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Visible unit on unexplored terrain?

09-05-2004, 09:03 PM#1
Alfryd
What I'm looking for is some way to place a unit on unexplored terrain such that is:

Visible to only one player.
Not selectable.
Will not reveal any other units or terrain features.
Should not appear invisible.

Any way to achieve all or most of the above criteria?
09-05-2004, 09:19 PM#2
GreyArchon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfryd
What I'm looking for is some way to place a unit on unexplored terrain such that is:

Visible to only one player.
Not selectable.
Will not reveal any other units or terrain features.
Should not appear invisible.

Any way to achieve all or most of the above criteria?

This is something I need too. It should be selectable in my case, though. And able to move. But not reveal any terrain.
09-06-2004, 11:11 AM#3
Alfryd
I think I know of a possible solution. After some investigation, I've found that a unit cannot be visible if the terrain it's positioned on is unexplored. End of story. I've tried doodads and special effects to much the same effect. So, the workaround would be to create a model, position it on a piece of visible terrain, with a large, extensible, invisible arm carrying the visible portion of the model. Then, the model can be rotated and scaled to create the illusion that the visible portion is on any given piece of terrain.

Problems. Scaling the model would scale the visible portion, which would shatter the required illusion. I've tried adding the visible portion as an attached special effect, but this, too, is scaled, whether attached before or after unit scaling. Perhaps attachment points can be specified to ignore scaling effects? The alternative would be to create an animation for the model that extends the attachment point for the visible portion farther and farther afield, and somehow specify at what point to stop the animation and attach the visible portion.
09-06-2004, 11:48 AM#4
GreyArchon
Looks like we could be in trouble then. I need something like this as much as you do.

Are there triggers concerning fog of war?
09-06-2004, 12:25 PM#5
Guest
Well, i know you can give ur guy the locust ability so its not selectable and stuff... how bout giving the unit 0 vision of at night and day. :\
09-06-2004, 05:26 PM#6
th15
I'll list down what I know:

0 Sight radius- Doesn't work, you won't see the unit unless you have LOS of it from another of your units. Minimum sight radius for a unit to see itself should be equal to its collision size. Setting sight radius = collision size if peobably the best chance you have of making this work.

Extended sight radius- there's a field in the object editor labeled extended sight radius. What this does is make a model visible to ANYONE regardless of fog of war.

I'm sure you two can figure out the un-selectable bit yourselves.
09-06-2004, 05:40 PM#7
GreyArchon
So there wouldn't be a way for a unit to exist somewhere on the map WITHOUT removing Fog of War from that location?
09-06-2004, 06:45 PM#8
JoSanchez55
On my map in the initialize tirgger i remove fog of war and then add it again. This allows all players to see buildings / doodads / terrain features, but they are all un-selectable. Also the visible parts are considered "un-explored" to skills such as blink.
09-06-2004, 08:59 PM#9
Alfryd
Quote:
Originally Posted by th15
Extended sight radius- there's a field in the object editor labeled extended sight radius. What this does is make a model visible to ANYONE regardless of fog of war.

Hmm. Thanks for that anyway. I don't really want the model to be visible to other players, but the only other workaround I had was some ghastly complicated thing involving locking bone facings on a special custom model. Well, y'know what they say. A good compromise leaves everybody mad. :)
I've tried it out. It works, but I'm afraid the model can't be made selectable unless it's on explored terrain. That's not a serious problem for me.