Request: Lure Spell

[SilverSong]

I want a Jass autocast/targetable ability.

I've dubbed it "Lure" for lack of a better name.

The goal of Lure is to target a random wandering neutral on the map and tell it that it must go to wherever the object operating Lure is. It may not teleport, but it must walk there.

The ability Lure must be upgrades, each level costs the additional amount of Lumber.
Thus costing a total of 1 lumber for level 1, a total of 5 lumber for level 2, a total of 14 lumber at level 3, a total of 30 lumber at level 4, a total of 55 lumber at level 5, a total of 91 lumber at level 6, a total of 140 lumber at level 7, a total of 196 lumber at level 8, a total of 277 lumber at level 9, a total of 377 lumber at level 10.

Thus:
500 sec cool down Lure Level 1 Cost 1 Lumber
250 sec cool down Lure Level 2 Cost 4 Lumber
125 sec cool down Lure Level 3 Cost 9 Lumber
75 sec cool down Lure Level 4 Cost 16 Lumber
45 sec cool down Lure Level 5 Cost 25 Lumber
20 sec cool down Lure Level 6 Cost 36 Lumber
10 sec cool down Lure Level 7 Cost 49 Lumber
5 sec cool down Lure Level 8 Cost 56 Lumber
2 sec cool down Lure Level 9 Cost 81 Lumber
1 sec cool down Lure Level 10 Cost 100 Lumber

 

[Troll-Brain]

and what is wrong with gui ?

 

[GhostWolf]

The ability Lure must be upgrades, each level costs the additional amount of Lumber.
Thus costing a total of 1 lumber for level 1, a total of 5 lumber for level 2, a total of 14 lumber at level 3, a total of 30 lumber at level 4, a total of 55 lumber at level 5, a total of 91 lumber at level 6, a total of 140 lumber at level 7, a total of 196 lumber at level 8, a total of 277 lumber at level 9, a total of 377 lumber at level 10.

Thus:
500 sec cool down Lure Level 1 Cost 1 Lumber
250 sec cool down Lure Level 2 Cost 4 Lumber
125 sec cool down Lure Level 3 Cost 9 Lumber
75 sec cool down Lure Level 4 Cost 16 Lumber
45 sec cool down Lure Level 5 Cost 25 Lumber
20 sec cool down Lure Level 6 Cost 36 Lumber
10 sec cool down Lure Level 7 Cost 49 Lumber
5 sec cool down Lure Level 8 Cost 56 Lumber
2 sec cool down Lure Level 9 Cost 81 Lumber
1 sec cool down Lure Level 10 Cost 100 Lumber

This two blocks say different prices o.0

Now about the spell itself, it can be easily done using Heal as a template (or any other auto cast).
Just put whatever targets you want, edit it with whatever you want, and then simply when a unit casts it order the target to move to him... not so hard.

If you don't know Jass I don't see any point for you to request this easy thing in Jass.

and what is wrong with gui ?

That it sucks ?
Anyway, in this case it really doesn't matter.

 

[Troll-Brain]

@Ghostwolf : i know, i don't talk to you, but it can be done in gui, and it seems he don't know jass, so why the hell he want a jass version ?

 

[spiwn]

Just to clear things up.
I think he wants each upgrade(level up) of the skill to cost a specific amount of lumber.
And the costs of each are the level of the ability on the second power. Btw 8*8=64, not 56.If it were 56 than the total cost of the ability at level 10 would be 377 and now it is 385.

 

[SilverSong]

This two blocks say different prices o.0

Yes, I was thinking a multiplier on cost, I was trying to show by example. Exactly what is needed. Spiwn has the right of it.

I am starting to learn JASS as a matter of neccessity to make my game work the way I want it to.

That said, I am requesting help, by having something programmed in Jass for me. I have been working on my map for a relatively short time, I am eager to get the version up to a playable condition.

Now about the spell itself, it can be easily done using Heal as a template (or any other auto cast).
Just put whatever targets you want, edit it with whatever you want, and then simply when a unit casts it order the target to move to him... not so hard.

Well... thanks I suppose that gives me a starting point.

