Some Issues with Collision data.

[Kitt]

Now, I know there is a way to do this, because I've seen it done; However the map was protected and I had no way of taking a look at the triggers. (See below for an off topic comment)

The map is the "famous" (???) DotA. One of the Heros has an ability that creates a copy of himself, turns him invisible, and turns his colision off. This makes a real good get-away, and the transistion is almsot unnoticable to the enemy.

The problem I'm having, is that the copy appears RIGHT on top of you. No bumping to the side, so glitchy move around. I've gone off in an empty area to play with it, and if you stand still the two are right inside of each other. Also, the copy has the look that Mirror Image has, that blue color, but the enemy can see no difference.

I've tried just using mirror image, turn my hero's collison off then give him ghost. No matter what I do, I still get that "push" effect. If anyone has any ideas I greatly appreciate them.

Thanks in advance, Cheers.

Mrow.

(I've always found it aggrivating when a programmer hides his work. I can understand if your in development, or working for a company, but when you release something, at least work towards an open source. We should be aiming to spread knowledge and learn more and more, not greedily hold on to our achievements and reap our fame. Thats my two cents.)

 

[Rad]

That skill isnt balanced, being able to go invisible and run away... theres almost no ways to counter that... try adding then removing the crow form ability (will make unit fly while trigger lasts) so just do that and it probrably wouldnt make it push against u...

 

[Sargon]

(I've always found it aggrivating when a programmer hides his work. I can understand if your in development, or working for a company, but when you release something, at least work towards an open source. We should be aiming to spread knowledge and learn more and more, not greedily hold on to our achievements and reap our fame. Thats my two cents.)

DotA Allstars was originally stolen from the original DotA. I doubt that the people behind Allstars would want someone stealiing theirs, too.

If you don't protect your map, you end up with a million stupid n00bs who change the tileset and the unit names then go around battle.net hosting it like it's their own. That's horribly annoying. Therefore, people protect their maps. If you want to know how someone did something, you can always e-mail the creator, after all.

 

[Rad]

They need some kinda of unstable trigger, like a unit placed outside the map that gets deleted when the map loads... then have a hidden trigger that detects if its alive, if not end the game
People could still see the map, but they wouldnt be able to edit it (unless they found it which in most of my cases i could hide EASILY) i just dont know anything that would reset from normal WE... maybe using a 3rd party program to do it that WE doesnt allow i dunno... WE should have created map protection

 

[Kitt]

Yeah, at least something like that. At least when something gets popular, take the time to turn the triggers into concept form, so n00bs couldn't jsut flat out copy it, but decent programmers could see how they did it, and go about doing it there way.

I'm trying the crow form idea right, i'll check back ina few.

Mow.

 

[Rad]

Purposly spelling Meow. wrong every time now?

 

[Kitt]

lol, bunch of different type's of a meow. There's the generic Meow. Then there's the Mrow, which kinda has a bit of a purr at the begining, and of course the cute Mow (pronounced Mau), which tends to be more high pitched. Mreow is like Mrow, but more held. Mew, is, well, a mew, and by far the cutest of all the meows. Reow is harder to get across, it's more like a shortend Mreow, taking the M off makes it easy to do a bunch in a row, Most often used when a cat is chittering at you. Also, you have the Myow and Myeow, which have a bit of a howl at the front. There are tons more aswell.

Also, punctuation with a meow would be exaclty as you would think. Mreow? goes up at the end like any question. Mow! stops short and is very afermative, as any exlimation would be. Hyphons ask for a pause, such as in Me-ow. Similer to stomping your foot down in an argument.

 

[Kitt]

Mmm, the crow form isn't working too well. Maybe it's the way I have the trigger set up... I'm playing around with different orderings, but it seems to wait untill i lose the form to creat my Dup. I'm not sure, but i think this would work well if i could create a unit through triggers, give it that blue tint somehow (but only so i could see that change), turn BOTH unit's collisions off, then wait untill the Dup moves to turn his back on.

I think the problem lies in that collisonless units still allow other units to colide with them.

*Also, I modeled the triggering skill, Decoy, after Mirror Image.

Decoy
    Events
        Unit - A unit Begins casting an ability
    Conditions
        (Ability being cast) Equal to Decoy 
    Actions
        Set Dec_DecoyCaster = (Casting unit)
        Unit - Add Ghost to Dec_DecoyCaster
        Unit - Turn collision for Dec_DecoyCaster Off
        Unit - Add Crow Form to Dec_DecoyCaster
        Wait 1.00 seconds
        Unit - Remove Crow Form from Dec_DecoyCaster
        Wait 9.50 seconds
        Unit - Turn collision for Dec_DecoyCaster On
        Unit - Remove Ghost from Dec_DecoyCaster

also keep in mind i havn't put any effort forward to neatening it up, since i'm changing it so often. Any akward lines are because of this. Regardless fell free to point them out, in case i miss them later.

Mew.

Edit: i Changed the line marked with an asterisk to sound better. worded it weird.

