What would be a good spell to use for a nuke?

Im trying to make something that would be like a nuke from starcraft. It has to have like the 8 second wait time before it hits the ground, it also has to have a nice radius damage. I also have to be able to regulate it by how much gold you have. Just like on starcraft. Any suggestions for a spell to use? I was thinking using the infernal's splash dmg and then have it removed as soon as it hits the ground. But how to i mod the like 8 seconds before it hits the ground, and how can i contol it by gold... gah, any ideas?

-.0 annny ideas?

My advice would be to do this with triggers, since it's such a low frequency event. This has the added bonus of easily letting you customize damage and graphical effects. An example in psuedo code:

In this three trigger example, a setup trigger "primes the pump," a second trigger takes your "targeting" of the nuke, and if the "ghost" or whatnot is still alive 8 seconds later, a third trigger executes the nuke itself. Obviously, if you're not using a spotter unit system, in the second trigger it isn't neccessary to check if the spotter's still alive.

trigger "nukeprep" :

Event: player types "nuke" in as chat message
[a bad example actually - you can probably think of a much better interface]

conditions:
gold > 8000 (or whatever)
player owns a "ghost unit" or whatever your implementing unit is (if you have one)

actions:
gold = gold - 8000
turn on trigger "prepnuke2"
-message to player: "select target of nuke using "attack ground""


prepnuke2
event: "ghost" unit gives a "attack ground" order (or you can have a "silo" give the order, if no ghost is used (simply give a building 2 damage artillery, and the gameplay won't even notice)

actions:
--wait 8 seconds
-turn off this trigger (shouldn't take effect until execution finishes)
-if unit is alive do trigger "nuke" else do nothing

in this example, a special unit gives an attack ground order, with nuke enabled, and the nuke will land at the target of the order. The trigger then turns off to prevent multiple nukes.

trigger nuke:

actions:
-remove unit
-find all units within 1000 of position of order and subtract 400 life from each unit
-find all buildings within 1000 of position of order and subtract 800 life from each unit
-find all units within 500 of position of order and subtract 400 life from each unit
-find all buildings within 500 of position of order and subtract 800 life from each unit

(note the effect of the order of the actions - units closest to the blast center take double damage, buildings take an additional double damage (obviously, you can change this part). More rings can be added as desired for a more graded effect)

-play sound[there are plenty of explosion type sounds to choose from, though the Wc3 ones really lack the bass you want for such a large explostion]. Btw, if you play multiple copies of the sound, you might better create the "rumble" effect you're looking for. And finally....

- play special effects. There's any number of explosions to choose from, here. use lots of them, many times. The polar coordinates will help if you want a ring of explosions. Also, I suspect you can create a unit with a special effect model, scale it up bigtime, and then create one at the center of the explosion for a *huge* explosion (I haven't tested this). Go way over the top with this (15 seconds or so should do the trick, and if it really looks cool, by all means center all cameras on the spot upon detonation :) )

hope this helps.

wow, ty for going into such detail, i'll check it out.

nice, but im wondering after its time for the nuke to fall what will the nuke look like???

ull find out someday in the near future when the map is done =D

Ari, has the right idea, but if you want the right player to get credit for kills (if the map has bounty), then you're going to need something like this:

if(unit health > 600)
subtract 600 health
else
kill unit, give gold

Also, his interface isn't going to work terribly well at all :P There could be an hour difference between the time you click for and the dropping of the nuke, it just makes the trigger turn on (why not just detect the attack ground order?).

You could so some really cool stuff with this and triggers. Use the kaboom effect and thunderclap for a cool nuke effect, although would work well with other stuff. Also, creating a special effect that's just a red dot on the point targeted would be cool.

And if you want really l33t triggers, make it so the ghost has to stand still or else the nuke isn't dropped, ala SC ;)
(This is actually possible)

Could eather of you 2 elaborate a little more? Im pretty lost on all of this.. =( heh, its not that im a newb or anything.. i'm just new to these more complex triggers =)

Did you have any specific questions? The triggers I described aren't in code, per se - I'm just describing the logic that you'll use to implement what I'm talking about. Btw, dataangel's absolutely right - my interface is pretty poor. I wouldn't really use it as it stands, but it was the best I could think of without knowing exactly what you have in mind. Why don't you elaborate a bit more on what exactly you're planning (how you want the nuke set off, bought, aimed, etc), so we get a better sense of what you're doing, and how you plan on using this.

Btw, for the explosion, here's the graphic to use. Period. Make a unit with the following model:
Abilities\Weapons\Mortar\MortarMissile
and give him a scaling value of 10 either in the editor or by triggers.
Oh, and of course, delete the normal sound set of the unit

When the time comes to detonate the nuke, create one of these, set animation speed to about 50% or so. Now....
Play his death animation.
Maybe add a white fade out-fade in effect immediately afterwards, but certainly nothing else is needed. I tested this in WE, with the gem on. I placed the unit, and then deleted him (triggering the death animation). I *knew* what was coming and *still* was shocked at how powerful it looked.

Alright. This is going to be used for a defense map that im making. It will have to be able to damage air and ground. It would be cool if you could make it so the nuke is bought in a building or something before you use it.. but thats not required. For aiming, it would be nice to just go and attack ground or somthing, the unit freezes, and a little red dot appears. After 6 or so seconds, a image appears in the air, and flys down into the air. When it hits the ground, it explodes with a nice animation, and does radial damage. (More in the center, less farther away). The explosion will naturaly fade out out, and the unit will unfreeze.

To get a understanding of about how much knowlage of triggers i have, my expertise basicly ends at not only spelling =P but also at the triggers used in making a basic defense map or a golems map. When i get home i'll check out that graphic. (Btw, i have all the sounds i need from my old starcraft editing days.)

Also, where exactly do u modify unit animation speed =?

Still havent been able to find this "modify unit animation speed" thing. Any ideas?

Animation - Change unit animation Speed

-The Great and Immortal Lord Imperialist Insaniteus-
-------------------------Cinematics Map comeing soon.

Hmm. i understand that.. but how does that incorporate to when the thing is killed? It disables the trigger when killed.. and another thing! the thing does a big explosion when removed in the editor.. but when killed in the game it just does a regular unit exploding death animation.-.0

"The thing does a big explosion when removed in the editor.. but when killed in the game it just does a regular unit exploding death animation"

Doh! Say it ain't so. I never checked in real play - my bad. Still, there's gotta be a way to get it to work. Perhaps if a 10x scaled invisible unit *fired* that model at the target of the nuke. Actually, I believe that in the advanced editor there's a setting that allows even a smaller unit to fire a huge bullet.

There's a setting in the advanced editor that lets you adjust the "arc" of a fired bullet (ranging from the ballista's relatively flat arc through the mortar team's much higher arc). The number can be set way, way higher than the mortar team's value, and that's already a fairly "high" shot. Not that I've tested this, but perhaps with super-high values, the bullet will come down just about vertically at the target area, and if fired from the corner of the map, would be invisible during ascent. For that matter, you can then either adjust your invisible unit's damage rating to become the nuke, or still give that unit minimal damage, and use triggers to subtract life from targeted units.

Btw, as far as I know, if animation speed is set to 50% beforehand, death animation will run more slowly. Beforehand can mean in an action immediately preceding death, as far as I know.

Hmm... anyone mind if I borrow this effect for my upcoming TD map? It's too damn cool to pass up... especially if fade in and fade out effects are added...sweet jesus.