Unit Upgrading question

[ChiefPeasant]

I have a problem that I bet has a relatively easy solution, but to which I can't find one.

Here's the deal:
In the map, Dark Deeds, a unit is upgraded by clicking on an icon that each individual unit has, upgrading the individual unit. I have tried to replicate this, but to no avail.

Universal upgrades such as Chaos (Barrage), and Berserker Upgrade won't work, because that would upgrade the entire unit type. Destroyer Form works perfectly, but only as 1 upgrade, since having 2 Destroyer Form abilities on a unit causes one to override the other.

I tried using the ability Charge Gold and Lumber, and then using a trigger that finds the casting unit and adds a version of the Chaos ability to it, and it works fine. However, it does not display the food addition in the ability tooltip. For example. Unit (A) upgrades into Unit (B) using the Charge Gold and Lumber ability with the addition of Chaos, everything works fine, the lumber/gold is subtracted, and the unit replaced, but it doesn't inform the player that the food went up unless you look at the food cap. I want to make it so that the tooltip will display the Food Cost (or Food Addition), instead of just the Gold/Lumber cost.

Changing all units that are upgradeable into buildings would work I'm sure, but I know for a fact that weevilman (The author of Dark Deeds), did not have all the upgradeable units be buildings (he told me so), but he refused to tell me his method of displaying the food cost in the tooltip.

I cannot have the upgradeable unit train another unit since for non-building units there is no cell for training units, and selling units doesn't work either, simply because it displays the number (stock) of each unit left.

Overall, this is a confusing problem for me, and the outcome would be being able to see the food addition. Funny how something as simple as dispalying the food cost should be so hard for someone :/

 

[Sansui]

couldnt you just use a dummy ability that has the gold, lumber, food costs in the desc?

maybe you can explain the unit upgrading a little better as i see it.

Unit A -> Unit B... so it should cost the same ammount of food to go from A to B right? why not add that manually into the description tooltip of the charge gold lumber?

 

[ChiefPeasant]

My fault, I gave a poor description. I'll explain it in terms of the Obsidian Statue upgrading to a Destroyer.

So, when an Obsidian Statue gains access to upgrade to a Destroyer, it can use the ability (Destroyer Form) to upgrade into a Destroyer. The Destroyer tooltip is as follows:

Morph into Destroyer
100 Gold   50 Lumber   2 Food
Large flying unit that must consume magic to sustain its mana. Excellent at destroying enemy casters and clusters of ground forces. Initially has Spell Immunity, Devour Magic, Absorb Mana, and Orb of Annihilation. Attacks land and air units.

Notice how, even though the Destroyer costs 5 food, it only displays a food cost of 2 (Since the Obsidian costs 3 food and it is only an increase of 2 food). I would be using this ability, but a unit can only have one Destroyer Form based ability on it, because if there are two Destroyer Form based abilities on a unit, one of them will override the other, resulting in the other one (or others) being in accessible.

So I need to find out a method that will display the Gold/Lumber/Food charge (Preferably the food charge only showing the increase, such as in the Destroyer Form ability), and that can be used multiple times on a unit so that the unit can upgrade into a few different things.

Again, sorry if this is unclear, but I'm pretty sure I made sense this time.

 

[Rui]

Listen, if it costs gold, lumber, food (whatever), then it might be an upgrade. If it costs mana or doesnt cost nothing it might be Tinker's ultimate or Spirit Walker's Corporeal/Ethereal Form. Can also be Metamorphosis of Illidan (yes, there is a Metamorphosis that any hero can get a permanent Metamorphosis form.

Good Luck
-Rui

 

[Sansui]

or he could use dummy abilities, with the costs in the tooltip...

use triggers to check and negate the ammounts, add food back after the unit dies ect.

 

[ChiefPeasant]

or he could use dummy abilities, with the costs in the tooltip...

use triggers to check and negate the ammounts, add food back after the unit dies ect.

As I've said, it is NOT an ability. There are no abilities that display Food Cost. The Charge Gold and Lumber ability displays just that, gold and lumber. The only ability that would work would be Destroyer Form, but as I said again, a unit that can upgrade into 2 or more units can't be using Destroyer Form since one of them would override the other.
Example:

                     Unit A
                     /         \
               Unit B        Unit C
Suppose Unit A has two Destroyer Form based abilities that allow it to upgrade into 2 different units. The problem is, since the Activation/Use code (sphinxform) is the same, no matter which one is selected to be upgraded into, one will override the other. Lets say Unit A clicks to be upgraded into Unit B. However, the Unit C ability gets used because it overrides the Unit B upgrade since the Activation/Use code is the same. Changing the Activation/Use code doesn't do anything.

I could use triggers to negate the amount, I already thought of that, but I asked for help on how to make it like I already described.

Listen, if it costs gold, lumber, food (whatever), then it might be an upgrade. If it costs mana or doesnt cost nothing it might be Tinker's ultimate or Spirit Walker's Corporeal/Ethereal Form. Can also be Metamorphosis of Illidan (yes, there is a Metamorphosis that any hero can get a permanent Metamorphosis form.

Good Luck icon_wink.gif
-Rui

I know it isn't a Shape changing ability, because regular abilities don't display Gold/Lumber/Food cost. If it was an upgrade though, I don't know of any upgrades that allow for 1 individual unit to be upgraded instead of the entire unit type (aka, a universal upgrade).

 

[greenbaron]

The way it's done in Dark Deeds is this.

Take the unit you want to upgrade into another unit, and set "stats - is a building" to yes. Then in the "upgrades to..." field that appears, put in the next unit/units. Then set "stats - is a building" to no.

 

[Sansui]

ChiefPeasant,
It does not matter if an ability displays food or not.
do you really need the icons?!

you can easily add mana,gold,wood,food costs with editing the tooltips of an ability.