 

[Rad]

Unit - Add Crow Form to Dec_DecoyCaster
Wait 1.00 seconds
Unit - Remove Crow Form from Dec_DecoyCaster

Just make that add then remove, no wait, at the beginning of trigger to... it only carries out the effect during the trigger (allowing it to FLY... so be careful of the waits) Stupid waits will probrably mess that up b/c u have 10.5 seconds worth... so maybe not use this... how about you just move your unit back 100 instantly when u acquire ghost?... add a wait equal to the hero with this abilities 'blend time' or he will move as he goes invis

EDIT: Woof woof

 

[Kitt]

Another update: If i use a second trigger to detect when a unit is summoned (the mirror image coutns as a summon) i can turn the collison for the Dup off. Oddly, though, when i try and turn the colision for the casting unit off, it refuses to do so. here are my too triggers thus far.

(I removed the turn invisible for now. It might be causing problems, and it's best to go at it peice by peice)

Decoy
    Events
        Unit - A unit Starts the effect of an ability
    Conditions
        (Ability being cast) Equal to Decoy 
    Actions
        Set Dec_DecoyCaster = (Casting unit)
        Unit - Turn collision for Dec_DecoyCaster Off
        Wait 10.00 seconds
        Unit - Turn collision for Dec_DecoyCaster On

Decoy Summoned
    Events
        Unit - A unit Spawns a summoned unit
    Conditions
    Actions
        Unit - Turn collision for (Summoned unit) Off

Edit: Yeah, i tried removing the wait, but still to no effect.
Edit Edit: Also, slightly off topic, is there a more efficient way to do without waits? I've never liked them, too error prone in long durations, but i can't find a better way to have timed spell effects. Most of the abilities i make aren't easily based of of pre-created ones (hence the reason i'm making them XP), so i can't just make a quick edit to any spell duration value. Timers are no better as a second use of the spell by a different person only screws things up, and an array of timers can only go so far.

 

[Rad]

Well all the waits would have done would be to let the hero fly over cliffs for the 10.5 seconds... Are you completely sure it doesnt detect the caster? Make a highly noticable event, like kill the caster when it starts to make sure.. keep doing thattill u find out why it doesnt work (It looks like it would) I still say u should just move him backwards when he blends...

 

[Kitt]

Yeah, it's definetly activating the trigger and doing the actions. I did a quick change size *cracks up* yes, it's definetly working. But for some, very odd reason, the caster isn't losing colision. I even tryed removing the line giving the dup no colision, thinking for some reason it was only processing the most recent call. Still nada. the caster is refusing to go colisionless, and i'm not sure what more to remove >.>

Edit: I got it. For some reason the spell's cast animation goes to slow for the trigger, it's interupting the change of colision. If i add a short timer, he gains his colisionless-ness exactly as he should, but not fast enough to ahve the two inside of each other. is there anyway to make that cast animation zero? i have cast time and what not all set to 0.00...

 

[Rad]

Ehh some effects dont care about what u put... its all buggy especially for spells like mirror image who have that little shiny noisy split animation which takes like .75 seconds which is crutial :/

 

[Kitt]

Well I removed all that fun jazz. I did find a way to stop the cast animation. It's unit specific, two variable set how long he cast for and what not, however it's still proccesing too fast, i'll try putting a very minimal wait in there, somthing like .05, maybe as low as .01. I'll check back in a few.

 

[Rad]

(Still think you should just instantly move your hero backwards by like 100)...
...stupid skins that dont reload when they are supposed to... half the time they automatically change when u save other half u gotta restart world editor...

 

[Rad]

Hmm... Maybe Mirror Image is the rare spell that requires you to use 'Finishes Casting an Ability'... try that?

 

[Kitt]

*sigh* still no results. I've goten the two to get right on top of each other, but they shift slightly, but enough thats it's very noticable, which ruins the whole point fo the skill, which is to leave a copy of yourself without the opponent knowing it's not you they're fighting... I'm about to go off to bed, i'm gonna try and find a way to contact one of the creators of the map. perhaps they'll be nice enough to help me out.

 

[Kitt]

New advancments: I've figured out the reason for the bumping, when the mirror image skill creates a copy it moves all copies to form a perfect shape (triangle for three, line for two, square for four, etc...) around the point of the caster. So the reason i was experiencing bumping, or sometimes it would switch places, was because i was expecting the casting unit to stay still. I dunno i i explained that right, tell me if it's unclear.

If anyone knows of a way i can simply create a brand new unit just by triggers, not using the mirror image skill, and give that unit whatever buff/ability/special thing that the summoned units have, this should work out...

Mew.

 

[Rad]

Maybe when u cast it u move both units to the target point of ability being cast, and use a second trigger to set that point when he begins casting

 

[Kitt]

I tried doing that, but it moves him way before it even begins processing the trigger, so it sets his location to the bumped over location. Perhaps if I make a region using the two points of both units, then move them both to the center of that region? The only error i could see is if your in a big mass, or close to the edge of the map, where the two might be offset slightly...