions below Event in MB Cast). If he doesnt want it he can just delete that single line and not deal with extra variables. I made it easier to delete the map only configs (it was there to show example)

The unused trigger was a backup in case I messed something up but I deleted it now after its deemed unnecessary.

 

[Antares]

I'm using dummy sfx because you can edit their transparency, size and 90 degree rotation, but the downside is their airborne height can look weird on elevations. It's possible to use sfx triggers to replace most of them if anyone wishes.

I checked the Warcraft 3 patch notes and the special effect natives for editing special effect transparency, size etc. should be available in your patch. Can you elaborate again why you didn't use them instead? Creating 50-ish units per spell cast can lead to performance issues in a long game, especially in the kind of map that would use this spell.

 

[Rheiko]

Cool spell, would be awesome if the special effects were customizable.

 

[Sindobato]

I checked the Warcraft 3 patch notes and the special effect natives for editing special effect transparency, size etc. should be available in your patch. Can you elaborate again why you didn't use them instead? Creating 50-ish units per spell cast can lead to performance issues in a long game, especially in the kind of map that would use this spell.

You're right I didn't know that was possible. With this revelation if I were to change it now then people using lower versions will unable to use this map

Cool spell, would be awesome if the special effects were customizable.

why didnt i think of this. updated to 1.15 thanks!

 

[Antares]

You're right I didn't know that was possible. With this revelation if I were to change it now then people using lower versions will unable to use this map

If you like, you can make an alternate version for users of old versions by uploading a second map via the Add Asset button on the edit page. Having said that, users playing on the latest patch or the latest pre-Reforged patch should be the primary concern. I personally don't really understand the people who seemingly just throw a dice to decide which of the countless patches they wanna play. It's a complete mess.

Anyway, no reason to keep this pending. I will give your spell a Simple rating and bump it up to Recommended if you can reduce the number of dummy units created either by replacing them with special effects or some other way.

Simple

 

[Sindobato]

I experimented quite a bit with animation yaw and sfx speed and came to a conclusion that its the editor problem and theres nothing I can do about it xD

 

[Antares]

I can take a look if you want to.

 

[Sindobato]

• Set PunchesPoint[1] = (Position of PunchesCaster[MB_Loop_Integer])
• Set PunchesPoint[2] = (Position of PunchesTarget[MB_Loop_Integer])
• Set PunchesAngle[MB_Loop_Integer] = (Angle from PunchesPoint[1] to PunchesPoint[2])
• Set PunchesRegion[MB_Loop_Integer] = (Region centered at PunchesPoint[2] with size (200.00, 200.00))
• Set PunchesPoint[3] = (Random point in PunchesRegion[MB_Loop_Integer])
• Special Effect - Create a special effect at PunchesPoint[3] using MB_SFX_Warstomp[MB_Loop_Integer]
• Special Effect - Set Pitch of (Last created special effect) to: (Radians(-90.00))
• Special Effect - Set Yaw of (Last created special effect) to: (Radians(PunchesAngle[MB_Loop_Integer]))
• Special Effect - Set Scale of (Last created special effect) to 0.60
• Special Effect - Set Height of (Last created special effect) to: 0.20
• Special Effect - Set Time of (Last created special effect) to 0.10
• Special Effect - Destroy (Last created special effect)

Pitch works fine but the same logic doesn't apply to yaw for some reason. It always face the same direction even if you move your unit differently. It looks stupid but my earlier bruteforce attempts make lesser sense xD

 

[Antares]

Right, when Blizzard first introduced those natives, Yaw and Roll were switched. This was fixed in a later patch. If you switch Roll and Yaw, it should work for your version. So, I guess you need a config option to set the game version and have both ways in your code.

 

[Sindobato]

ok I think im done I dont want to edit anymore xD thx for the support

https://imgur.com/0tfUcs8

 

[Antares]

Why are you changing the yaw, pitch, roll of the explosions anyway? If you remove that, it would work well on any version and you'd save yourself a lot of trouble.

 

[lucci102]

looks so good bro