How to make life-drain working on ally units?

09-07-2006, 08:51 PM	#1
Nite	I would like to create a spell based on life drain or mana siphon than can be targeted to the players own units... i mean the unit who have the spell can cast it on a friend unit and "steal" life from it. Is that possible? i tryed to edit the "allowed targets" section in the spell but it wont work any ideas? thx

09-07-2006, 09:08 PM	#2
Rising_Dusk	Has nothing to do with triggers to be fair. It is indeed the "Allowed Targets" section in the OE that controls this. Try "Allied, Neutral, Organic" or some such.

09-07-2006, 09:37 PM	#3
Anitarf	If editing the spell's allowed targets doesn't work, you need to modify gameplay constants, drain spells have a special flag there about being allowed to target friendly units. However, when targeting friendly units, they transfer mana to them instead of from them.

09-08-2006, 11:49 AM	#4
blu_da_noob	In general, the drain abilities are known to totally screw up when you try to make them target allies. The gameplay constants might have fixed that now, but I think Anitarf will be correct in that the effects will be reversed.

09-08-2006, 12:26 PM

Chuckle_Brother

If it works screwy with gameplay constants, trigger it, using channel and a loop conditionaly on:

JASS:

function FakeDrainIsPro takes nothing returns nothing
  local unit c = GetTriggerUnit()
  local unit t = GetSpellTargetUnit()
  local integer oId = GetUnitCurrentOrder(c)
    loop
      exitwhen GetUnitCurrentOrder(CAST) != oId
      //Drain some life or do some fancy actions
      call TriggerSleepAction(1)
    endloop
  set c = null
  set t = null
endfunction

09-08-2006, 12:30 PM	#6
blu_da_noob	He might be wanting it for the lightning effect (which can not be simulated perfectly via triggers).

09-08-2006, 01:11 PM	#7
Chuckle_Brother	Yeah thats true, but you can do a passable recreation of it, so long as you don't just make the lightning go from position to position, since real lightning actually attaches just short of their center, so it looks better....but meh.

09-08-2006, 01:36 PM	#8
blu_da_noob	You also can't get the Z-height of a flying unit, so it can't be done with those.

09-08-2006, 01:42 PM

shadow1500

You can move the lightning every 0.05 seconds to the unit position, and fade it as well. For flying units, you can get their flying height, so you can get their Z position as well:

JASS:

function GetUnitZ takes unit u returns real
    local location l = GetUnitLoc(u)
    local real z = GetLocationZ(l)+GetUnitFlyHeight(u)
    call RemoveLocation(l)
    set l = null
    return z
endfunction

I once made a chain lightning spell which copied the original chain lightning identically, it can be done.

09-08-2006, 01:53 PM	#10
Vexorian	It wouldn't work too well becaue you wouldn't know how to get the target's missile impact z nor the caster's throw z. You can work around but sometimes it would not be too nice. I think offsetting the height by 60 works for most of the models

09-08-2006, 02:17 PM

#11

blu_da_noob

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadow1500

For flying units, you can get their flying height, so you can get their Z position as well:

You can not get a flying unit's Z-height. Period.

09-08-2006, 02:34 PM	#12
Vexorian	GetLocationZ() ? . But lightning effects are affected by ground Z as well as flying heights so it isn't much of a problem?

09-08-2006, 02:52 PM	#13
blu_da_noob	Unit's flying height is not always the same as its Z-height above its current terrain location. Try it out.

09-08-2006, 03:27 PM

#14

shadow1500

Quote:

Originally Posted by blu_da_noob

Unit's flying height is not always the same as its Z-height above its current terrain location. Try it out.

I did, and it was always the same.

09-08-2006, 03:29 PM	#15
blu_da_noob	Post your Chain Lightning spell with your way of taking flying units into account and I'll show you how to make it fail. Because it's not always the same. Did you try, say, any terrain variation? Slopes, holes, etc? Either you're lying and you didn't test, or you tested very badly.