Night of the Dead X1 Guardian

[Kyuft]

Hey,
Do any of you know how to make the X1 Guardian for the map Night of the Dead NA? I would like a tutorial on how to make something almost identical to that. I want the same model, actors, effects, attack animation, cockpit, etc. but not the same attack ammo(I don't want the diamondback beams). The main problem is that I can't find the ARES in the editor (I have the dependencies set up correctly). The second problem is, I don't know how to do it!
-yuft

 

[Siretu]

I've played a lot of NOTD in the last week or so(although I played on Europe but I think it's the same). I found it to be a very well-made map.

Anyway, do you have a picture of the X1 Guardian? I don't remember seeing it.

 

[Dave312]

The XI Guardian is the robot the engineer can build. You might be having trouble finding it because there are full stops between each of the letters: A.R.E.S. (if you don't put them in, a search will turn up with no results).

It has been a long time since I have played NOTD, so things might have changed, but from memory, it has two modes: an offensive one and a defensive one. If you look at the model through the previewer, both modes use the same model but a different baseline animation. The easiest way to configure this in the editor would be to have two separate units (one for each mode) and then use a morph to transform between the two.

 

[Kyuft]

I don't know how to do morphs, but I will go into the editor and look up the A.R.E.S. and see what I might be able to do. Maybe it is already just how I want it. I might just have to change the ammo unit. I'll see when I get home, but thanks for the help.

 

[Siretu]

Dave312 actually made a great tutorial about morphing abilities. If you haven't read it already, you should give it a shot when you get home.

 

[Kyuft]

Okay, but I have no clue what morphing abilities would be used for

 

[Siretu]

Simply put it's just a way to transform(morph) one unit into another. So a basic morph could be something like: Unit A uses Morph Ability. Now Unit A is transformed into Unit B.

Morphs are used frequently in Starcraft 2 even if you might not notice it all the time. The siege tank morphs into another unit when it uses the siege mode ability(which is a morphing ability) even though it looks similar.

When you burrow a unit you morph it into the burrowed version of the unit. So burrow is also a morphing ability. A spire uses a morphing ability to become the greater spire(if I recall correctly).

Also, the entrenchment ability I made you is a morphing ability that transforms the normal marauder to a special entrenched marauder. Although it could easily be done without morphing it.

 

[Kyuft]

I just don't see any practical usage of this for my map yet.

 

[Siretu]

From what I can understand from Dave's post, the X1 Guardian has two different modes that have two different animations and different abilities and attacks. He suggested you make them two different units and use a morphing ability between the two.

This is just in case you want both the modes. If you only want one of them, you don't need a morphing ability. But if you do need both modes, I agree with Dave312 that morphing abilities are probably the easiest way to do it.

 

[Dave312]

Actually there is a pretty simple alternative to using morphing abilities that would work in this case. Because both modes of the unit use the same model (just the animations change), you could just create an ability which applies a buff to give the armor and health regeneration bonus and disable weapons and movement (is movement disabled in the defensive mode? I can't remember). Then you could create a new event on the actor which when the buff is applied, tells it to play an animation bracket where the opening sequence is the morph to the defensive mode, the content sequence is just the stand animation for the defensive mode, and the closing sequence is the animation morphing back to the default state. Then you can add another event which says to stop playing this animation bracket when the buff is removed.

While this method is simpler, it is also very restrictive in terms of what you can do in the defensive mode.