If you don't know Jass I don't see any point for you to request this easy thing in Jass.

oh so Jass isn't right for this?

Does this mean a trigger would work better?

 

[spiwn]

Better? .. No
But GUI will work fine for this.
Clear things up a litle more:
You want this to be a hero ability, each level of it costing lumber
OR
You want this to be a unit ability that requires a tech upgrade(probobly researched from some building).
Also what did you mean by autocasteble/targeted?
When autocast is activated order the critter to go where the unit with the autocast ability is
OR
A targetable autocast as Searing Arrows => critter(s) move to where the unit attacked is.
Personally i think you want the first, but then it is not targetable

 

[PurplePoot]

Thread name changed and moved to Spells&Systems, since this is diverging farther and farther from Jass.

 

[SilverSong]

I think I better start with how I was going to use it.

I was going to make these buildables, and these buildables are going to be decorations.
Rugs, flowers, rocks, flat tiles with different colors, shells, and anything else I creatively think of when I go to it. I was going to give them each a small footprint to allow them to fit into shops, and I think I wanted to make it so units could walk over/around/thru them easily.

I was going to have all sorts of different ones, or maybe I want to make it so it's easy to change the colors on them.

I was also thinking perhaps color ranges and if you make colors that all match or go well together then you get a special bonus. (still working on that idea)

I don't know which is easier/better yet.

I wanted each one to have a 1% chance of successfully casting it's spell at target. Like flaming arrows.

Naturally the more you build at the cost of lumber, and the more you upgrade at the cost of more lumber. The more chances you get of getting said target to come to your buildable.

Since they were meant to be so small and hard to select. I was thinking 1 controller that controlled all the upgrades for the ability itself, and whenever it updated everything owned by player in that region would update as well, and 1 controller per region I am thinking.

The reason why I want all of this, is because of Part 2. Part 2 involves the target receiving inventory items for entering a specific region. Which would likely involve more scripting, but I wanted to do my scripting piece by piece and make sure one thing works properly before moving to the next scripting thing.

 

[spiwn]

I am sorry for the delay, but my schedule has been pretty tight(final exams for school, exams for university, studying for them, prom, resting after partying like hell).
And to add to that you lost me somewhere with that explanation.
I asked simple questions and you did not exactlyanswer them.
Here is what I managed to figure out.
You want to have some units(doesn't really matter how you get them; like some casters from melee games(priests shaman etc); with other skins). They will have an ability that is autocastable and upgraded with each level of an upgrade(just like the mentioned above). Those unit should not be selectable(locust ability).
Their ability should be something like carrion beetles(crypt lord) with targets allowed - none. Then make a trigger that will fire when a unit starts the effect of an ability. Conditions: ability being cast is equal to the name you gave your copy carrion beetles.
Then add your actions.
As I said you lost me with that description I cannot make the actual trigger.
But from what i figured from you previous posts you want to 'pick up' a random unit from the map that is neutral and maybe matches some conditions. Then order that picked unit to move to somewhere(position of caster).
As I am quite sure i did not get it right I will not make a trigger or a map now.
And frankly I haven't gone in much detail so unless you already know how to do what I said someone will have to tell you(me for example).

 

[SilverSong]

OOC: oh cool, I remmember prom still. That's fine, it just seemed like you were going to help and then bailed and I did give you a week or two to respond.

oh I thought I was clear there... The casters are like barrels from ice trolls. They have between 2-6 inventory slots, they hold stacks of items, they don't move, and they stay in the space they were built.

The goal of the Lure spell is to target a random neutral creep on the map. This could be any townsfolk with a skin on it, I might end up using all of the human/elven figure skins. I am just not 100% sure which ones though. I might see if I can't make a few new textures for the elven/human skins.

I am not certain how they were going to be built because I wanted to do something very different than 'normal' with them.

I am either going to make 10-30 rainbow builders. Each one able to build the same item but as the color of each rainbow builder, and then finish the code on a secondary system to back that up for the cool things I want to do.

OR

I am going to use a system that allows me to change the RGB vertex colors on selected objects and then code a secondary system to back that up for the cool things I want to do.

