Proper Taunt

[Chaosy]

Hello.

I was playing around with creating a taunt system yesterday and I was fairly successful.

The system picks all targets within X of a unit of choice and force them to attack it. However, the issue came when I wanted to prevent a user to issue the units from moving away or canceling the attack.

• Untitled Trigger 002
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order targeting an object
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order targeting a point
    • Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
  • Conditions
    • void Equal to False
  • Actions
    • Custom script: local unit udg_u = LoadUnitHandle(hash, GetHandleId(GetTriggerUnit()), 2)
    • Custom script: if udg_u != null then
    • Set void = True
    • Unit - Order (Triggering unit) to Attack u
    • Set void = False
    • Custom script: endif

But if the user keeps spamming the taunted units to walk away the attack animation will be canceled over and over.

Are there any workarounds?

edit: Changing unit owner is not an option, no need to mention it.

 

[DEE-BOO]

I tested giving them 99999% attack speed for one attack, when the attack is interrupted, then removing it once they have dealt damage. It kinda works. I also tired removing movement speed for a brief second to deny the move order, but that didn't work. The attack speed method kinda works, but it looks funny.

 

[Flux]

Make the unit unselectable not an option?

 

[Chaosy]

@Dee
I think that WOULD work. But it will, as you said look very odd.

@Shadow Flux
No it is not. Then the taunted units can't be attacked.

 

[DEE-BOO]

I think Shadow Flux means, just deselecting them, not add locust. But a smart player will Ctrl 1 the taunted group and still interrupt.

 

[Flux]

I meant make the attacking unit unselectable but targetable.

https://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/jass-resources-412/snippet-unselectableunit-235882/

 

[Chaosy]

Deselecting a unit right after selecting got a slight delay. You can issue the unit away if you're really fast. This timewindow is increased in multiplayer too due the ping/ms.

"Bob the builder~"
"Can we fix it?~"
"nope."

 

[Death Adder]

This might be a stupid idea but perhaps you could make it so that you don't actually see the real unit (If you can remove it's model temporarily or perhaps scale it down a lot) and instead a dummy, made by item illusion ability, with locust would stand at the same place to show uninterrupted attack animations (That may or may not deal damage depending on how it's done.).

So in short it would basically be the same as if you don't control the unit, but it's still there to be attacked and shows that you still "control" it, it's just that you think that it's another unit.

Either the dummy could deal the damage and change it with a DDS or perhaps that funky attackspeed boost could be used since you wouldn't actually see the unit attacking anyway.

Besides being a roundabout "solution" it probably also has a lot of other issues, but still it could be something to try. At least it seems like a pretty interesting idea for me who wouldn't actually have to make it work...

 

[DEE-BOO]

I just remembered that Axe from DotA has a custom taunt. Try to find his spell pack. EDIT: @Death Adder, that's true. btw what is afaik.

 

[Death Adder]

afaik it was fine to let the player interrupt their units attacks because axe's passive would trigger on attack event instead of damage, so constantly stopping your unit would actually do more harm than good for yourself as the unit would repeatedly trigger the attack event to increase the chance of a counter helix...

 

[Wietlol]

First of all, the owner of the units is just stupid if he does not want them to attack the target.
(With the exception if some on-hit effects would happen that he doesnt want.)

So there isnt really a big reason to care about this.

However, there are two solutions I have worked with.

1, Dont order the unit directly.
I have a map where you control only a single hero.
To make the map a bit more interesting, I made it that you only control a dummy unit and that all orders are redirected to the actual hero.
The actual hero equal as all other units on the map are delocusted so you cant select them. (This cannot be removed so that is not a solution to your problem.)
In that case, you can simply dont redirect the order and just make it continue his attack.

2, Custom basic attacks.
I am working on a BasicAttack library... something that would immitate basic attacks and give you complete control over attack speed etc.
This would be easy to implement taunts in by forcing the attack.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I tested giving them 99999% attack speed for one attack

Game caps out at +400%?

Make the unit unselectable not an option?

In StarCraft II it is, but unfortunately not in Warcraft III. Some people claim it is possible using Locust ability and some recovery techniques to undo some of the state changes Locust makes but from what I have heard/seen this is always bug prone and not straight forward to do.

This can also be fixed by setting attack backswing to 0 since then attacks land immediately once started. This is not desirable however as it looks ugly (damage done before appropriate point in animation).

Surely your implementation will interrupt channelled abilities by forcing them to go an attack the taunting unit? I would imagine this being quite bad as that makes your Taunt as good as a full blown stun when it comes to disrupting casters.

 

[Bribe]

That kind of taunt is used as an AoE stun in games like league of legends. It's only OP if it can be constantly spammed.

 

[Flux]

In StarCraft II it is, but unfortunately not in Warcraft III. Some people claim it is possible using Locust ability and some recovery techniques to undo some of the state changes Locust makes but from what I have heard/seen this is always bug prone and not straight forward to do.

That is why I linked a Snippet.

 

[Wietlol]

I would imagine this being quite bad as that makes your Taunt as good as a full blown stun when it comes to disrupting casters.

Taunt vs Stun:
Stun is simply the base of every CC
- Taunt is kind of like a stun, however you as taunted unit will still attemt to attack the target. Units with high attack speed/damage will still be able to take advantage of this. In a lot of games, taunts also apply a reduction in damage dealt by the taunted unit to counter this out.
- Taunts are better than stuns because you as source can decide where the taunted unit will walk to. Ranged units are quite less affected by this but melee units can simply be drawn into an entire army of enemies.

It becomes interesting when you combine a taunt with a blind (blind being the one in WC3).
Result = unit will attemt to attack but cant succeed the order.
(I blame blinds and use a different kind of blind.
Basic attacks just miss (100% evasion) instead of not being able to attack.)