Frozen Dreams -WiP-

I recently returned to the WCIII mapping scene and decided that my second-first project should be the revival of Frozen Dreams, the last map I worked on before my extended vacation. What a fitting title...

HELP NEEDED! READ BELOW FOR INFORMATION!

Original Thread: Please Do Not Post

The Goal:
To win, you must score the most points in the tower defence section of Frozen Dreams.

The Creeps:
Each round, a player will have to fight four coinciding creep waves. One wave will contain units specifically selected by that player, ranging from Easy (two creep-types weaker than the creep intended for that round) to Hard (two creep-types stronger than the creep intended for that round) and including special creeps summoned using creep tokens won in the AoS. Another wave will concist of the creep-type selected by a random allie. The other two waves will be those selected by two random opponents. Points are generally scored by leaking less units than the person who selected that wave, but special creep rounds may have alternative methods of scoring points.

The Arsenal:
All Players are limited to one building or unit of each type, each having several selectable methods of operation. These abilities will have certain consequences on the effectiveness of the abilities of thier surrounding towers. For example, the Forest Brute tower will have the ability to smash oncoming enemies into the ground, rendering them unable to move but also protecting them from most attacks. Another tower has an ability that greatly increases the temperature of the ground below a unit in order to deal damage. Combine the two and the unit is immersed in molten rock, dealing extra damage and inflicting sever burns on the enemy unit. I will not release any combos besides this one, it will be your task to figure them out.

The Heroes:
This will not be your usual 'select a hero' AoS. All players will start out with a soul that can possess any of the computer controlled units fighting on the battlefield. Possessed unit will then gain melee, ranged and spellcaster experience, and will upgrade themselves accordingly. Possessed units, however, are still living units and if they die, they die. The life and death of these units, however, provides the soul with remarkable insight into the inner workings of possession, increasing the benefits recieved by possessed units and allowing the soul to possess even higher level units.

The Rewards:
In the AoS, two sacrificial packages will be traveling along the two paths above and below the tower defence. When one of these reaches your base, a makeshift altar will be erected and the ceremony will begin. Successfull sacrifices will grant bonuses including special creep round tokens, hidden towers and unique items. Sacrifices might also hurt your opponents by spawning hero creeps, buffing enemies or temporarily slowing experience gain.
Partner Needed: If you are interested and, preferably, fluent with object editor and want to help me invent, make and balance the towers, units and heroes then please post here or private message me because I could really use your help!

Normally, I would wish to see some micromanagement in a tower defense map, however, in your case, most (if not all) towers should do what they do automatically because the players need to controll the AoS game at the same time. Perhaps the players should require some guidance, like game messages warning them of any special events that may require their attention, like if the enemy team uses a unique creep and you need to use some of your tower's special abilities to stop it.

For detecting the build tiny item ability, it depends on what event you use. GetConstructingStructure() is used with "A unit begins construction" generic unit event, GetConstructedStructure() with the "A unit finishes construction". You can also use the event "unit enters region (playable map area)" and the function GetEnteringUnit(). With all these events, GetTriggeringUnit() works the same as the more specific functions.

AntiArf: Unfortunately, the standard Event Response (Target Unit of Ability Being Cast) does not refer to the Scout Tower after the Build Tiny Scout Tower ability has been used.

AntiArf: As for micromanagement, that idea died with the old Frozen Dreams primarily for the same reason you mentioned but also because I realized that people really don't enjoy micromanaging tower. The largest amount of micromanagement that players could handle, in my experience, was casting "Sky Barrage" once a round in Ryoko TD 2.4 (one of the best Tower Defence maps ever made).

Yes, well, summon event also doesn't run when this abilty is used. Why must you use spell event responses in the first place? If it's so important to you to use the "starts the effect of an ability" event, perhaps you can use it in combination with the other (begins construction or enters region) events to get two triggers that pass information between themselves with global variables, thus detecting both the casting unit in one trigger and the constructing unit in the other. That is, assuming you need the casting unit, otherwise, just don't base the trigger on a cast event.

AntiArf: how exactly would I do the first workaround you mentioned, the one with two triggers. In my experience <Build Tiny Scout Tower> doesn't fire an issued order event.

To detect the spawning of the tower, use either the event "unit enters playable map area" or "unit begins construction". To detect when a tower finishes building itself, use the event "unit finishes construction". All these events have event responses that give you the entering/constructing/constructed tower.

What precisely do you want to do, maybe I can help you more specifically.

This is looking REALLY good. If you manage it, it may turn out to be one of the best maps I've seen. You really will need to manage to make the AoS section fun though...

Instead of

Why don't you just do

Anitarf hinted at it.

johnfn: Unfortunately, using your method, I can't get the unit casting the tiny scout tower ability. I think I'll just work around it by limiting the amount of Mage's Guilds (the unit that will use this ability) that a player can own to one.

Then have a similtaneous trigger run at the same time and set a variable of the casting unit, have a wait in my trigger, then catch the value of the variable and then use it like that. Or you can just do what you suggested :P