Major Missile Headache

[Palamani]

Ughhh.......I've spent two days so far on a nasty problem with an ability, and so far it is going nowhere.
My overall ability design is meant to be like a thundercloud, with a whole bunch of lasers flying up from the target area (the launch and impact areas of each one are meant to be offset through one of four persistent effects, which are all within a single set, which is in turn what the ability fires), hanging overhead for a few seconds (this ability is obscenely powerful, so you get a few seconds of warning if you're paying attention), and then crashing down at the same points each laser launched from.
However, launching from the target appears to not be an effective idea, since I've run into all sorts of nonsensical results. The most frequent one is where the missiles appear (the first of the three mover phases is hidden from sight through actor events) in a widely spread line spaced out over the entire length of my screen (as opposed to a reasonably tight cluster, given that the total radius is meant to be about 3 currently, although this may change). The shots then hang in the air as they're supposed to, before they come arcing in to hit the correct impact points from all sorts of places (on average, about half of the shots are from off-screen, while the others were visible before they came in). If I've completely lost you, then I apologize, and I'll try to make a quick diagram of what is going on (this is a single persistent effect, so it's only one-quarter of the full circle):
What is supposed to happen (T=target point, L=laser, -=empty space)
TL---L---L--L
--L--L-----L
L---L----L
--L---L
---L
What actually happens while the shots hang (more or less)
------------------------L

----------------T


-------L----L
----------L
-------L
-----L---L
----L---L
-L
The shots still impact in the correct locations, but I can't figure out why they are so far off-target. It's not even consistent (the spread pattern for the hang time varies to a degree), so it's left me baffled. This could be because I'm launching from the same location as where the impact is, but I really don't know. Making the first phase visible doesn't give me any more clues, since it's erratic. The shots will usually not even appear anyways until they're almost done hanging, but sometimes one shot will go forward from the caster and slowly rise up to approximately the correct point, then go down slowly, impacting at the same time as the other nine shots, which come in incredibly fast from off the lower left of the screen. If I adjust the launch site to GenericTarget.....whatever it was called, in the Action actor, then the lasers don't appear to rise at all until they appear at ground level in the hanging phase (which is odd, since the second phase is set to aim the shots directly downwards for a few seconds, then the third phase accelerates them right to the target points), then impact. Adding a SiteOp actor to increase the height by 5 did absolutely nothing to change this.
Are there any ideas here?
EDIT: When I try changing the ability to fire a single missile, it goes flying off to some random point (usually off-screen, but occasionally it stays in close), sometimes vanishing from sight, then it hangs for a few seconds, and comes in to hit the right spot. It's pretty clear to me by now that this is an actor bug, but I tend to flounder about in that department.

 

[Dr Super Good]

This ability sounds highly complicated so you might have to post a demonstration map containing it so people can perform tests. The map can be as simple as a blank map with suitable testing targets and a unit that can cast the ability with the problem results.

 

[Palamani]

I'm hoping to give an example map, but.....for the life of me, I can't figure out how to stick an attachment onto a post. Which button is it???
EDIT:

It is under Go Advanced below the text box.

More specifically, please? I'm seeing a mountain of buttons (deleted)............
Wow....That really leaves me feeling like an idiot. I suppose it has to happen to everybody at some point.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It is under Go Advanced below the text box.

 

[Palamani]

I'm not under a big time pressure, since I still have plenty of other things to do in my map, but it would be convenient if anyone can help me figure out just what is going wrong (I am a miserable failure with actors when it comes to anything beyond tinting them, unfortunately). A demo map is attached to my last post, with a copy of the ability (it's called Purge, in the None -> Effect-Target category).

 

[Palamani]

Also, I have plans for another ability that I could use help with. How do you make a boomerang-style mover, exactly? I'm basically picturing a missile that flies out to one side, arcs over to the other side, then comes back to the user (no, it's not supposed to hurt the user, and I don't need a fancy animation showing the unit catching it), all over the course of perhaps two seconds. It's almost like you took a slice out of a pizza, really, with the crust being that arc. For damage, the missile unit would have a periodic search effect dealing out damage around itself (this part is easily doable). Ideally, when you're targeting the ability, it would show a line along the path of the ability, but I can survive without that if I need to. The mover part is baffling to me, and I don't know how to adjust graphics when you're targeting an ability, so help with this would be convenient.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I think the problem is related to the missiles spawning from an attachment on the unit rather than where you want them to.

