Double Cast

This seems a rather noobish question even as I ask it, but I don't understand how this happens, or what to do about it.

I am making a map in which you can summon various units. The two I'm having trouble with are the Orc Raider and Cinder Wall. They're both based off of the Summon Water Elemental spell, altered to produce different units, with different tooltips, etc. Both spells are in a spellbook.

Whenever I click one of the spells to cast it, the other casts as well. I have experienced this problem before and have never solved it, merely going around it (with much pain and extra work). I just don't get it. I've tried changing the order strings and still it occurs...the hotkeys aren't the same...I changed everything to raw data and saw something like this:

A009:AHwe (Summon Cinder Wall)
A00A:AHwe (Summon Orc Raider)

Does the identical "AHwe" have anything to do with this? As I said it sounds like it's a noob question, since I would bet other people have experienced it before. I've just never gotten this problem answered for me. Help is appreciated.

EDIT: Okay, I'll amend this real quick. I know that I can probably fix it by basing the, for example, Orc Raider spell off of another spell (maybe Summon Sea Elemental). But what do I do when I run out of spells that work the way Summon Water Elemental does? How do I make more summon spells of this nature?

2nd EDIT: o_O I amend again...I just recreated the Orc spell based off of Summon Sea Elemental. It still double-casts the abilities. The order strings are different, as is pretty much everything else...why do they still cast each other?

You can't actually change the orderstring of these spells; it's mostly there only as a reference.

You do have to base each summon off of a separate base spell, or this will happen. It isn't peculiar to the spell you're using, it's true of all spells. The only exceptions are the Spellbook itself and the Channel spell, which allow you to give them faux order strings so that almost any number of those spells could exist on one unit.

If you need to have more summon spells than there are base spells to create them from, you can use the Channel spell and triggers to emulate it.

The Water Elemental and Sea Elemental summons are already the same base spell, the Sea Elemental just has different data.

Hm...so if the Archmage had Summon Sea Elemental, they would cast each other? Interesting.

Speaking of spellbooks...I created a hero (just for kicks) with multiple spellbook abilities. However, when he used one of them, all the spells from all of the "spellbook" abilities he had appeared in that one "spellbook". Is this fixable? Just wonderin'...

Thirdly: How exactly would I go about using channel? I don't know how to create the effect of a summoned monster with a timer with triggers. I know how to (obviously) create units with triggers, but not how to create the time-limit effect, the dispel vulnerability and the little timer on the unit. Additionally, when using channel to create spells, are there any specific things I need to change, any little tricks I need to know?

EDIT: Okay, I found channel. I changed it so it has 1 level, so it is a unit ability, I changed the icon, and I put it in my spellbook. It doesn't appear though. Is there something I'm missing?

2nd EDIT: Okay, I got it. Just had to activate the Visible option. What are the other options for? Unique Cast, Physical Spell, Universal Spell...what do they do/mean?

You can get a timed life with the trigger action unit-add expiration timer. It might be so that units with expiration timers take dispell damage by default, no matter if they are summoned or if the timer is added with triggers. Experiment with it to determine it for certain.

All spells on a hero must have different orderstrings, otherwise you always get the multiple-cast effect. As Panto said, you can't modify the orderstrings of spells, the field in the object editor that all spells have is there only as a reference. However, spellbook and channel have an additional special data field for altering orderstrings.

Therefore, you can use channel and triggers to produce any number of summon spells. Just, there are some quirks with channel, you must set a couple data fields/flags right, for example the "visible" field must be checked for the spell to even appear on the command card.

Okay...that explains some things. Hm...I shall experiment.

Ah yes, that is the "Base Order ID" variable I suppose.

Channel must have been the single spell all others were based off...heh.

Lol, the "reference" string actually lets you cast spells through triggers. Let's say you take entangle mine and change its order string to firebolt, then tell an ancient to "firebolt" a mine, it will entangle it. I've tested that, I believe.

Now, what about those other options? Visible was a no-brainer but the others...I'm lost on.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I now I remember. Does the order string cause any specific things to happen? Like, if I change the order string of channel to absorb, will it have any side effects (or with any other strings?) such as possibly using parts of the absorb spell/trigger effects in addition to casting the spell?

2nd EDIT: What controls the priority assigned to a unit for being attacked?

No, unfortunately, the fake orderstring for Channel has no bearing on the spell whatsoever.

There's been folks lobbying to Blizzard for a while to make a unit use the Channel spell with whatever inbred AI is assigned to each orderstring, but they've never given any indication that they're willing to do that.

There's a stats-priority or something like that in the unit editor for each unit.

Panto: Unfortunately? It would be a problem for me if it had some sort of bearing...OR you should be able to make your own order strings. It's wierd, there are order strings assigned to some spells that don't actually exist in the list when you look...just like there are sight range values that are too high if you tried to assign one...

Elven: KK, I thought so...

It's great for you, but I'd prefer if the spell were even *more* flexible.

Or a dummy unit can summon the water elemental for you after it detects you cast channel (or any other spell with no target).

Naw, I got it fine.

I know the Visible and Targeting Image options on the Channel spell.

What do Physical Spell, Universal Spell and Unique Cast do?