I really have not figured that part out yet. 30 rainbow builders vs. RGB vertex coloring system with 1 builder. Whatever one turns out to be more byte effective.

Each shelf is going to cost some wood, I might let players build the smallest of shelves for free.

The Lure spell is going to tell those neutral creeps. "Hey You! Come here!" The creep or townsfolk rather, uses the closest path it can to walk towards the player. However, the creep/townsfolk is not invulnerable and can be called by another player using the Lure spell. "Hey You! Come here!" at which point it changes path and starts heading towards the other player.

The Lure spell targets neutral townsfolk/creeps at random, and is not meant to fight over the same townsfolk if there are others on the map. A potential bug for this would be with 3 or less townsfolk left they would be pulled back and forth and not really go anywhere. So maybe Lure also needs to cast invulnerbility on the target for 10 seconds.

One of the goals of the game is to get as many neutral creeps as you can into one of your controlled regions, complete recipes they receive before their individual timers run out. Each townsfolk when it enters your controlled region is going to pick up a recipe based on the combination of products you have in your shop, but each recipe scroll or sheet will never be more than 5 items.

Later I was going to request a seperate system for customer anger, and random possible actions they could do, including perhaps removing the Lure Spell from anyone nearby.

If you've played dinner dash or one of the other 'time management' genre games that are all over the internet these days, that is what I am going for, but I wanted to make a multi-player version for Battle.net

 

[spiwn]

Well not really
But what i said is valid.
Carrion beetles with nothing targeted, nothing summoned. Than a trigger that orders some unit to come to the shop, giving it a buff(not necessarily invulnerability; Like a buff saying "This potential buyer has been interested by some shop(goods or something)") The trigger should check for the buff so that if the picked unit has the buff it should picks another unit.
Here is 4:35 AM I am going to bed when i get up i will post the trigger.
P.s. Again you posted so much irrelevant to the topic information. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it but the following would have been enough:
The lure spell orders a random unit from the map(neutral, matching some condition(I am not sure yet)) that has not been targeted by the spell in the last 10 seconds, to move to a location(could be the caster, a specific for player location).
P.p.s I got some ideas about your map

Edit:
I have one question though, why do you want it to be an ability in the first place?

 

[SilverSong]

Because I was going to assign one per barrel, shelf, and some decorations (flowers, rocks, coral) and the more items that were built within shop region, the more 'pull' power a shop region would have.

Also this ability would be upgradeable.

But if you take too much pull your customers are going to be getting angry and leave if you don't have the products set up right, or if they get jammed in the doorways because it's one shop pulling too many at once.

This causes the need for a delicate balancing act. How many customers can you pull into your region without overwhelming the region? Also shopkeepers could have spent that lumber on other shop enhancements or a second shop.

 

[spiwn]

Just to let you know I haven't forgotten about this but this month(some of my friends and some relatives also graduate, and exams are really important).
There is one issue with this that is preventing me from completing the map - make an autocastable that would work for this. The idea is to make something that would autocast with nothing happening and no targets(assuming that the "potential buyers" are neutrals). So searing arrows wont work(target), beetles requires a corpse, frost armor and other buff require an unit being attacked/damaged.
Heal or Essence of blight require an ally that is not full HP. I cannot think of one that would work.
And generally the only thing this spell will do is get casted as everything(including target accusation ) will be done by the trigger.
My only solution is to make some of the above spells get casted like putting a corpse somewhere on the map and restoring every time it is used up, or putting and enemy unit somewhere to get a searing arrows based spell to fire(doing absolutely nothing). OR making the unit that has this spell have 399999/400000 hp so that it can cast essence of blight or heal(that will not heal it) and none hp regen.
Chose a way and I will make it(just say that it is a multiplayer map so there will be enemy units thus searing arrows will fire).
P.s. In the make any spell autocasteble tutorial it is not said how to make any spell autocasteble because it does not cover the issue if there is no enemy unit to target with searing arrows.

Tuesday or Wednesday I am getting down to this.

