Tower Turning Tutorial

[DragoonZombie]

Tower Turning Tutorial
by DragoonZombie



Introductions:

In this tutorial I will show you how to make (non-)custom towers turn to his target when attacking.​

Requirements:

WarCraft 3 World Editor​

Step I:

Go to the Object Editor and create/edit the Root (Ancients) ability (Abilities -> Nightelf -> Units -> Root (Ancients)) like this:
​

Step II:

Now create a new Spell Book ability (Abilities -> Special -> Items -> Spellbook) and add our modified Root ability to it. Make sure that the Spellbook is a Unit ability by unchecking 'Stats - Item Ability'
​

Step III:

Now its time for the Tower.
I recommend using a UNIT as Tower (NOT Building). We will convert the unit to a building later. Because when we use a unit we have the standard settings optimized for the tower model and we can change the height of the tower.

Pick a random Unit you want to have as tower and give the tower the spell book ability we created. You also have to change the towers movement speed and turn rate (IMPORTANT). I set the movement speed to 1, so that the Tower is able to turn (if movement speed is 0, WE thinks that the unit/building/whatever is unable to move and disable its turning).
And the turn rate should at least be greater than 0, so it is able to turn (no wai!)

Now its time to convert the unit to a building.

That was the conversion. Simple eh?
You now have to give the tower the 'Spellbook' ability we made, via Triggers or in the object editor.

Since its a building now, you can change the Ground Texture and Pathing Map of the Tower.

In order to hide the Spell Book go to the Trigger Editor and disable the Spell Book ability for the owner of the tower:

• Melee Initialization
  • Events
    • Map initialization
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Player - Disable Turning Tower for Player 1 (Red)

Step IV (optional):

To change the towers height you simply change the Movement - Type to Hover and fly height to the height you want.
Now edit Art - Elevation - Sample Points and set it to 0 and you're set.

​

Done.
Happy Mapping

 

[Mini-Me]

Nifty trick that works.

-You should explain where you find those abilities. Example: Root --> Night Elf ---> Units
Spellbook --> Special ---> Items
-You also leave out some details, like you need to turn the Spellbook to an unit ability.
-The pictures in step III are bad. You cant make out much.

The trick itself is simple, people just need to know about it and I think this tutorial does its job well. Make those small improvements I mentioned and I would aprove this.

 

[DragoonZombie]

wow, someone replied... even if its late. But i dont complain.

I edited the post, but what is wrong with the pictures in step three?

 

[Mini-Me]

I guess they are ok . Well this gets my aproval.

 

[Wolverabid]

Tutorial Approved

~ Thread moved to General Mapping Tutorials.

 

[Lingonberryjam]

Great turorial DragoonZombie!

All i can find is (what i think) two minor grammar flaws;

I set the movement speed to 1, that the Tower is able to turn (if movement speed is 0, WE things that the unit/building/whatever is unable to move and disable its turning).

What i guess it should read is:

I set the movement speed to 1, so that the Tower is able to turn (if movement speed is 0, WE thinks that the unit/building/whatever is unable to move and disable its turning).

... and one thing more. You say:
"You also have to change the towers movement speed and turn rate (IMPORTANT). "
... and say what you set the movement speed to, but not what you set the turn rate to. Guess all you have to say is that the turn rate should be > 0.

Since I'm working on a TD-wars and already had alot of towers using unitmodels this is just what i need!

Thanks for a great turorial!

EDIT-

Oh, forgot to mention... +rep!

 

[DragoonZombie]

thanks. I know that my english isnt the best, but i just wanted to make it understandable. ( Edited )
I thought that turn rate > 0 is self-explanatory. Oo

 

[Lingonberryjam]

That it should have > 0 is self-explanatory, indeed , but if you have the tower based on a unit it already has a turning rate. And then you say "you must change the turn rate (IMPORTANT)". It clearly doesnt have to be changed, just to be > 0.

 

[Zanam]

I really liked this idea, so I went ahead and tried it out. The tower turning works great, however there is one problem I noticed, but it may be because of something I missed when turning my unit into a tower. You can stack the towers on top of each other, when building a new one, the square doesn't register a building there and allows you to build away.

Is there a way to prevent this?

 

[DragoonZombie]

you have to make sure that you set the 'Pathing Map'

 

[Zanam]

I have, it's the same pathing map as the other towers in this map have. A barrel doodad, making it a 1x1 tile. The rest of the towers don't stack, but this one seems to be stubborn

 

[Pyritie]

I love this tutorial.

...just thought I'd say that.

 

[Cleo]

I also got a Problem: when i upgrade a tower (wuth the turning ability), it wont attack automatically any more. I have to give it the attack order once on a target, after that it will attack as normal every enemy that comes in range.
Does any1 have the same Prob?

 

[Rebuke]

If your towers are stacking you have to do the following in the object editor
Art -> Ground Textures -> Arcane Tower, Cannon Tower, Guard Tower, Farm...
Pathing -> Pathing Map -> Arcane Tower, Cannon Tower, Guard Tower, Farm...
Pathing -> Placement requires -> Buildable

Your towers shouldn't stack anymore.

 

[GamerSmurf]

I recommend using a UNIT as Tower (NOT Building)

Do you have to use a unit? I have 70 tower in my TD and it would be great to make them able to turn. When I follow the tutorial on a Guard Tower with a unit model, the game closes as soon I strat building the tower.
Have I done something wrong or do you have to use a unit and turn it into a building?

 

[Slaani]

Let's pop this 13 yo thread! Necroposting at its finest, wonder if anyone is going to answer.

Okay, so semirelated topic, (this is on Warcraft 1.30, because I don't trust newer versions) I'm attempting to make a ground submerged tower.

Looks fine in Editor:

but not so much when I run it in game:

I've achieved the ground submergence by altering the "Movement - Height" stat of the building Unit in Object Editor. Any tips on how to achieve what I'm aiming for?

 

[Daffa]

movement height hasn't been working since I dunno, 1.27 or something?

I'd say a better model with only the cannon would do the job. I'm sure some of the modeller can easily cut it.

 

[Daniel Kopp]

Tried this little trick out on the TD Im making and it works like a charm!
It's a good fix for the "Reforged units bending i half" problem..

I did do one thing diiffrent, I did not go the spellbook route, instead just moved the Icon away like this:

I guess it's pritty much the same.


Thanks!

 

[Lezeires]

just asking, why tf do we need to create the speelbook thing? cant the tower be turned just from the turn rate and movement speed alone?