 

[Palamani]

I think the problem is related to the missiles spawning from an attachment on the unit rather than where you want them to.

So you think that the missiles are bugged because they're defaulting to spawning from, say, the gun of a unit, as opposed to wherever I point it at? I'm afraid that I'll need some help to figure this out properly. I'm wanting the missiles to spawn at the same points they will impact at, which are the offsets in the persistent effects (the part where they rise up is hidden through actor events), not from anywhere on the caster. Am I supposed to be modifying a field in the missile actor to remove its link to a weapon attachment?

 

[Dr Super Good]

I recall it being some site opperation that is used to find suitable launch points for missiles. These are used because it looks a lot better firing the missile from a bug or launcher than it does firing it from the units feet (origan).

 

[Palamani]

I recall it being some site opperation that is used to find suitable launch points for missiles. These are used because it looks a lot better firing the missile from a bug or launcher than it does firing it from the units feet (origan).

Do you still need to set an attachment point even when the missile is meant to be launching from a point on the terrain, as opposed to being from the gun, head, feet, or whatever else of a unit?
Anyways, I tested the ability again, and I'm getting some odd trajectories. When I fire the ability, the missiles flare out from the caster for an instant (this in itself is annoying, but irrelevant, because that part will be hidden anyways), then go arcing up in wild directions that appear to vary based on the caster's facing and the target point.
For instance, if I target a point to the west of the caster, about half the shots fly far off to the north (much farther than the mover allows, it must be added, as the mover itself is restricted to a distance of about 6 in that phase), while the others go south. If I aim to the northeast, then all the shots go to the target point for an instant, after which they angle up to the southeast of that point (offscreen, which is again far beyond the distance that should be happening), before eventually landing on the correct points. The trajectories stay exactly the same, however, provided that the caster does not move and the targeted point stays exactly the same (no moving that mouse at all), which is somewhat baffling, since the distance the projectiles travel varies wildly between them, if not with repeated use in the same spot.
EDIT: I just found something really bizarre. The first two phases of the mover use a Throw driver, but no matter how I change the throw vector, the shots fly in exactly the same direction. This has me pretty much completely convinced that there is a serious actor problem, but I am rather horribly incompetent with those.

 

[Palamani]

The Purge ability is still a complete mystery to me, and any help with it would be appreciated. I already have a sample map attached to one of my earlier posts to look at, if it's necessary. However, I have at least found a way to make a boomerang-style ability (no credit to myself for this):
http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/de...-data-exercise-5-what-moves-you/?page=2#posts
When I tested this, it worked fairly well, although there is a delay before it transitions to the guidance mover and returns. Also, when you add multiple Throw phases (the video only shows one before the guidance phase comes in), the return path will mirror the initial path. If, say, you make the projectile shoot out straight at first, then curve left and right again (picture a loop in a rope), then the guidance mover will shoot straight back at first, before curving right and then left.

 

[Palamani]

Does nobody have any clue as to what I'm doing horrifically wrong? I've resorted to creating a bunch of dummy units (one warp prism in phasing mode for every impact point, if that means anything), giving them a behavior, and launching the missiles from that behavior (I even stuck a persistent effect in the behavior's initial effect and launched the missiles from that), but the missiles simply freeze the instant that they are created (the animation is still there 30 seconds later). I've tried setting the missile target fields to Source and Caster Points, with Source and Caster Units as the launch locations, but it still does the same thing. I'm hopelessly baffled by now.
If I have no choice, I'm willing to set the ability to the side for a time, but I'm really hoping to finish it before I begin testing my map, due to balance concerns (the ability is the equivalent of a 50-range nuke that takes 5 seconds to land).