Magical Mercs

I'm using a periodic timer of 0.20 seconds on each of the maps in my campaign, to run such events as Camera Movement and Movement of Heros. Say I want some of those Heroes to be owned by an neutral ally of the Player. How many iterations of the timer should I wait to move my "Mercenary" Heroes, so that they will cast spells on their own in a fight?

If they have no channeling spells, make it about double each hero's cast backswing point.

That, I'd say, is about the maximum. The minimum would be each hero's cast point. And use triggers to make them cast spells, makes things nicer.

Ack!! Can't see! *Turns on light* Much better

On topic: Hmm... These Mercs are going to have a maximum of 3 non-Ulti spells. Ok. Say I make the Merc player a Computer Player with no AI script. Would they cast on their own then? Also: Suppose I give one of them a Channeling spell. How would I detect if he/she is channeling or not?

AIs use spells on their own, when the situation is right. It depends on the base-ability of the custom ability you have. They don't cast anything based of Channel at all though.

Don't let the AI's cast on their own, especially if using dummy spells. You should trigger all computer hero spellcasting yourself, so you can control exactly when, where, and why spells are casted.

Depends on the spell.

In my new map, Seal Tag, the seals have this knockback spell based on chain lightning, and whenever i test as the undead, they keep casting it, without triggers and stuff. I also gave them a cripple spell based on inner fire, and they use that too.

Spells like bloodlust will trigger when a nearby friendly (ie your hero) makes an attack, while damaging spells like chain lightning will trigger if a nearby friendly gets attacked.

I suggest you do little tests with these things, it can be fun :D

I've had some troubles with getting channelling stuff recently, can't help you with that I'm afraid :/

I know that they will cast blizzard on enemies.

If you don't want your movement trigger to disturb that, just make it check if the merc is out of range of the hero before it's ordered to move.

EDIT: lol, 2 other posts appear before me as i type -_-

Hmm... I'm thinking that I might set the channeling/casting/attacking Hero's Custom Value to 1 or more when they start to cast/channel/attack, and return it to 0 when they stop. That way, I can check to see If they're doing anything, so that I won't mess them up. And is the Attack-Move order id really "Smart"?

Yes. Any right-click order is "smart", I think. I could be wrong.