Trigger triggering from AutoCast ability?

[Baltazhar]

I'll cut straight to the chase here.

I have an ability based off Searing Arrow, original used by Priestess of the Moon. Since it's just a shell-ability, and the real work is trigger effects, nothing more needs to apply here.

So far I have tried:
Unit - A unit Begins casting an ability
Unit - A unit Finishes casting an ability
Unit - A unit Starts the effect of an ability

-without any results.

What I wanted my ability to do is: Use or set on autocast, while active (or used) the unit deals splash damage.
When casting the ability myself (not using autocast), the trigger triggers just fine. With autocast, no response.
The unit in question is a melee hero, and the damage splashed should be % of his original damage, so items would affect it as well.

The trigger gives the unit the ability Cleave for 1 second, then removes it again. Is there a smarter way to do this? Read something about using the Orb of Fire ability for splash, but I still need it to be wrapped in an autocast spell.

 

[Ghostwind]

Use Quill Spray, it's automatically an autocast AoE.

 

[baka-ranger]

quill spray and orb of annihilation both require the unit to have "missile (splash)" as their attack type before it actually splashes.

why not just give the unit cleave, and just detect whenever it is ordered to turn on auto cast and remove it whenever its not, while leaving the single cast triggers in place as they are?

 

[Ghostwind]

So what if they need to have missile splash before? Make it so, and make the default splash 0 and make it bigger when you turn on the ability.

 

[baka-ranger]

The unit in question is a melee hero, and the damage splashed should be % of his original damage, so items would affect it as well.

The unit is a melee unit, so if you give it any missle attack type, certain abilities that it may use/require may not work. eg vamp aura.
quill spray and orb of annihilation dont deal % damage either, they deal the heroes damage + whatever damage bonus the ability gives.

 

[Baltazhar]

That was precisely what I was looking for! An event that turns it on whenever it's ordered to activate the autocast ability..

Testing right away, +rep as always for the helpers of thehelper (.net)

EDIT: Baka, ur too helpful >.< Can't rep u again alrdy

EDIT 2.0: Erm... Stumpled into a problem.
Would the event be Unit ordered to target an Object / no target?
And what would the condition be for that one?
.. I'll try to look around that damn GUI, and check for responses inbetween tearing out my hair

EDIT 3:

Searched on Google for something about String values of orders given and found this great tip:

Display Order Strings
    Events
        Unit - A unit Is issued an order targeting an object
        Unit - A unit Is issued an order targeting a point
        Unit - A unit Is issued an order with no target
    Conditions
    Actions
        Game - Display to (All players) the text: (String((Issued order)))

So I found that flamingarrows and unflamingarrows are the strings involved when based on Searing Arrows (as it says in the Object Editor, just never knew what that was for).

Testing away...

 

[baka-ranger]

the event is something like, unit is issued an order with no target, and the condition is order string comparison, which since you're using searing arrows, should be something like "flamearrowson/off" but you can check on the ability in object editor.

 

[Baltazhar]

Yeah, found them as I said in the previous post. "flamingarrows" and "unflamingarrows" were the strings in question.

I have a new problem now (oh wonderful world!)

The trigger adds a Cleave ability to the unit, and trying to disguise it, i set the Cleave-ability's button position 0,0 (x,y), and gave it no icon.
So now it shows up as a green box (cuz of the lack of icon), at 1,1 (x,y), since that's the closest to 0,0 that's not taken by anything else.

Is there a way to fix this? I've seen that the Attribute Bonus ability has a "Show button" data value, but since that can't grant Cleave, I'm pretty lost...

 

[baka-ranger]

add cleave to a spell book, give the spell book to the hero, and disable the spellbook, using "player - disable ability".

spell book is an item ability if you didnt know/dont know what spellbook is.

EDIT::
heres a tutorial about spellbooks:
http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34530&highlight=spellbook

 

[Baltazhar]

Great link Baka, never knew that Spellbook had these many options..

Figured out what u meant by the first 2 lines tho.

I have worked everything out to my utter satisfaction, however, there is 1 medium-sized problem.

When casting the ability manually (not autocast), I've set the event to "Unit begins casting ability", but the problem is that it's too slow. When the unit has attacked/vast the spell, the trigger activates. Thus, spending mana, but doesn't deal the AoE from the Cleave.

I've tried setting the casting time of the shell-ability to .50 seconds, but the unit still does the attack before Cleave gets added.
Any final suggestions for a moron in dire need?

 

[baka-ranger]

but in your first post you said it worked perfectly for single cast?

 

[Baltazhar]

Oh.. Silly me

That was just the "trigger triggering" part. The "trigger actually working" part still lacks behind. I should get a medal for worthless explanations :banghead:

 

[baka-ranger]

you could use "a unit is attacked" event, but... i wouldn't... too much of a hassle really..

other than that, all i can think of is, when they learn the ability, trigger it to auto cast [or set it as default active ability], and if they try to un-auto-cast, then re-auto-cast it again...

 

[Baltazhar]

Darn, thought this would be a problem...

"Unit is attacked" would use a lot more memory than needed really.
Having it auto-activate is a rather good suggestion, but what if ppl wanted to save the mana for some of the other spells on the Hero? Ofc u couldn't know, since I just referred to it as "unit" and not "Hero for 4 abilities".
I think I will simply include in the description "This ability can not be single cast!", however unsatisfying I may find it.

Baka, thx a lot for the thorough help u've given, I really appreciate it. I wish that I could

baka-ranger pwns!
    Events
        Time - Every 0.01 seconds of game time
    Conditions
        ((baka-ranger) is Pwning) Equal to True
    Actions
        For each (Integer A) from 1 to Infinite, do (Actions)
            Loop - Actions
                Player - Add 1 to baka-ranger Current reputation

:shades:

...Well.. U get the point

 

[baka-ranger]

lol

if i think of another way ill send you a pm or something

 

[Baltazhar]

<3 Thx mate... For now, the description will warn ppl. If they do single cast it, it will just cost them a small amount of mana, and they'll figure out that nothing special happened... So it's almost completely fool-proof

EDIT: Btw, u can PM me if u ever need anything as well... Not that ppl in here aren't friendly and such, but perhaps I know stuff that u don't (yeah right, in my dreams). I solely do GUI trigger work, and whatever can be done within the WE.