editor messed up because of duplicating

[MissKerrigan]

hello (sigh),

I noticed that the photon cannon weapon has:

1. 'photon cannon attack' actor
2. 'photon cannon attack missile' actor (is there a diffirence?)
3. damage effect
4. launch missile effect
5. a few models
6. a mover 'photon cannon weapon'
7. 2 sounds
8. 'units' Tab (photon cannon weapon)



I duplicated the pylon 4 times (so I got 5 pylons now)

pylon 1: red (must have red cannonballs)
pylon 2: blue (must have blue cannonballs)
pylon 3: green (must have green cannonballs)
pylon 4: purple (must have purple cannonballs)
pylon 5: yellow (must have yellow cannonballs)


I tried to duplicate the photon cannon weapon 4 times
Here are the problems that occurs:

1. the blue pylon deals 8 damage, but when I change the red pylon to 12 damage, the blue pylon automatically changed to 12 damage also

2. I am sure I duplicated the actors of the 'cannon attack' and set a tint color to red, but the cannonballs are still white

3. I reduced the speed of the green cannonballs in the 'mover' tab, but ALL cannonballs are slowed now

4. If I open the 'actor' data and search the word 'cannon', at least 100 results are shown up, this drives me crazy, I REALLY don't know which actor is of the correct cannon, very confusin
I am 100% sure I DUPLICATED the photon cannon weapon, the editor is just playing tricks with me!

5. When I duplicate the 'photon cannon weapon' a large box shown up with a lot of this options I can check/uncheck, can anybody tell me which one I must duplicate

I think all options should be checked when duplicating the weapon because I make a whole new weapon am I right?

6. I changed to 'arc' of the yellow weapon to 360 but I still got the message 'can't turn towards tower' while the other pylons can shoot all arround

Is the editor playing some tricks with me?


Can somebody please tell me what's going on here? (had to bought a new keyboard today)

MissKerrigan

 

[X-maul]

Make sure that it is the right ammo unit that is getting launched. Also it sounds like you are not having the right effect attached to the attacks.

 

[Siretu]

When you want to duplicate something several times, do it one at a time. First duplicate it once, rename all the duplicated objects, duplicate it again, rename all the duplicated objects and so on.

Make sure to rename them well so if you see "Red Pylon - Cannon Attack (Launch Missile)" or something, you know it's for the red pylon.

Now the damage is probably already done, so let's try to make the best of the situation. Start with one color, like red. Go to the red pylon, see which weapon it has linked to it, make sure the weapon has "Red" in the name. Go to the weapon, check what effects it has linked, make sure they all have red in the name. Same with actors.

Now pick another color. Do the same thing but if the effect/actor/weapon that is linked already has red(or another color you've already fixed), change the effect/actor/weapon to another copy of it and rename that instead.

When you're done, none of the effects/weapons/actors should have any related objects with another color in their name. If you don't know why two objects are still related, right-click and press explain link(ctrl+alt+e)

Just because you want to create a new unit doesn't mean you want to duplicate everything. I can assure you'll probably never need to duplicate everything. Especially core objects(with gray text).

As a thumb rule, I usually use duplicate when I want to copy a unit. If I want to copy an ability, I remake it or copy it and fix the references manually. When you're duplicating a unit, you can check the things that you want to change. If you want to change the weapon, check it. If you want to change something about the weapon damage or launch missile, check the correct effects. Always check the main unit actor as well. As for the rest of the actors, check with caution. You might get too much.

 

[MissKerrigan]

thank you so much Siretu!


Can you confirm these last things for me:

1. I want give the cannonball another color this is the 'photon cannon attack actor' I must duplicate this actor in the weapon?

2. the cannonballs of the red cannon (fire) goes slower and the cannonballs of the purple cannon (energy) goes faster, so I duplicate only the movers of this 2 weapons?

3. All of the cannons have a diffirent damage, but do I only have to duplicate the effect 'damage', or also the effect 'launch missile'?

4. which part do I have to duplicate if I want to let the green cannon fire faster than the red cannon?

 

[X-maul]

1.
You will have to dublicate the ammo unit
3.
The launch effect indicates what effect is being fired. So you will have to have a new one for each damage effect.
4.
If you are talking about the attack speed. You wont need to dublicate anything, you will simply have to change the "Period" under your weapon

 

[Siretu]

1. As X-maul said, you need one projectile unit for each pylon. The "photon cannon attack actor" has nothing to do with the color. You'll have to go into the main unit actor of each projectile and add an actor event like:

ActorCreation
SetTintColor(Your color)

2. You need one mover for each speed. So 1 for normal, 1 for red and one for purple.

3. To elaborate on what X-maul said. The weapon/effect link basically looks like this:

Weapon -> Launch Missile Effect -> Damage Effect.

Now, you could have several weapons pointing at the same launch missile effect. But since that effect points at the same damage effect all the time, you must have the same damage for all weapons.

In other words, if you want to modify something in a long chain like this, you'll have to modify everything between it and the start.

4. If you have a separate weapon for every pylon (which you should), you wont have to duplicate more. Do as X-maul said.

 

[MissKerrigan]

yes I duplicate the weapon 4 times, but my question is which of the boxes I must checking when duplicate the weapon

 

[X-maul]

- The weapon
- The effects (missile launch and damage)
- The ammo unit
- the ammo unit actor (probably named something like weaponname missile)

 

[MissKerrigan]

don't I have to duplicate any model? because I'm using diffirent 'cannonballs'?

The cannonballs must be transformed from the other cannonballs

 

[X-maul]

The actor is using a model already - two actors can use the same model, but If you want to use a model you imported yourself you will have to create a new model, othervise you wont ever need to create a new model.

 

[Siretu]

To expand on what X-maul said, I know you want to color the balls. But that is done in the actors. So Actor A can use the cannonball model and say: "Hey, when I use it, I'll color it blue" and Actor B can say: "Okay, but when I use it, I'll color it red."

For the record, they don't actually talk. You tell them to do it in the actor events.

 

[MissKerrigan]

yes when duplicating the launch missile effect, I also must duplicate the effect in it, I noticed that, but isn't this the same in the 'mover' and the 'ammo'??

because the move carries the ammy am I right?