Auto-cast abilities question

Hi guys, in my map I finally finished the template that simulates an AI Auto-Cast ability. Everything works in perfection using Table and all and I am very happy with it ... I just need one thing - a totally dummy ability that can be auto-casted. So far all abilities I tried always have some hardcoded trigger behind:
- Heal: starts healing when an ally is not full hp
- Inner Fire, Slow, Faery Fire, Bloodlust: they get casted when an ally is attacked
- Raise Skeleton: when a unit decays ...
- Flaming arrows: I am using this one. However it has a side effect, the DAMAGES (stupid damage ...) the target unit victim of the spell
- Kabbom: you know what it does ...

I am trying to use an ability that can be auto-casted as dummy as possible. The ideal would be to have an ability such as Flaming Arrows, but that doesn't damage units when I cast it. I tried creating one based on lightning but it obviously didn't work ... I need a target oriented ability that does nothing and that does no damage.

If some one could help me, I would appreciate it deeply.

Replentish?? the one used by moon wells, it's casted when a unit lose hp or mana, good as dummy ability.

Now my question is: what do you mean with "how dummy an ability is"???

Wermm, that has a problem, if Auto-cast is enabled and if a damaged unit gets nearby, the caster will lose all mana to heal the unit. This is something I don't want =S

An ability that can be auto-casted, but that has no hardcoded trigger behind it, telling it when to cast the spell when an event happens.

Per example, Flaming arrows is quite dummy, because even when it is on "auto-cast" mode, nothing will make the caster use it automatically. It is fully dependent on the users orders. I am looking for something like this, but without the "side effects". I don't think Channel can do it also =(

Most autocasting spells have those kinds of conditions behind them. If you're looking for on-attack, Frenzy is a good one. Just remove the buffs, remove the effects, catch the casting, and do whatever. It'll fire when the unit tries to attack, and again it has no side effects other than a really quick blip of a buff on the status card (literally .1 seconds)

Uhh... I thought setting AoE to -1 made them not autocast...

Problem is that it still has a hardcored trigger behind it. I don't want abilities with hardcored triggers behind them, so far I think there is no such ability =S

why do you ask then ?
have you already tried curse ?

Yeah, there is no autocast w/o the "hardcoded" trigger. otherwise it wouldn't make sense to be autocast, would it? Just firing off whenever, no rhyme or reason.

Don't some autocast spells have an autocast range stat or something to that effect?

The spells can't be cast beyond there natural range anyways.

Faerie Fire is good to use IIRC. There's inner fire. Buildings cannot autocast. I beileive there's a bug with Enable/Disable locust that disables autocast (1.12 glitch...)

There's data: auto-cast range for most auto-cast spells. Replenish Mana and LIfe - Autocast Requirement 99999

Frost Arrows

Abolish or Dispel magic (not sure which)

Spell Steal with 0 AoE (?)

That's about everything I know of autocasting - not sure how much of it still works -,-.

It fires when a unit is attacked. It doesn't help either.

It fires automatically too as well....

So, it means that some spells have an "auto-cast" range and a "normal-cast" range? Mmm, I don't think this is useful, because if the unit has "auto-cast" on, and if I set the range t0 or -1, then it won't ever be able to cast the spell at all =S

If this is truth than it means I have to find a way to live with the side effects =S
Another question, "flamingarrowstarg" is the order a unit gets when is order to attack with "flamingarrowsOn". Is there a way for me to change this order or is it too hard-coded ?

It would. Channel has no purpose on game and yet it is one of the best abilities made for coding, so it makes all sense of teh world.

No I mean what would the point in an ability being autocastable if it didn't have conditions to autocast?

To help you find a way to "live with the side effects", why don't you tell us what you're making with these autocast abilities. Is it something that needs to be cast on a unit? (eg: Faerie Fire) On the caster? (eg: Frenzy) AoE? (eg: Touch of Blight) I mean this whole time you've only shot down every autocast we've given you, you haven't said what the purpose was and what it needed to do. (other than being dummy castable).

This is what I need ! The point would be like the point Channel has - coding purposes!

Well, I am trying to make my own version of an Inner Fire spell.
Everything is coded and works perfectly (I can post the code if some one wants). This version I am doing, track all units in the map with the ability in cause using table. Then when a unit is attacked, I check if the unit does not have the buff of the spell. If it doesn't have, then I pick all units around it that have the "InnerFire" spell and enough mana to cast it. Withing those units I pick those who have the "auto-cast" enabled and within this group I pick the closest one, and order it to cast the spell. This simulates the EXACT AI behavior a spell like InnferFire or Slow has. For this code to work, the abilities I chose as dummy, can not have any triggered hardcodes behind, because if they do, they will just cast the dummy spell without stopping, and I do not want that at all. Don't come with hat crap talk "use inner fire with 0.01 duration" because that thing, besides bugging hard, will deplete the mana of all casters for a stupid reason (just think how...)
This is why I am currently using FlamingArrows, because it is very very dummy. I changed bonus damage to zero but the target of the spell still takes the damage from the caster (the not bonus damage). To fix this, I changed the bonus damage ability to a negative value (so it can heal the damage the caster causes) however, if the caster has an aura that increases attack, the bonus damage will not be enough, and the target will still take damage.

I hope it is now clear why I need an ability that is dummy, and that can be auto-casted =S

try to use some negative autocast spell like curse ...for your inner fire ...and of course set the targets allowed to friendly units ...

could be that it wont autocast on friendly units since its basically a negative spell ...

Edit, read your post and changing mine. I got a solution to your problem weither you like it or not..

You can give all the units that cast inner fire (your version) a dummy spell (plain old inner fire with dur 0.1 and mana cost 0) and so if they have it on auto cast and a unit requires it u can first move them to the unit that needs it, create a dummy caster with the real ability, have that unit it cast it on your target and then adjust the mana of the "real" caster. Of course u should check their mana before casting it tho..