Alternate Animation Models for long lasting spells

I reeealy don't know what to call my problem.

Anyway, what I want to do, is in my map there is this unit with an ability based on entangling roots. i want it so that it's a different animation. (Roots just don't seem right for EMP burst ^_^ )

So in custom abilities, I set the model to Dark Ritual (caster)


But!


The model only lasts for a second. How would I get the Dark Ritual model to keep animating throughout the entire duration?


Would I have to use triggers?

Triggers would probably be your best bet. If a mod could move this to the Trigger Haven, you'd probably get your best answer there; I'm not sure off-hand how you'd do this without massive arrays...

You could edit the model file of the dark ritual effect to have a looping animation. Do you want this moved to the Trigger Haven, so they can tell you how to create the effect continuously over the course of the spell, or the the Modelling forum so they can tell you how to open the .mdl and remove NonLooping from the animation?

Make a trigger, Unit Begins Casting an ability, ability equal to (your ability) ACTION Here's where you need to know your math, but here's an easy example, say you want the duration to be 10 seconds, and the period between the appearance of each sfx 1 second, then do, For each integer 1-10 do multiple actions
-Create SFX on origin of triggering unit using dark ritual
-Wait 1 second

Or if you wanted to SFX every second then
For each integer 1-20 do multiple actions
-Create SFX on origin of triggering unit using dark ritual
-Wait 0.5 seconds

There ya go :D

Also just to help you out with SFX

Any special effect animation that has a "stand" animation above the viewing window is a looping animation and will stay where you put it until you take it away. I'm pretty sure anything else is a terminating sfx and would need to be continuously applied to make a "loop" effect.

Unless you open the .mdl and remove the line that says "NonLooping" from it.

Okay, yeah, you can move the thread (if you haven't done so already)

I just didn't know how to do this. I think i will try the trigger ver. though, since I don't want to bother messing with the mdl.

Thanx all :D

Okay, I did the trigger thing like the guy said, but I have too concerns. The first is that the trigger did not loop. Am i missing some sort of "end of loop, add 1 to the count and repeat" closing trigger?

The other thing is that what I did not mention, was that this is a hero ability. So... how could I make the animation automatically stop when the duration expired?

It should work. If it only did it once, then it may be because once the ability is done casting, it doesn't know who the triggering unit is, so, before you do the looping actions, make a unit variable, name it whatever you want, and set that to the triggering unit. Then, instaid of saying attach sfx to triggering unit, attach sfx to (Variable for Triggering unit.)

If that doesn't solve your problem, attach the map to your next post, and I'll do it for you. Also you said how will it end since it's a hero ability, just match the waits in the loop to the duration of the spell, or however long you want it to last. The trigger terminates after the loops are done.

Well, thats the thing, its a HERO abiltiy, and has levels, so the time is variable, depending on the level of the ability and whether the unit is a hero or not.

If you send me the map I can make it perfect. Other than that, I'm going to have to go in depth with these triggers. I no what you are saying, and I have a perfect solution.

Okay, I'm sick of my map anyway (for now). Got an e-mail address?

Note: Trigger 2 is not initially on

I'm pretty sure this would work, but don't kill me if it doesn't.