Attaching actors to weapons

[Clockwork]

I have a projectile firing ability. There is a build up period sort of like Yamato Cannon. I would like to attach an actor of some sorts to the front of the gun barrel while the build up is happening, but I am not sure how to do this. Can anyone provide some insight? Thank you.

 

[Dave312]

I don't know how to solve your problem, but I do have a fair idea of where you need to look. On the actor the that you want to attach, go to "Events +". In there you can link that actor to your weapon effect. I'm afraid I can't help you much more than that.

 

[Advice D.]

You'll want an Actor with a create Event for the start of the Preperation of the Yamato clone, and a destroy event at the end of the preperation. I'll see if I can sort out more specifics when I'm able to get to my GE computer.

 

[Clockwork]

Sounds great. I will get to testing that out. Thank you for the help.

 

[Clockwork]

This is a bit more confusing then I originally thought. Im trying to start simple though. I copied an Actor, I chose the Photon Cannon Projectile. I looked at how the original Yamato works. It has a model during the prep, so I mimicked its event. Before that I changed the Photon Copy Actor type to Model, Based On - ModelAddition, which is what the Yamato Charge Model is.

At the Field Photon Cannon Attack Missile Copy
Events + {Abil.Yamato2.SourcePrepStart|Abil.Yamato2.SourcePrepStop|UnitDeath|ActorOrphan}|{|||}|{Create|Destroy|Destroy|Destroy}

The Italics were added in by GE when I changed the Photon Model Copy to ModelAddition.

Here is what the Yamato Charge Model has:
Field Battlecruiser Yamato Attack Charge Model
Events +
{ActorCreation|ActorOrphan|AnimBracketState.*.AfterClosing; AnimName BSD|Abil.Yamato.SourcePrepStart|Abil.Yamato.SourcePrepStop}|{||||}|{AnimBracketStart BSD Birth Stand Death|Destroy|Destroy|Create|Destroy}

I do not know what the AnimBracket stuff is for. It is grey in the events section.

Currently the model does not display. I noticed the (Actor)Yamato Charge Model does not ask for a unitName and my (Actor)Photon Missile Copy still does, even though they are the same Actor type now. The Models themselves are of different categories and I do not know if that means anything. The (Model)Photon Cannon Weapon is of type MissileFX where as (Model)Yamato Attack Charge Model is of type OneShotSpellFX.

I did not try duplicating the Photon Cannon Missile model and modify its type yet, mostly because I have always read not to duplicate models. However, if I change the Model Field of (Actor)Photon Cannon Attack Missile Copy to that the Yamato Charge Model, it properly displays it.

Still sorting through all of this.

 

[Clockwork]

Ok went to (Actor) Yamato Attack Charge Model Copy and changed the Model field to Photon Cannon Weapon.

It creates the Photon Cannon Attack Model when the ability begins to prepare. I am not sure what made the difference between what my previous post did and what this method does.

Now, it makes the at the based of the casting unit, which cannot be seen well. I need to figure out how to move it in front of the weapon/turret barrel if possible.

 

[Clockwork]

Still no real progress on this. The Actor Events + look like they work like triggers, but unfortunately it seems that you cannot have multiple actions for one event.

I attempted to have one event lead into another, but maybe I did not get the action correct.

First it goes Abil.Yamato2.SourcePrepStart -> Create. This of course works and creates the actor at the base of the unit.

I then added after it another event. Since the msg of the first was Create I tried using the actors own creation as an event: Create.Battlecruiser.YamatoAttackChargeModel2 ->

The action for that was various Set Position or Set Position (Height). I may have simply not found the correct action, but I feel like I have tried many of them that intuitively look correct.

Please let me know if anyone has any new thoughts. Thank you!

 

[Ancanus]

Could you post what you have so far in a testing map and upload it as an attachment? It seems the create actor at base of unit issue can be fixed with Host Attachments and ID's.

 

[Clockwork]

Forgive the crudeness of the map. I had to quickly recreate what I have been toying with.

Move the marine to the beacon to spawn zlings for killing.

The Immortal has the Yamato copy (which is still at stage 1 of what Im trying to make).

In the object editor you can search Yamato and find the actor copy under Model - ModelAddition - Not Doodad

I cannot stress my appreciation for any advice/pointers.

 

[Ancanus]

1) Change Actor -> Battlecruiser Yamato Attack Charge ,etc -> Host Site Operations+ to SOpAttachWeapon.

I'm figuring the missile out now.

 

[Clockwork]

Wow. Thank you. I had no idea what the Host Site Operations + did as there was no GE tooltip for it. Would there be somewhere I can read up on this sort of thing?

I had not changed the actual missile yet.

Im sure you can guess what I will be going for after this. I need to duplicate the attachment to the other weapon barrel and figure out how to fire two missiles at once. Then get it working with the turret rotation of the immortal. Fun new stuff to play with! :thup:

 

[Ancanus]

Wow. Thank you. I had no idea what the Host Site Operations + did as there was no GE tooltip for it. Would there be somewhere I can read up on this sort of thing?

Not that I know of. The values that you can write in Host Site Operations are the Actors available under the Site Operations category. This implies that you can define your own SOp or change what they affect.

BTW, I had a similar issue with attachment points. However, my problem was about fixing the actual unit's weapon fire. I can't seem to be able to apply the solution to an ability Launch Missile effect, so I'm temporarily stumped.

Breakthrough: Alright, got it!
Change in Actors/Action/Battlecruiser Yamato Attack:
Impact Effect to your copy of the damage effect.
Launch effect to your copy of the launch effect.
Launch Attachment Query to: AMFilterWeapon

 

[Clockwork]

...
Breakthrough: Alright, got it!
Change in Actors/Action/Battlecruiser Yamato Attack:
Impact Effect to your copy of the damage effect.
Launch effect to your copy of the launch effect.
Launch Attachment Query to: AMFilterWeapon

Dude, you rock! Even cooler since I used an Immortal I made a second charge actor and then one was attached to SOpAttachWeaponRight and SOpAttachWeaponLeft. In the events for each I added that they scale from 1 to 5 over 3 seconds. So each gun gets the photon missile and they scale up as the Attack prepares. It looks real nice I think.

I was not able to get two missiles to launch and Im not sure I can since the Actors/Action/Battlecruiser Yamato Attack can only have 1 launch effect. Adding two Launch Attachment Queries does not launch two, I think it just alternates them. Im still looking into this, but I may just look for a different missile, perhaps the mothership beam.

The last thing I need to do is figure out how to make the turret turn when firing, but as I said Ill worry about that later unless someone knows how. Ill repost the completed test map when I finish everything for others to look at.

Edit: It would be real cool if you could attach two actors to a third actor, the third being invisible, but has the mover associated with it and basically just drags the first two to the target.

 

[Ancanus]

You can actually have two launch effects.
Create a Set effect, add two launch effects to it.
Change Yamato Attack's effect to the Set effect you created.