Here you go
This is quite basic.
As far as I can tell it is leakless (well I think I found something but I am falling asleep, tomorrow is a better day anyway)
So are you going to be able to sell those units or perhaps destroy them some way?
Now the ability sends units in front of the casting unit(building).
I think there should be an area(shop or something) for each player where shoppers should be imune to lure.

 

[SilverSong]

hehehe, that would be evil. Customer walks into your shop, hears advertisement for competitor walks out of shop towards competitor.

I think that a trigger or AI that states. If unit controlled by player gray is holding item (recipe scroll) then they are not a legal target for Lure Spell so do nothing.

Each Customer gets a recipe scroll by walking into a shop. I am not yet sure how that ball of beans is going to work out.

Your ahead of me now, Spiwn, I'm still looking through countless doodads and objects for potential shelves, decorations and items.

 

[spiwn]

Not an item. The simplest way is a Buff for a set amount of time.
I am asking these as the 'thing' I made needs to be tuned for such things.
Like not to pull units that have this buff neither.
Duration of the buff that is casted on units when they are lured needs tweaking.
Where lure orders units to go. It is in front of the unit now, but I think you will want to rotate those shelves(lol, this has nothing to do with this ).
I volunteer to make those tweaks for you and explain the Lure(which actually was a lot easier than I thought, but still required a couple of hours).
And the group adding that is a part of this 'thing' only works for units that enter the map and have Lure(there are other ways, but this is the most universal) so if you are going to have some units from map initialization with lure this has to be taken care of.

 

[SilverSong]

Your absolutely right! I am going to be turning ruins upside down to make shelves. I want little clothes hangers too, with attachment points centered on the clothes hangers, for some of the pillars I've seen. But I don't think any modeler would go for it.

And two different robes that could just hang there as items would be very cool. (nobody would ever go for that) I'd probably have to draw it out and paste pictures up.

(still wandering through the doodads section writing down notes in my trigger pad as I go.)

Brief update
25 identified shelf-like objects (small, medium, large, huge)
50 really cool decoratives
43 identified object items for 'raw materials'
8 manufacturing processes identified from funky doodads.
4 added models with skins

-roughly at the half-way point in the doodads list.-

only 1 in 5 doodads I've looked at, I've found a use for, a lot of them are stupidly identical.

I think I will just take a break from looking at doodads and perhaps work on another aspect of the project this week.

oh okay, so you need me to make all of the units for Lure spell now? I can work on that.

 

[spiwn]

Not really.
I just wanted you to tell me if there are going to be any units that will have "lure" and are going to be placed in the world editor. I mean that are not going to be user placed.
Do you need the prices to be the ones you specified in the first post?
As in the current state they are not, as the prices for an upgrade cannot be level specific. So if you want them to be just say so.
Here is an update an issue fixed and made so that only units with activated autocast Lure will cast the spell

 

[SilverSong]

I was changing my mind about the prices and just thinking it should be a spell with no upgrades.

 

[spiwn]

Whatever you want
I will be happy to make the necessary adjustments for you if necessary.
But that is still no answer to my question
I will paraphrase one more time:
Do you place any of the units with lure in the world editor or are they all placed after the game starts?

 

[SilverSong]

They are all placed after the game starts.

 

[SilverSong]

Play tested it

Very cool that you made a mini-map to demonstrate how it worked.

Liked how they all huddled around the 4x4 brick of towers.

Some concerns

I made some sandbar style islands the size of 2 towers side by side, if it only pulls to the space of 1 1/2 towers away, then might some lured customers not wander into the smaller shops?

(I work small, planned size of units is 1/3rd normal.)

Is it 1 1/2 of the luring unit size away or is it a solid 1 1/2 towers away?

Although, I am thinking now of just placing the regions around the smaller islands bigger than average.

largest island size is about the size of 3x3 towers.

Got enough islands though for all 8 players to have 3 islands a piece and still have a few extra properties they could fight over.

 

[spiwn]

Well it is one of those tweaks.
I had no idea where you want the ability to lure the target, so I made the ability to lure them in front of the caster.

 

[SilverSong]

hmm would center of caster bring them in a little closer?

 

[spiwn]

I can reduce the distance.
Center of caster will not specify the direction.
I mean, lured units might get behind the unit that lures them.