Making a search arc not in front of unit

[darwin]

I want the cars in my car game to have machine guns that can fire in different directions depending on the decisions you make when you build your car.

I was about to start making my machine gun ability using the Data Editor. There was a tutorial that I planned to follow.

Problem: It looks like the search function in the search area effect uses a cone in front of the target casting the ability toward the unit it is casting it on. Does this mean that I cannot make a machine gun that shoots out of the car at a 90-degree angle?

The alternative would be just to trigger the whole thing; when the player casts that ability I would do a manual search moving a point and looking around it for enemies...then when I find one create a special effect on it and damage it. This might be superior anyway, as I can then do checks on height so that the car cannot shoot uphill, for example.

 

[darwin]

I've made some progress using a trigger system for machine guns. So far I have the following:

when the player press and holds Q, a trigger fires, plays a shooting sound, and looks for enemies in the direction of the shot. When it finds an enemy, I damage it using the shooting car. The damage effect allows me to apply a special effect on the enemy (the marine's attack).

Here's what I would like:

1. I know this must be simple, but I want a trigger that makes a special effect at a point. I can create effects at a point, but none of the effects seem to show anything... Every tutorial I find talks about using the data editor to add special effects to abilities. But I need one that uses triggers. I know it must be easy... but I can't find it. I want to be able to make special effects if the gun misses (like hitting the ground and kicking up dirt).

2. It would be nice to have a shooting animation on the car I'm using. The model does not have such an animation. I'm using The Varley-Matheson 1500 Low Cruiser. If I could make special effects with triggers I could probably find something.