No damage attack?

I'm making my own damage/combat system, and I was wondering if it was possible to make a unit do 0 damage, even if his actual damage is something else. For instance, let's say I have a unit that does 30 damage (normally); How would I go about still allowing him to attack, but making it so the attack does no damage instead of 30? I know there is the Critical Strike method (Crit. Strike with negative multiplier), but it would be better if there was another method.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, it is possible.

I don't know how but I can ensure you that someone out there knows so and that it shouldn't be much difficult to accomplish.

Hmm, this is a weird suggestion but can you look at this?

Check when the unit attacks, then order it to stop immediately. And then play an attack animation.

No no, I still need him to attack, I just don't want damage to be done to the other unit. I know some silly work-arounds, but I need a serious one that has no side-effects or exploits. I will use the Critical Strike method if I really have to...

You don't have to. But you have to deal with the n damage fields you can find on a unit in the object editor.

As an alternative you can make a trigger that blocks damage, the problem is to recognize that the damage was caused by an attack

Yes...that's why I'm asking this, because I want the damage to still show up as 30 (as in the above example) in the UI, but I want the actual damage to be different...that's what I'm aiming for with this, because if I can block the damage, then with triggers, I can do a different amount of damage, and this system will make combat a little more flexible/customizable than it normally is.

Exactly...hmm...I guess I could use the whole "orb effect buff" idea, but again, I would like something (if possible) that has no side-effects. The problem with the orb effect thing is that I might be using orb effects normally, I'm not sure, but it's always better to be on the good side (and make my script more compatible).

So long as your not working with AoE damage, give each unit a modified Hardened Skin ability with a 100% chance to go into effect and a damage block of 999999 with 0 minimum damage. Any physical damage (aka, ANY attack that is NOT AoE or Artillery typed) will be reduced to zero.

Select the unit in the object editor.
Set the attack 1 to whatever you want (damage to apear)
Set the range and all that crap.
But set the targets allowed to something that isn't attackable or nothing.
TURN ON SHOW UI!

Then set the attack 2 to 0-0 damage.
Set the range and all that crap like in attack 1
Set the targets allowed to Whaterver you want to attack
TURN OFF SHOW UI.

This should work with no triggers and bugs. EXEPT IF YOU ARE USING ORBS. Orbs eneble the second attack or something like that.

Also, i've found that attacks with "Show UI" turned off still show up.

Maybe it's a stupid idea, but what about creating an enemy dummy caster (for example a neutral-hostile unit) with a edited a Howl of Terror, setting damage reduction to 100% and area of effect to 1 (even better you can use Inner Fire with negative damage buff)? Pro: the damage it's completely reduced to 0, no need to add/remove abilities to the unit. Cons: it requires a dummy caster, it shows a buff and also a "-damage" after the unit's damage...

Depending on if you actually need to detect damage amounts, you could also change units armour values to receive 0% damage from attacks.

But only attack-1,..

Hmm im sure iv heard you can set a units base damage to -1 and then its rolled n side damage to 1.

So the outcome is 0 - 0.

He wants the damage to show up on the UI, but not to actually do any damage, because he wants to trigger it.

Using a custom spells that when turned on gives a custom buff and use triggers to nullify damage by all units under that buff maybe?

I havnt looked into the exact triggers yet (cant find CD), but it seems do-able.