Recreating Reaver's attack

[Rui]

Remember the Reaver from StarCraft 1? That trilobite Protoss robot that you could order to construct missiles called Scarabs, afterwards thrown at enemies to explode for single target & AoE damage? I've been trying to recreate it without a lot of success.
When I finish constructing a Scarab, it says «WARNING -- Trying to create a projectile directly and not in the context of an attack», but I have no idea how to fix it.

Screenshots

 

[Dr Super Good]

I will need to look at a map with this error inorder to find the cause.

A rough guess is that the projectile from the magazine is trying to be launched separatly and not via a weapon as part of an attack but I could be wrong.

 

[Rui]

I suppose that means I shouldn't be filling in the ability's last field from that large table. The problem is definitely in the ability itself, as it yells at me for finishing constructing a scarab. I'll delete the value of the last field. Here I go for my next blunder and paradigma.

Also, one of the problems that Blizzard did not predict but eventually ended up being exploited in pro play was the ability to just quickly drop a Reaver in a worker line and immediately load it back up. To correct this, Blizzard added a 1.5 (not sure if it's the correct value) delay in firing the scarab. I suppose this is achievable with a simple Weapons field?

 

[Dr Super Good]

You could give it attacking delay so that it takes X seconds to launch a weapon effect from the weapon starting to attack.

Alternativly you could just add a behaviour when unloading it that prevents it attacking for a while.

 

[Rui]

I tried nulling the unit value for the ability, but the button then refuses to appear (because there's no "ability command" in the command card, I believe), so I'm back to square one.
I've attached the mod if you want to take a look.

 

[Dr Super Good]

What you are trying to do is add too much complexity to what is a very simple problem...
1. Make a dummy ability that restores charges at the rate of 1 for some minerals with some cooldown.
2. Make a weapon which consumes charges and launches a missle which does the area explosion.
3. Make both the weapon and the dummy ability share the same charges.

I will try and complete a demonstration map of this in the near future.

 

[Rui]

If only I knew how, it'd be simple. =P I have no idea how to create an ability for charges alone or associate such an ability with a weapon.

 

[Rispetto]

Take a look at the nuke silo for an example.
Buying a nuke adds a +1 charge to a ghost's nuke ability, with a maximum of 1 per silo.
When the ability fires it expends a charge.
Of course the silo is much more complicated than that, but the basic idea remains the same.

 

[Live4evil]

Isnt it more similar to a brood lord where they can only attack if they have broodling charges?

 

[Rispetto]

Isnt it more similar to a brood lord where they can only attack if they have broodling charges?

No, because broodlords don't use charges.
Ever notice it never runs out?

 

[Live4evil]

No, because broodlords don't use charges.
Ever notice it never runs out?

They do use charges but the charges refresh every 2.5 seconds

I just changed the attack speed of a brood lord down to .3 however its attack speed in game did not change significantly because it had to wait for its broodling charge to refresh

 

[Rui]

The Brood Lord's magazine is external, it does not even display charges. On terms of similarity, it kind of shares similarity to every arm magazine in the game.
I made the ability and weapon almost exact copies of the Carrier's arm magazine and weapon (effect is create persistent), with only the unit, purchasing time and effects fields adjusted for my needs.
Try after try is just shattered. The error you see in the screenshot is, I think, associated with actors (though I could be wrong and the text itself is the actor), that's why I skipped ahead of trying to fix the ability -- and also because, like I said, there's nothing left to be fixed. At this point, I'll either try to remake everything or just give up entirely, as this is just taking a ridiculous amount of time and is ridiculously fruitless.

P.S. -- My weapon is saying "Error" when I attempt to use it. Yes, the unit does have attack.

 

[Rispetto]

The Brood Lord's magazine is external, it does not even display charges. On terms of similarity, it kind of shares similarity to every arm magazine in the game.
I made the ability and weapon almost exact copies of the Carrier's arm magazine and weapon (effect is create persistent), with only the unit, purchasing time and effects fields adjusted for my needs.
Try after try is just shattered. The error you see in the screenshot is, I think, associated with actors (though I could be wrong and the text itself is the actor), that's why I skipped ahead of trying to fix the ability -- and also because, like I said, there's nothing left to be fixed. At this point, I'll either try to remake everything or just give up entirely, as this is just taking a ridiculous amount of time and is ridiculously fruitless.

P.S. -- My weapon is saying "Error" when I attempt to use it. Yes, the unit does have attack.

Why not just make an attack that takes forever to fire? =P

 

[Dr Super Good]

P.S. -- My weapon is saying "Error" when I attempt to use it. Yes, the unit does have attack.

That might be caused by validators failing thus not allowing it to work properly.

If you can get be a youtube of how a SC1 protoss reaver behaved I can try recreating it as I have sadly forgoten over the past decade.

 

[Rui]

The problem with you making it for me is that I won't learn anything; the next time I stumble across a similar issue, I'll need help again, and again and again.

I'll find a video if I'm able.

 

[Rui]

Here. Notice those blue balls that spawn from the larva-like robot.

 

[Dr Super Good]

So once launched you can control the missle the reaver fires? Hmm never knew that.

 

[Rui]

Nop, you can't, it goes to the target automatically.
You can control what the Reaver shots at, and then the ammo unit (the scarab) will go towards the target unit, but as you might have noticed, the scarab itself can get stuck on other units. In addition to that, if the target can't be found, because either it was killed by another unit or loaded into a transport, then the Scarab goes to the last known location of the target and explodes there.

 

[Edhel-dur]

Nop, you can't, it goes to the target automatically.
You can control what the Reaver shots at, and then the ammo unit (the scarab) will go towards the target unit, but as you might have noticed, the scarab itself can get stuck on other units. In addition to that, if the target can't be found, because either it was killed by another unit or loaded into a transport, then the Scarab goes to the last known location of the target and explodes there.

Yeah but all that AI isn't in Sc2 because the Reaver doesn't exist.

The only closest thing you could do (I think) is to copy the Carrier ability, and instead of Interceptors you have Banelings/Scourge. But I don't think you can make that ability exactly unless you change some AI.