Abilitys....

[Killerbf21]

I've seen a few tuts on how to modify an ability, but I want to create one from the ground up... The ability is Slash, on a Zealot. Cost's ten energy, deals 10 base damage * the ability level. I made the effect, created the button, made the ability, attached it to the zealot, and I used it. Does the damage, displays the energy used, but where do I set the CD, and how can I display an effect? Like show a "slash" going through the target unit, and make it so the zealot fallows through with it.. There isn't enough info in the tut's I've looked at to be of much help. Copying and modding an ability is good and all, but to fully understand it, I want to make one from scratch... Any tut's like that out there? Anyone have any experience with making custom ability's from scratch?

Any help would be great.. I enjoy making maps, and not being able to make an ability is a bother...

 

[N(O.O)B]

It's in a tab called "Cost - Cost +", you have to add an "Index" for every level (same as with Energy) - the cooldown is right there (green "Cooldown", "Time Start" means the time it will have to wait until the ability is ready after the unit first acquires the ability (through learning, or after initialization), and "Time Use" is the cooldown after it's used.

 

[Killerbf21]

Great, now that that's all sorted out, how about some eye candy? Running up to the unit, swinging once, and the unit dying isn't really... pretty? How about... Run up, swings one from a distance, some sort of effect ( by effect I mean eye candy) that displays on the target units showing that said ability was used?

 

[Dave312]

Firstly you need to find the model you want to use for your eye candy. Use the Previewer for this (Window > Previewer). Once you find one, you will need to either create a new model in the data editor or use an existing one that has your model. Now that the model is created, you need to create an Actor for it. It will need to be of the type Model. Now there are 3 things you need to change here. First is the location that the model is attached. This is under the Hosting - Host Site Operations + property. I would recommend SOpAttachTarget.

The next thing is to make sure the actor is created when the ability is used. This is under the Events - Events +. You will need to add 3 events, one to create the actor when the ability is used, one to destroy the actor when the ability finishes, and a final one to destroy the actor if the units dies while the ability is being used. For the first event, right-click on the lefthand panel and Add Event. Set the Msg Type to Abil, Source Name to your slash ability, and Sub Name to Source Cast Start. I don't know exactly how you have created your ability but if your eye candy appears at the wrong time, then the term you have used for your Sub Name is wrong. You will just need to experiment until you get the desired effect. You will need to set the action to Create. Now you are done for that event. Add yourself another event, and set the Msg Type to Ability again but this time set the Sub Name to Finish Stop and the action to Destroy. For the final event, set the Msg Type to Actor Orphan and action to Destroy.

The final left to do with your actor is set the model to the model you created earlier.

 

[Killerbf21]

Thank You!!! SO MUCH!!!