Help understanding Attack Animations

[Redlazer]

Hello all,

A friend and I are working together on the editor, and we keep running into a snag.

I've created a unit, an Alphalisk, which is a powerful Omegalisk.

I've got the Unit, the Actor, a custom weapon, and so on. I've used the copy from feature extensively, in the hopes of preventing it from breaking, to no avail.

Simply put, my Alphalisk doesn't display it's attack animation ever since I created a new weapon.

My Weapon appears to be an exact copy of the Omegalisk weapon, with updated values - the Effects and Actors are the same.

My Unit does appear somewhat different - an Omegalisk has Attack, Attack Start, and Head Attack. My Alphalisk only has Attack. No big deal with the head attack, I'm not using it.

It also has three weapons listed - my custom Weapon, and the Head Charge and Scythe Blades of the Omegalisk.

Is that the cause of the animation? How do I get rid of the other weapons? They aren't in the unit editor, as far as I can see them. In the Combat - Weapons+ field, I've only got my weapon in there - "Field Alphalisk
Combat - Weapons + (Omegalisk - Chitinsteel Blades)(None))" - and I can't see any other indication.

Finally, what do the different colours in the editor represent? Some text is blue, other text is green. Is it inheritance?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

-Fred

 

[Dr Super Good]

You need to link the actor events to the new effects/weapons.

The different colours are inheritence. Gery for example are default (unchanged) values.

 

[Redlazer]

I think I found where in the weapon tab to add the animations. Is there a guide on this part of the data editor?

How do I add the Omegalisk animations to my weapon?

 

[Dr Super Good]

If you searched actors, you would notice that the ultralisk attack animations have their own actors. Try duplicating them and changing the links to your alphalisk.

 

[Redlazer]

I duplicated the Omegalisk attack actor.

How do I link it to the alphalisk? Is it the "Launch Effect" field?

My Alphalisk is using the Omegalisks weapons - I can't remove the Omegalisk weapons. Is that the cause of the problem? Should I create a new weapon for the Alphalisk?

 

[M0RT]

The Omegalisk animations are played through the unit's actor, there are actor messages for every weapon, so just switch the weapons you changed for the new ones.

 

[Redlazer]

Man, I just can't find what you guys are talking about. Feeling stupid! I must be passing over it.

I went ahead and created totally new weapons for my Alphalisk. They work, but again, no animations.

Can you tell me EXACTLY where, as in, the name of the field and in what pane, I add attack animations?

When I look at the Actor for the Alphalisk, I see no actors, nor do I see anywhere to add them.

I've attached some screens to help ensure I'm in the right spot.

To sum up:

HOW do I link actor events to weapons?

Thanks again for helping!

 

[M0RT]

It's the Events + field:

Screenshot

There are couple of events linked to weapons:

Just make sure your actor has the same events for your weapons.

 

[Redlazer]

Wow.

Everything makes a whole lot more sense now - thank you so much for your help Mort.

-Red

 

[Redlazer]

Ok, I went in and updated the fields shown - my units still show no attack animations.

I removed the head attack, as I don't intend on using it.

Where else should I look? Is there another link I'm missing somewhere? If I change the weapon referenced in the Events+ section, do I need to make other changes that correspond with it?

Thanks again for all your help.

-Fred

 

[gT.ReD]

try and read through my Unit creation tutorial to see if maybe you missed something

 

[Redlazer]

Definitely will do. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Redlazer]

I've been checking out the Unit Creation tutorial. Was it written with an old version of the editor?

I've found several discrepancies so far, and all of the tutorials I have been following have the older "Add Object" dialog I see in yours.

For example, the first step in your tutorial is to create a new Unit from the Unit section of the editor.

The "Object Properties" picture is totally different from the dialog box I see on my screen. Mine is called Unit Properties, and contains none of the fields in your tutorial.

It, in fact, looks exactly like the Actor Properties panel.

Further, when I attempt to find and add the "Reaper - Reaper Jump" ability, it does not appear to exist.

I'm going to try and work through the rest, but so far all of the tutorials everywhere have this same flaw, and it makes working and learning the editor much more difficult - constantly having to check my work to make sure a moved or changed thing is actually moved or changed, and not just out of my knowledge's reach.

Still, thanks again for the link. Hopefully some updated screenshots will come one day.

Thanks again.

 

[gT.ReD]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll take a look into it and update what needs to be.

Edit: Add Object is now Add Unit, Effects will say Add Effect etc. but no matter what, the hotkey is still the same (Ctrl + =)

If the view looks different it's because of the view buttons that you have set. I'm looking at the editor right now and I can have it's view set the same as all previous versions.

Also, Reaper - Reaper Jump is there, under Behavior - Behaviors +

 

[Redlazer]

When creating a new Unit, the interface itself doesn't match your walkthrough. Note the different fields - in your walkthrough, they resemble the Create Actor panel, not the Create Unit panel.

I am familiar with the view settings as well. I was not talking about those.

I'll take another look for reaper jump - must have had the data source set wrong in that case.

 

[gT.ReD]

A SS of what you are looking at would be helpful. Sorry, I'm just confused as to what you are seeing different.

Hope you found the Reaper Jump.