Make units cast abilities on map start.

[aussj4link]

Me and a friend are making a map and we want a ghoul to start off the map cannibalizing until som1 gets close enough to it and then it basically stops what its doing and attacks the one who went near it. I'm very new at map making so please bear with me. Thanx for your help.

 

[Sil3nt]

Well im not exactly sure how to make a ghoul cannibalize with no corpse. So first off make a a dummy unit like a footman but change its decay time to very long. Create it near the ghoul and order the ghoul to cannibalize (make sure its researched).

 

[aussj4link]

Well im not exactly sure how to make a ghoul cannibalize with no corpse. So first off make a a dummy unit like a footman but change its decay time to very long. Create it near the ghoul and order the ghoul to cannibalize (make sure its researched).

Well i made a custom cannibalize ability with no max for how many hitpoints it will gain, also i changed the Targets Allowed to terrain which should mean it can cannibalize anywhere, unless i misunderstood what terrain means. I put a doodad corpse right in front of the ghoul to make it look like hes eating the corpse. also i hv it on him and ready to use, its just what would i do to make him start using the ability right away and keep using it until some one gets real close? i thot about making his combat acquisition range real low ya know, so maybe that would work instead of making some kinda of trigger that waits for a unit to attack or get close.

 

[Builder Bob]

You can create a permanent corpse that won't decay, but I'd think it would be consumed by cannibalize. Anyway, to make cannibalize work you need a unit that doesn't have full hp to be able to start the ability. To prevent the unit from stop eating when it is fully healed you can set the hp healed by cannibalize to 0. Also set the spell duration to 0, since a duration of 0 means infinite on most spells.

Having said that, I think a better bet would be to not use the spell cannibalize at all. Instead set the animation of the ghouls to cannibalizing manually. (you can find the correct animation name by looking at the ghoul's animations in the world editor)

 

[Metov]

you could use the animation, and then for the attacking just use the unit in range trigger

 

[aussj4link]

You can create a permanent corpse that won't decay, but I'd think it would be consumed by cannibalize. Anyway, to make cannibalize work you need a unit that doesn't have full hp to be able to start the ability. To prevent the unit from stop eating when it is fully healed you can set the hp healed by cannibalize to 0. Also set the spell duration to 0, since a duration of 0 means infinite on most spells.

Having said that, I think a better bet would be to not use the spell cannibalize at all. Instead set the animation of the ghouls to cannibalizing manually. (you can find the correct animation name by looking at the ghoul's animations in the world editor)

didn't know i could do that, can you help me with that? would i just start a animation trigger and hav it run until its in the combat acquisition range?

 

[Builder Bob]

Here's a quickly made map to show the basics. There are no comments, so just ask if anything is unclear.

It won't make corpses under the ghouls unfortunately because the corpse created is a unit with collision size (not the corpse itself though). You could make the corpse a pre-placed doodad on the map instead to fix that.

Another thing is that they ghouls will not continue eating after you disturb them and then retreat from them.

Have fun!

 

[aussj4link]

Wow dude thanx ALOT! you know alot about this, i will hav to check all this out for a while before i get it. this helps much.

 

[Grundy]

do you actually want the ghoul to be constantly gaining health until someone gets in range? i dont see how that could ever work because when it gets to full health it will stop. if you just want it to LOOK like it is using cannibalize, you can create a permanent corpse next to the ghoul and set the ghoul to play its channeling animation and it will look like the ghoul is eating the corpse, but-
1 the corpse will never expire
2 the animation will never stop untill the ghoul attacks the player - instead of stopping when its health is full
3 and the ghoul will not gain health by doing this - if you DO want the ghoul to gain health you can use a trigger with a periodic time event that heals the ghoul and when the ghoul moves (stops cannibalizing) you turn the trigger off

 

[Somatic]

Just, give it a channelling spell where it performs the desired action. That would work wonders