Suspending an Ability?

I designed a trigger-based Possession spell that could take control of heroes...

it Changes the Owner of the units for 30 seconds and then changes them back.

However, whenever it Changes Owners, the unit's abilities apparently reset... so, right when the unit's change owners, the new owner of the caster can possess his old hero back immediately.

Is there a way to fix this or work around it? It's weird that they have a Reset Ability Cooldown function, but no Activate Ability Cooldown thing.

I've thought of just doing Remove Ability and then waiting 180 seconds and Add it back... but isn't there a better way that looks a little more professional?

and if I Removed the ability... would the hero still be able to level up, learn the next level of Possession, and use THAT one?

Try using: "Disable Ability" than "Enable Ability". I THINK that grays it out, although im not sure.

i don't know....its kinda strange....
i'll poke around with it and see if i can find anything..:)

edit: and what's with that "sharks my friend" sig ?:)))

Lol, it seems to display the name of whoever's viewing the post. it said Maegus is my friend! for me..

hm, i don't have Disable and Enable ability...

what editor are you using? i'm only using the standard... i really ought to use a modified one i suppose

ohhh....darn :))
its ok anywayz....
anyhowz, i poked around with that passive ability, and at first when i tryied to make a possesion hero skill, my heros always died and sometimes crashed my WC3....then i did it trigger based, and i understand what u mean....
eg, u can cast starfall, then someone takes your hero and casts starfall again within seconds....also works with taking over another hero :).

EDIT: Damn, the answer is easy :)))))
when u switch over the hero, set its mana to 0 and give him increased mana regen over 10-20-30 seconds....like when using a clarity potion or something like that....
when its mana is 0, he cant do anything, but increased mana regen will enable him to enter the combat in 20-30 secs, thus simulating the cooldowns :)))
sometimes i amaze myself with my ideas :)))

well, that's not a bad idea... i suppose it would work for a last resort, but i'd prefer to let the person use the hero's OTHER spells as well

great idea though

EDIT: oh WAIT! i know what to do! I'll set the Possession cooldown to 0, and then make the cooldown trigger based. i'll just make a Boolean value on whether or not the ability is available yet for that unit...

thats a nifty idea...but the button will be kinda...normal i guess, it won't be recharging or anything, right ?

unfortunately, no. =(

i'll just have to use text messages and such to tell the player when its ready and whatnot. Maybe the remove ability thing would work just as well? might be less hassle i guess...

but, with the whole mana idea thing, it would be very hard to use that to control the cooldown of the ability... they might just get a mana potion or find a hero with Brill Aura or go to a Fountain something. the cooldown of the ability would be faster or lower depending on how fast you're able to acquire mana.

when u use triggered mana/HP regen, it is presumed (for me at least) to disable any mana/hp potions....

there's still fountains and auras and stuff to deal with... and to calculate that out to exactly 180 seconds, etc...

seems like too much hassle.

and even then, the hero's other abilities would still be useless

Hmm, how about changing what triggers the spell...

If you have an Xtra unit ability slot, make it so when the ability is cast, it checks to make sure the casting hero isnt posessed himself, and if he isnt, give him a unit ability and have it cast it on the target, otherwise give the mana back and give an error message.

hunter0000 has a point, its a good idea....



as for this, i don't really get it how they're useless, and why 180 secs ?
they're useless for about 20 secs, until he recharges his mana, and then they become usable....i guess the 180 secs are the duration of the possession ?

the other abilities are useless because all of his mana is drained... and i'd have to trigger the mana regeneration so that it takes exactly 180 seconds (the cooldown of the Possession) to reach the mana cost of that spell. But what if he uses an ability other than possession? then that takes away mana, make it take even longer to get Possession again. I guess I could restore the mana back, but that would still cause problems. it just wouldn't work

i didn't mean it that way.....
and what if the possession skill recharges, and the hero has no mana ? its up to the player to decide will he or will he not spend mana on some abilities...except if the mana cost of all abilities are 0...

just set the mana cost of possesion to something bigger than average, and let the hero recover about 30% of that value thru his 20-30 secs, which would be enough to cast 1-2 skills....

nah...