[vJass] Programming Movement

[El-Sevio]

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Helloooo again
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My goal is to programme a unit to always have the "homing" style movement similar to hungry hungry fellhounds in this map. Imagine a homing missile type movement. Basically its sliding with triggers instead of using an issued move order. Thus i cannot get normal warcraft pathfinding.

I know how to make the hungry fellhounds move like they do in that map, the difference is that in this map the pathing is not going to be direct (due to obstacles etc) and thus I cannot do the linear path like they do in hungry fellhounds for most destinations



The chasing unit does not have any movement speed and is programmed moved manually with SetUnitPosition based on a bunch of things. The idea is that it is searching for players across the map which has houses and obstacles etc, there wont be a linear path to get to destinations. The reason why i do the manual homing type move speed is to have dodging predators as a possibility, and have survival more skill based.



Options i have considered:
- Making a pilot dummy unit that moves towards the destination, using an issued order (to use the warcraft pathfinding). and only moves if it is within range of the chasing unit (to give it a chance to catch up). the target for the chasing unit will constantly be the pilot, this way it will follow the normal pathfinding of an issued order rather than a manual movement thing

- Give the chasing unit a movement speed, periodically issue the order to find which direction normal pathfinding would take (avoiding obstacles etc), and periodically making the unit move forwards (towards facing angle) by x distance <--- not sure what to do to make this "slide" past / miss etc

- Maybe this manual movement should only activate when close to the chased units. that way the chaser can move normally (issue order) up to that point (normal pathfind to destinations) and then cancel once out of range

- Some how find the path between the chase unit and the destination, and move him along that path manually



Is there any more effective ways of doing this? Which one of these is my best bet? Any pointers? Thx, Matt

 

[Builder Bob]

If you don't use the built-in path finding, you'll have to program the whole path finding algorithm yourself. Not an easy task.

I'd maybe try making the chaser chase an invisible dummy unit instead of the player units themselves. This unit can be positioned with SetUnitX/SetUnitY for full control of where the chaser will be aiming, allowing for it to also miss it's target. This will be much like your option 2.

How you program the aim of your chaser will be up to you.

 

[El-Sevio]

So chase a pilot unit instead? Yeah thats more like the option 1 of what i said. But i think i'll more set the unit location based on an issued order so i can find the pathfinding. then use triggers to speed up the movement is that what u meant?

 

[Builder Bob]

So chase a pilot unit instead? Yeah thats more like the option 1 of what i said. But i think i'll more set the unit location based on an issued order so i can find the pathfinding. then use triggers to speed up the movement is that what u meant?

Hmmm... was the option 1 there yesterday as well? I didn't see it.
Anyway, yes, that's much like what I was suggesting. I'm not sure I understand the full details (like set unit loc based on issued order/trigger to speed up movement), but it seems you have a good plan to get this working.

 

[El-Sevio]

thanks my man appreciate it!

i think i overcomplicated things with that statement. Basically just issue the pilot a move order to the destination. And if I want it to be able to slide faster then the move speed maximum (522) i would have to use triggers to slide the pilot unit forwards every 0.x seconds, to essentially increase his speed above 522